Archive for April, 2008
(ANTARA) - Bali will hold the 30th Balinese Art Festival from June 14 to July 12, 2008, according to a local official.
The festival would be highlighted with a number of national and international events, Head of the Bali provincial tourism service Nyoman Nikanaya said here on Friday.
The international events would include a world `wayang` (puppet shadow) festival, an ASEAN ethnic music festival, a congress of Balinese culture and an arts performance show to be participated in by 12 teams from eight countries, he said.
At least 20 provinces from Indonesia would also join the festival by presenting their cultural arts and handicrafts, he said.
Source: www.antara.co.id/en
April 21st, 2008
Bali Safari & Marine Park is an organization dedicated to the welfare of all its animals and has had more than 20 years’ experience in looking after and taking good care of them. In order to achieve that, we employ two full-time vets and our keepers love their animals and look after them very well.
Gandhi, the tiger referred to in Fiorenza Dal Cin’s letter (The Jakarta Post, April 11), has reached the age of one year.
Tigers are only active between two and four hours a day and because our Tigers are so well-looked-after and comfortable in their surroundings, they are happy to sleep or play whenever they want to.
The rope referred to in the letter is a plaything for him and was actually used to take him on his daily morning and afternoon walks. It is our strict policy that no one is allowed to use any physical violence with our animals, especially our keepers.
This letter serves to ensure that we take pride in the welfare of our animals and view any concerns and dissatisfaction from visitors seriously.
Should there be further clarification needed, please contact us directly at the Bali Safari & Marine Park, Jl. Bypass Ida Bagus Mantra, Km 19.8, Gianyar, Bali. Phone (0361) 950-000, fax (0361) 950-555 or email us at info@balisafarimarinepark.com
DITA CAHYANI
Curator of Conservation & Education
Bali Safari & Marine Park
Gianyar, Bali
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 21st, 2008
Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Bali has been recognized by a distinguished travel magazine as the best island in the Asia-Pacific region for 2008.
The resort island has garnered 20 travel and tourism awards since 1998.
“Praise God that Bali is still charming to tourists. We have to keep it this way by improving and developing tourism spots on the island,” head of the Bali tourism agency, Gede Nurjaya, told reporters Tuesday.
In response to the award, he said the agency had planned to include new destinations along tourist routes, adding that some areas in the eastern part of the island had been considered for further development to balance those areas located in the southern and western part of the island.
He said the plan would also involve tourist agencies on the island.
“We will encourage tourist agencies to create or modify tour packages to include the new destinations,” he said.
One of the locations targeted as an eco-tourism spots is the coffee plantation area of Blantih, in West Kintamani, he said.
“We must let tourists know that Bali is full of surprising tourism ideas, including new areas that I believe will rejuvenate their perspective about the island,” he said.
The award was the second handed over by the Hong Kong-based travel magazine Destinasian. The same award was given to Bali in 2006 and was presented to the Indonesian embassy in Hong Kong.
He said the agency had also planned to retrained its human resources sector to increase the comfort level on the island, which in turn would support the island’s tourism industry.
“We will urge people to support public order, which in turn will bring benefits in the form of an increase in the number of tourists visiting the island,” he said.
Bali has seen a promising increase in the number of tourists visiting the island in the first three months of this year; in March, as many as 151,000 tourists had visited Bali, which indicated an approximate 25-percent increase from last year’s 120,000 visitors.
Around 434,000 tourists have visited the nation’s favorite tourist destination this year, with most tourists coming from Asian countries like Japan and China.
“It seems that we will easily pass the target that was set earlier this year,” Nurjaya said.
The Bali tourist agency targeted around 500,000 tourists for 2008.
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 18th, 2008
The Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC), a key partner assisting the Indonesian government in infrastructure building, has signed a joint venture with Emaar Properties PJSC, one of the world’s leading property developers, to undertake the Lombok mega-tourism and mixed-use project.
In the presence of Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mr I Made Mandra, President Director, BTDC, and Mr Muhammad Lutfi, Chief, Investment Coordinating Board, signed the joint venture agreement with Mr Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, in Dubai, today.
