Archive for February, 2008
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - As many as 274 companies from 26 countries will take part in the Food and Hotel Bali 2008 exhibition scheduled for February 28-March 1 at the Bali International Convention Center (BICC), one of the event`s organizers said.
Most of the participants are engaged in the food, hotel, restaurant and fast food industries, Astied Julias, sales and marketing director of PT Pamerindo Buana Abadi, said in a press statement on Tuesday.
Among the participating countries would be the United States, Italy and Peru.
He said Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik was expected to open the three-day international event. (*)
Source: ANTARA News
February 28th, 2008
Bali, Indonesia - Discover a faster and more convenient way of securing rooms at the ultimate holiday destination in the Bali tropics. Rama Candidasa Resort & Spa in East Bali has recently launched an easy-to-use reservation system on its website, www.ramacandidasabali.com, to pave way for a hassle-free online booking process.
This innovative addition to the resort’s customer service offerings allows guests to reserve a room according to their budgets and tastes. The system features a display of room types and their availability with the best rates online for a period of 14 days. With a 10% deposit, which is deducted from the total room cost, guests are assured that their chosen room type is available upon their arrival to Rama Candidasa beach resort. An automated e-mail confirming the booking is also sent immediately.
To add more convenience, a professional customer relations team is at the ready to address all reservation-related concerns, including the modification of booking arrangements.
After a worry-free reservation experience, look forward to stepping into a world of luxury at the Rama Candidasa Resort. Located in exotic East Bali, the resort is all about serene beachside living. The 72 guestrooms are decorated with refined Balinese accents and furnished with contemporary deluxe amenities. A host of lavish facilities also await: the resort has a classy beachfront restaurant, luscious spa, and outdoor swimming pool. For guests who want to explore the rest of the area, fun activities, from water sports to trekking, are offered. Visit www.ramacandidasabali.com for more information.
Rama Candidsa Resort & Spa’s groundbreaking online feature is powered by DirectWithHotels (DWH), a direct reservations performance partner. The company teams up with accommodation providers and enables their websites to deliver secure reservations with low rates and instant confirmation. To know more about DWH and its cutting-edge technology and services, log on to www.directwithhotels.com.
Rama Candidasa Resort & Spa
Jl. Raya Sengkidu, Karangasem
Candidasa, Bali
Indonesia
www.ramacandidasabali.com
Tel. No.: 62 363 41974
Melita Eclavea
prlaunch@directwithhotels.com
###
Author:
Melita Renee Eclavea
e-mail
Web: http://www.directwithhotels.com
Phone: 02 892 8030
Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/
February 27th, 2008
Wasti Atmodjo, Contributor, Denpasar
Five months ago, Putu Suastika deliberately inundated his rice field in a daring business decision. He turned the field into a freshwater snail farm to cash in on the growing demand for traditional freshwater snail delicacies at his food stall in western Denpasar.
Suastika is a man of many talents. He is an experienced farmer, a junior high school teacher, an accomplished chef of Balinese traditional food and the owner of a successful food stall.
“My warung (food stall) needs up to 30 kilograms of freshwater snail meat per day. And the demand just keeps increasing. I couldn’t depend solely on my supplies from my snail suppliers. That’s why I decided to turn my rice field into a snail farm,” he said.
His food stall, Warung Pan Putu (literally meaning Putu’s Food Stall), is located on Jl. Ahmad Yani and has been open for 14 months. For Rp 10,000, customers get a portion of hot rice with snail satay, snail tum (steamed minced meat), snail ares (soup with shredded banana trunk) and a splash of three different aromatic sambal (spicy sauce).
Known locally as kakul, freshwater snails are exotic food items for most residents of urbanized Denpasar, but common stuff for those who live in the island’s more remote agricultural villages.
“It takes a special skill to cook kakul. The meat has an elastic and flavorless quality. We need to create a special mix of spices and to cook the meat for a specific period of time. It is a delicate process,” Suastika stressed.
Previously, he bought freshwater snails from suppliers, who collected them from rice farmers in Tabanan. For one kilogram of clean, shell-less snails, he paid Rp 15,000. A similar amount of snails with their shells still intact cost only Rp 3,000.
“I taught those farmers how to separate the snails from their shells,” he said.
