Archive for June, 2007
The seductive island of Bali has struggled for tourists in recent years. Antony Phillips suggests you give it a second chance.
Pity the Balinese - they have done little to deserve their fate. It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful people, or such a naturally blessed island as theirs, yet they have suffered sorely in the wake of the bombings of October 2005.
The Balinese smile through these tough times, taking comfort from their mix of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, a living religion you see signs of at every turn on this island of the gods.
Bali desperately wants our tourist dollars, but what are New Zealanders to do when our Government advises against travelling there? Everyone must make their own decision but I willingly returned to Bali this year, telling myself that no travel is completely without risk.
Is visiting Bali really any less safe than holidaying in Fiji (now into coup d’etat number four), visiting London (Paddington Station was bombed in the same year as Bali), or heading to New York City (still officially at a “high risk’ of terrorist attack)? I saw little evidence to suggest it is.
The trick is to take commonsense precautions to minimise your risk. Book your Bali holiday with a reputable group such as Club Med, which offers secure accommodation, avoid tourist traps like Kuta, be vigilant on public transport, be respectful of local customs.
CLUB MED: Just 20 minutes’ drive from the airport, Club Med is at Nusa Dua, a secure resort area which was once the exclusive preserve of the well-heeled. These days, they’re offering such affordable, all-inclusive deals that Nusa Dua is well within reach of most tourists. You could happily enjoy a week of luxury living without leaving the splendid Balinese architecture and gardens of the resort but it is also easy to get into the beautiful hinterland and explore. Club Med packages include all your meals from the resort’s gourmet buffet, all your drinks at a full open bar and most activities on-site.
ACTIVITIES: In Bali, you have to hit the water and with the Java Sea lapping on to the long beach at Nusa Dua, you’re in the right spot. Club Med packages include boat trips to go snorkelling in the tropical water, windsurfing lessons and kayaking, or you could just opt for a swim at the beach or pool. On land, there’s the famous flying trapeze, archery, tennis, yoga, golf, beach volleyball, fitness classes and the Club Med Spa. Or some days you can’t beat relaxing outside your bungalow with a good book and soaking up the scent of Bali. Kids can be left in the tender care of Petit Club Med!
EXPLORE: Get into the hinterland to see village festivals and the island’s steep valleys of cultivated rice terraces. These shimmering, green valleys are a famous feature of the island, inspiring writers and artists alike. Ubud is the cultural heart of Bali, and a visit to its art and craft markets and temples is highly recommended. While you’re there, enjoy a delicately spiced Balinese meal at the Lotus Flower Garden Cafe looking across a peaceful pond to the Royal Palace. Or be bold and visit the monkey forest - just remember to take your sunglasses off first.
RIDE AN ELEPHANT: North of Ubud, at Taro, is the Elephant Safari Park, home to 27 magnificent Sumatran elephants. There is a short “show” of sorts but the elephants in this conservation park are not trained to do circus tricks. The real reason to visit is to see how these refugees of rampant deforestation are being cared for and to ride an elephant. We had 30 magical minutes on the back of Ola, a 25-year-old female, walking through plantations surrounding the 2.5ha park.
THE MARKETS: There are craft, clothing and jewellery markets within 10 minutes walk of Club Med. Spending a few Indonesian rupiah (NZ$1 equals 6800 rupiah) at the markets is a great way to inject money directly to Balinese families. Most of the stallholders, selling everything from earrings to T-shirts, are mums. Haggle fairly, don’t try to rip them off, and take time to chat.
By Antony Phillips
Source: New Zealand Herald
June 19th, 2007
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,accompanied by Bali Governor Dewa Beratha, officially opened the 29th Bali Arts Festival here on Saturday, by striking a wooden drum.
The sound of the wooden drum was immediately followed by traditional music and dances being performed by tens of Balinese artists.
On the occasion, President Yudhoyono also officially launched a new brand of Bali’s tourist promotion.