The flagship Lombok project is envisaged as a world-class residential and resort community sprawling over 1,175 hectares. Masterplanning for the AED 2.2 billion (US$600 million; IDR5446 billion) development will begin in April. Set on the pristine Kuta and Tanjung beaches, the project will be environment-friendly and integrate residential, leisure and hospitality zones. The JV will also explore further growth opportunities in Indonesia.
Mr Mandra said: “The joint venture with Emaar Properties underscores the strong bilateral business relations between Indonesia and the UAE. Indonesia welcomes investments that add to the socio-economic prosperity of our people, and Emaar with its proven competencies as a world-class developer, can contribute to the country’s economic growth. The Lombok project will particularly focus on tourism to complement the growing appeal of the destination.”
Mr Alabbar said: “Bali Tourism Development Corporation has been one of the prime drivers of the Indonesian economy, and has accomplished several milestone projects with a focus on infrastructure building. The joint venture lends momentum to our expansion plans for Indonesia, a key market where we have already been involved in developing eco-friendly homes in Ngelepen to rehabilitate the earthquake affected.”
Emaar is one of the first developers from the Middle East and North Africa region to expand into Indonesia, an emerging market with strong growth potential, especially in the tourism sector. Last year, Emaar signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA), the state-owned Asset Management Company, for developing the Lombok project.
The focus of the project will be to drive tourism to the region by offering a diverse leisure spread such as diving, snorkeling, hiking and surfing sports, for which Lombok is acclaimed globally. There will be a 7 km natural waterfront supporting a marina, luxury residences, golf course and resorts to be operated by five-star hospitality chains.
Established in 1973, BTDC supports the Indonesian government in economic and national development, with emphasis on strengthening foreign investment and creating job opportunities. BTDC has been instrumental in the inception of some of Indonesia’s renowned development projects including hotels, resorts and shopping complexes.
Emaar’s expansion to Indonesia is in line with its Vision 2010 to become one of the most valuable companies in the world through geographic expansion and business segmentation. Emaar has a growing presence in Asia, and has already opened its first Emaar - Raffles International School in Singapore.
Source: http://www.albawaba.com/en
April 18th, 2008
The environment’s been getting an unexpected boost on the Indonesian island of Bali in the last couple of weeks. Fuel shortages caused by late arrivals of tankers to Bali’s main fuel depot has meant that many gas stations simply closed up shop.
And that meant some tourists had their trips well and truly disrupted. With bus drivers unable to drive their empty-tanked buses, some travelers got stranded while others were ferried around in smaller cars that still had some gas.
Bali Tourism officials were quite concerned–especially as it’s supposed to be Visit Indonesia Year–but perhaps it’s just a strong shove from fate to remind people about the idea of green travel. Who knows where the fuel might run out next? We’d better start learning to walk again.
Source: http://www.jaunted.com/
April 17th, 2008
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The majority within the Indonesian art community refers to Balinese paintings made during and following the Pitamaha era, which began in 1936, as traditional paintings, while foreign art critics and observers, ranging from J. Kats to Jean Couteau, label them “modern” and “contemporary”.
Art critic Agus Dermawan T., excusing himself for flatly refusing such existing categorizations, decided to identify them as traditional-contemporary, referring to the post-Pitamaha era in which a number of distinctive styles or schools of painting emerged on the island.
The schools’ styles are largely, but not exclusively, named for the regions where their founding artists lived and developed their own aesthetical horizons. They include the Kamasan, Batuan, Ubud, Sanur, Singaraja, Tanah Lot and Keliki styles.
Kupu-kupu Arts Project Management is now exhibiting a number of paintings by Batuan and Keliki painters at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies’ office. The exhibition, entitled “Pesta Puri: The Batuan Jocularity and Keliki Magic”, runs from April 10 to 17.
The two styles, Agus said, are historically related. “The Keliki School is known as the Batuan School’s child”. This is in consideration of the fact that, previously, Keliki painters lived in Ubud, socialized with students of the Ubud School and were regarded as children of Ubud painting. Batuan nurtured them,” he said.
