Bali losing its charm

[balinews]

Turn the clock back 25 years and it was a real cultural adventure.

There were no high class restaurants to speak of. Accommodation was incredibly cheap and the price of going out was very modest by our domestic standards.

The charm of the Bali experience was to some extent wrapped up in the fact that you had to get by without a lot of the creature comforts of everyday Australian life.

There was also a certain fun drinking Bintangs for less than a dollar a bottle and catching cabs to wherever you wanted to go for around the same price.

Airfares were cheap — irrespective of when you went — and the shadow of terrorism (on one hand) and the macabre prospect of capital punishment (on the other) was never lurking in the background.

Fast forward to Bali 2016.

The hotel tariffs are still inherently reasonable by Australian standards, but there’s been a subtle but noticeable increase in the price of everything else.

While we were once happy to enjoy the rustic charm of the Balinese cafes and bars, the place is now a mecca of fine dining.

Some of the better Australian wines (not to mention some excellent French and South American ones) are now readily available.

Once upon a time you could actually bring in a few bottles of your favourite vino in your suitcase but not any more.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/opi...d/news-story/3ec250c4415ec1f28a30c7a9d5560b92

 

[Markit]

I'm beginning to understand that the entire press in Oz is pointed at trashing the "Bali Experience" to the benefit of their own massively over-expensive, 2nd and 3rd class tourism destinations.

Next week you will see some "sponsored" get-away paid for my the resort/hotel in Bali where the Oz paper has bigged Bali up to the exact same extent it was "destroyed" the week before

So count me underwhelmed at Australian journalistic integrity.

 

[geedee]

The Australian press always smash Bali its ridiculous.
Today reporting person got bitten by monkey and contracted Zika virus, on closer inspection this was 2 years ago and it could have been a mozzie.
When i arrived back a couple of wees ago people said they were worried for me because of the terrosist attacks and others said they though i would come home earlier .
What terrorist attacks it was Jakarta and wasn't major.

 

[geedee]

Turn the clock back 25 years and it was a real cultural adventure.

There were no high class restaurants to speak of. Accommodation was incredibly cheap and the price of going out was very modest by our domestic standards.

The charm of the Bali experience was to some extent wrapped up in the fact that you had to get by without a lot of the creature comforts of everyday Australian life.

There was also a certain fun drinking Bintangs for less than a dollar a bottle and catching cabs to wherever you wanted to go for around the same price.

Airfares were cheap — irrespective of when you went — and the shadow of terrorism (on one hand) and the macabre prospect of capital punishment (on the other) was never lurking in the background.

Fast forward to Bali 2016.

The hotel tariffs are still inherently reasonable by Australian standards, but there’s been a subtle but noticeable increase in the price of everything else.

While we were once happy to enjoy the rustic charm of the Balinese cafes and bars, the place is now a mecca of fine dining.

Some of the better Australian wines (not to mention some excellent French and South American ones) are now readily available.

Once upon a time you could actually bring in a few bottles of your favourite vino in your suitcase but not any more.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/opi...d/news-story/3ec250c4415ec1f28a30c7a9d5560b92

This is crap 25years ago the Airfares were double.
You can get a bintang in Sanur for 20k (at the well built guys place) include inflation I bet that is much less.
A takeaway burger in Australia is $9 - $15

 

[Adam]

Seriously, why does everyone get their knickers in twist about Australian Journalists bagging the **** out of Bali? Is this a new thing? Nope. Does it seem to have any effect? Nope. Aussies still and always will keep coming in droves. Are they just embarrassing themselves to those who actually have a clue what they are talking about. You bet.

I'm not sure why they do it. Easy target I suppose and readers will be keen to read anything about Bali whether positive or negative. I don't think it will actually change anyone's mind other than the super paranoid who are frightened to leave their own suburb let alone travel to another country. I don't think it's to drum up the Aussie tourism scene either as it's like comparing apples with oranges - a completely different demographic and experience.

I will agree that Bali has lost it's charm though, compared to even 15 years ago things have changed for the worse and aren't likely to get better any time soon. That being said, ignorance is bliss and most of the greenhorns that have only seen Bali in the last decade or so won't know any better, so good luck to them - enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[begonia]

When I read the tittle without reading any longer the post, I right away said, without doubthing one second, YES, TOTALLY AGREE!!!! it is losing day by day its charming, at least around the tourist areas.
Last week we went to Umalas trough Oberoi and Petitenget and it is an area I haven´t been probably for 10 years, I was absolutely shock to see all the constructions all the way, I was all the time saying, look, there there was a local warung, there there was rice fields, on the left side it was the sea, there was nothing at all, there was so many empty land there and now is absolutely full everywhere, not breathing............
Like Markit is always saying I don´t see the charming of that areas, where people lives on villas totally closed by walls and has to get a motorbike or car to go anywhere..............not for me.

