Recently our own Mark Rubbo and Chris Gordon accompanied a group of Melbourne readers to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

First, and most importantly Mark Rubbo and I were delighted to welcome new friends to the tour. What a joy to meet in a tropical (read: very hot) environment with people that love to talk, share, drink (gin and tonics being firm favourite bevvy of choice) and read! Our type of people.

On the first night of the tour, we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Opening celebrations at the Ubud Palace and were awed by dancers, speeches and crowds of writers and fans in an outside ceremony. It was a chance to find our place amongst the creative and inviting chaos of Ubud and the festival.

The festival offers opportunities to hear from some of Australia's and Indonesia's leading thought provokers – writers specialising in both fiction or nonfiction. Alongside familiar faces from our own country were authors from all over the world. Global issues were discussed often. Links between Indonesia and Australia were named. Homage was given to many First Peoples' experiences. Tears and laughter were shared. I do believe I cried every day. And laughed. Mainly though I felt hope, and the need to read more widely.

We heard from Bernardine Evaristo, Wade Davis, Shehan Karunatilaka, Marcia Langton, Vamba Sherif, Michael Pederson, Behrouz Boochani, Louise Doherty, Annabel Crabb and Geraldine Brooks; this is to only name a few of the hundreds of authors, poets, critical thinkers, journalists, and creators that were speaking. The list is simply too vast to name them all, but if I had to name a theme beyond the festival’s own subheading of The Past, the Present and the Future I would say Wade Davis, anthropologist extraordinaire summed it up. Pessimism, he told us as we feasted on traditional Indonesian cuisine amongst a lush jungle backdrop, is an indulgence. It seems an apt theme to hold on to through these terrible global times.

The tour group shared meals, cars, gin, and plans. We shared what we had read and how it made us feel. We talked about who we had heard and why. We saved seats for one another in popular sessions, and we met, at the end of each day, mentally spent, delighted, and oddly refreshed. We are not alone. It turns out, we all want something better for this brilliant, exciting world.

To those that joined us on this remarkable week, thank you. It was a pleasure to be there with you; to be seen by you.

And certainly, if you have ever considered attending – do it. It is everything you could hope for. Janet DeNeefe, Festival director and her team spin magic here.

Books that I will revisit and enjoy that extra bit more because I’ve listened to and met the authors include:

• Horse by Geraldine Brooks
• Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder
• Law: The Way of the Ancestors (First Knowledges) by Marcia Langton & Aaron Corn
• Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo

Books I cannot wait to read include:

• River Notes by Wade Davis
• The Cat Prince & Other Poems by Michael Pederson
• Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan
• Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu