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Here's a travel writer with a positive story
Full story: It’s the place to beSunday October 30, 2011
It’s the place to be -- By WAYNE JOHNSON
A travel writer finds a destination with a difference when he attends this year’s Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Indonesia.
UBUD, Bali’s cultural and spiritual heart, has long attracted artists and creative types to its laidback atmosphere, lush green hills and a vibe far removed from the hedonistic beach resorts of Kuta. Consequently it seems a perfect fit for the annual Ubud Writers and Readers Festival which celebrates literature from across the world, and brings together international bestselling authors alongside local writers and performers.
Although I am an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction I have never before attended a literary festival. However, I was drawn to this one as much by its setting in Ubud as by the names of the writers in attendance.
At the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, you can get up close and personal with authors, whether they are up-and-coming or as well known as Booker Prize winner D.B.C. Pierre (right), who posed obligingly with a fan.
Always welcoming to creative types, the restaurants, palaces and galleries of Ubud were transformed over five days earlier this month into venues for workshops, seminars, talks and literary lunches with the writers.
This year’s festival, the eight, had the theme “cultivate the land within” and those in attendance included big names such as D.B.C. Pierre and Alexander McCall Smith.
I am afraid that Wayne Johnson was talking about the Writers & Readers Festival and its success, NOT about Bali. Through my career, I have attended dozens of professional conferences in a variety of places, some famous and some not so famous, all around the world. The purpose in each of these conferences is to get together with colleagues and with people who share the same interests and passions. These conference venues, or rather cocoons, are always interesting if not spectacular, but do one attending them in for such short periods of time comes away with any understanding of these locations. Of course not, as he or she sees practically nothing of the actual places. It's comparable to the tourist who spends one week at the Amandari, the Oberoi, or Royal Pita Maha: what they see and experience has absolutely NOTHING to do with Bali, the Island.
Keep on smiling.
Daniel
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"War is terrorism on a bigger budget."
I tend to agree with tintin.
Don't get me wrong - I think the festival itself is a great thing, if somewhat divorced from the day-to-day realities of the everyday lives of ordinary Balinese. Still, it is aimed at "Writers and Readers" with no pretence of being anything else.
So, 20,000 people descend upon Ubud for a few days and have a great time. Nothing wrong with that.
I went to one a few years ago and found myself sitting in the very opulent Indus venue with a glass of beer in my hand. The topic was related to "Poverty". People around me were drinking champagne and I thought to myself:
"Yeah - right - way to go - we can really get down to the nitty-gritty about poverty this way."
Frankly, I was disgusted and vowed never to go to another one. Of course, that's a bit radical since many of the guest speakers are definitely worth listening to or meeting in the flesh.
I also find the ticket prices rather exorbitant (even with a discount for KITAS holders). The lack of ordinary Balinese in attendance also struck me - but I guess, it's not aimed at them.
As for Wayne Johnson's take on it all: it's basically running hyperbole of which there is way too much already (IMHO).
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