Archive for January, 2007
Last night Ika was telling me her mother wanted to visit Ubud, because there was a place on Indonesian TV, that a celebrity couple had been married. She had described it to Ika, but neither was 100% sure of where it was. “I will know the name of the place if I hear it,” said Ika, “I think it might be a museum.” After going through my mental list of Ubud museums (Neka, ARMA etc.) I said “Antonio Blanco.” and she said “Yes that’s the one.” We drove west along Jl. Raya Ubud, through to Campuhan and hung a left at the entrance to Museum Blanco.
I must admit, I never actually expected to end up there, especially with my mother-in-law. The entrance fee was 20,000rp each and we quickly shuffled through to the garden area. Museum Blanco has a lovely site, with the extravagant museum, surrounded by manicured gardens and many exotic birds, including large parrots.
Jevon enjoyed chasing the chickens and my mother-in-law seemed to like the place. Once inside the museum, the content of the paintings (portraits of naked women) revealed itself. My mother-in-law seemed happy to take a seat and look after Jevon, rather than critique the brushwork. Staff at Museum Blanco were polite and friendly. There is no food shop or restaurant on the premises and today the whole place looked lovely, because of the strong sunlight.
Museum Blanco is a good stop off place if you are looking for something to break up an afternoon. Its nothing to do with the history or development of Balinese art, more to do with one man’s admiration for the female form. While visiting today I got to wondering whether Blanco ever met Le Mayeur, the Belgian artist who was based in Sanur. They both married Balinese dancers and painted them in states of undress. Museum Blanco can be visited in an hour.
source : www.baliblog.com
January 17th, 2007
Returning to downtown Ubud from Museum Blanco, we pulled over and parked across from Cafe Lotus, on Jl. Raya Ubud. This restaurant has the most amazing view. Pura Saraswati backs on to it and guests can sit under the elongated ‘bale’ structure and admire the temple across the lotus pond. This afternoon Ika ordered a strawberry lassi, her mother a strawberry milkshake, myself a small water and an arak madu. The bill was around 75,000rp, quite a bit more than lunch, but this is one of the choice spots in Ubud. All the drinks were good, the lassi was less sweet than the milkshake.
Jevon liked watching the fish and I pointed out a 2f long orange fellow that was cruising around, looking for a feed.
Here’s what the menu looks like at Cafe Lotus:
•Lunch Recommendation - including Smoked Marlin (with Balinese style seaweed salad, made with garlic, shallots, shredded coconut, chilies, sesame oil), with creamed radish crostini, for 30,000rp
•Salads & Appetizers - including Crab & Prawn Rolls (made with crab meat, prawns, bean sprouts, coriander, lime juice, fish sauce and mint dip) for 27,000rp
•Soups - including Cream of Mushroom, for 20,000rp
•Balinese & Indonesian Favourites - including Ayam Sisit (shredded breast of chicken, seasoned with Balinese spices, served with ‘sayur lodeh‘, which are vegetables cooked in coconut milk. Its spicy. For 40,000rp
•Pasta & Risotto - including Seafood Ravioli (fresh seafood, served in a light curry sauce, with prawns and leek) for 41,000rp.
•Fish & Seafood - including Grilled Gindara (Butterfish) Fillets (on pisang (banana) dansabo with Indonesia-style shrimp sauce and snow peas) for 47,000rp.
•Fowl & Meats - including Babi Bagus (grilled basil and garlic marinated pork cutlet, served with sauteed fresh champignons and mashed potatoes) for 40,000rp
I didn’t see a dessert menu. Maybe you have to ask for it separately. Cafe Lotus seems a good place for a drink or lunch and is a popular place for people to take late afternoon tea.
source : www.baliblog.com
January 17th, 2007
Bali seems like a dream when you first arrive, green and beautiful, with the burning sun, and equatorial showers, making it a natural paradise. Then comes man, and all he brings. Bali is still mostly green, but in areas where people live, those parts are turning grey, with Bali’s new favourite color, ‘grey’ (for cement), coming on strong. How can people in Bali turn back the erosion of soil, the loss of habitats and the pollution of watercourses? A Balinese lady named Ni Wayan Sudji, hopes to change things.
