Category: Rollie’s Wrap

Mother City Rollie, at the end of August, found himself winging toward Jakarta for no particular reason. He wanted to see some friends, do some shopping, and maybe just wander a bit and see the old gal. It is the second time he’s been struck by nostalgia for a city for which he has no […]

Saving Subak Sok Wayah The e-mail made it sound dire, as if the “last” terraced rice fields in Ubud were disappearing under the work of developers’ shovels and piles of batako, the standard local grey or black building block. And now, the writer of the e-mail said, a band of “worried people … rice workers, […]

Ubud Epiphanies It is always interesting to see how visitors react to the island with the world’s most upbeat press clippings, especially repeat visitors who may not have seen the place in some years. The last week of July was the third time elder brother Thompson had brought his family up from Perth, Australia, going […]

There and Back Again Rollie says he is sure there are more contrasting comparisons – perhaps flying into Singapore’s gleaming Changi Airport from Sakhalin, Russia, or Dhaka, Bangladesh – but it is great enough from our own Ngurah Rai in Bali, and he’s not really interested in trying to find greater. He is not that […]

Bali’s Continuing Crisis When the two brothers showed up at the notary’s office, one was drunk and the other could only think about getting his hands on all that cash we were to pay them for the land they inherited from their grandfather. At first, they hadn’t wanted to open a bank account to receive […]

The Dark Side of Paradise Tourists and expatriates often have a sanitized view of life on Bali, partly because of the reluctance of the English-language press to publish any stories that could kill the tourism goose that lays the golden eggs, and partly because of willful blindness to anything but the glossy myths in travel […]

Ubud Playground a Work in Progress It is often a fool’s paradise here in Bali, so on a holiday weekend we two fools – the wife and I – grab the kiddies, pick up some of the cousins and head over to Bali Fun World (www.balifunworld.com) in Batuan in Gianyar. Turns out we are not […]