“The exhibition is intended to show Batuan and Keliki contemporary-traditional paintings. It is an exhibition of works by the `father’ and the`step-child’. By presenting works of the masters… it is showing the true features of the Batuan and Keliki painting worlds.”
While incorporating characteristics common to Balinese paintings — idyllic landscapes, exotic agricultural life and mystifying cultural festivities and symbols - the painters of the two schools have been drawn into different art directions.
Batuan is a village in Sukawati sub-district in the Gianyar regency. Initially, the Batuan painters adopted tantric stories, fables and mythology as themes for their works. They later came to adopt the themes of modern Bali marked by a tourism boom and some began to take relevant daily events and occurrences as themes for their paintings.
I Ketut Sadia, a celebrated Batuan painter, for instance, humorously used the crippling floods in Jakarta for one of his painting themes, named “Banjir Ria Jakarta”. It is indeed rare to see tall buildings featured in a Balinese painting as such architectural fancies are traditionally prohibited by Balinese culture.
Despite such thematic changes, the techniques involved, Agus explained, remain traditional, incorporating phases that begin with ngorten (penciled original sketches) to be followed by nyawi (inking to make the sketches more definite), ngucak (working on the effect of distance and chiaroscuro), menyunin (working on the impression of volume), nyawi (developing ornaments and details in colors) and ngewarna (coloring).
“Batuan paintings generally have eerily gripping atmospheres. In the beginning, painters mostly worked with the black-and-white technique known locally as sigar mangsi. Dark green and brown tones are sometimes added to give a monochromatic quality to the paintings,” Agus said.
The Keliki School was pioneered by I Ketut Sana, an agricultural worker who learned to paint by “stealing” painting techniques he observed while living in Ubud.
“With all his potency, Sana went on painting and teaching his art to fellow Keliki villagers. Amazingly, by 1980, Keliki had already turned the village toward mini painting. Mini painting is now a major school pursued by tens of potential painters,” Agus said.
He considers the meticulousness of Keliki paintings — with their tradition of small-sized paintings on which, for instance, a grain of rice is volumetrically depicted as small as one-fourth of a millimeter — as the most miraculous quality of Balinese painting.
“They are Keliki painters who, through their magical works, have succeeded in winning the attention of art lovers throughout the world. As they are, these works are not — completely different from the sort of works we commonly see at ordinary art shops in Bali,” he said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 16th, 2008
By Lee J. Miller
Heeding advice from the International Monetary Fund, Asia’s so-called “TIPs'’ — Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines — each made policy moves last week designed to cushion their economies from a slumping U.S. dollar and surging commodities prices.
Asian central banks face “potentially difficult choices'’ between monetary and fiscal policies to concurrently fight inflation and “a contraction of activity in the U.S. and slower growth in Europe,'’ the IMF said in a report April 11.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, confirmed a new central bank governor. The Philippines delayed a plan to sell some government assets. The Bank of Thailand maintained its benchmark interest rate as inflation remained close to the fastest pace in 20 months.
The chart of the day looks at how exchange rates may affect tourism in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It shows monthly changes in foreign visitors in each nation since January 2007. During that period, the rupiah was one of just two currencies to weaken against the U.S. dollar in Asia, while the baht and peso posted the strongest gains. That made visits to places such as Cebu, Phuket and Bangkok comparatively more expensive than Bali.
“Challenges come from the U.S. slowdown and the weak dollar,'’ Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, said in an annual report by the London-based trade group last month. “However, the continued strong expansion in emerging countries, both as tourism destinations and as an increasing source of international visitors, means that the industry’s prospects remain bright into the medium term.'’
Tourist Arrivals Surge
Indonesia’s foreign tourists in 2007 rose 16.3 percent from a year earlier, based on monthly data from the Immigration Department. Foreign visitors to the Philippines rose 8.7 percent, its Tourism Bureau said. Thailand’s international tourists increased 4.6 percent, its Immigration Bureau said.