The method includes boiling the snails for some time before picking the meats from the shells. The meat is then washed and rinsed repeatedly to remove the mucus before being refrigerated. Treated that way, the meat could last for up to eight days.
By operating his own snail farm, Suastika hopes to provide his warung with a steady supply of high-quality freshwater snails.
“None of my suppliers have a dedicated freshwater snail farm, neither do the rice farmers in Tabanan. The snails are just the byproduct of their rice fields. That’s why we need a dedicated snail farm to ensure a stable supply,” he said.
Suastika turned his rice field into two muddy ponds. In these 8-by-8 meter and 10-by-10 meter ponds, Suastika farms a specific kind of freshwater snail; the rice field snail.
“There are two kinds of freshwater snails, the river ones and the rice field ones. The river snails’ shells are yellowish and their meat is less tasty than the rice field ones. Moreover, given the level of pollution in our rivers, many people consider the river snails as unhealthy,” he said.
Suastika feeds the freshwater snails with leaves of gamal plants.
“The adolescent snails spend most of their time in the mud in the middle of the ponds. The adult ones will move to the edges of the ponds to lay eggs,” he said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
February 26th, 2008
11:30 a.m. Feb. 25 — Renowned award-winning Balinese artist Made Wianta will exhibit and sell his art pieces from Feb. 25 to 28. His art pieces will be exhibited and will be available for sale Feb. 25 and 26 at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa’s Gallery and Feb. 27 and 28 at the Julale Center’s center court gallery. Portion of the proceeds will benefit Erica’s House, a family visitation center in Tiyan. The artist was born in Apuan, Tabanan, Bali, and he has created 14,000 works of art and has held exhibits nationally and internationally, with donations benefiting many social causes such as helping poor regioins of Bali in 1995, the sale of several paintings to help AIDS research in San Francisco, Calif., and the earthquake victims of Flores, Indonesia in 1993. Wianta has collaborated with the Ford Foundation to help preserve endangered traditional art and culture in Bali, and held an art camp in Apuan, Bali, to bring together many Indonesian scholars and contemporary artists. For more information on the exhibit, call Krystal Leung at 648-8888, Diana Castro at 642-4020, or Nancy Tan at 477-7500.
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/apps
February 25th, 2008
5 p.m., Feb. 24 — Renowned award-winning Balinese artist Made Wianta will exhibit and sell his art pieces from beginning tomorrow through Thursday at the Julale Center in Hagåtña.
His art pieces will be exhibited and will be available for sale Feb. 25 and 26 at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa’s Gallery and July 27 and 28 at the Julale Center’s center court gallery.
Portion of the proceeds will benefit Erica’s House, a family visitation center in Tiyan.
The artist was born in Apuan, Tabanan, Bali, and he has created 14,000 works of art and has held exhibits nationally and internationally, with donations benefiting many social causes such as helping poor regioins of Bali in 1995, the sale of several paintings to help AIDS research in San Francisco, Calif., and the earthquake victims of Flores, Indonesia in 1993.
Wianta has collaborated with the Ford Foundation to help preserve endangered traditional art and culture in Bali, and held an art camp in Apuan, Bali, to bring together many Indonesian scholars and contemporary artists.
For more information on the exhibit, call Krystal Leung at 648-8888, Diana Castro at 642-4020, or Nancy Tan at 477-7500.
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/apps/
February 25th, 2008
The green island with its lakes, paddies and temples is a sight to behold, writes Tamanna Mahtani
The serenity that Bali has can best be enjoyed minus the trappings of Kuta. The latter, a busy district, is where the principle that commercialisation corrupts, has taken root and thus destroyed, predictably. So my mother and I stayed at the Bali Padma Hotel at Legian Beach, far away from it.
Bearing in mind the myriad temples and daily celebrations on the Balinese calendar, there are always processions taking place somewhere. One comes across beautifully dressed women carrying fruit offerings piled high on their head, filing slowly along the road, or large groups of women and men walking with a noisy gamelan orchestra, sometimes with the sacred Barong in tow. You have to stop on the road and just observe the colourful frenzy.
To add to it are the kites that come out when the strong winds blow from February to August. Some of them are even as big as a house!