The opening of the annual arts festival was highlighted with a parade of traditional arts teams coming among other things from China, Japan, and Indonesia’s provinces such as Jakarta, West Sumatra, Riau, Lampung and South Sulawesi.
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 17th, 2007
Be careful when you challenge someone to a who-stayed-at-the-best-hotel contest, because anyone who has stayed at the Bvlgari Resort in Bali will win, hands down.
It’s been open only nine months, but the Bvlgari Resort - owned by the Italian luxury goods maker of the same name and perched on a 160-metre cliff on the southernmost tip of Bali - is the hottest newcomer on a scrap of land where hotels are opening faster than the production of fake Gucci sunglasses.
The Bvlgari Resort is about 20 kilometres from the organisational disaster of Denpasar airport, and on another planet to the Aussie mating calls of “Oi! Oi! Oi!” that ring out through the ghetto that is Kuta.
Many visitors to Bali will know its neighbour, Pura Luhur, one of the island’s most important Hindu sites, where the first temples date from the 11th century. Here at Uluwatu, there’s also another form of religion, the cult of surfing, with some of the longest left-hand breaks in Bali.
Now, down to brass tacks, as we ask the hard-hitting questions: why the ‘v’ in Bvlgari? Is it just to confuse us? Is there a special pronunciation that marks those in the know from the great unwashed and unperfumed?
The official answer is no, it’s just the Latin typeface the Italian brand uses to imprint its ethnicity (hence the common spelling of Bulgari).
The hotel is a blend of traditional Balinese architecture and Italian design - so bedrooms are open-air pavilions set with deep, jump-on-me beds, and the spa is a 75-year-old, handcarved teak “women’s house” brought across from the neighbouring island of Java.
There are more pools than you can poke an incense stick at. For a start, every one of the 59 villas has its own plunge pool. Then there are infinity pools around the bar and restaurant, and the Bvlgari villa has its own 20-metre strip of water.
There are indoor showers, outdoor showers, bathrooms as big as the bedrooms and a glass elevator to take you down to the hotel’s private beach club, resplendent with deckchairs and bar.
With a moment’s planning you could spend your entire stay submerged in a shimmering plane of water. Beautifully scented water, of course, this being Bvlgari. White orchids are grafted onto pink flowering frangipanis, statues mark the entrances and tiny spirit offerings of flowers and biscuits are placed everywhere by the Balinese staff.
It’s all so effortlessly beautiful - until you consider it took 1000 workers three years to build.
It’s a mark of beautiful Bali that my spa treatment room, with its blocks of warm sandstone and timber floors, doesn’t have a window. No glass or rear wall, either - there are just a few colourful tropical plants, two white billowing curtains and then that vista - the eye-popping, floor-to-ceiling view of nothing but the big, blue Indian Ocean.
For the next 90 minutes, I’ll be salted, oiled and scrubbed, then washed down and massaged by not one, but two pairs of hands. Hot volcanic rocks will slide along skin slick with scented unguents while my therapist, Hendra, covers and uncovers the different sections of me as she softly whispers the language we love, the language of luxury.
“Would you like the calming or the reviving scent?”
“Reviving, please,” I respond faintly, already slipping away.
“Is the pressure to your liking?” “Why certainly,” I slur.
“May I massage your head?”
“Whatever it takes, Hendra. Whatever it takes.”
When she leads me back to the relaxation area at the end of the treatment, I’m done for. Bones are jellied, muscles refusing to acknowledge the brain’s demands. It’s so serene that nobody’s smiling . . . that would take unnecessary effort. We look like a row of zombies, swathed in our dressing gowns . I’m so relaxed that I pass out. What woke me? A little snore, mouth open, perhaps? How un-Bvlgari.
Or it could have been the person delivering the hot tea and the tiny plate of rice paper rolls, one injected with a hint of wasabi that helps pull me out of my scented stupor.
