BALI UPDATE #338 - 10 March 2003

The Best Among the Very Best

Named the Best Island, Bali Ranks High in Travel + Leisure's List of the Best of the Best in Travel.

Each year Travel & Leisure (T+L) magazine polls its discerning reader, asking them to name the best hotel, islands, restaurants and cruise ships. Bali and its host of fine tourism products continued to rank high in the hearts and minds of T+L readers.

Bali the World's Best Island

Despite the several problems visited upon Bali over the past year, T+L's readers have an undiminished regard for our paradise, ranking it as the best island anywhere in the world.

The World's Best Hotels

T+L's ranked what they consider the 100 best hotels in the world, bestowing the #6 position and a score of 93.59 out of a perfect 100 to Bali's Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay, followed by Ubud's Amandari in the #8 position. Another Bali hotel ranked in the top 100 was the Ritz Carlton of Bali at #34.

Asia's Best Hotels

In T+L's list of the 25 best hotels in Asia, Bali managed to sweep 20% of all the coveted posts with the Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay in the #3 rank; Amandari in Ubud at #4; Ritz Carlton Bali at #9; Sheraton Laguna Resort in Nusa Dua at #21; and Bali's Grand Hyatt at #23.

Best Small Hotels and Best Service

The ranking of the world's best small hotels saw Bali's Amandari in Ubud in the #5 post and the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay cited at #3 in the rankings for outstanding hotel service worldwide.

The Spa at the Four Season's at Jimbaran Bay was cited as the top international hotel for Ambience.

The World's Best Island

Bali's Magic is most definitely indestructible. T+L bestowed Bali the honor of being named the world's best island overall and, of course, as the best island destination in Aisa.

All the winning hotel properties, together with nearly 300 more Bali hotels and villas are bookable on line at balidiscovery.com.

Links to Travel and Lesiure's "Best of the Best"

Top 100 hotels

Top 25 Hotels in Asia

Top 25 Hotels Worldwide

World's Best Spas

World's 10 Best Islands

B.A.T. Loses its Helicopter

3 Killed as Robinson R44 Crashes While on Extended Lease to Jakarta Air Operator.

3 people lost their lives on Tuesday, March 3, 2003, when a Robinson R44 helicopter crashed while attempting a landing on the rooftop helipad of Jakarta's Sahid Jaya Hotel.

The accident, which occurred during the midday period, claimed the lives of its pilot and representatives of the companies who chartered the aircraft and supervised its marketing as a metropolitan air taxi. While the cause of the accident is still under official investigation, the helicopter reportedly fell from the 23-storey helipad while coming in for a landing, falling down the side of the building and coming to rest on the hotel's 3^rd floor swimming pool. All the occupants of the helicopter were reportedly dead at the scene of the disaster with no injuries reported to guests or employees of the Hotel. Press reports indicate that strong gusts of winds were reported in the landing area just prior to the crash.

The aircraft is owned by Bali Adventure Tours (B.A.T.) -a well-known Bali-based operator of outdoor and adventure travel products who flew the aircraft without major incident for two years serving local tours in Bali. The sudden downturn in tourist arrivals following the October bombing in Bali compelled B.A.T. to seek other employment for the helicopter entering into a long-term "dry lease" with a Jakarta air taxi operator - Air Trans. Under a "dry lease" agreement Air Trans assumed full responsibility for the fueling, maintenance, and crewing of the helicopter whose livery colors had already been changed to reflect its current operator prior to Tuesday's tragic mishap.

More information: Related Story: A Migrating Bird

AGS 2003 – Fashion and Textile Show

Major Textile, Garment and Fashion Accessory Comes to Bali March 13-15.

AGS 2003 – Asian Global Sourcing - a major exhibition directed at top international brand merchandisers and buyers in the textile, garment and fashion accessories sectors will be held at the Bali International Convention Center, March 13-15, 2003.

Relocated by the Indonesian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Indonesian Textile Association to Bali, the event is intended to showcase the products of Asia's massive textile, garment and apparel industry in an atmosphere conducive to deal-making.