Our local guide takes us to the village of Batubulan, which literally means ‘stone moon,’ It’s famous for stone workshops and then to the artists village of Ubud. It’s lovely to see the quaint Balinese villages consisting of compounds where whole extended families live. Their streets are decorated with bamboo poles, or ‘penjors’.
A long drive brings us to the most important temple complex of Bali, the Pura Besakih. The Pura Besakih consists of various temples that are scattered over the slopes of the sacred volcano Gunung Agung. Our guide informs us that this active volcano is the largest on Bali and plays an important part in the lives of the local people, because they believe that the spirits of the ancestors dwell here.
The nicest part of the trip was a visit to Lake Bratan. It had just rained and the temperature was about 17° Centigrade. The clouds seemed to touch the water and a few individuals were fishing there too.
The Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple has three niches, one for Hindus, one for Muslims and one for Buddhists. Perhaps this is why Bali is called ‘Island of the Gods’. It’s something to learn from, one realises.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/
February 22nd, 2008
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Ubud
The darkened sky on that somber Monday afternoon was soon followed by a strong wind that swung the trees back and forth. The wind didn’t give way even after a torrential rain hit the earth with a ferocity that drowned out any other noise.
The gloomy weather provided a perfect backdrop for the mourners, who huddled together at various places in the house. In the vacated car garage next to the house, a group of women worked in silence, preparing the intricate ritual offerings for the cremation.
A few meters to the east, in the open pavilion before the rural family’s shrine, the body of Made Subrata lay on an elevated wooden divan. It was draped with sheets of batik in subdued colors and faded patterns.
Sitting on the divan was Kadek Purnami, Subrata’s second child. She tried to be brave, but her flowing tears and murmuring cry betrayed her broken heart.
Every time a member of the banjar (traditional neighborhood organization) approached the body to offer condolences and take a last look on the deceased’s body, Purnami’s cry grew stronger. Her husband, Putu Adi, tried to comfort her to no avail.
“The rain, the wind … it is as if Mother Nature greets my father upon his return journey to his home up there,” she said.
At that time she never knew how perfectly accurate her statement would be.
Made Subrata passed away at noon on Monday, Feb. 11, at the Gianyar hospital after being treated for several days for pulmonary infection, diabetes and high blood pressure.
For his family, it was a shockingly unexpected loss. Born in 1950, Subrata was only 58-years-old when he left his earthly existence.
He hadn’t displayed any sign of serious health problems prior to his brief hospitalization in Gianyar. Naturally, his family struggled hard to cope with the difficult reality.
His wife Ni Ketut Rini, his oldest child Gede Suryagiri and his daughter-in-law Koming were purposefully drowning their sorrow in the hectic preparations of the cremation ritual while Subrata’s only grandchild Gede Galang was still believing “Grandpa flies to heaven and will be back soon”.
The death of Subrata was more than just a personal loss for one family. Having served as the vice bendesa (chief) of Desa Pekraman (traditional village) Padangtegal, a village of four banjar and 2,600 residents, Subrata was an influential figure in his community.
“Until his death he was still serving as the head of the village council,” Purnami said.
“In fact, before he got sick he held a meeting of village elders here in this house. They discussed the plan to conduct a mass ngaben (cremation) next July. Little did we know that our father would be part of the ngaben, instead of being the organizer,” she added.
As one of the village’s leaders, Subrata played a pivotal role in shaping the social dynamics of Padangtegal, particularly in its relationship with the tourism industry. The village lies in Ubud, one of the island’s most beautiful tourist gems.
“Subrata was the co-founder of Bina Wisata, a foundation that works to ensure that any tourism development in this area is beneficial to the village, local people and local cultural heritage,” another co-founder of Bina Wisata, Nyoman Suradnya, said.
The foundation later transformed Padangtegal’s Monkey Forest into a profitable ecotourism destination. It is arguably the largest community-managed forest on the island.
“The revenue from the Monkey Forest is being channeled back to the community to maintain our sacred temples and fund social activities.
“In the upcoming ngaben, each participating family will receive Rp 5 million in cash assistance from the village to finance the ritual. The money comes from the Monkey Forest’s profit and the decision to provide such cash assistance was made during my father’s last meeting as the head of the village council,” Purnami added.
