General Overview of Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music.
There are major coastal roads and roads that cross the island mainly north-south. Due to the mountainous terrain in the island's centre, the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains. There are no railway lines.
The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand.
The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with an excellent surfing beach), and its outer suburbs (once independent townships) of Legian and Seminyak, Sanur, Jimbaran, Ubud, and the newer development of Nusa Dua.
The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus joining the southernmost part of the island to the main part of the island.
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and like most Indonesians, the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. English is a common third language (and the primary foreign language).
BIS within Bali
The BIS campus is beautifully set up to effectively form a village within a village, a learning community in the heart of Sanur.
BIS offers a wide range of facilities to support and accommodate the learning process of students. Our classrooms are spacious and air conditioned with relatively small class sizes.
BIS School facilities include sports fields, an under cover sports arena, a new 25-metre swimming pool, three science labs, a Student Support Services centre, an art/technology block, a library of more than 30 000 volumes, two computer labs, a complete music suite with practice studios, a large Multi-Purpose Room, in addition to ample classrooms, offices and play areas.
For more on the BIS library and other resources, please see our ‘Life at BIS’ section of this website.
