As reported on Balidiscovery.com, the recent destruction of two Balinese temples in Sanur by a Resort developer has been the source of community protests that saw the investor accused of disregarding local religious values and disturbing the natural balance on Bali. [See: Continuing Struggle Between the Sacred and the Profane in Bali]

According to the Bali Post, the investor in the proposed Sanur project - PT Restu Maharani have finally agreed with community demands to completely rebuild the two Pura or temples they demolished on October 1, 2007. At a prolonged community meeting held on November 1, 2007, an agreement between the Investor and local community members was hammered out, with the Investor insisting there was no desire to offend local customs, blaming recent protests on simple "miscommunications."

The three point agreement which has effectively ended the dispute with the Sanur community provides for:

. Pura Sembyangan and Pura Ketapang Kembar to be rebuilt on Sanur beach with the full cost of the project to be borne by the Investor.

. The actual reconstruction of the temples to be carried out by the local village.

. Pura Ketapang Kembar will be maintained in perpetuity with access to worshippers guaranteed by PT Restu Maharani.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti Om . . .

The recent launch of Singapore Airline's ultra-luxurious Airbus A380 highlighted the service and facilities offered in their 12 first-class suites aimed to meet every conceivable creature comfort - barring one. The exclusivity of private cabins, fine wine, outstanding cuisine, attentive service, and a separate double bed featuring fine linen and Givenchy duvets have somehow fueled speculation that couples traveling in such luxury would enjoy the consummate luxury of, well, not to make too fine a point of it, "consummation".

"Flying Too High With Some Gal In The Sky Is My Idea Of Nothing To Do" - Frank Sinatra

Apparently, the sky is the limit for sexual thrill-seekers on Singapore Airlines who mistakenly saw the airline's new flying hotel suites as an open invitation to join the mile-high club.

The Airline has made the practical point that, despite doors and curtains, those inside the luxurious sky cabins are partially visible to voyeurs and fellow voyagers. Equally worrying, the flying suites are not completely sound proof.

For all these reasons and others, Singapore Airlines has formally asked its A380 passengers to sit back, relax, have another class of pemium champagne but to please refrain from sex while flying at 30,500 feet esconced in a double bed.

An Airline spokesperson said, "all we ask of customers, wherever they are on our aircraft, is to observe standards that don't cause offense to other customers and crew."

Tony Elwood, who traveled with his wife Julie on the inaugural flight, told the Times of London: "so they'll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne and then say you can't do what comes naturally?"

Equally dismayed, Julie added: "They seem to have done everything they can to make it romantic, short of bringing round oysters, I'd say they shouldn't really complain, should they?"

Dear, was that a patch mid-air turbulence?

The 7th Bali Fashion Week returns to Bali November 22-25, 2007 and, as with past Bali Fashion Weeks, 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.

Centered in Kuta, the event offers a full schedule of trade exhibitions, fashion shows and educational seminars.

Bali Fashion Week's Founder - Mardiana Ika

The Bali Fashion Week reflects the hard driving personality and undying commitment to fashion of its founder - Mardian Ika. A recognized leader in both World and Indonesian fashion circles, Ika has taken her simple idea of creating a larger market place for Indonesian fashion and turned it into an important event on Asia's fashion calendar. Those who travel to Bali witness first-hand the "cutting edge" talent to be found in Indonesia's fashion industry while at the same time being introduced to the rich traditional textile tradition of Indonesia: batik, songket, ikat and sarongs.

Due in no small part to Ika's efforts, Bali-produced garments are increasingly found in Europe, U.S. and major Asian markets generating US$89.2 million in export earnings during the first eight months of 2007, a total that 10% more than in the same period in 2006.

More information: 7th Bali Fashion Week Website

In compliance with the decision of Indonesia's Minister of Transportation issued on October 26, 2007 Angkasa Pura I - the managers of Bali's International Airport have announced a 50% increase in the passenger service charge paid by every traveler departing on an international flight.

