After a good nights rest we venture out into the streets of Kuta in search of breakfast. We pass by many places offering western food, but we are looking for something more indonesian like nasi goreng (fried rice) or mie goreng (fried noodles). It is only 9h30, but you can feel that it will get quite hot today. It is a good idea in this part of the world to get up early and do things when it is still cool. Then to take a nap or rest between 12h00 and 15h00, the period of the day when it is just too hot to move around.
As we walk around ALL the souvenirs shops in our street and the ones surrounding it are now open and calling to us as we pass by «please come and have a look, cheap, yes, only looking, I make good price»… Everyone tells us that it is more calm than usual (July and August is usually high season for visitors). Many are almost crying for us to come to into their shop and buy something saying that we would be their first customer of the day and that they can give us a good discount, etc.
Since the Bali Bomb in 2002, the recent bird flu, Indonesia and Bali have been feeling the number of foreign visitors declining. Talking to taxi drivers, hotel owners and travel agents you get the feeling that things are not as easy as it has been the past 30 years. Things did not get better with the 2004 tsunami and the ongoing global economic crisis making potential visitors generally more cautious with their money. Many are waiting to see what will hapen and don’t seem to plan to travel as far as before for the time being.
It reminds me again and again that tourism is a very delicate sector.When it is going well and a place is booming, people from all over come and want to have a piece of the cake and earn big money. But when there are hundreds of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, massage parlors on a tiny island that has been draining thousands of tourists year after year and things suddenly don’t go as well anymore, what happens? Tourism is today the islands largest industry making Bali one of the wealthiest islands of the archipelago.
I get the feeling that Bali is saturated and wonder how at this instant they can still be building in so many places. Over the years there has been an increase in luxury travel and development of 5 star hotels . Million dollar villas have been popping out of nowehere where rich owners demand panoramic ocean views. Perhaps it comes from Bali being such a small island that you can feel it more here than in other places? How will these kind of social differences work out with the local population in the years to come? In recent years there have been open demonstrations from the local population about new development projects…
We locate Perama Tours near our hotel. They offer tailor made tours on Bali and the nearby islands as well as shuttle bus services. They have their main office in Kuta and work with other sister offices in Lombok, Java and even north eastern Kalimantan. You can see their buses circulating all over Bali. I was amazed to hear that they even have a branch in Switzerland!
We have come to meet Diana, the travel agent I have been in contact with the past weeks to book our inland flights. We unfortunely had to give in and take some extra flights on this trip, missing the endlesss time we once had… We spend a while talking to the boss of the agency, Diana and her collegues. They all speak excellent english and are very kind and attentive to us. You feel almost as if you have known them for a longer period. That is nice feeling when you are traveling and do not get in many places in the world. Listening to them we sometimes wish we could help easily help out everyone with finanical problems. But then again, the sum that we have just payed for our tickets could correspond to the salary (more or less) of one person for a year in Indonesia…
www.peramatravelclub.com
info@peramatour.com
Still being quite tired from the trip and jet lag we spend the day trying to find ATM machines that will give us enough cash to last for the next week. The problem is finding a machine that will give us big enough bills to not have piles of money to hide in the various places of our back packs. There is also something that has not changed in Indonesia over the past years which will annoy us many times during the trip. No one ever has change! So you always need to make sure you have a good stack of small change with you at all times. We never quite figure out why it is like this. Maybe someday someone will enlighten us.
Being a foreigner in Indonesia makes you often feel like a millionaire!
10'000.- Rupiah = CHF 1.- or 1$
100.000.- Rupiah is CH 10.- or $10
1'000'000.- Rupiah is CHF 100.- or $100.
So when you are stanging at an ATM, typing in how much cash you want, you better be careful how many 0’s you type!
Since the Bali Bomb in 2002, the recent bird flu, Indonesia and Bali have been feeling the number of foreign visitors declining. Talking to taxi drivers, hotel owners and travel agents you get the feeling that things are not as easy as it has been the past 30 years. Things did not get better with the 2004 tsunami and the ongoing global economic crisis making potential visitors generally more cautious with their money. Many are waiting to see what will hapen and don’t seem to plan to travel as far as before for the time being.
It reminds me again and again that tourism is a very delicate sector.When it is going well and a place is booming, people from all over come and want to have a piece of the cake and earn big money. But when there are hundreds of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, massage parlors on a tiny island that has been draining thousands of tourists year after year and things suddenly don’t go as well anymore, what happens? Tourism is today the islands largest industry making Bali one of the wealthiest islands of the archipelago.
I get the feeling that Bali is saturated and wonder how at this instant they can still be building in so many places. Over the years there has been an increase in luxury travel and development of 5 star hotels . Million dollar villas have been popping out of nowehere where rich owners demand panoramic ocean views. Perhaps it comes from Bali being such a small island that you can feel it more here than in other places? How will these kind of social differences work out with the local population in the years to come? In recent years there have been open demonstrations from the local population about new development projects…
We locate Perama Tours near our hotel. They offer tailor made tours on Bali and the nearby islands as well as shuttle bus services. They have their main office in Kuta and work with other sister offices in Lombok, Java and even north eastern Kalimantan. You can see their buses circulating all over Bali. I was amazed to hear that they even have a branch in Switzerland!
We have come to meet Diana, the travel agent I have been in contact with the past weeks to book our inland flights. We unfortunely had to give in and take some extra flights on this trip, missing the endlesss time we once had… We spend a while talking to the boss of the agency, Diana and her collegues. They all speak excellent english and are very kind and attentive to us. You feel almost as if you have known them for a longer period. That is nice feeling when you are traveling and do not get in many places in the world. Listening to them we sometimes wish we could help easily help out everyone with finanical problems. But then again, the sum that we have just payed for our tickets could correspond to the salary (more or less) of one person for a year in Indonesia…
www.peramatravelclub.com
info@peramatour.com
Still being quite tired from the trip and jet lag we spend the day trying to find ATM machines that will give us enough cash to last for the next week. The problem is finding a machine that will give us big enough bills to not have piles of money to hide in the various places of our back packs. There is also something that has not changed in Indonesia over the past years which will annoy us many times during the trip. No one ever has change! So you always need to make sure you have a good stack of small change with you at all times. We never quite figure out why it is like this. Maybe someday someone will enlighten us.
Being a foreigner in Indonesia makes you often feel like a millionaire!
10'000.- Rupiah = CHF 1.- or 1$
100.000.- Rupiah is CH 10.- or $10
1'000'000.- Rupiah is CHF 100.- or $100.
So when you are stanging at an ATM, typing in how much cash you want, you better be careful how many 0’s you type!
After a reaxing swim and rest at the Poppies pool our mission is to find a place to eat that we loved 6 years ago called «Warung Indonesia»…. Warung means eating stall or small restaurant. We dicovered this place on our last trip to Bali while eating out with our German friend Tobias. They serve indonesian cuisine set up in buffet style where every dished is weighed and you receive a ticket with the price on it. There are various freshly pressed juices as well to accompagny along your meal and to cool your thirst.The place is very simply set up with wooden benches allowing everyone to sit together. It is successful amongst locals and foreigners, because it is simply delicious! You have to eat piles of food to ever reach over 10'000.- Rupiah or 1$! We are glad to have found it! It was not an easy task as we were asking around and walking up and down the streets to find the right location.
Tomorrow we are off to Maumere, Flores (4 islands east of Bali) to meet our friends Claudia and Kermi for a week of diving classes!
Tomorrow we are off to Maumere, Flores (4 islands east of Bali) to meet our friends Claudia and Kermi for a week of diving classes!