The AGS 2003 includes a dedicated exhibition of textile and apparel products; a special buyer's program to attract market leaders to the event; an Indonesian government program to encourage the frank exchange of views on how to stimulate growth in these sectors of the economy; and a complete range of social and fashion events.

Complete information on the event is available at the AGS 2003 Website.

Special Travel Packages on Offer to Indonesian Participants

AGS 2003 has prepared a number of attractively priced accommodation and air travel packages for the many national participants expected to attend the event.

For details visit AGS 2003 Travel Packages.

And, for those wishing to enjoy some of Bali's many cultural and shopping wonders during their stay at the show, the Organizers have also prepared a number of specially priced tour programs available on line at AGS 2003 Local Tour Packages.

Bali By the Numbers - Tourism Recovery Slackens

January Direct Arrivals Show Arrival Improvement Leveling Off.

International travel warnings cautioning against travel to Indonesia, a looming threat of war in Iraq, and a lackluster international economy are apparently all contributing to a slowdown of return to normalcy for Bali tourism in the wake of the October 12^th terror attack on Bali.

Direct Arrivals Down for January

Total direct foreign arrivals for January 2003 totaled 60,836, a figure down 30% from the total for January 2002. Bearing in mind that January 2002's figures still bore the ill-effects of the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, it may be more indicative to compare the January 2003 direct arrivals to Bali with the average for the same month 1999-2001; a methodology that shows a decline in arrivals for January 2003 of 39.92%.

While the post-911 recovery was very steep, the most recent figures for January suggest a much longer and prolonged recovery lies in store for Bali. Instead of contributing to an upward slope in the graph of arrivals, January 2003's direct arrival figures at 60,836, in fact, slid downward from the December 2002 total of 63,393.

January 2002 versus January 2003

With January figures down either 30% or 39.92%, depending on which method of comparison you employ, a closer look at the numbers for January 2003 in terms of national origin tells a story about which markets Bali must look to in order to regain its lost tourism markets.

The entire Asian-Pacific market was down 43% in January 2003 versus January 2002. Australia was the worst affected, falling 60%, followed by Taiwan declining 48%, and Japan down 32%.

Europe followed the declining pattern, down an average 30% for January 2003 from the same month a year before.

The America's decline was relatively more modest, down only 19% for January 2003 as compared to January 2002.

The one bright spot in the statistical picture was provided by ASEAN which improved 158% in January 2003 over January 2002. Reflecting the impact of outstanding package price offers by Singapore Airlines, the arrivals from the Republic of Singapore were up a startling 315% in January 2003 over just a year before. Malaysia also booked an impressive improvement of 133%.

More information: Download the January Arrival Report 2001 to 2003

North by Northwest

Garuda Plots New 'War' Routes on European Flights.

Garuda Indonesian have announced their intentions to change their flight paths between Indonesia and Europe in the event of a U.S. war on Iraq.

Should hostilities commence, Garuda will divert their aircraft from the current overflight of South Asia through the Middle East to Europe in favor of a northern routing over Russia.

It is expected that the new routes, if introduced, will increase flying times on the affected schedules.

An Island of a Thousand Ruko's

Minister Ardika Questions Bali's Love Affair with Strip Malls.

Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism, I Gde Ardika, in comments made during a February visit to the neighboring island of Lombok, bemoaned the over-abundance of ruko construction taking place on the island. "Ruko" is the Indonesian abbreviation for rumah-toko, or shop houses, the ubiquitous buildings that comprise the numerous strip-malls that have become an ever-increasing eye-sore across the island.

The Minister told his Lombok hosts that "while Bali was once known internationally as the island of a thousand temples, it is now changed to become the island of a thousand ruko." In the past few years hundreds of ruko now populate the island, with more being built by developers who seem oblivious to the fact that ruko units built years ago along the island's main thoroughfares remain vacant. In some of the more remote areas of the island, developers' desperation to obtain some return on their investment now allow swiftlets to nest in the vacant ruko's, later farming the birds' saliva for eventual sale to Chinese bird nest soup merchants.

