Think Bali, and you think of laid-back beaches, beautiful waterfalls and luxurious resorts.

But for me, Bali was where I went for a recent three-week field course as part of my studies at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University.

It turned out to be an eye-opening experience looking at Bali from the geoscientific, societal and ecological perspectives. This is especially so as my only previous visit to Bali was with my family when I was a kid and I have little recollection of that.   

In geoscience, we learnt skills like how to read and map our positions and how to identify rocks by looking at their structures and minerals. I got to truly appreciate the principle of uniformitarianism, where the past is the key to the present, by using rocks to understand how past geologic events have shaped our present landscape.

I was in awe of the caldera we saw at Mount Batur. A caldera is a very huge volcanic crater, left behind by the volcano collapsing in on itself due to a massive eruption. Examples include Lake Toba in the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Yellowstone National Park in the United States. I never expected to see such a landform so near Singapore.

It was fascinating to piece together a geologic story from our observations of tiny minerals using a hand lens as well as the sprawling scenery of the volcano. It made me revaluate how I saw the world — it is indeed a very huge place, and suddenly my problems seemed a lot smaller than previously thought.

It was also enriching to immerse in the Balinese culture and learn more about the human-environmental interactions between farmers and their rice fields.

The rice farmers know each other well and will share their yield if some of their crops fail. This kindness and spirit of sharing is something I don’t often see in Singapore.

I was also inspired by how driven the Balinese youths were in wanting to preserve and spread their culture through more modern methods.

Speaking and interacting with them, I could understand a dilemma they face. They want a better life for themselves and their families, which they could only seek from elsewhere in Indonesia like Java, yet they would also like to preserve their culture and the architecture of the rice fields in Bali.

Many of them are therefore pushing for more educational tourism to the rice fields, in the belief that this can help boost their incomes, while promoting better understanding of their culture.

The younger generation is also introducing new ways of farming that can boost yield.

For instance, they rear ducks to reduce pests in the padi fields. This also means that the farmers are using less pesticides on their crops. This method was invented and shared by a local university, which just goes to show that simple solutions can also have a huge impact.

The Balinese people's ability and creativity in improving their quality of lives while keeping things simple and minimising the disruption to their culture or environment are admirable.

At the ecology section of the trip, we studied the plankton and bacteria in the sea water. In the classroom, we would often look at slides of plant cells, but being able to collect and prepare our own samples was a very different experience.

We then tested our own formulated hypothesis on a suspected upwelling of water —  where winds cause the pre-existing nutrient-poor water to move away and nutrient-rich water from a deeper depth comes up and replenishes the water —  at the Blue Lagoon Bay in Padang Bai.

While the limited data and the short duration in which it was collected meant no firm conclusion could be made, we did find out that there was a different source of cold, less saline water deeper down at the mouth of the bay.

It was indeed an interesting phenomenon that can be further studied. This experience challenged how I think and approach problems, and I definitely learnt a lot from it.

We talked to the owner of the diving shop Gecko Dive and learnt that the blue lagoon and the area around it used to be full of corals and fishes, until tourism and irresponsible construction of a jetty led to most of the corals and fishes dying out. While collecting samples, we also witnessed a ship that had ploughed past the marker, into the reefs.

The thought of more corals being destroyed by irresponsible human behaviour was depressing.

One highlight of the trip was our beach clean-up activity.  I was saddened to see the black sand beach in Bali covered in so much litter and trash. The sight shocked me.

During the hour-long clean-up, I was very heartened to see other visitors joining in and we ended up collecting 227kg of trash at the end of the session. That, however, was still not enough and litter could still be seen along the beach.

The experience has made me more mindful of the waste I produce, and I try to reuse items as much as possible.

Throughout the trip, I witnessed the various scales in science. From the macro (caldera) to the micro (plankton), and from the tangible (data and facts in science) to the intangible (culture), it is definitely a very different way of learning and thinking. I also deeply appreciate the beauty of the natural and traditional environment, such as temple carvings.

The experience has also strengthened my aspiration and motivation to become a researcher in the environmental science field after graduation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Grace Tay is a second-year student at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University.