Welcome back to Ubud

Back in town after so many years: Edward Viljoen of KSRO fame for those listening to Sonoma County radio. And he allows us this time to follow each of his steps by posting directly with his blackberry to his weblog. Despite these changes in his own way of travelling and documentating it he still enjoys, what he sees:
Ubud stays the same
Warm, friendly, authentic, silly, fun, mystical

Ubud is a vibrant village-town in the middle of Bali and is the cultural hot spot of the island. The not so distant history of back packing universe seeking tourist days still lingers among the wifi cafes and designer shops - you can still find a home-stay or an old style room with breakfast next door to a world class boutique hotel.

Sprawling mansions stand on the outskirts in the midst of rice fields, ducks and geese. Tour busses clog the narrow streets and adventure companies create excursions, elephant rides and treks.

But Ubud stays the same to me as it was the first time I met it. Warm, friendly, authentic, silly, fun, mystical.

It is our second base on this tour and it's central location makes it easy to get from Ubud to the temples on our itinerary or if we wanted......mountains, beaches, and major towns.

Tonight Balinese Dancing - porcelain faces, unmoving-unsmiling mouths with all the passion, fun, romance and drama in the eyes only. Darting eyes, just like the fingers and their mesmerising lateral dance movements. Spectacularly slow body movements in postures that look like a back ache trying to happen!

But first, Bebek Tutu - traditional smoked duck lunch. Read more!

Ubud one of the best in sustainable tourism

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan ©Ingo Jezierski

Bali is a mixed bag of tourism projects that represent the absolute worst (Kuta) in sustainable travel and some of the best (Ubud)."

Although consecutively named World’s Best Island for years from major traveller magazines around the world, and loved for its people and the great value it offers Bali has not scored so well in a survey done by the National Geographic Traveler. In behalf of the traveller magazine the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations conducted its fourth annual Destination Scorecard survey, aided by George Washington University.

A panel of 522 experts in sustainable tourism and destination stewardship donated time to review conditions in 111 selected islands and archipelagos. Let's see what these experts have to say about our beloved Bali and our neighboring island of Lombok.

The survey rates the qualities that make a destination unique—"integrity of place." It's not about consumer service, so a poor but unspoiled island like Palawan can rate higher than a Hilton Head, called "the best golf-course-and-gated-community island anywhere."
While Bali is still called in the survey 'one of the world's magical places' it has only come in at rank 27, even Lombok has done slightly better. Hard to believe for those of us living here:) Let's look at the reasons for this:

Bali, Indonesia
Score: 57

"Bali is one of the world's magical places. Even though it has been overrun by tourism development and population growth, somehow it has been able to maintain its unique character, though some parts of the island—Denpasar, Kuta Beach—are now incredibly degraded and depressing for those of us who knew Bali in the good old days."

"Yes, Kuta and Nusa Dua represent the ugly faces of crass commercialism—but if they are developed as specific mass tourism enclaves and generate income, and if development in the rest of the island is more restrained, Bali will still be worth visiting. The flowers are still colorful, the smiles still warm, the rice fields still mesmerizing, and the gamelan music still a calming, soothing backdrop—after 30 years of rampant development."

"Bali is a mixed bag of tourism projects that represent the absolute worst (Kuta) in sustainable travel and some of the best (Ubud)."

"In spite of the recent terrorist events, Bali is still an excellent destination. Magnificent rice terraced landscapes. Gentle, warm people. The culture is strong, vivid, and vibrant. Facilities are varied, catering to many tastes. However, beaches are not good, and the environment is under threat from destruction of reefs and mangroves, linear development, salt water intrusion, etc."

Lombok, Indonesia
Score: 62

"Bali's little sister. Lower numbers of visitors than Bali, so has been slower to develop. It is relaxed, and the local government expresses concern for careful development. There is a lack of interpretive information, although guidebooks generally tell the stories well. Some luxury accommodations."