Urging the people of Lombok to learn from Bali's bad example, Minister Ardika emphasized how local cultural values must be preserved and protected via careful zoning and community planning. "If only ruko and concrete buildings dominate, the special local characteristics (of Bali and Lombok) will be lost," the Minister warned.

'Dream Land' by Made Wianta at Gaya Fusion

The Kuta Bombing – Wianta's Scream of Horror March 15^th – May 15^th at Gaya Fusion of Senses in Ubud.

Jean Coteau has kindly provided the following overview of the "Dream Land" Exhibition to balidiscovery.com:

The Kuta Bombing: Wianta's Scream Of Horror

On the 15^th of March, 2003, at Gaya Fusion of Senses, Balinese artist Made Wianta presents a combined installation and performance event reflecting on the Kuta Bombing.

Wianta's provocative exhibition is certain to invite controversy and anger; the provocation is deliberate, an integral part of a show that encourages reflection: reflection upon violence and suffering, upon anger and controversy.

Wianta's exhibition is a display of horror. His creative 'material' is the horror of the Kuta Bombing, with its 192 victims; his canvases are the most unbearable photographs of the bombing, hanging on the once-pristine walls of Gaya gallery; his paint is the blood splurging from a freshly slaughtered cow. The horror becomes visual, tangible, and the gallery begins to feel of death, of burned and decapitated corpses.

In the middle of the gallery space Wianta spreads 2002 kilograms of rice. He sculpts them into an oval shape that symbolizes the Balinese world and the Balinese rose of the winds. On this mound of rice, facing the eight directions of the compass - four cardinal and four intercardinal – he places symbols of human remains and Balinese offerings. The high gallery walls are all black; darkness thus rules. Only at the opening is there hope: small fireflies are released, their natural flickering symbolizes its hesitant return.

The humanity in us protests. Wianta's exhibition leaves us disgusted, haunted by nightmarish images, perhaps even physically ill. We ask whether such a show is immoral, then wonder whether morality is even relevant to an evaluation of such art. His exhibition is indeed violent and provocative, but it is also clear that Wianta has extracted morality from horror itself and that the usual sense of the word doesn't fit easily here.

A moral evaluation is all the more problematic because perception and the medium through which the horror is viewed are an integral part of the exhibition. The artist exposes himself within his work as both a denunciator and a manipulator of the media: the media thrives on horror and creates a second degree of horror; the artist thrives on this representation of horror created by the media and, as all art, on the gap between reality and representation. But here the reality is too powerful. Neither the media nor Wianta's addition of a third degree of horror - that of the manipulative artist who will use anything, including horror, to enhance his media recognition and satisfy his narcissistic obsession - can wash the reality away. The result is a strange clarity, a view of the nude narcissistic creator who dares to denounce all the levels of horror with which he is faced. It is precisely through his ambiguous use of horror for expressive purposes that Wianta can generate enough clarity to denounce the media's use of horror and the reality of horror itself

Wianta's show at Gaya Fusion of Senses should be construed as a loud, daring, lonely, scream among all the hushed men and women stricken by the terror of evil. His is an absolute scream, in which he forgets that he should be human because he can't be; he suddenly discovers, and then uncovers, evil itself.

But Wianta's scream is more than protest. It is symbolic art at its most vivid. The world he represents is made of rice and is, accordingly, life itself. The bones and human remains are symbols of death as the natural, cosmic opposite of life. The blood with which he paints the horrific photographs is the blood of sacrifice - the condition, through death, of the return of life after purification. The message is therefore cosmic, in a Hindu and also in a universal sense. To darkness will succeed light, as the flickering fireflies announce; to impurity purity, as the exorcism of blood proclaims; and to death life, as the artist's show itself should make clear to us.

Made Wianta is an artist and a demiurge. His show is an attempt at teaching all of us how to scream and how to live.

