Archive for November, 2007
To promote Indonesia as a MICE’s destination, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism with the Association/Industry of Tourism will held Indonesia Tourism & Travel Fair which will be holding every year on September. For 2008 it will be held on 8 – 16 September 2008. South Korea (Seoul) on 10 December 2007, Japan (Osaka) on 12 December 2007, and China (Shanghai) on 14 December 2007 to communicate this program.
The Ministry of Environment will be a host topic of The Conference of the Parties (COP) Thirteenth Session and Conference of the Parties as the meeting of the parties the Kyoto Protocol, Third Session (COP-13/MOP-3), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at Bali on 3-14 December 2007.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism actively discussed about the issues of global climate changes in this conference activity which is. Because these issues affect to Indonesia’s tourism, especially on traffic of tourism visiting from other countries in the world.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has coordinated with UNWTO and Secretariat of UNFCCC to held side event “Conference on Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges” which will be held on:
Day/Date : Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Time : 01.00 pm – 03.00 pm (WITA)
Place : Grand Hyatt Hotel, Nusa Dua, Bali
Speakers : 1. Dr. Daniel Scott
2. Dr. Shardul Agrawala
3. Mr. Andrew Skeat
4. Mr. Peter de Jong
This seminar is a routine agenda from UNFCCC and has published on website UNFCCC.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has arranged a parallel event on the conferences of UNFCCC hold on Bali such as:
a. Seminar on the Impact of Climate Change to Indonesia’s Tourism, hold on:
Day/Date : Monday, 10 December 2007
Time : 08.00 am – 05.00 pm (WITA)
Place : Grand Bali Beach Hotel, Sanur Bali
Speakers : International:
1. Secretary General of UNWTO, Mr. Geofrey Lipman
2. Dr. Daniel Scott
3. Dr. Tery de Lacy
National:
1. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ir. Jero Wacik, SE
2. The Ministry of Environment, Dr. Rachmat Witoelar
3. Industry (chosen)
Participants : 1. Institution of Central Government
2. Association/Industry of Tourism
3. Tourism Institution
4. Media
b. Post Conference Tour, hold at Samboja (East Kalimantan), Pulau Komodo, and Bali on 15 – 17 December 2007.
c. Exhibition, exhibit the product and tourism facility of Indonesia, which will be held at Pulau Besar, Bali on 8 – 14 December 2007.
d. Function/Hospitality/Cultural Performance, hold at Grand Bali Beach Hotel on 10 December 2007. Inviting 500 speakers and delegates from UNWTO with some government upward, environmental expert, tourism industry/association, tourism institution.
e. Press Conference will be held at Grand Bali Beach Hotel on 10 December 2007 after grand opening of “Seminar on the Impact of Climate Change to Indonesia’s Tourism”.
f. Advance Seminar on Integrated Tourism Development, hold on:
Day/Date : Tuesday and Wednesday/ 18 – 19 December 2007
Place : Hotel Le Meridien, Jakarta
Participants : 1. Institution of Central Government
2. Association/Industry of Tourism
3. Tourism Education
4. Media
Speakers : 1. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ir. Jero Wacik, SE
2. The Ministry of Thread, Mr. Mardiyanto
3. The Industry and Environmental Expert (chosen)
g. A Thousand Tree Planting will be held at Bali on 11 December 2007 (tentative). This activity will be lead by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and presented by government institution, tourism industry/association, tourism education, etc.
Source: http://my-indonesia.info/
November 22nd, 2007
Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The culture and tourism ministry is organizing a national traditional and contemporary dress festival in Kuta, Bali, on Saturday.
The festival was participated in by 14 designers from several provinces in the country, 24 models of bridge and bridegrooms from 23 regions in Indonesia and the association of bridal services, a press statement of the culture and tourism ministry said here on Saturday.
Indonesia planed to promote its traditional dresses internationally and hoped that the country`s traditional dresses could inspire world-class fashion designer companies such as Klein, Gucci, Louis Vitton, Channel, Ferre, and Escada, the statement said.(*)
Source: http://my-indonesia.info/
November 21st, 2007
In the cultural heartland of Bali, a sanctuary of privacy and security, the elegance and refined luxury of The viceroy Bali.