Here’s more fom the Jakarta Post.
Turning Bali into land of gardens
Agricultural engineer, passionate conservationist and head of Bali province’s Environmental Assessment Agency, Ni Wayan Sudji, wants to see a new twist on Bali’s nickname the Island of the Gods.
“In the past, Bali was known as the Island of the Gardens. I want to get Bali back to the way it was — clean and green,” vows Sudji.
And with her background in agricultural engineering specializing in plant conservation and protection using biological, nonchemical methods, Sudji is well placed to achieve her goal for Bali.
“When I completed my studies at Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, I brought (plant conservation) technology back to Bali. I worked on commodities crops, such as coffee, coconut and clove plantations, introducing integrated biological pest control solutions that only applied chemicals as a last resort. The aim was to develop our agro-industries within healthy environments.”
And while much has been achieved in environmentally sensitive pest control other areas of Bali’s environment are still in much need of attention, according to Sudji.
“The biggest problem is plastic. There is a jungle of plastic out there clogging waterways and in the land environment also. The EPA is working with major supermarkets to reduce dependency on plastic bags with a drive for people to bring their own bags when they go shopping. Supermarkets give shoppers incentives to reuse bags rather than constantly throwing plastic away,” Sudji said.
At the national level, Sudji believes flooding and its primary cause, illegal logging, are the greatest environmental and economic disasters facing the country. “Flooding because of the environmental impact and destruction it causes and illegal logging because of the loss of forest and the flooding caused when the natural filters of tree roots are lost. Topsoil is also lost, reducing the fertility of the soil and washing it into the river and ocean systems, causing additional damage to the waterways.”
Also of deep environmental concern is the management of solid and liquid wastes.
“Waste is a major problem across the board in Bali; industrial, commercial and at the domestic level. This is in fact a problem all over the world. For Bali to be cleaner and greener we all need to work actively and collectively to solve the problem,” Sudji said.
But getting the message on conservation and environmental protection across is no easy task in a developing nation where many people are more focused on day-to-day survival than on protecting their physical environment. However, Sudji has tapped into the grass roots at village level across Bali giving villages the incentive, equipment and training to manage their own waste.
“With the coming of the wet season, the plastic waste issue is highly visible. There is more rubbish floating in the waterways, for example, and this is washed out to sea or blocks drains so flooding occurs. Local governments are assisting communities to clean up and recycle plastic bags and compost other waste before the wet season hits,” said Sudji, adding that the EPA gives communities the equipment needed to process plastics.
“So when communities are actively working for the conservation and protection of their environments we give help.”
An Environmental Awareness Program for villages was established in 2001 and to date 45 villages across Bali have joined the program that addresses on the ground environmental issues, such as wastewater.
“One example of recycling waste would be for each banjar or village to have its own Wastewater Garden to treat domestic and commercial wastewater. This would prevent polluted runoff into our river systems and create more beautiful villages. In the long term we need to make Bali beautiful from the ground up.”
Sudji’s belief that conservation needs to grow from the grass roots is also seen in the coastal and upland protection programs, run by local communities with input from the EPA.
“We have two communities of differing environments, but Bali needs to be seen as one ecosystem, not divided into smaller environments. We have developed two projects that are interrelated; one is coastline rehabilitation and the other is reforestation in the upland regions.
“A group of fisherman from Serangan carry out beach cleaning and are funded to replant coral. This coral reef conservation project is driven by the local community of fisherman. They recognize they are dependent on a healthy ocean for fishing and tourism so are replanting the coral and rehabilitating the coastline,” said Sudji of the 40 families involved in the project.
Also in Serangan is the Turtle Conservation project, again run and managed by local fishing families with support from the EPA.