The higher charge of Rp. 150,000 (US$16.30) took effect from November 1, 2007, and is an increase from the former charge of Rp. 100,000 (US$10.86).

The increase was formally announced via a circular letter dated October 26, 2007, sent by the General Manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport, I Kt. Erdi Nuka.

The Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel, Bali has recently opened a new and very exclusive Club Floor to cater to the need of its more discerning guests. Following an extensive renovation, the new Club Floors now offer 42 Club Rooms and Suites, both served by a luxurious Plaza Club Lounge.

All rooms on the "new" Club Floors have been renovated and transformed with a more contemporary look which includes marble floors and modern Balinese furnishings accents - all complemented with warm colors providing a soothing ambient for business or holidaying guests.

Revamped to a brief that mandated rooms that are "refreshingly different", the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel is the first 4 star resort on the Island to feature have a Club Lounge serving dedicated Club Floors.

According to the Resort's General Manager, Keith Bell, "the new CLUB Floor will continue to strengthen the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel's position as the largest 4 star meeting and convention facility in Bali and also as the leading corporate hotel in Bali."

Serving the needs of corporate, government, meetings and incentive guests, and leisure travelers the guests using the renovated floors will enjoy broadband Internet, generous working tables and express check out service. The Club Floor will also offer rainforest showers in some suites; cotton bed duvets; and rooms that are overlooking the resort pool with some suites opening up to a private courtyard.

Plaza Club Lounge

Club Floor guests will also have access to the exclusive Plaza Club Lounge, designed to provide a sanctuary within the Resort. With views overlooking the golf course and Resort pool, the tranquil environment of the Lounge is a ideal venue for both social and business interaction; a peaceful retreat within the existing oasis that is the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel, Bali.

[ Book a Club Floor Room]

While precise arrival figures for foreign tourist arrivals to all of the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are difficult to come by, currently available figures do suggest that Indonesia, when viewed as a part of all-ASEAN arrivals, is losing market share.



What the number show:

. Against a backdrop of generally improving arrival numbers in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has lost 24.59% of its relative market share from 2002 to 2006

. In the same period of 2002 to 2006 total ASEAN arrivals increased +29.08% to 56.73 million.

. In the period of 2002 to 2006 Indonesian arrivals decreased -3.1% to 4.87 million.

. Indonesia has the dubious distinction among ASEAN nations of having lost the largest amount of market share over the subject 4 year period decining -24.97%. The only other ASEAN countries to lose market share were Brunei (-5.61%), Thailand (-1.5%) and Singapore (-0.6%).

The Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics reports that 3.36 million foreign tourists visited the Country through the end of September 2007, a +13.5% improvement over the same period in 2006.

Playing a major role in the improving fortunes of nation-wide tourist arrivals was Bali which logged 1,229,779 foreign arrivals during the first three quarters of the year, an increase of +34.98%%. [See: Bali's 2007 Q3 Arrivals Up +34.98% over 2006]

4.87 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in 2006. If the current growth trend continues, Indonesia will close the year with some 5.5 million tourist, a number far short of the targeted 6 million visitors set by Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik.

A shortfall of a half-million tourists translates into lost foreign exchange earning worth US$465.5 million.

Air France has expanded its code-share agreement with Qantas, opening new travel opportunities for French and European tourists seeking a Bali holiday.

The code-share agreement which came into effect in mid-September, now provides for Air France passengers to connect over Singapore on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The two frequencies operated by Qantas on behalf of Air France also complement KLM's flight offer to Indonesia on a daily flight from Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta.

Passengers flying on the daily Air France flight between Paris-CDG2 and Singapore can now connect with a Qantas flight to Denpasar. The same service is available in the opposite direction, between Bali and France. Air France's convenient flight times ensure minimum transit time in Singapore.

The code-share arrangement allows both airlines flights between France and Bali to sold under their respective "AF" (Air France) and "QF" (Qantas) codes.

Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia.

The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VOP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar.