Arrivals to Indonesia in the first two months of this year rose 38.1 percent from a year earlier. They increased 9.7 percent in the Philippines. Thailand’s arrivals rose 12.5 percent in January to February, based on preliminary figures from the central bank.
Thailand still far outpaced its neighbors in overall arrivals, averaging 1.2 million foreign tourists a month last year. Indonesia averaged 442,000 and the Philippines about 285,000.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lee J. Miller in Bangkok at lmiller@bloomberg.net
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/
April 16th, 2008
THERE is nothing like a short trip abroad to get the creative juices flowing, what more if it is to an exotic place like Bali.
At least, that is what Institute Advertising Communication Training’s (IACT) student-run advertising agency Creactive believed in when it organised a five-day skills enhancing and team-building trip to the island recently.
Two lecturers accompanied the 11 Creactive students on the trip.
“There are only two words to describe our experience in Bali – mind blowing and enthralling,” said project coordinator Felicia Wong Nyuk Ching.
“The Balinese culture is really rich and unique. I am so glad we organised the trip,” added the 20-year-old lass, who is pursuing a diploma in mass communication.
Her team-mate, Suah Boon Chuan, 23, agreed.
“Bali really rocks,” said the advertising/ marketing communication student. “The trip was a great learning experience for me.
“I found out so many things about Bali and the Balinese culture first-hand. It beats learning from Discovery Channel any day.
“And the best part is, I got to know my team-mates better and bonded with them,” Boon Chuan added.
Creactive was set up to give students more exposure to working life in the advertising industry, said IACT lecturer May Gan.
The agency allowed students to work with real life clients rather than just do homework. The students often took on the roles of manager, assistant manager, account executive, graphic designer, copywriter and project coordinator.
In Bali, the students’ challenge was to come up with an integrated campaign for Sony PSP and Apple iPhone.
The results of the students’ hard work, together with a video presentation and a photograph expo, were showcased at the Creactive Bali Ad-Works Exhibition, held at the IACT gallery in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, after the trip.
Aimed at giving team-members the chance to share their learning experience, the exhibition also offered IACT students an overview of the advertising scene in Bali.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/
April 15th, 2008
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Development in Bali is still centralized in the southern region of the island, while other regions remain underdeveloped, a gathering concluded Friday.
“Currently development in Bali tends to be centralized in the south while the north and east remain underdeveloped,” a tourism industry figure, Jro Gede Karang Tangkid Suarshana, told a business gathering Friday.
He urged developers in Bali to expand their development projects to underdeveloped areas.
“But developers should not touch rice fields again since fields are decreasing every year. It is estimated the rate of rice fields’ conversion has reached 1,000 hectares annually, due mostly to housing project developments,” he said.
He said developers should remember that development projects in Bali should not eliminate the character of Bali, in which people and nature live in harmony.
“That is the richness of our culture. If we do not preserve that we would not have any advantages over other provinces,” Jro Karang said.
Director for consumer banking at Bank Negara Indonesia, Darwin Suzandi, shared a similar view with Jro Karang.
He said Bali should be developed without discarding the island’s local wisdoms and while preserving its cultural and natural balance.
“We don’t want to change Bali into a metropolitan city, because Bali is well known for its nature. The nature of Bali is its main attraction,” he said.
I Ketut Sugita, head of the Bali Housing Developers Association, said many developers were still unenthusiastic about expanding their projects to the east and north, areas like Buleleng, Tabanan, Jembrana and Karangasem, because the areas had little proper infrastructure to support such development.
“All stakeholders should cooperate in developing Bali. If the government first built infrastructure and simplified procedures for getting development licenses, I believe developers would be interested in expanding their projects to those regions,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Besides, he added, developers need new land to meet their obligation to build housing for low-income people.
The government has devised a 1:3:6 scheme for housing project developments. The scheme means that for each luxury house they build, developers are required to build three middle-class houses and six houses for low-income people.
Sugita said they could not afford to meet the obligation in Denpasar and Badung because of the price of land in these areas.
“The development projects should be supported by the government,” he said.