Upland communities are replanting trees in traditional villages and Udayana University is researching recent drops in upland lakes systems, such as in Bedugal where lake water has been reducing for some time.
“Udayana studies showed evaporation of the lake is very high. This may be due to global warming or because, with illegal logging in other parts of the country, there is less precipitation and, therefore, a drop in rainfall. Traditional villages in the uplands are replanting trees and over time this will assist their environment and protect the soil from erosion during the wet season,” Sudji said.
With her passion for Bali’s environment and her strength of character, Sudji is well armed to take on the battle to protect, conserve and rehabilitate Bali’s natural beauty.
“I have a commitment to make Bali greener and cleaner. Working together we can achieve this,” Sudji said.
In my opinion, there are 3 ways you can get people to change their actions in regard to the environment. 1) Education, 2) New laws, 3) Monetary incentives. Most people in Bali are totally ignorant, both in cause and effect, and in ‘why should I give a shit’, about their effect on the environment. Education is needed. If you make laws that say a cop can fine you 100,000rp for burning plastic, or throwing your junk down a stream, less people will do it. One good strategy that always works, is to put a deposit on things recyclable, that way, even homeless people (and I used to work with them) will get up and do some work.
source : www.baliblog.com
January 17th, 2007
A look through BootsnAll’s currency converter, shows the rupiah has gained against the US dollar over the few months, and that anyone with Euro’s is a happy camper. The best strategy for saving money in Bali, is to price shop for everything, and start to ‘think in rupiah’, rather than saying ‘this meal is cheap, it only cost $20 for the 2 of us’.
1 US Dollar = 9,049.77 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Australian Dollar = 7,075.02 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Brazilian Real = 4,219.15 Indonesian Rupiah
1 British Pound = 17,569.1 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Chinese Yuan Renminbi = 1,160.51 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Euro = 11,788.3 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Hong Kong Dollar = 1,160.83 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Indian Rupee = 203.764 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Japanese Yen = 76.02302 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Kazakhstan Tenge = 75.50778 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Malaysian Ringgit = 2,581.51 Indonesian Rupiah
1 New Zealand Dollar = 6,261.09 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Singapore Dollar = 5,891.70 Indonesian Rupiah
1 South-Korean Won = 9.75656 Indonesian Rupiah
1 Thai Baht = 253.042 Indonesian Rupiah
If it’s your first time in Bali, you can change money as soon as you arrive at the airport. Downtown in Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Sanur, Ubud etc., you will find many streetside places offering money changing services. Some offer a great rate, but charge a commission, other a lower rate of exchange, but no commission. It all works out and the thing you should concentrate on, is getting the money you are due. If you see a sign offering amazing rates, with no commission, look inside the office. If its just a couple of local guys, behind a wooden desk, don’t bother with them. Look for a more professional (read - not likely to cheat you) money changer, with an office / travel agent, proper equipment, a legitimate business.
Enjoy the great exchange rates while you are in Bali, and don’t forget to pick up some travel insurance before you go.
source : www.baliblog.com
January 11th, 2007
Tuban is an interesting place. Ngurah Rai airport is in Tuban, and a selection of large hotels line the beach, along Jl. Kartika Plaza. Riding around Tuban, away from Jl. Kartika Plaza, it becomes obvious that Tuban is a ‘local’ area, by that I mean, densely populated with wall to wall shops that serve local needs. One place that stands out, if you are a foreigner, is Pepito’s Cafe. This European styled restaurant is located adjacent to Pepito’s supermarket. Pepito’s has an extensive menu, and daily lunch specials. Today I went for the Special and it was quite good.
My Special was Cream Soup Dubarry, Chicken Tandoori Kebab, Balinese Safron Rice, Tomato Salad, Marinated Fruit Salad.