Efforts by three of the Bali Nine to challenge the constitutionality of their pending death sentences suffered a significant setback last week when the Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled that as foreigners the constitution did not guarantee them any intrinsic right to life protected by the Constitution, which ipso facto prevented the panel of constitutional jurists from hearing the three Australian's challenge to legality of the capital penalty that now awaits them.

While the reluctance of the panel to extend constitutional protections to foreigners visiting or living in Indonesia ignited a new controversy, this aspect of the Constitutional Court's decision was rendered largely moot when the judges ruled in the case of two Indonesian's who had joined the legal action that the death penalty is an appropriate sentences for drug dealing. Thus, had the judges allowed that the Australian's enjoyed an equal right for constitutional protection, their fate would still be unchanged as the judges declared "no substantive difference" between drugs crimes and other serious crimes such as genocide.

The three Australians, Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Surumaran were part of a group of eight men and one woman who were apprehended in April 2005 trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin unto an Australian bound flight.

In rendering their decision the judges said that certain crimes abrogated the right to life, refusing to uphold the rights of criminals at the expense of the victims of crime.

A recent poll of 522 experts by National Geographic Magazine set about to rank the world's most appealing island destinations in their struggle to maintain a proper balance between any innate appeal and the tendency for tourism to overrun and eventually consume the very charms that initially brought the world's travelers to their shores.

In the well-chosen words of National Geographic:

"Tourism is a phenomenon that can cook your food or burn your house down. In other words, we all risk destroying the very places that we love the most."

The just published survey [(National Geographic Island Survey)] looks at how popular island destinations are bearing up in terms of the sustainability of the "own traditions, ecosystems, cultures, landscapes."

In the fourth survey of its kind, the Traveler magazine and the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations polled 522 experts in sustainable tourism and destination stewardship to review the conditions of 111 selected islands and archipelagos.

Guide to the Scores

0-25: Catastrophic: all criteria very negative, outlook grim.

26-49: In serious trouble.

50-65: In moderate trouble: all criteria medium-negative or a mix of negatives and positives.

66-85: Minor difficulties.

86-95: Authentic, unspoiled, and likely to remain so.

96-100: Enhanced.

The survey showed that of the 111 islands reviewed only one island - Faroe Island in Denmark earned an "authentic" and fully sustainable rating. Bali earned a rating of "57" (In moderate trouble); Lombok rated a slightly higher "62"; Phuket in Thailand together with Oahu in Hawaii both earned "46" which means both islands "are in serious trouble" in the opinion of the expert reviewers.