A senior official at the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI), I Gusti Made Aryawan, said it was difficult for developers to expand their projects to the east and north of the island because most public facilities were located in Denpasar and Badung.
“You can see that universities, tourism facilities and administration centers are centralized here (Denpasar), and similar facilities cannot be found in the east and north,” he said.
However, he added, eastern regions like Gianyar, Klungkung and Bangli are better positioned for future development because of the presences of the IB Mantra express highway that connects the regions with Denpasar.
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 15th, 2008
Bali, one of nature’s paradises has a lot to give in the form of joy and memories. The land, which survives mainly on its resource from tourism, is in critical state; with terrorism trying to dominate the society. Bali would go in waste then.
“NINETY THOUSAND,” said the driver who brought me from international airport of Bali to my hotel in Nusa Dua. “Ninety thousand, for what? It is such a short drive,” I asked. Admittedly it was the start of my confusion to remember how much ‘rupaih’ is equal to Indian rupees or for that matter US $. Thanks to my bad maths, the problems remained with me during my stay in Bali. It was possible to spend half an hour debating the last few thousand rupaih and getting quite irate when drivers won’t back down, before a bit of effortful mental arithmetic reminds me that I’m arguing over just US $ 1.
Welcome to Bali! We left behind the honking traffic of Denpasar and walked into the marble foyer of Melia Bali villas in Nusa Dua to live up to the clichés. Werner Vom Busch, our host in Bali, told us that we are lucky that the rain has not started in Bali thus animating the scent of flowers in the air. The wind from the sea was sharp creating a romantic atmosphere. “This is paradise,” someone observed, calling on all his imaginative resources.
Bali had always conjured visions of sandy white beaches with palms, packed with gap-year backpackers and surfers in sarongs under a vast sky of stained glass blue. Bali is always busy. But you would not know it from inside the secluded grounds of Melia Bali - 15 acres of tropical flowers and private luxury villas, a huge pool, amphitheatre and its own stretch of beach. But once you take half an hour drive from Nusa Dua to Kuta, you will soon fel that you’ve come to a different place.. It is a party town - loud, raucous.
Kuta it is also a nice place to stay. Busy, lots of shops and some nice restaurants such as the well-known Poppies, which is a hotel that has a lovely restaurant in a garden setting - the steak; Mexican coffees tempted me back three times. I stayed in Adhi Dharma. It was just a holiday hotel and didn’t have a lot of character but it was very comfortable and had a nice swimming pool with a lovely bar.
In Bali, as Rita, a Bali based journalist later told me that the people of each island identify themselves firmly with their birthplace. Local dialects differ significantly. While rooming around in Bali I noticed that people are very religious. 94 per cent population of Bali is Hindu. One could see people going to temples and putting offerings, made from plants and flowers, on the ground as well as on higher ground for the bad and the good spirits every time. We constantly tripped over the offerings as they were often in the middle of the pavement.
The Bali bombing has created a culture of fear, which has deleterious a effect on the tourist industry on which the life of most of Balinese dependent. Daya, the cab driver said that after the bombing in Bali the number of visitors has dropped considerably. “There is very little business,” he kept saying as he drives us around Bali.
Later in the evening I met Philip and Anderson who had both moved from Australia to work in Bali. Both seemed lyrical about the Balinese way of life: the serenity, the peacefulness, and the beauty. Nightlife in Bali starts late, which means around midnight. The pubs, bars and discos of Kuta are just blusterous.
But I didn’t found the island a good place to shop. The reason is that I am not a good shopper and bargainer. The sales boy or girl will leave you in a clumsy situation with an awkward question – “This is our prize what is your price boss!” It is possible that you would end up bargaining for hours without any chance of getting the item at a cheaper rate.
I spent my last evening in Bali relaxing by Kuta beach overlooking the see; couples walking along the beach hand in hand, children playing football and the surfers. Sitting here, alone, watching the sun drop into the Indian Ocean, while children enjoy their last swim in pool is as riveting as life can be.
By Syed Nazakat
Source: http://www.merinews.com/
April 11th, 2008
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