The menu is as follows;
•Breakfast (until 11.30am) - including Bavarian (1 small Bintang beer or soft drink, 3 Weisswurst sausages, 1 Saltbretzel, Radish and original German sweet mustard) for 32,500rp
•Pepito’s Specialties - including Roast Beef (as main course, with tartar mayo dip,and pan fried potatoes) for 38,500rp
•Soups - including Parmentier (potato puree soup with vegetables and sausage) for 23,500rp
•Appetizers - including Smoked Marlin Fish (smoked marlin with horse radish cream, butter and toast) for 39,500rp
•Risotto, Ravioli, Tortellini, Pasta - including Neptune Risotto (with mixed seafood and tomato sauce) for 32,000rp.
•Main Course Beef - including 300gr Fillet Steak (with tarragon sauce, buttered beans and asparagus or salad) for 63,000rp
•Main Course Pork - including Pork Roast Donpepone (pork roast with apple gravy, bread dumplings and red cabbage, or mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, or green salad) for 37,000rp
•Sausages - including Beef Chorizo Sausages for 35,500rp
•Main Course Chicken - including Pollo Fritto (1/2 a fried chicken served with French fries, or plain rice and salad) for 34,000rp.
•From Indonesia & Beyond - including Sashimi Maguro Steak (Semi raw sashimi tuna on Ruccola lettuce, Wasabi balsam and plain rice) for 45,500rp.
•Neptune’s Seafood - including Capri Dream (Marinated fish, shrimps and lemon, herbs and crushed pepper on toast) for 33,000rp
•For the Children - including Spaghetti Napoli for 19,000rp
•Vegetarian - including Ginger a la Gomez (Pan fried, Green Vegetables, Fruits, bean curd Tofu and Noodles or Rice with spicy Ginger - Sesame Sauce) for 29,000rp
•Fresh Garden Salad - including Mixed Italian salad with pan fried chicken and garlic bread, for 22,000rp
•Dessert & Pastries - including Coupe Williams (Vanilla & chocolate ice cream, marinated pear halves and whipped cream) for 25,000rp
Pepito’s is open daily from 8am - ‘night’.
Pepito’s Cafe
Jl Kediri #36A
Tuban
Bali
(0361) 763953
source : www.baliblog.com
January 11th, 2007
jogerJoger is a shop on Jl. Raya Tuban, that is popular with Indonesian tourists. Ika told me in the past her school group from Semarang bought t-shirts from this shop. For westerners, Joger doesn’t mean anything, we’re oriented toward Nike, Adidas, Billabong and Quiksilver. Ika told me that Joger is a specialty t-shirt shop, famous for its slogans.
Outside the shop, is a big sign saying ‘Pabrik kata-kata‘ (we have a factory of words). I parked across the busy street, which is lined with Javanese and other Indonesian food places. Inside Joger domestic tourists were funneled through the shop in prescribed direction. Joger sells Balinese handicrafts, t-shirts, bags, hats and other small gifts.
The prices are not cheap for locals, with a long sleeve t-shirt going for 119,000rp, a regular t-shirt 70,000rp, a ladies colored bag 75,000rp, small day-pack for 150,000rp.
Ika told me many Indonesian cities have their own version of Joger, with the clothing expressing something about the local culture. She said the quality of the stuff is quite good. Just shows you the power of marketing. Visitors to Bali will pay $20 for a Beef-T stamped with the name of a famous surf company. The funny thing is, here in Bali, most of the stuff come from the same factory. I can go from one brand shop to another and see the same shirts, with different tags!
Anyway, Joger is a famous brand in Indonesia, and if you show up in Java wearing one of their t-shirts, locals will make that connection with Bali.
Joger is open from 11am - 6pm daily.
Joger
Jl. Raya Tuban
Tuban
Bali
source : www.baliblog.com
January 11th, 2007
Its photos like this, that make me realize buying kids expensive toys is a waste of money. In our house, I have managed to successfully avoid Christmas, and birthdays pass without too much nonsense in the gift-giving department. I’m more into spending time with family and friends, eating and drinking, rather than spending money on presents.