The people of Padangtegal obviously didn’t forget Subrata and the contributions he made to the village.
As the news of his demise spread, streams of villagers flocked to Subrata’s house to offer their condolences.
Representatives from four banjar paid a formal visit to the mourning family. Representatives from the neighboring village of Pengosekan were also present, saying the two villages enjoyed a harmonious relationship during Subrata’s tenure as the vice bendesa.
Such a large number of visitors was unique because when Subrata passed away none of the banjar in Padangtegal sounded their kulkul (hollow wooden drum) as a sign of mourning due to an ongoing religious festival at the village’s temple.
“Usually, if a banjar member dies, the kulkul will be sounded as a sign to the other fellow members to visit the deceased house and give assistance to the mourning family.
“If there is a major festival in the village temple, the kulkul will not be sounded and the banjar’s members will have no obligation to visit the deceased’s home,” Suradnya said.
“But they came nonetheless, and came in such large numbers. That showed Subrata was not an ordinary man,” he added.
Art critic Kun Adnyana shared a similar opinion, albeit for a different reason.
“He was a good teacher, an inspiring one. He never forced us to abide by certain aesthetic parameters or a certain school of thought. Instead he always motivated us to find and establish our own, personal set of aesthetic values and goals,” he said.
Kun was one of Subrata’s pupils during his teaching years at the then Denpasar College of Fine Arts (SMSR).
“A good teacher who is also an accomplished artist is a rare thing to find, and Pak Subrata was an ideal example of that rarity,” he said.
Kun said Subrata was a master impressionist who dedicated his aesthetic life to capturing the physical and metaphysical beauty of Balinese women.
“His works are poems of colors and personal interpretations. The women in his canvases are more than just a representation of an actual, living model, but a representation of his romanticized ideas about the beauty of life,” he said.
“His death is a personal loss to me, and, I believe, to the fine arts community in Bali as a whole. He set an example of aesthetic freedom, of creating without bowing to the pressure of the market. That’s the kind of thing that is difficult to find nowadays,” he said.
It was almost 9 p.m. when the procession carrying Subrata’s body reached the village cemetery. The weather had been quite calm. When they began to torch the body, though, the weather suddenly grew wilder. Rain hammered down as heavy wind swept the area.
A similar thing happened again three hours later when in the darkest of night they cast Subrata’s ashes into the ocean at Sunrise Beach in Sanur. The quiet ocean turned violent and a tall wall of white wave hissed loudly as it seized the ash container from Suryagiri’s hand. In an instant, Subrata’s last remains merged with the elements of nature.
Source: The Jakarta Post
February 22nd, 2008
(Bali Discovery) 200 sailing yachts from around the world are expected to pay brief port calls at Lovina in North Bali and Serangan Island in Bali’s south during Sail Indonesia in September 2008.
The projection of sailing visitors was given to the press by Drs. I Putu Budiasa, the Chief of Tourism for the City of Denpasar.
The ships will begin their journey from Australia to Bali with stops along the way in East and West Nusa Tenggara.
The 200 yachts expected to visit Bali in September 2008 for Sail Indonesia is an increase from the 125 vessels who participated in 2006 and the 130 vessels who came to the Island in 2007. Tourism officials expect each vessel will carry 7-8 crew and spend between 5-14 days in Bali.
The primary destination for the ships in Bali is Lovina, on the north coast of the Island. Many vessels, however, are expected to pay a call at the yacht basin at Serangan Island in the south.
The majority of the Australian yacht armada visiting Bali are expected to continue their Indonesian odyssey with additional stops in Java and Sumatra.
Source: http://my-indonesia.info/
February 21st, 2008
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Bali appears to have remained a main destination for Australians as the number of Australian tourists visiting Bali is only second to that of Japanese tourists, a local statistical official said.
Some 204,473 Australian tourists were among a total of 1,666,079 foreign tourists who visited Bali in 2007, the head of the local statistical bureau, Ida Komang Wisnu, said on Tuesday.
He said it was a significant increase compared with 2006 when the figure was only 137,000.
Meanwhile, the number of Japanese tourists visiting Indonesia in 2007 was recorded at 351,633, while tourists from Taiwan were in the third place with 138,849 people.