Beautifully appointed private villas with individual swimming pools, Cappuccino machines, Satellite TV and Extravagant bathrooms are perched on the edge of the Petanu River in the lush green surround of the Lembah Valley, just minutes from the centre of Bali’s world famous cultural community, Ubud.
With Bali’s finest health spa, ‘The Lembah Spa-, the breathtaking French fine dining restaurant, ‘Cascades Restaurant-, and a private corporate-retreat conference centre with full audio visual facilities, The Viceroy Bali offers all the services of an elite hotel, yet the discretion and privacy of a secluded retreat.
The Viceroy Villa features two very large bedrooms set either side of a huge open sitting room. All rooms open onto a large infinity-edge swimming pool set in a lush tropical garden which overlooks a dramatic view of a forested ravine and a rushing river.
Discount rates for The Viceroy Bali are available at
www.bali-travelnet.com/hotels/430/The_Viceroy_Bali/
Each of the large bedrooms in this stunning suite has its own private sitting room with full service satellite television. In each, the beds can be configured either as two large singles or one king size double. 24 hour dedicated butler service is provided as is a private bar area with refrigerator. The bedrooms are completely private from each other and would well suit two couples. If desired, one of the bedrooms can quickly be reconfigured as a business suite or formal dining room to suit your specific needs.
Lovely differences do exist between the two bedrooms in this suite however, mainly in the layout of their separate baths. The first bedroom’s bathroom is vast and features a waterfall covering one entire curved wall behind the large bath. It has a completely separated high pressure shower area and enclosed toilet for privacy.
The second bedroom’s bathroom is open and integrated with the room. It is finished in an exquisite light marble and features a large bath and separate high pressure shower.
The Viceroy Bali is proud to present The Lembah Spa. Created by some of Switzerland’s most prominent spa specialists to ensure a truly holistic spa experience, concentrating on whole body wellness by placing as much emphasis on health and meditation, as it does on relaxation and beauty.
Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/
November 20th, 2007
BALI: The ‘7th Bali Fashion Week 2007’ is being organised by ModaBali Convex here in the city at the DISCOVERY - Kartika Plaza Hotel from November 22-25 2007. The event returns to Bali and with the past Bali Fashion Weeks experience, world leaders in fashion and style will converge on Bali to be dazzled by the talent of Indonesia’s top fashion designers and apparel producers.
The programs of event are designed to meet the needs of all business players in facing the global competition, especially in the area of fashion & textile industry. Centered in Kuta, the event offers a full schedule of trade exhibitions, fashion shows and educational seminars.
The exhibit categories include garments & textiles, fashion accessories and related products; designers collection, jewelry, handbags, shoes, lingerie, belt, casual wear, evening wear.
Under the careful guidance of the Country Steering Committee, 7th Bali Fashion Week has tightened while at the same time expanded the selections, both nationally and internationally presenting only the best Creativity, Artistry & Quality for which this island is rightfully known.
For six years, Bali Fashion Week has been the choice venue for textile, garment, accessory, producer, professional designers and buyers from all over the globe and has been the springboard for numerous young talents searching for world recognition
Bali-produced garments are increasingly found in Europe, US and major Asian markets generating US$ 89.2 million in export earnings during the first eight months of 2007, a total that’s 10 percent more than in the same period in 2006.
Source: http://www.bharattextile.com/
November 19th, 2007
In celebration of a successful Balinese food festival, the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta is closing the festival today with a special followed by lunch.
For the past week, Airlangga has offered guests special Balinese dishes such as bulung Nusa (baked squid decorated with long pepper), siap betutu (chicken cooked with traditional Balinese spices), sapi base manis (jerk beef), sate lilit (smoked chicken satay) and tum bubuk (boiled chopped duck wrapped in banana leaves).
Throughout this promotion guests have been entertained with traditional dances, painting exhibitions and a handicraft display.