My sister has a 6 year old and told me she is happier playing with the large box her gift came in, than the gift. Jevon loved his new metal helmet, he can play with it all day and it won’t break! At the house there are a few things Jevon likes to play with, which include a bucket of water (the kid’s favourite), my old Alpha Smart keyboard with the keys all jammed up, an electric racquet (bug swatter) that quit ages ago, and various implements likes the tongs from my bbq.
He has recently taken an interest to the neighbor’s dog, a large white Kintamani, that barks constantly. I’m planning a whole selection of cleaning products, to be his 2nd birthday gift, including a leather, that he can use to clean my motorbike. Won’t that be a fun time!
Here’s some of the schools and playgroups available for kids in Bali.
source : www.balibog.com
January 10th, 2007
Living in Bali and not Pommy-land, I feel like the luckiest man alive. Seriously, this afternoon, strolling down my gang (alley) in Seminyak, I had to do a double-take, at how bright blue the sky was and how intensely green the trees seemed. Was it that mushroom-shake I had for lunch, or the tropical sunlight? Whichever, I was momentarily blown away by the power of the colors. Many people in the UK know one color very well…grey. That’s why the smart ones do their best to get down to the ‘Lucky Country‘, for a year’s fruit picking or pub work.
People flying down to Australia stop off in various places, including Thailand, Goa India and Bali. I like all those places, and recommend them as cool stop off points, to people about to embark on a RTW trip. Arriving in Australia, you might want to make sure you have a place to stay, particularly in times like Christmas, or during events like major sporting events. Fortunately you can do a hostel search on BootsnAll.com, and check out what going on in the Land Downunder on the Australia travel guide.
On my first night in Sydney, I couldn’t sleep, the excitement was too much. King’s Cross, guys playing guitar with no strides on, and a weird de ja vu (Sydney looks like parts of London, in winter) all conspired to create a great time, finished off with a felafel from a Turkish place. Memories!
source : www.baliblogcom
January 10th, 2007
Owning land and building your ‘dream home’ in Bali, is a dream for many people. Some people try it and have success, others find it a frustrating experience, others still don’t bother and simply rent. I’m in category ‘C’ for right now. A post on the Bali Expat Forum, asks about the legalities of your Indo wife owning property in Bali.
The question posted, asks if an Indonesian woman loses her right to own land in Bali, if she marries a foreigner. You think the Indonesian government is that stupid? This is one of the best ways to get money out of, and away from, foreigners. Friends of mine, who are married to locals from Java, put the land in their wife’s name, no problem. As I understand it, if the couple divorces at a later date, they must split their assets, 50/50.
An English guy once told me he moved to the kampung in the Philippines, and built a beautiful house. “Wonderful” I said. “No” he said, “it was the worst thing I ever did, all the relatives came to visit and never left.”
source : www.baliblog.com
January 10th, 2007
Bali is one of 30 provinces of Indonesia, and is perhaps the most unique of them all. It’s geography and culture, combine to make Bali the ideal tourist destination, something the other provinces can only dream of. One thing that bugs the Balinese, is that a lot of that hard earned tourist money, ends up going to Jakarta, even after a law was passed, promising autonomy to regional governments 5 years ago.
Here’s more from the Jakarta Post.
Five years after regional autonomy, dissatisfaction rising in resource-rich
Rita A.Widiadana and Wasti Atmodjo, The Jakarta Post, Sanur
When the government launched the regional autonomy policy in 2001, the reaction in Bali was positive and hopeful.
With many Balinese seeing their island as Jakarta’s cash cow, it was hoped that regional autonomy would stop the central government’s heavy control of the resort island’s income.
Before regional autonomy, Indonesia’s natural resources, regional strengths and decision making were all in the hands of bureaucrats in Jakarta. With the announcement of regional autonomy, many people in Bali saw it as an opportunity to enjoy the full strength of revenues from tourism, agriculture, garment and textile manufacturing and handicrafts.
