Archive for July 18th, 2006
Yesterday, Bali ended the month-long Bali Arts Festival which was on from June 17 to July 15 and involved over a thousand artists from Bali and other Indonesian regions as well as those from foreign countries.
For those of you those of you who are yet to experience this festival then I strongly suggest you pencil the dates in for next year because apparently it will be twice as brilliant as this year was. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend this year but will definitely be there next year.
Head of Bali Tourist Agency I Made Santa said yesterday that the festival had managed attracted thousands of visitors - both foreign and local tourists.
The main activities of the festival included a carnival, cultural performances, art gatherings, and an exhibition for small and medium enterprises.
According to Made, there were 15 foreign and 13 local cultural troupes that took part in the event. There were 160 small and medium businesspeople took part in the exhibition with total transaction reached Rp 4.01 billion as compared to Rp 3.6 billion of last year’s transaction.
The magic thing about the Bali Arts Festival is that you get to experience and see the various dances not only from Bali, but from the rest of the archipelago. A lot of these you would not see on your normal trips to the island.
source : www.baliblog.com
July 18th, 2006
Probably one of the most visually stunning garden temples in Bali, Pura Luhur Batukaru is a sacred and holy site, and surprisingly, one where you don’t have to pay an entrance fee but only a donation.
When you first arrive what strikes you is the serene atmosphere, the silence, the beauty of the grassed courtyards and flowering shrubs, and the mountain forests on the slopes of Gunung Batukaru seemingly wrapping around the temple complex on all sides.
There are several theories about the temple but it is thought Pura Luhur Batukaru became a holy site in the 11th century. Consecrated and adopted by the Rajas of Tabanan they made it into their own state temple and dedicated shrines here to their ancestral gods.
In the Jeroan or inner sanctuary of the temple a ceremony was in progress and so my movements within this area were restricted to some degree. However, taking photographs discreetly, I was able to capture the beauty of the most important shrine - a seven-tiered pagoda dedicated to the god Mahadewa, the god of Gunung Batukaru.
As I walked along moss covered pathways to the east of the temple I came to a large square pond. This had been dug and filled to represent and honour the gods of Danau Tamblingan.
There is a tiny island shrine in the centre and it is only the priests of Pura Luhur Batukaru that are allowed access there.
There are numerous moss covered pathways fanning out into a web deep into the forest and here I found plenty of solitary shrines.
Pura Luhur Batukaru plays an important role in the lives of the Balinese Hindus. Local Subak groups come to this place to draw holy water for use in agricultural ceremonies. During the Galungan festivities, devotees flock to Pura Luhur Batukaru to pay their respects and lay offerings.
Pura Luhur Batukaru is just one of those places that is mesmerising and draws you back, again and again.
sources : www.baliblog.com
July 18th, 2006
In a rare spell of drop-in heaven rather than surf break hell, surfers in Bali have set a world record for the most people to ride a single wave.
Fifty-three surfers from Bali and as far afield as Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, France and Hawaii rode a wave at the popular “Halfway” break on Kuta Beach breaking the old world mark of 46 people set at Sydney’s Manly Beach in May.
“It was a case of bodies and boards everywhere but everyone’s pretty stoked” Quiksilver surfwear spokesman and attempt coordinator Simon MacGregor told AAP.
The new record was set in near-perfect conditions although less than half of the 128 people who registered for the attempt made it onto the wave at the same time.
“With everyone strung out right along the beach it was pretty hard to keep it all together” MacGregor said,
“There were a few close-out waves and then it was just a case of ‘okay, everybody go’.”
He said the new mark would be registered with the Guinness Book of Records. The attempt was organised to remind international audiences of Bali’s legendary beaches and surf rather than recent terrorist bombings which have seen tourist numbers plummet.
Coordinated by the Quiksilver Boardriding School the record coincided with an international junior surfing contest known as the “King of the Groms” and was organised by Balinese surfers.
Tourist numbers to Bali have dropped dramatically since triple suicide bombings in Kuta and Jimbaran Bay last October which killed 20 innocent bystanders, among them four Australians.
Bali’s second terror attack in three years also caused the collapse of budget airline Air Paradise which specialised in cut-price travel between Australia and the Island of the Gods.
The number of Australians visiting Indonesia has fallen by half this year as holidaymakers opt for breaks in Thailand and Malaysia instead. Indonesian government numbers show foreign tourist arrivals fell to 332,445 in May, down 3.33 per cent on the number a year earlier.
In Bali alone, arrivals fell to 107,678, down 12.26 per cent.
sources : www.baliblog.com
July 18th, 2006
I asked the locals where it was, I even asked taxi drivers and hawkers in the streets but to no success.
My search for Gang Tuan Langga, the small laneway leading to the grave site of Mads Lange, seemed elusive. Until one day I asked a Bhuddist monk. He told me it was at the rear of the night market.
For such an important person in the history of Bali to be forgotten about so quickly over the generations was in my opinion just disgraceful. After receiving a blessing from the monk, I hailed a taxi and directed the driver to where I thought the lane might be located. There was no street sign, just a smaller sign Pasar Malam - night market.
The narrow laneway weaved down towards the river. All I could see was a garbage truck depot. I paid the taxi driver and walked around to investigate. I first saw the Chinese-marked headstones perched in the soft soil, and upon further investigation, there it was, the small monument to Mads Lange.
Mads Lange was a Danish merchant and adventurer who in 1839 established a large and eventually prosperous trading post to the south of the fishing village of Kuta on the Bukit Peninsula. He traded in all manner of goods and at one point had the produce monopoly on the island of Bali and was primary in inter-Asian trade. He was without a doubt indispensable as a mediator between the Dutch and the rulers of the numerous Bali kingdoms.
In 1846-49, the Dutch made several invasions on the island of Bali from Java, and such was the impact, Mads Lange’s world was soon to be destroyed. It was in 1850 when rival traders who set up business in Kuta with support from the Dutch that marked the end for Lange. He was bankrupt and decided to return to Denmark but mysteriously died. Reports say he was poisoned. He was buried in a single-stone marked grave and this became his resting place until the Danish government along with successful businessmen erected the monument in his honour.
I opened the gate to the small yard which housed the monument. An ageing Balinese woman laid offerings at the base of the monument, smiled and walked away.
As I looked around where I stood, it was a reflective and yet lonely place for such an adventurer. He might have died bankrupt but he rested in the rich soil of the Bali he loved so much.
sources : www.baliblog.com
July 18th, 2006