Here's The Complete List

87 Faroe Islands, Denmark

84 Azores, Portugal

82 Lofoten, Norway

82 Shetland Islands, Scotland

82 Chiloé, Chile

81 Isle of Skye, Scotland

80 Kangaroo Island, South Australia

80 Mackinac Island, Michigan

80 Iceland

79 Molokai, Hawaii

78 Aran Islands, Ireland

78 Texel, Netherlands

77 Dominica

77 Grenadines

76 Tasmania

76 Bora Bora, French Polynesia

76 Fraser Island, Australia

76 Bornholm, Denmark

76 Hydra (Ídra), Greece

76 Falkland Islands (U.K.)

75 Corsica, France

75 Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

74 Vanuatu, Melanesia

74 Santa Catalina Island, California

73 Upolu and Savai'i, Samoa

73 Isle of Man (U.K.)

72 Palawan, Philippines

72 Moorea, French Polynesia

72 Block Island, Rhode Island

71 Ilha Grande, Brazil

71 Sardinia, Italy

71 Hvar, Croatia

71 Jersey and Guernsey (U.K.)

70 San Juan Islands, Washington State

70 St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

70 Seychelles

70 Anguilla (U.K.)

70 Nevis

69 Palau, Micronesia

69 Cook Islands

69 Prince Edward Island, Canada

69 Salt Spring Island, Gulf Islands, British Columbia

69 Mount Desert Island, Maine

69 Réunion (France)

68 Bon aire

68 Sicily, Italy

68 St.Vincent

68 Yasawa group, Fiji

67 Pemba, Tanzania

67 Hawaii (Big Island)

66 Out Islands, Bahamas

66 Bermuda, North Atlantic

66 Tobago

66 São Tomé and Príncipe

65 Cyprus, Turkish side

65 Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique

65 Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

64 Solomon Islands

64 Jeju/Cheju, South Korea

64 Ocracoke, Outer Banks, North Carolina

64 Kauai, Hawaii

64 St. Lucia

63 Nantucket, Massachusetts

62 Martinique (France)

62 Corfu, Greece

62 Crete, Greece

62 Lombok, Indonesia

62 Barbados

61 Tonga, Polynesia

61 Madeira Islands, Portugal

61 Tortola, British Virgin Islands

61 Islands of Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia

61 Sanibel, Florida

61 Santorini, Greece

61 Maldives (except Malé)

59 Grenada

59 Capri, Italy

59 Tahiti, French Polynesia

59 St. Kitts

58 Viti Levu, Fiji

57 Maui, Hawaii

57 Bali, Indonesia

57 Cape Verde Islands

57 Curaçao

55 Isla Mujeres, Mexico

55 Malta (all islands)

55 Guadeloupe

55 Mauritius

54 Mykonos, Greece

54 Federated States of Micronesia

54 Mallorca, Spain

53 St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

53 Zanzibar, Tanzania

52 Canary Islands, Spain

51 Puerto Rico

51 Cyprus, Greek side

50 Antigua

49 Hatteras Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina

48 Aruba (Netherlands)

47 Grand Cayman

47 Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras

47 St. Martin (Netherlands/France)

47 Cozumel, Mexico

46 Oahu, Hawaii

46 Key West, Florida

46 Phuket, Thailand

45 Hilton Head, South Carolina

44 Jamaica

44 Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

37 Ibiza, Spain

37 St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

The reviewers had the following comments on Bali:

"Bali is one of the world's magical places. Even though it has been overrun by tourism development and population growth, somehow it has been able to maintain its unique character, though some parts of the island-Denpasar, Kuta Beach-are now incredibly degraded and depressing for those of us who knew Bali in the good old days."

"Yes, Kuta and Nusa Dua represent the ugly faces of crass commercialism-but if they are developed as specific mass tourism enclaves and generate income, and if development in the rest of the island is more restrained, Bali will still be worth visiting. The flowers are still colorful, the smiles still warm, the rice fields still mesmerizing, and the gamelan music still a calming, soothing backdrop-after 30 years of rampant development."

"Bali is a mixed bag of tourism projects that represent the absolute worst (Kuta) in sustainable travel and some of the best (Ubud)."

"In spite of the recent terrorist events, Bali is still an excellent destination. Magnificent rice terraced landscapes. Gentle, warm people. The culture is strong, vivid, and vibrant. Facilities are varied, catering to many tastes. However, beaches are not good, and the environment is under threat from destruction of reefs and mangroves, linear development, salt water intrusion, etc."

Tempo Interaktif reports that Garuda Indonesia created a profit of Rp. 218 billion (US$23.7 million) in the period January-September 2007, an increase of 150% over the same period in the preceding year. Garuda suffered a loss of Rp. 436 billion (US$47.39 million) in 2006.

"Current results are a good step, while over the past three years Garuda always suffered losses," explained Garuda Chief Executive Officer, Emirsyah Satar.

Emirsyah is very optimistic that Garuda's profitability will continue to improve through the end of 2007, pointing out that "the second semester is peak season." The Indonesian national flag carrier has also managed to improve its cash flow, achieving US$919 million or a 17% improvement over the US$786 cash flow of January-September 2006.

Passenger load factors have also improved at Garuda Indonesia by approximately 10%. Average passengers loads January-September 2007 stood at 78%, up from the 71% recorded in the same period the year before. During the same period, total passengers carried hit 6.1 million, up from 5.6 million in the first three quarters of 2006.

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