Dream Land can be viewed at Gaya Fusion of Senses from the 15^th of March until the 15^th of May, 2003. Bali's leading art space, Gaya reinvests all profits into support of art projects in Bali. Its goal is to integrate art with life and to further the development of cutting-edge contemporary art in Indonesia. In partnership with Gaya, Made Wianta's exhibition will travel from Sayan to the Biennale di Venezia, where it will be displayed from June to November. The 2003 Biennale in Venice, Italy, is the 50^th anniversary of this event, which is recognized internationally as the most important on the world contemporary visual arts calendar.

More information: Gaya Fusion of Senses Website

Bali Bombing Trials to Start in Late April

State Prosecutors Finalize Cases Against Those Charged with Killing 202 People.

Senior prosecutors in Bali have now confirmed that the trials against 30 people being held by police in connection with the October 12^th bombing of a Bali night spot would commence in the second half of April. Among the first expected to go on trial is Amrozi who has been charged with possessing explosives and the planning of the bombing attack – charges that carry a possible death sentence should he be found guilty by the courts.

Two siblings of Amrozi are also in police custody and awaiting trial in connection with the bombing.

The venues for what is certain to be a long succession of back-to-back trials will be in the State Court House and the Nari Graha meeting hall in the Renon area of Denpasar. The court proceedings are expected to be televised on local TV in order to accommodate the large number of people wishing to witness the trial.

Bali Bombing Press Center

Radisson Hotels and Bali Discovery Tours have established a press center at the Radisson Bali Hotel, the closest international standard hotel to the venue for the trials, to facilitate the national and international press covering the trials.

More information: Bali Bombing Trials - Press Support Center

Handara Resort Home to Top Leadership Workshop

Prestigious CEO Management Workshop Set for March 17-19.

Indonesian Digest published by TBSC-Strategic Communication reports that the Executive Center for Global Leadership (ECGL) will be presenting a management development program for CEO's at the Bali Handara Resort March 17-19, 2003.

The workshop is organized in cooperation with Louis Allen Associates, a leading management training and consulting firm and will feature one of their lead associates, Dr. Tan Jung Hee, as the main speaker.

The ECGL was formed by a number of Indonesia's top business figures led by businessman and former State Minister Tanri Abeng. The stated mission of the organization is to bring together senior executives and bureaucrats from around the world to exchange ideas, methodologies and insights in their efforts to strive for personal and professional excellence.

Tanri Abeng, the founder of ECGL, is also the chairman of the Allen-Abeng Institute.

We Get Mail!

Readers Write on Overseas Promotion, Visa Charges and The Blessing of Putu.

Overseas Tourism Promotion

Bali Update #337's article Overseas Promotion Badly Coordinated? brought the following comments from Nicki Lawson writing from Australia:

"Last night we saw on TV the first ad for a flight to Bali since the bombing. I have now seen a deal on the net as well. It is really time to promote Bali and I would suggest that you don't leave it to the airlines and travel agents. Bali's tourism authority should put together a commercial that shows the beauty and all the wonders of Bali and remind people over here. Some people have never really understood the attraction or truth of Bali. Put it on television - spend the money on an international campaign. I've seen this with Fiji, Noumea, Tahiti and many other places. I don't know who foots the bill but it's time you get really proactive. We'll be back by the way and wish Bali all the very best."

Charging for Visas

The Bali Update Editorial: It Just Doesn't Add Up, which discussed the possible fallout of a proposed change in visa policies for Indonesia prompted K. Hiob of Australia to say:

"We spend 4 weeks in Bali every year since 1988. With Visa charges we would go somewhere else in future."

The Blessing of Putu

Finally, Nancy and Professor Rick Ostron of California State University at Chicano found our coverage in Bali Update #337 The Blessing of Putu Jagger Marcus Nichols made them a little homesick for Bali and Indonesia and wrote to say:

"It is stories like the Blessing of Putu that makes us look forward every week to your Bali Update. My husband and I lived in Indonesia for two years back in the 1970's and have been returning almost every year since. Our good friends in Bali, Gun Gun (Wayan Gunasta Pendet), Jango Pramartha, Surya Dharma, (Ida Bagus Surya Dharma), Tusuaria (Putu Suaria Soethama), and Bill Dalton keep teaching us about the many facets of Indonesian and Balinese culture, and this current story continues to do just that as well. Even though we have attended many, many ceremonies in Bali this story greatly enhances the understanding of the Nelu Bulanin ceremony.

