The word is out! The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is a delicious secret no more. Numbers attending doubled this year and 100 guest writers from 16 different countries inspired audiences in stylish venues across this charming Balinese hill town. Indus Restaurant was the main venue again, its three story cubanesque grandeur, set on a dramatic ravine with views to the green valley and villages beyond. Next door was the Left Bank Lounge (a former bank refurbished for the festival) and below it a collection of warungs (makeshift restaurants) provided a cheaper alternative for festival dining. Most daytime events took place at this central hub, but every day there was a literary lunch in another exotic location; every cocktail hour, there were book launches in down town bars and resto’s and in the evenings; a hilarious and witty literary debate, a poetry slam, a bossa nova beat poets at the jazz cafe, film screenings and a giant puppet show on the soccer field.

Fittingly, a moving tribute to Indonesian literary icon, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who died earlier this year, began the festival. Set in an outdoor temple venue surrounded by a giant lily pond, it was standing room only for those arriving from the official speeches and Balinese dance welcome at the nearby Ubud Palace.

When you come to this festival you don’t even have to visit a massage and spa centre to feel pampered. You stay in a reasonably priced hotel, walk practically everywhere you need to go, eat stunning food everyday at ridiculously cheap prices, swim in drop edge pools, bask like a lizard and when you feel like it, attend a workshop or literary panel. Choosing which one is the problem, for as soon as you do, you know you will be missing out on another great event somewhere else.

Last year Michael Ondaatje was the drawcard guest. This year you could join India’s Anita Desai (whose daughter Kiran just won the Booker prize and is interested in attending Ubud in ’07, commitments allowing ), talk food with Madhur Jaffrey, get serious about politics and Islam with Ziauddin Sardar and Christopher Kremmer, ask questions of erudite travel writer William Dalrymple or be amazed at what young Balinese writers are writing about. There were writers and poets from Singapore, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Indonesia, The Nederland’s, Australia, New Zealand, West Papua, Vietnam, USA, UK, India, Austria, Turkey, The Philippines, Thailand and more. And the wonderful thing about a boutique festival like this one is there are no pushy minders telling you where and when to get the author’s autograph. You can approach famous and non-famous writers alike, have a serious discussion about their work or just shoot the breeze.

Critics of the festival, craving more discussion on serious literary topics, jokingly asked - ‘Is this a literary festival or a food festival?’ and wondered about some of the panel titles like: “Flirting with words - Festival femme fatales captivate and romance us with their words” But they agreed that the festival has made significant improvements since its early days. Things ran so smoothly that manager Finley Smith was waiting for something big to go wrong and it never did. Translation issues had been ironed out. More than one interpreter was made available at all panels and visual translations for readings were all in place. Local MCs were trained to announce for each session and the impressive children’s and youth program went on as it does each year in the background.

I asked one of the writers attending if he thought festivals like this one changed anything. ‘Good god no!’ was his response, telling me they are just a chance for writers to stay in a swanky hotel and have a have a jolly good time.

The Ubud Writers Festival Committee and the NGO behind it - the Saraswati Foundation, see it differently. They began the festival as a response to the terrorist attack on Bali in 2002. Their resolve to continue to support and revitalise the Ubud community became even stronger after the second bombings only days before the 2005 festival.

Another mission of the festival is to exchange information and ideas between the diverse cultures in Asia, the South Pacific and the West. The two works I launched at the festival this year: a novella and jazz poetry CD, were the result of cross cultural exchange with Indonesian writers, musicians and publishers I first met at the Ubud Writers Festival in 2004. But ideas and information at this festival are traded not only between writers. If you looked around you could see festival directors, arts managers, journalists, artists, book sellers, readers, publishers, moderators, presenters and the like, in fervent huddles swapping name cards and cooking up new projects. You even get to meet and appreciate writers from your own country you’ve not met on home turf, like hip hop poet Morganics who was busy performing his unique art for young people and adults alike.

But the most exciting part by far for me was being introduced to new poets from the region like Mong-Lan, a Vietnamese/American poet who took out this year’s poetry slam and of course the 15 strong Indonesian contingent. For anyone who is interested in Indonesian literature it was a great opportunity to become familiar with older poets like Supardi Djoko Damono and younger poets like Zen Hai, Isawadi Pratama and Ari Pahala Hutabarat. They were joined by West Papuan poet, J. F. Waromi who prefaced his poems with two incredibly moving tribal songs. Without need for literal understanding our hearts were transported to the West Papuan highlands in a split second in time. It’s the moments like these, and there are many each year, that make this a memorable festival.

Festival director Janet de Neefe and her team face a difficult challenge. To make the festival viable they must attract big literary names known to the west. At the same time they need to continue to nurture and support emerging and as yet, little known (in the west) writers from the Asia Pacific region. And they must convince their attendees, (especially Australian), that Ubud is a safe place to visit.

But geographic location gives the advantage. Everyone wants an excuse to visit Bali, and it is so well placed between other writer’s festivals in the region: Singapore, HongKong , Jakarta, Sri Lanka. India, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, that its special role is clear – as the gateway to the vast pool of literary talent that lies just beyond our borders.

Luckily the limited size of Ubud venues will ensure it always remains an intimate festival, with spectacular surprises thrown in, like the closing event at the completely over-the-top rococo palace of the late artist, Antonio Blanco, an event that continues to resonate in our consciousness like a Salvador Dali Dream.

If you haven’t been already, you must go in ‘07. The festival committee is hard at work planning another incredible literary feast. Really, there is no other writer’s festival like it.