Performance of pendet dance, kecak dance and the traditional music of Rindik marked last Saturday’s opening of the festival named “Enchanting Bali”. Guest chef Nyoman “Lother” Arsana, who wrote The Food of Bali in 1993, said that the recipes had been inherited from their ancestors.
“What we do is revitalizing the food performance, hygeine and texture in order to go down with international flavor,” he said. He has traveled to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Honolulu, South Africa, Shanghai and Moscow to promote Balinese food.
The festival ends today and will be open for lunch and dinner. The cooking class starts at 11 a.m. and is priced at 238,000++. For more information, please call 2551 8888
– JP/Musthofid
Source: The Jakarta Post
November 19th, 2007
Caravan World Rhythms and Chan Centre for the Performing Arts production. At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Monday, November 12. No remaining performances
Artistic performances in Bali sometimes run from dusk to dawn, but visiting troupe Gamelan Cudamani inverted that time line, starting with sunrise and ending at midnight–all while compressing a day in the life of a Balinese temple into a pair of audience-friendly 50-minute sets. The sense of slow unfolding that, I’m told, characterizes a real-life odalan (temple anniversary) ceremony was missing, but otherwise Cudamani’s performance was exceptionally rich in its sense of place.
That this was not going to be an ordinary concert was apparent from the opening scene, when Cudamani’s imaginary village slowly awakens to the sound of frogs and jungle fowl. The women are up first, fetching water, sweeping the temple floor, and disturbing the sleep of an embarrassed and quite likely hung-over musician who’s curled up under a dusty mat. The men soon arrive, carrying knives and lengths of bamboo, which they shape into a number of temple structures–and as they do, they make an extraordinary percussive clatter.
Music is inextricably woven into Balinese daily life, and that point is further driven home by a grand and noisy “drum solo” built from the sound of herbs being chopped and spices being grated. And in a culture so rich in ceremony–each temple celebrates its anniversary every 210 days, and there are more than 20,000 temples on the island–dance and theatre are similarly intertwined with religious observance.
Odalan Bali is not wholly liturgical in nature: the male contingent of the 28-member cast staged a rowdy mock cockfight that was also a tour de force of vocal percussion. But most of the segments mixed music, movement, and spirituality, as in the sublimely graceful “Mecaru: Appeasing the Playful Earth Spirits”. In its simplicity and grace, the mecaru ceremony might be an animist remnant in predominantly Hindu Dharma Bali. Its potency in modern times was reinforced by I Dewa Ketut Alit’s music, which built up from familiar metallophone patterns to a dense wash of swirling, abstract sound.
Again, the point was that Balinese art is alive and growing. At home, Gamelan Cudamani is dedicated to making vital music for a vital community, as opposed to the many ensembles providing rudimentary versions of Balinese art for the tourist trade. On tour, its intent is to spark a deeper interest in Balinese culture. With this performance, its members can consider their mission accomplished.
Source: http://www.straight.com/
November 16th, 2007
Trisha Sertori, Contributor, Kerobakan, Bali
More than six decades ago India’s Mahatma Gandhi called for villages across his nation to maintain ancestral professions such as weaving and embroidery. His goal was to crush dependence on England’s spinning mills and ensure economic sustainability in villages throughout India.
“We started spinning and weaving as a means of solving unemployment as well as a resolution of self-reliance,” Mahatma Gandhi is quoted when asked how “making one’s own cloth and inheriting one’s ancestral profession solve modern problems”.
About the same time as Mahatma Gandhi was revolutionizing India, on the other side of the world in New York’s Brooklyn, Paul Ropp was born. And now at 63 years of age the lad, who was born on the wrong side of the tracks and remained illiterate until he was 22 years old, is helping maintain Gandhi’s vision in India and in Bali.
In Bali, Paul Ropp is best known as a fabric and clothing designer; a designer who says “Fashion is dead. We don’t make fashion, we make ooh aah (clothing)”.