 

[begonia]

by the way, I don´t know for tourists, but for locals life is getting more and more expensive every day... and the salaries are very similar than 10 years ago

 

[begonia]

Doesn't matter how many times I pass by, but I am still on shock when I pass by Kutuh Kajah, Junjungan in Ubud, Penestaran, the three floors hotel in front of the Pura Dalam in Tebesaya and next to the cremation area and cementery, still on shock seeing Ubud getting more and more similar to Kuta areas, it seems like the last fashion business in Ubud now is ice cream shops..............still on shock when I remember I saw an ATM on the ground of Pura Besakeh...............still on shock to see Bentuyung and Jalan Suweta full of villas, hotels, restaurants and reading an article on a small tourist magazine that the Royal Palace of Ubud has sign up a construction of 100 villas in Jalan Suweta.............still on shock to see rice fields dissapearing day by day............still on shock to see the new place selling things for tourists on the narrow entrance to the lotus pond at the Saraswati temple in Ubud (make me sick to think about how far people go to get money)..................
Make me sick to see how commercialized is everything in Bali, too much, the spirituality, yoga, religion............... in an island where the people was not too much focus on money but on family, community and religion..............
Better to stop, enough for one night!!!

 

[Adam]

Doesn't matter how many times I pass by, but I am still on shock when I pass by Kutuh Kajah, Junjungan in Ubud, Penestaran, the three floors hotel in front of the Pura Dalam in Tebesaya and next to the cremation area and cementery, still on shock seeing Ubud getting more and more similar to Kuta areas, it seems like the last fashion business in Ubud now is ice cream shops..............still on shock when I remember I saw an ATM on the ground of Pura Besakeh...............still on shock to see Bentuyung and Jalan Suweta full of villas, hotels, restaurants and reading an article on a small tourist magazine that the Royal Palace of Ubud has sign up a construction of 100 villas in Jalan Suweta.............still on shock to see rice fields dissapearing day by day............still on shock to see the new place selling things for tourists on the narrow entrance to the lotus pond at the Saraswati temple in Ubud (make me sick to think about how far people go to get money)..................
Make me sick to see how commercialized is everything in Bali, too much, the spirituality, yoga, religion............... in an island where the people was not too much focus on money but on family, community and religion..............
Better to stop, enough for one night!!!

I'm hearing you Begonia. I don't know whether it's better to have at least seen and enjoyed the place before it implodes or be a blissfully ignorant newbie and think 'oh well, this is just Bali, everythings sweet'.

It isn't. Enjoy what's left, while it lasts. The next 20 years are going to be interesting. What is particularly troubling is how welcoming the Balinese will be to tourists and expats alike when they realise they can no longer afford to live on their own island.

 

[tintin]

I first came to Indonesia in 1982, and to Bali in 1984, I've returned each year, until 2007. In 2000, at the time of renewing my passport, adding all the custom stamps showed that between 1990 and 2000, I had spent almost 5 years of my life in Bali. I can gladly say that Bali had become the center of my life. During all these times, I witnessed amazing changes, but, unfortunately, mostly in the wrong direction, a systematic degradation of the environment and of the society. Of course, it happens everywhere, and some of the changes are not necessarily bad. But in Bali, if there have been any improvements with time, I must have missed them...I have not been back since 2007, and regrettably never will.

 

[begonia]

I am on shock to listen that one of our neighbors who has four children did the teeth ceremony of the three girls and one son on the Griya, in one day in one hour, (the four of them are already young adults and the first one owns a car and a shop)................not ceremony at home with friends and family preparing everything and enjoy the celebration and what is around the celebration and inviting friends, family and neighbors to come............I guess Balinese are too busy these days, like to make lumbung for the cremation ceremonies, now many of them they order the lumbung instead to make them with friends and members of the family.............I hear that in Denpasar many people order as well the offerings for ceremonies instead to do it as well at home, probably it is cheaper and easier!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am on shock to get a few weeks ago bazar tickets from the young people from the Banjar, and see we pay 40.000 rp for a meal we have to get from a local warung, when usually the bazars traditionally are made and organize on the bale banjar by the young people and by the members of the banjars and the family and friends go together to eat there..............all of these are ways of socialized and do things together but little by little are disappearing............

What about all the artisans in Bali, woodcarvers, painters and all the people who make beautiful handicrafts and these days are working on hotels, villas and restaurants and not painting or doing handicrafts any more? how many generations do you think the beautiful and unique culture and traditions of Bali will last? Will be painters and woodcarvers in two generations?

Yap, you are right Adam, Tintin, my problem it is I came to Bali in 1998 and live here since 2000 and the place I totally fallen in love is changing in front of my eyes daily, the ricefields I fallen in love are disappearing in front of me everyday, the little warungs, the simple shops, the local markets, the local shops, the simple homestays, the culture, the traditions, the customs................and that is hurting me a lot and sometimes it is so hard to cope with, it is very painful.........I understand totally why Tintin stopped to come back, better to have a good memories.............what is happening in Bali is an atrocity......... we are destroying one of the most beautiful and interesting island on the world in my opinion..........