He said some of the tourists came to Bali not only for a vacation but also for business.
The head of the local foreign trade office, Ni Wayan Kusumawathi, separately said realization of Bali`s exports of handicraft and other non-oil/non-gas commodities to Australia increased to US$29 million, compared with only US25 million in 2006.
Indonesia has set itself the target of attracting seven million foreign tourists this year through its Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program.
Many provinces, including Papua, have prepared special packages to attract foreign tourists.(*)
Source: http://www.antara.co.id/en/
February 20th, 2008
Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Gerokgak
The recent decision by Gerokgak fishermen to catch ornamental fish using only eco-friendly methods has been put to the test as they struggle to get proper prices for their fish.
The fishermen had earlier organized a series of marketing promotions, in which they introduced higher prices for their fish than those that caught using potassium cyanide, a poisonous chemical known as potas to locals.
Syaiful Anam, one of the fishermen, said the buyers kept telling them they could not differentiate between ornamental fish caught by a net and those using poisonous chemicals, so they could not see any justification for buying the eco-friendly fish at a higher price.
“Up to this date, our promotional efforts are failing even though we already tell them that there are differences between the fish that have been caught using only a net and those using chemicals. The eco-friendly fish are fresher and therefore can live longer than those caught by potas,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.
Abu Kasim, another fisherman, said even though the problem remain unsettled, he would continue catching fish using a net because he believed this was the best way to preserve the environment.
Kasim has even devised an alternative way to catch more fish without creating a destructive impact on the coral reef and the water. He sets traps that are attached to a net in front of the coral reef, which is where the fish eat and live.
He said the trap was safe because it was made from woven dried coconut leaves. Both Kasim and Syaiful said they now earn less compared to when they fished with potas. In the past, they could earn up to Rp 100,000 (around US$11) a day, while now they take home maybe Rp 25,000 to Rp 30,000 daily.
The fishermen of Gerokgak beach, located in the northern coastal regency of Buleleng, some 100 kilometers north of Denpasar, used to catch ornamental fish using potassium cyanide up until around three years ago, when the Buleleng Marine and Fishery Agency and activists from a coalition of NGOs urged them to halt the practice because they were destroying the coral reef and the whole marine environment.
The coalition of NGOs included the Gerokgak-based Pilang Institute, Jakarta-based Lead Network and the Denpasar-based Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) and Reef Check Foundation.
Lead Network and Pilang Institute are known for their efforts to help improve living standards for marginalized communities, while Reef Check and MAC work to preserve coral reefs and the sea environment.
As many as 193 fishermen from four villages in Gerokgak have made the move to more environmentally sound fishing practices.
Ni Made Indrawati of Pilang Institute acknowledges the marketing support plans have not been totally successful, but she said there was a light at the end of the tunnel, as the NGO has succeeded in cooperating with C.V Blue Star, an ornamental fish exporter in Bali. The company had agreed to buy fish from the fishermen at higher prices.
The management of the export company, she said, has begun to understand that fish captured using eco-friendly methods are of a better quality than those caught using chemicals. Therefore, she said, higher prices are required as an appreciation and also as an incentive to fishermen.
However, she acknowledged the exporter was prepared to pay higher prices only for around 30 of the some 85 different types of ornamental fish caught by the fishermen.
“It takes time to convince the buyers to buy all eco-friendly fish at higher prices,” she said.
She hopes the government, through the local maritime affairs and fisheries office, can help encourage exporters to buy only ornamental fish caught using eco-friendly methods.
Lead Network’s executive director Darwina Sri Widjajanti said she planned to ask more NGOs to join the coalition to help the fishermen market their products.
“I have several names in mind right now, such as the Dian Desa and Cindelaras foundations, and we are ready to ask them to join the project,” she said.
Both Yogyakarta-based Dian Desa and Cindelaras foundations are known for assisting and improving living standards in villages.
An official at the Buleleng Maritime Affairs and Fishery Agency, Eddy Sutrisno, said the office had held a series of discussions with fishermen and exporters on how to design and conduct better marketing strategies to boost fish prices in the market.
“We are still deliberating on how to encourage the buyers to buy eco-friendly fish, including punishing them if we find evidence that potas is involved in the catching process,” he said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
February 19th, 2008
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