The ooh aah factor in Ropp’s designs is based in those Indian villages where his silks, wools and cottons are hand-dyed and loomed before being hand-embroidered then stitched in Bali.
This is what makes the pieces museum-quality garments. “The fact is that within 30 years these clothes will be in museums because the young people (in villages) don’t want to do this work (hand-weaving and hand-embroidery) anymore. For me it’s about trying to show them they can stay at home in their villages and make a good living.
“What Mahatma Gandhi wanted was for people to stay in their villages and not go to the cities to look for work. He wanted the villages to be strong (economically); to be independent of the British and that is in essence these fabrics,” said Ropp, who employs more than 500 people across Bali and 5,000 people across India. In the mix are Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and more, said Ropp, of what he feels is the proof that economic health allows people from all backgrounds to work together creatively.
“India is the largest Hindu country in the world and Indonesia the largest Muslim country. The fabrics are woven by Indian Hindus, embroidered by Indian Muslims and exported to Muslim Indonesia, where they are stitched by Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others all working together in real harmony, and exported around the world,” Ropp said.
Engineering handwoven and embroidered fabrics demands an extraordinary attention to detail, planning where different motifs and colors fall on every meter of fabric is, Ropp said, a role he delights in. So specific is the fabric design that every garment is cut singly, literally one garment at a time. Ropp’s garments are incredibly labor-intensive; utterly hands on.
This invisible element of human creativity in his designs breathes life into the clothing, you can almost hear the loom’s shuttle and comb that gives birth to Ropp’s designs as you handle the fabrics rich in color, weight and movement.
“This is a real collaboration; weaving will take a family about two weeks, then another week for embroidery then here in Bali for cutting and stitching. People are using their expertise to create something that is then exported globally. This is global marketing from indigenous labor — that is the key — multi culture bridges the gap,” said Ropp of his designs that create a world market for remote villages that would not otherwise have global access.
“This is about sustainable development, the economic sustainability of villages; productivity based on community effort. And every time someone puts on a garment it supports that reality,” said Ropp adding that his fabrics are “not made by mills but by people”.
Ropp arrived in Bali back in 1978 after several years in India. A born entrepreneur, he had earlier gained a 32 percent share of the cigarette paper market in the U.S. before his move to India.
Ropp was making his American flag, draft cards and 100 dollar bill printed cigarette papers at the height of the Vietnam war and found a ready market of smokers keen to light up a little revolution with each puff; not bad business nous for a boy who gained his education in a reform school.
He is one of those people born to win against all odds. Perhaps if had he been born with a silver spoon the Ropp ebullience and creativity would have been stilted, drowned in middle-class mediocrity
It is his ability to think faster and wilder than most that has taken him to the top. Ropp is one of those multi-tasking people who get more done in a day than many of us achieve in a week. He checks skirt samples, suggests additional motifs on boots, stressing “we are not making boots we are making art — over the top is good,” and chats nonstop about fabric, embroidery, religion, art and the death of fashion at breakneck speed.
His eyes, as blue as his summer sky silks, encompass all under the Paul Ropp roof in Bali and further off into Hindustani and Muslim villages, and further still to the 14 countries that have absorbed his colors and designs like sun on a golden pond.
Source: The Jakarta Post
November 16th, 2007
Garuda Indonesia has confirmed an increase in Perth-Bali services in response to overwhelming demand, with three extra return flights a week from 02 December.
Garuda will step up to double daily direct flights to and from Bali on every weekday except Wednesday, when there is a single flight. It also operates four direct Jakarta services a week, introduced earlier this year.
The B737-800 flights will add 468 seats to the airline’s capacity, helping to meet the overwhelming demand being experienced as the Christmas and New Year holiday seasons approach, said Garuda Indonesia’s new general manager, Australia/ South-West Pacific, Poerwoko Soeparyono.
“Western Australia is leading demand across Australia for flights to Bali. While Australia-wide demand is up more than 60 per cent on the same period last year, growth in WA is outstanding” said Poerwoko.