Little by little Bali is more similar to what I left 15 years ago in my hometown, restaurants, shops, ice cream, cafeterias, shops, traffic, noisy, cars, consumerism, materialism, capitalism, superficial, money orientated, individualism, selfishness, people tired and stress, hard to see a Balinese person with stress, but that is what they say when I am asking them why there is so many people with strokes now in Bali....

Better to stop for today as well!

 

[Rangi]

Must of been a slow week in the news.

 

[Markit]

Begonia Ubud is awful - was there in the afternoon last week and could not get out fast enough. Jam packed traffic, tourists and HOT! Ubud has been largely destroyed by it's own success just like Kuta/Seminyak/Cangu/etc.

Just out of interest I asked a one of the shops selling Balinese flags and they wanted IDR100k for one I can get here in Karangasem for IDR10k.

Motto of the story is pack and go elsewhere or enjoy the success. Your charity should be bursting from all the donations?

 

[balibule]

In the year 2030 people will say how Bali used to be a much better place in 2016. Everything changes over time.

 

[JohnnyCool]

It's the old "You should have been/seen the real Bali back in year xxxx" syndrome.

My first experience of Bali was in 1973 and I was totally hooked from day one. Went back six months later, and after that another 30+ times during the ensuing years. Eventually had a break from it all for ten years visiting Pacific islands, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Europe. Started going back to Bali in the early 1990s and some things had changed a bit, but not startlingly so. It was still "good".

So "good" that by 1995 I decided to live here permanently. Since then I have seen a rapid degradation of many areas of Bali, at least from my perspective. Having said that, there are still many areas of Bali that are relatively unscathed, but I'm not sure for how much longer.

To me, Bali is like a small country in itself with amazing diversity. However, investors, insatiable "developers", and various governments keep pushing the small island towards an ecological disaster. Many signs are already evident such as the impending fresh water crisis, rampant pollution and poor waste management, creaking infrastructure "progress", unaddressed areas of poverty (apart from some NGOs), emigrants from other Indonesian islands, issues with electricity supply, creeping salination and coastal erosion, and much more.

The powers that be seem to think that Bali can sustain even more assaults on this tiny, fragile island without dire consequences.

Imagine this for a moment.

Bali is a modest hotel with ten rooms, a small bar and small swimming pool.
Maximum number of guests at any one time is between 20-30 people.
Suddenly, 50-100 more people all want to stay at the same time.
How will the hotel cope?
What about if 2,000 more people want to stay as well?

Many years ago, it was thought by experts that Bali's ideal, sustainable carrying capacity was about 1.5 million people. The current indigenous population is now more than double that, plus 4 million foreign tourists yearly and 7 million domestic tourists from nearby islands.

How would the hypothetical modest hotel cope with say, 100,000 new guests arriving every few hours, every day of the week?
And the Balinese government wants even more...

 

[JohnnyCool]

"Ubud is awful"

Ubud, and its environs, has certainly changed big-time over the years. Mainly, it's become a mere shadow of what it used to be. Some call it progress.
Seems to be emulating the "progress" down south.

I lived in a village just north of Ubud for a few years. Ubud was still OK, but slowly morphing into what it's become now. Not quite as bad as some of the horrors like Kuta, Tuban, Legian, Seminyak, Canggu, but give it time.
If Ubud was next to a beach, it'd probably be not much different.

These days, I can't stand going to Ubud anymore. Every time I drive there by car, I get stuck in endless traffic jams. Both coming and going.
The plethora of glass-fronted shops along Monkey Forest Road remind me of nearly any tourist-centred place. Sad to see.

Rather than things getting "better", this disease is moving along quite rapidly to other areas, such as Lovina, and even Sanur.

 

[sakumabali]

Tintin 2007 all was still good compare to now :icon_wink:

they (bali & indo government) must make up their mind - either allowing higher buildings and investing heavily in infrastructure and PARKS with TREES or half bali soon looks like this Renon/Seminyak/Kuta whatever Moloch...

I first came to Indonesia in 1982, and to Bali in 1984, I've returned each year, until 2007. In 2000, at the time of renewing my passport, adding all the custom stamps showed that between 1990 and 2000, I had spent almost 5 years of my life in Bali. I can gladly say that Bali had become the center of my life. During all these times, I witnessed amazing changes, but, unfortunately, mostly in the wrong direction, a systematic degradation of the environment and of the society. Of course, it happens everywhere, and some of the changes are not necessarily bad. But in Bali, if there have been any improvements with time, I must have missed them...I have not been back since 2007, and regrettably never will.

 

[SamD]

Tintin 2007 all was still good compare to now :icon_wink:

they (bali & indo government) must make up their mind - either allowing higher buildings and investing heavily in infrastructure and PARKS with TREES or half bali soon looks like this Renon/Seminyak/Kuta whatever Moloch...

They can't make the buildings higher. The bamboo poles aren't long enough.

 

[davita]

They can't make the buildings higher. The bamboo poles aren't long enough.

You clearly haven't been to Hong Kong SamD....they build 50 storey buildings using bamboo scaffolding.

 

[geedee]

You clearly haven't been to Hong Kong SamD....they build 50 storey buildings using bamboo scaffolding.

And how scary does it look.