With a starting price of $US1350 a day, it’s a fair question to ask who, if anyone, stays here? This day it was filled with tall, beautiful, ethereal young Japanese couples swapping smog for sandalwood.
If you can afford to stay, good luck to you. If you can’t (or it’s booked out), then turn your nose up at the newly spawned, already tawdry day spas, book a driver, block out three hours in your life’s diary and spa your way to nirvana.
The writer was a guest of the Bvlgari Bali Resort.
TRIP NOTES
The Bvlgari Bali hotel costs from $US1350 ($NZ1793) for a one-bedroom ocean cliff villa up to $US5000 ($NZ6645) in the Bvlgari villa. Phone +6236 1847 1000, see http://www.bulgarihotels.com.
The spa is open to non-residents, with treatments priced from 480,000 rupiah ($NZ71) for a full body salt and oil scrub up to the unforgettable double Bvlgari Royal Lulur for two, a three-hour treatment which costs 8,950,000 rupiah ($NZ1312).
Pura Luhur Ulu Watu temple is open 8am-7pm daily and costs 3000 rupiah ($NZ0.44) for admission.
By BELINDA JACKSON - Sun-Herald
Source: stuff.co.nz
June 17th, 2007
The music ran out on Thursday for onetime boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman.
After spending months overseas avoiding charges that his Florida-based company ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme, Pearlman was apprehended by Indonesian officials at a hotel in Bali and turned over to the FBI. He was taken to Guam and charged with bank fraud.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa said in a criminal complaint filed March 2 and unsealed on Thursday that $100 million owed to investors was missing at his Trans Continental Airlines.
“We expect that he will be returned to Florida,” said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.
The Justice Department likely will be first in line to take on the man who created the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync and for a time was seen as one of the most powerful people in the music business.
Florida state officials and others have alleged that Pearlman misappropriated about $317 million from more than 1,800 individual investors and an additional $150 million from banks.
“This is a major league alleged fraud criminal prosecution,” says Roma Theus II, who chairs the Defense Research Institute’s corporate integrity and white-collar crime committee.
“Mr. Pearlman can anticipate that he will probably not be released on bond, in that he has been a fugitive from justice, and that he will remain incarcerated unless a jury comes back and acquits him,” Theus adds.
Pearlman got investors to put money into what he is accused of promoting as a secure, interest-bearing savings fund. But he didn’t reinvest their cash in profit-making ventures, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation said in a circuit court filing early this year.
It also charged that investors received quarterly reports from an accounting firm that was “actually the location of an answering service whose services were paid for in part” by Trans Continental Airlines “to receive, transfer and conceal investor funds.”
The Florida officials were unable to reach Pearlman after he left the country in January, two months after one of his oldest friends and partners committed suicide and as state and federal officials swarmed in on what could be one of Florida’s biggest fraud cases.
A state circuit court in February put Pearlman’s odd collection of entertainment and travel companies into the hands of a receiver, who’s looking for assets to use to repay investors and creditors.
Source: David Lieberman, USA TODAY
June 16th, 2007
The Federal Government has welcomed the arrest of two key Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leaders in Indonesia.
Indonesian police have confirmed the capture of eight JI operatives, including the military commander Abu Dujana and JI’s operations leader Zarkasih.
Dujana has told police that Abu Bakar Bashir was the head of JI during the Bali bombings.
But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Bashir’s role in the attacks is still unclear.
“Abu Bakar Bashir was more kind of a spiritual leader,” he said.
“In relation to the Bali bombings role, there has been a trial over this … but there has been substantial debate over the extent to which he authorised the Bali bombing or didn’t.
“But he didn’t plan it by all accounts.”
Mr Downer says while the arrests create a major setback for JI, the threat of attacks still exists.
“Jemaah Islamiah has been very substantially disrupted, it hasn’t been destroyed and these arrests demonstrate that,” he said.
“For those who thought that Jemaah Islamiah ceased to exist anymore, these arrests demonstrate that there are people out there.”
Source: ABC News
June 16th, 2007
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