India, Nov. 17 -- It is nearly impossible to overstate the ubiquity of the delicate white-tipped Frangipani flower with its pastel navel and slender stem in the lives of the Balinese. A fresh flower is tucked dexterously into a woman's neat hairdo; a careless little cluster decorates the small idol that sits atop the dashboard of our taxi, filling the vehicle with their distinctive peachy fragrance; and little baskets brimming with the yellow flower wait in offering at the thresholds of the many temples that line the winding roads. Indeed, all things in nature enjoy aesthetic and ritual roles, as we realised on a recent trip to the volcanic Indonesian archipelago, in which we chose to forgo the customary sun-surf-beach holiday for one marked by dense, exotic vegetation and paddy fields farther than the eye could see, and a tryst with the uniquely Balinese Hinduism....