Source: http://www.impactpub.com.au/
November 15th, 2007
Star turn about man in love stunningly intricate
David Gordon Duke, Special to The Sun
Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Gamelan, Bali’s great gift to the world of music, was the feature of a co-presentation between the Chan Centre and Caravan World Rhythms on Monday evening, a one-night-only performance by the spectacular Indonesian performance troupe Cudamani.
The clamorous sounds of gamelan orchestras have captivated composers from Debussy to the post-minimalists; ensembles have sprung up in countless non-Indonesian settings, including several here in Vancouver. Cudamani is a somewhat revisionist group of just over 24 singers and dancers, founded in the late 1990s with the express intent not only to preserve performance traditions but to explore new initiatives as well.
Cudamani has a particular interest in keeping its musical traditions grounded in authentic social practices. To this end, Odalan Bali: An Offering of Music and Dance is structured along the lines of a village religious festival — albeit one slickly tailored for a formal concert-hall setting, and very much adapted to the two-hour-long attention span of western audiences.
On Monday evening the program began with the members of the troupe establishing the fiction of preparations for the ceremony. Snatches of chant, songs, and the rhythms of mundane tasks gradually stylized and gelled into performance as an enthralling Mecaru ceremony, designed to appease mischievous spirits, sets the stage for the Odalan, or temple ceremony, proper.
The second part of the evening sampled dances and rituals: seven distinct segments ranged from the aggressive, virile rhythms evoking a village cockfight to the grace and elegance of the sacred Rejang and Legong Gering dances. Truna Gandrung (Young Man in Love danced by the exquisite Dewa Ayu Eka Putir) was a stunningly intricate star turn with simply extraordinary music. The musical ensemble, tight and strikingly disciplined at the best of times, gloried in breakneck rhythms of staggering complexity.
With determinedly theatrical pacing, the penultimate event of the program was Barong, a lion dance with a magnificent two-man costume and utterly beguiling choreography — an exultantly effective climax to the proceedings before a simple closing ceremony swiftly brought an evening of remarkable artifice and artistry to a peaceful close.
Source: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/
November 15th, 2007
David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, November 13, 2007
amelan, Bali’s great gift to the world of music, was the feature of a co-presentation between the Chan Centre and Caravan World Rhythms on Monday evening, a one-night-only performance by the spectacular Indonesian performance troupe Çudamani.
The clamorous sounds of gamelan orchestras have captivated composers from Debussy to the post-minimalists; ensembles have sprung up in countless non-Indonesian settings, including several here in Vancouver.
Çudamani is a somewhat revisionist group of just over two dozen singers and dancers, founded in the late 1990s with the express intent not only to preserve performance traditions but to explore new initiatives as well.
Çudamani has a particular interest in keeping its musical traditions grounded in authentic social practices.
To this end, Odalan Bali: An Offering of Music and Dance is structured along the lines of a village religious festival - albeit one slickly tailored for a formal concert hall setting, and very much adapted to the two-hour-long attention span of western audiences.
On Monday evening the program began with the members of the troupe establishing the fiction of preparations for the ceremony.
Snatches of chant, songs, and the rhythms of mundane tasks gradually stylized and jelled into performance as a enthralling Mecaru ceremony, designed to appease mischievous spirits, sets the stage for the Odalan, or temple ceremony, proper.
The second part of the evening sampled dances and rituals: seven distinct segments ranged from the aggressive, virile rhythms evoking a village cockfight to the grace and elegance of the sacred Rejang and Legong Gering dances.
Truna Gandrung (Young Man in Love danced by the exquisite Dewa Ayu Eka Putir) was a stunningly intricate star turn with simply extraordinary music.
The musical ensemble, tight and strikingly disciplined at the best of times, gloried in breakneck rhythms of staggering complexity.
With determinedly theatrical pacing, the penultimate event of the program was Barong, a lion dance with a magnificent two-man costume and utterly beguiling choreography - an exultantly effective climax to the proceedings before a simple closing ceremony swiftly brought an evening of remarkable artifice and artistry to a peaceful close.
Special to The Sun
Source: http://www.canada.com/
November 14th, 2007
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