Thank you for your valuable newsletter. Keep up the good work!"

More information: Send us your Comments!

Climbing Everest Mountain

World Famous Mountain Climber and Everest Expedition Leader Pays a Visit to Bali.

Ian Wade, the Executive Director of Outward Bound International and the leader of an historic assault on Mount Everest, visited Bali during the first week of March 2003 to undertake a management and safety audit of Outward Bound's new Bali camp.

Meeting with members of the local travel industry in an informal cocktail reception on Friday, March 7, held at the Bali Dynasty Resort, Ian gave high marks to the attention to detail and safety at the Bali center located in Payangan, just north of Ubud. The Bali facility offers a wide range of challenging exercises including high and low rope work over the dramatic Ayung River gorge.

Ian Wade led a 21-person expedition in the late 1980's to climb Mt. Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Dubbed the "International Peace Climb," the expedition included 7 Americans, 7 Russian, and 7 Chinese climbers cooperating to reach the summit. The heroic climb was recorded in a documentary "Three Flags over Everest," narrated by Robert Redford.

Prior to his appointment as Executive Director of Outward Bound, Ian Wade served as Vice President for Safety at that organization for 10 years.

More information: Join a Bali Outward Bound Program

The Setiawan's Move to Chicago

After Much 'To-ing and Fro-ing' - Made, Jane and Samu are Headed for the University of Illinois.

Some of the victims of the September 12^th bombing attack on the U.S.A. are less obvious than others.

The growing isolationism of the U.S. in the aftermath of those attacks, almost cost one Balinese family the dream of a lifetime when a leading local community health worker, I Made Setiawan, discovered that his visa to pursue a Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois at Chicago had been put on an indefinite "hold" as the U.S. Government decided how to implement its strict new rules governing non-immigrant visitors.

Nearly one year ago, Made, a well-known and energetic worker in Bali's AIDS/HIV education programs, had already closed his house, packed his bags and brought his wife, Jane, and young son, Samu to Jakarta prior to plans to fly on to America when the Embassy gave him the bad news. Arguments made by friends and colleagues with "official America" that a respected AIDS Educator and the founder of a foundation striving to prevent AIDS among Bali's drug users, a Hindu-Balinese, and a man with an English-American wife hardly fit the profile of a terrorist - held little sway with "officialdumb." Instead of boarding a flight to Chicago, the Setiawan's found themselves back at their home in Bali, meekly asking the American hotelier who had rented their home if he'd mind terribly if they refunded his rent and let them move back in.

Very concerned that the "chance of a lifetime" to take up a scholarship to study Health Policy and Administration in the U.S.A. was forever lost, arrangements were eventually made for Made to undertake distance learning via computer with the University of Chicago faculty.

Fortunately, after a delay of nearly 8 months, Made's student visa for the U.S.A. has finally been approved. In late March the Setiawan's will be traveling to Chicago to begin a hurried search for a suitable apartment for them while Made completes his classroom work before his anticipated return to Bali in June of 2004 to complete his written dissertation.

Able to reflect positively on the disruption to their lives over the past year, Jane considers her unexpected "bonus" months in Bali a blessing, providing the chance to live in the family's newly built house. In this period Samu has grown to a full meter in height and enjoys a daily romp through the nearby rice fields, chasing the dragon flies and paying his respects to a family of pigs and piglets on a nearby farm. Jane worries that her curly-headed blond-haired Balinese "tiger-cub" may find Chicago apartment living too confining and is already eagerly looking forward to their return to Bali where Samu will start school in August of 2004.

In their last few days before bidding Bali farewell, the Setiawan's are busy packing and enjoying their home surrounded by their many cats, while the savouring a delicious harvest of papayas and bananas planted only one year ago when they first moved into their new house.

More information: Drop Made, Jane and Samu an E-mail