But five years after the implementation of regional autonomy, the reality on the ground in Bali is far from this picture.
“Bali has faced a lot of crucial problems in implementing the regional autonomy scheme since its introduction to the province,” said Ida Ayu Mas, a member of the Regional Representatives Council at the House of Representatives, speaking at an year-end seminar in Bali in late December.
Under the current regional autonomy laws, authority in certain areas outside of the monetary, fiscal, foreign affairs, defense and security sectors, is transferred from the central government to regional governments.
Bali has a population of 3.2 million, spread through eight regencies — Gianyar, Klungklung, Bangli, Karangasem, Buleleng, Tabanan, Jembrana and the wealthy Badung — and one municipality, Denpasar. Each regent has full authority over his regency, often eliminating the role of the provincial government in enforcing regulations and policies.
“The system has led to occasional conflicts between regional and provincial administrations,” said Ida Ayu, a candidate for the 2008 Bali gubernatorial election.
Many feel that inconsistent policies and contradictory regulations imposed by provincial and regional governments have brought Bali into social, cultural and environmental catastrophes and that the focus on regional autonomy has worsened disparities among regencies and has intensified local rivalries between regional and provincial governments.
I Made Arimbawa, a member of the local legislative council and a chairman of the special autonomy task force team, told the seminar he urged the central government to grant Bali special autonomy status by 2008, when it will elect a new governor.
Bali, at only 5,632 square kilometers in size, is different to other provinces in terms of social, cultural and religious backgrounds, he said.
“Some legal instruments of regional autonomy do not fit with Bali’s situation,” Arimbawa said, citing as an example a 1999 law that allows regional governments to retain 80 percent of forestry, fishing and general mining revenue.
The law also enables regional administrations to receive 15 percent of oil revenue and 30 percent of that from natural gas, along with the reallocation of 25 percent of the central government’s budget to regional authorities.
Arimbawa said that the law clearly recognized revenue-sharing, but that such recognition was not given to the tourism and handicraft sectors, which are key to Bali’s income.
“Under the implementation of current regional autonomy policy, Bali has lost many things, while at the same time, the other nature-rich provinces have gained huge profits from it,” he said.
With more than 50 percent of Indonesia’s US$6.5 billion tourist-related revenue coming from Bali, Arimbawa said, “it is quite fair if we demand that 50 percent of the earnings be returned to Bali.”
The special autonomy proposed to the central government includes certain provincial authority in issuing regulations regarding the province’s natural resources, including land use, religious and cultural assets.
The province will also establish new institutions in line with its characteristics such as customary court that deals with local issues.
Representatives of the local tourist industry are also demanding the government be more transparent in its reporting of revenues from the visa-on-arrival policy.
“We have never been informed how much we have got from visa fees since (the policy) was enacted in 2004,” Bagus Sudibya, chairman of the Bali Tourism Board said at the meeting.
According to Bank Indonesia’s Denpasar Office, Bali received $11.9 million from arrival visas in 2006, a drop of 42.3 percent from the same period in 2005, when it amounted to $20.57 million.
Airport revenue sharing is also an issue. Ngurah Rai International Airport in Tuban Kuta receives a minimum of 1.5 million visitors every year.
“We want to be given tax revenue sharing to improve tourism infrastructure in Bali, including improvements to the airport and hotel security systems,” Sudibya said.
Wayan Supartha, professor of economics at the University of Udayana in Denpasar, identified a number of constraints faced by Bali province in enforcing regional autonomy.
The professor said that the lack of local government technical and financial resources was a major obstacle to enforcing regional autonomy policy.
“The incompetence of regional administrations in handling certain issues has led to acts of corruption, collusion and nepotism at local levels,” he said.
The professor added that the type of regional autonomy presently enforced in Bali offered no solutions to the province’s problems.
source : www.baliblog.com
January 10th, 2007
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