Our Guv’ner Flies a Kite - Waikiki, Here we Come!?
A few weeks ago Governor Pastika, lamenting the loss of hundreds of hectares of land annually to lateral development, shared with reporters that perhaps the time had come to can the 15m “coconut tree” rule and build high. He also suggested that the time had come to ease the island’s worsening traffic congestion with the introduction of flyovers and underpasses. He went on to say that regulations dating back some 20 years limiting tourism development to just three Regencies in order to protect other areas from the negative effects of tourism, were out of date and denied these areas economic opportunity.
Sounds fair enough. I’ve got no beef with a moderately hi-rise down town area of Denpasar. In fact, done right, it might actually reinvigorate that city in all kinds of positive ways. Even off-road enclaves of taller buildings could be a good trade off for endless ruko strip development gobbling up the landscape. Underpasses and flyovers are a no-brainer to restore traffic flow at key bottlenecks, and if they put badger runs under freeways it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of Bali’s resourceful engineers to come up with a means whereby strict Hindus can remain unsullied while the rest of us whiz along beneath them to our destination.
So why does Governor Pastika’s seemingly sensible suggestions fill my heart with foreboding? Two reasons. In reference to easing the 15m high rule Governor Pastika mentioned the 11-storey Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, opened in the mid-60’s and a stark reminder of the horrors that might have been, remarking he saw no problem with it. In other words, hi-rise along the beach is OK, and the magnificent sweep of Kuta Beach can now go the condo-way of those other once-fabled beaches of Waikiki, Miami and Rio. Please! If we gotta go hi-rise, let’s keep it away from the coastline.
The second reason is a run-on from the first. Tourist development in the other 5 regencies on a limited and regulated basis can make sense, if it really is regulated. Regulation hasn’t exactly worked to date tho’, has it? If Central South Bali has given itself over to untrammelled tack and realty development, doesn’t mean the rest of Bali has to do the same or be condemned to poverty. Again, it might not be beyond the wit and wisdom of Bali’s leaders at provincial level to come up with some revenue sharing scheme that does not require the paving over of Karangasem.
Tea with Asri
Tearooms in the traditional sense are not exactly my thing, but I am into tea right enough. Always have been. Used to torment myself posing the utterly meaningless dilemma, if I had to give up one or the other - forever, tea or wine, which would it be? I funked it back then, but now, as an Englishman who’s spent a quarter of a century in China, all claret spent, I reckon, if ever I were put to it I would come down decisively on the side of tea. Black, no milk, no sugar. Of course it’s almost inconceivable that I’d ever actually find myself in a situation where I’d be forced to choose. On occasion, I happily horrify many a hostess at dinner when I ask for tea. Their look of shock and horror turns to grudging acceptance when I ask if they’ve got any Chinese tea. Drinking Chinese tea with food other than Chinese is sorta OK, but still weird. Drinking English tea, of which of course there is no such thing, with any other meal than breakfast or teatime smacks of the transport caff and is very naff indeed.
I was delighted then to come across Asri Kerthayasa’s latest venture in Jl. Petitenget, Seminyak, called Biku, an eclectic ambience of old Indonesia with a modern touch, housed in an 150-year old teak joglo from East Java taken over and transformed from what was until recently an antique showroom. In many ways it still is. Apart from serving tea in the traditional style, cucumber sandwiches, scones and pillars of disgracefully rich and delicious homemade cakes and pastries an’ all, Biku is a serious Palace of Tea with all the paraphernalia for tea served English, Chinese or Japanese style. Me, I’m a cuppa or mug o’ tea man, so that’s not why I like Biku so much. It’s a great all-day café where you can hang out eat good fresh food, when you want what you want breakfast through dinner. It has a good-sized Ganesha Books section so browsing is a pleasure, books or internet, and if you take a fancy to any of the furniture you can buy it and take it home with you. With Asri in charge the last thing the place is...., is precious. What’s more the ambience is not overly feminized so guys need not fear being mistook for dapper johnnies dancing attendance on our and other people’s ladyfolk. Asri says she started it as a business for her son. Fat chance! Hip kid running a tea room? Nah, it’s Asri’s baby right enough, and the place already does a roaring trade.
The Stranger Strikes Again.....
Up to Ubud for one of my periodic visits to the hill folk and the wee people. This time on the occasion of the launch of Madé Wijaya’s newest book, “The Best of Stranger in Paradise - The Next Generation 1996 - 2008”. The Author was at his most affable and businesslike like signing up a storm of paper and hardback versions. I arrived early and left early, but a goodly rout was obviously in the making. Unlike the SIP column itself, the book has benefited from some tighter editing. Anyone in Bali from the 1970’s on will much enjoy it and should buy it - not copy it. Wijaya has earned his spurs over the years when it comes to speaking on Bali and has been a stentorian voice raging against the tacky and the pretentious, except of course when he espouses it. His own design work has been described by some detractors as “Tropical Cotswolds”. One sees what they mean and it is a pretty phrase, but it actually doesn’t convey much and might just as well be taken as commendation. The Stranger in his Second Coming, is a much more formidable persona than the original scrawny version c. 1980. This Stranger owns to emulating Auberon Waugh, “roused” by Somerset Maugham (now there’s a thought.), channelled by Dame Edna, with a healthy dash of Ozzie Oik. I’d say that’d be about right, though I’d certainly add in Auberon’s Dad Evelyn, whom The Author is beginning to resemble, plus hero and model, if not mentor, Donald Friend.
SIP has now found a new home in the pages of a new sensibly-sized monthly magazine “Bali! Now”, the latest print offering from Alistair Speirs, recently ousted by his Bulé partners from “Hello Bali” and who, with commendable speed, has counter-launched new publications in Bali and Jakarta. Speirs it was, who in inimitable huckster manqué style, chopped the paperchain that launched Madé Wijaya’s latest tome.
Carola Vooges Sculpture
Returning to sea level I went to the well-attended opening of Carola Vooges exhibition now on at the Santrian Gallery in Sanur. This was a major exhibition of her wooden sculptures over the past decade with a large number of exhibits. Carola Vooges’ work is accomplished and personal. The forms are pleasing and yet have a primordial chthonic quality of the seashore that is intriguing, and just a little disturbing. It is this quality that pervades the exhibits in this show, though a few of the larger works have a more modern and terrestial ethos with hints of Dali and Bacon. These are versatile works that especially lend themselves to display in private homes, but also creatively used in public buildings.
Carola Vooge is multilingual and multi-cultural, born in Holland she has lived more than half her life in Bali where she lives in Sanur with husband, art historian Bruce Carpenter. They have two children.
