Turd World Walking out of a restaurant without paying the RP3 million you owe is against the law anywhere. It’s … More November 8, 2017 →

Living with Vulcan Once upon a time, the activity of a volcano in a distant domestic backyard from which one … More October 11, 2017 →

Wingnuts Away! When this diary was written, we were supposed to be in Provence, France. Specifically, we were supposed to … More September 13, 2017 →

Just Cruising The cruise market is big and likely to grow further, so it makes sense for Bali to have … More August 16, 2017 →

Who Let the Dogs Out? Eating dog is something we would never do. It disgusts us, for all sorts of … More July 19, 2017 →

Hit Parade It’s always good fun to read the local Bahasa language press, as well as informative. Some people like … More June 21, 2017 →

February 04 2015A Tale of Two Statues The new style of Balirsquos fixation with monumental ornamentation as seen in the grossly huge and garishly illuminated nightly by circusstyle flashing lights ldquomonkey mountainrdquo that has been erected at the junction of Prof Ida Bagus Mantra Bypass and I Gusti Ngurah Rai Bypass just south of Tohpati is certainly a distraction to drivers Thatrsquos about the kindest thing you could say about it Itrsquos true that after a while it fails to totally shock ndash the brain is adept at repressing all manners of vast unpleasantness ndash but we can personally attest that for the first several times this visionary excrescence comes suddenly into view one is autoprompted to utter loudly a crudely pejorative fourletter word before asking audibly or otherwise and rhetorically of course ldquoWhat on earth is thatrdquo Fortunately the future of worldclass Balinese stone craftsmanship is in safe h

January 21 2015Guys Get Serious A photo taken on Dec 21 and displayed on Facebook this month of a 500metre wide by unknown kilometres long stretch of garbage floating offshore from around Tanah Lot itrsquos an important temple might that resonate with any of the stumblebums officially responsible for the islandrsquos environment lays bare the filthy joke that is Balirsquos official nonposition on waste management We all know here that garbage immediately becomes something that is not your problem if you throw it over the wall or dump it in the bush or a dry watercourse The wellmeaning assert that this is because the population needs to be educated and companies that produce masses of plastic prewaste packaged food producers largely ndash need to be forced to comply with the law The realists among us wellmeaning or otherwise would suggest that since ever increasing amounts of nondegradable rubbish have been a feature of Bali

January 7 2015BAWA with a Bang BAWA the preeminent animal welfare organization on the island because of focused effort and the seminal role played by founder Janice Girardi in dealing with rabies when it broke out in Bali in 2008 ndash the disease is now endemic but thatrsquos Indonesian bureaucracy for you ndash ended 2014 with a bang though not one that would frighten the doggies It held a Bridge to New Year fundraising dinner on Dec 29 at Ubudrsquos Taksu Restaurant an event at which the organization was able to brief guests on its plans for 2015 and beyond It came complete with musical entertainment provided by BAWA staff members who when theyrsquore not doing their day jobs sing and strum a guitar with enthusiastic aplomb Earlier in December BAWA announced a real coup Ubud prince Cok De Piko Tjokorda Gde Dharma Putra Sukawati has become a BAWA ambassador and because of his enduring love for dogs and particularly the very spec

December 24 2014Art with a Frisson Two books recently given an Australian launch ndash at the University of Sydney ndash provide a more profound focus on the real Bali than any number of touristoriented creations The real Bali is of course not found in performances of the Kecap Dance and other wonderful expressions of the live art presented for gawkers moneyed or not but in the heritage and stillpractised and continuously renewed culture and lifestyle of the Balinese themselves These are not seen in the KLS triangle KutaLegianSeminyak or in multistar international hotels where tourists spend the money that fuels Balis economy They are found in the villages and are revealed to the fully interested and sentient through electivelysourced media principally books Adrian Vickers whose research at the University of Sydney itself constitutes an important body of work in Asian studies generally and from our perspective Bali in partic

December 10 2014Salad Days Hold the Mayoh We were surprised recently to read that Royal Pita Maha one among many resort hotels at Ubud was ldquoquite literally out of this worldrdquo News of this galactic shift had hitherto eluded us Fortunately it turned out not to be true We made urgent inquiries and were able to satisfy ourselves that the establishment remained on terra firma Moreover it was still located up the hill from the lovely Pita Maha Resort and Spa where we stayed a couple of times years ago in the days before there was a Royal Pita Maha when we were holidaying in Bali as payyourownway tourists The source of the easily disproved theory that Royal Pita Maha had moved to Pluto or some other planet was someone called Lisa Mayoh who wrote a puerile puff piece that appeared in Rupert Murdochs little asteroid belt of cyberpapers which litter Virtual Australia The version we saw courtesy of the dyspeptic blogger Vyt

November 26 2014Singapore Slingoff Its been a while since we were in Singapore so we had been quite looking forward to getting back there this month We had been amusing ourselves with thoughts about minding the platform gap again but the MRT was full of very pushy people on our two train rides and the whole experience was one of rather less than unalloyed delight Traffic also seemed to be much less well behaved than hitherto The unnecessary and noisy practice of sounding your car horn ndash for any reason or none ndash is gaining a growing toehold in the previously wellmannered and equable city state Worse ldquobig carrdquo syndrome is more and more obvious It is familiar to anyone in Indonesia and many other places where capitalism bureaucracy and fatwalletlawyer are synonyms for badmannered The bumptious practice of the cashedup mob in such environments is to assume droit de seigneur and to believe it is immutable fact that if

November 12 2014Shes Off Her Face Book Susi Johnston the longterm American expatriate whose situation in regard to the property she lives in at Mengwi is as disgraceful as it is well known has dropped off the social medium preferred by gazillions of virtual chatterers She has deactivated her Facebook She told us when we inquired that she was fed up with her situation who could blame her and was upset by what she sees as abandonment by former friends It is all very sad Her legal argument over title to her villa which she shared with her late Italian husband Bruno Piazza remains unresolved Some local grub name known to police decided that she should have it instead Johnstons house has been invaded She has been threatened with violent harm Her personal space has been violated She has been the target of people who have planted illegal products in her home so she would be charged with a crime But she is the victim and because