"Lombok has many scenic natural sites and some lovely, comfortable hotels. It also has several strips of beach that are overdeveloped and disappointing. Some of the cultural tourism in the south is a bit like 'human zoo' tourism, where tourists are accosted by aggressive local people in local dress."

"The strong Islamic culture to a certain extent ensures its cultural survival from the tourist onslaught. A lot of tourist development, some of it illegal, threatens the integrity of its seashores. Huge gap between the tourism resort culture and local incomes and traditions."

National Geographic has more details about the survey on their own website. Read more!

Riding the vulcano - downhill!

Pat, Chris, Ruth and Stuart on one of their walks starting directly from outside of the Ladybamboo Villa
After several cool and delicious dips in the pool and soaking in the still, quite nights in Ubud we decided to go on a bike ride. We were driven to the top of the volcano for a breakfast of pineapple pancakes and sweet tea, all with a sweeping view of the crater and lake. Then, off we went – down hill to Ubud!
Seeing Bali by bike is a great way of experiencing life here. We stopped to look at vanilla pods growing, to savour cool tropical fruits in a paddy field and to take pictures of the many happy children running in the streets after our bikes. After several miles of downhill we hit our first uphill, the guides were greeted with the shouts of ‘I thought this was all down hill’ as we slowed our pace and puffed up hill!

But, we were never disappointed as our friendly guides yelled ‘next left’ and we went rushing from concrete roads onto bumpy, muddy paths. These were the greatest parts of this trip as we ventured onto paths less travelled and were rewarded with seeing animals, birds, and Balinese people getting on with their daily lives.
By 1pm we had reached a temple, surrounded by huge trees and we rested here for a while. The air was so fresh and clean, and the temple seemed to be more about rejoicing in nature – a beautiful place to think and appreciate life. When we looked up to the sky, however, we saw dark clouds forming and knew that we were likely to get wet! Off we went, choosing the muddiest path possible of course!
A short way on we took shelter in a building whilst we watched the rain come down and sat with artists who were making their wooden handicrafts. We finally made it back to Ubud, hungry but happy. Our guides hadn’t finished with us yet though, as we were whisked off to have a banquet at Roda Restaurant on Jl. Kajeng. This was the perfect ending to a day that I think one we will all remember. After eating as much as we could, back to Lady Bamboo we went. Happy to shut out the noises of Ubud and welcome back our sanctuary, away from the worries of the world.

My husband, Stuart and I work in Banda Aceh, at the very tip of Sumatra, where the tsunami devastated so many lives in 2004. My parents, Pat and Chris always make it out from the UK to wherever we are working and this year was no different.

We booked to stay at the Lady Bamboo in Ubud because it looked so inviting on their website. When we arrived, we were not disappointed. Lady Bamboo is an oasis within an oasis. Ubud is a magical place, full of surprises and delights and Lady Bamboo was our tranquil refuge. The staff at Lady Bamboo are attentive, but not over whelming and blend into your own style of relaxing. Read more!

Travel warnings for Australia, London and New York

While we were travelling the States and especially Hawaii last year it sprang to my mind, that the US and other governments are using travel warnings as a tool to keep tourists away for the sake of their own tourist industries. The only room below 100 bucks we found on Hawaii's famed Waikiki beach strip was smelling strongly and restaurants were competing in restricting guests personal freedom - most amusing to see how lovers got separated through an invisible smokers fence, which does not allow to smoke inside of open air properties, but only in a distance of approx. 6 meters from it's borders.

One of the world’s leading travel writers has just emerged from trips to Australia and Bali bemused at the huge difference between the fears about Bali often generated in this country and the exquisitely rich and tranquil experiences of those who actually visit there.
Pico Iyer – author of eight books whose articles are published worldwide in magazines such as Time, the New York Times and the Financial Times – says he encountered superb security, among the best in Asia, and “Aussies who couldn't believe that so many of their friends and neighbors were staying at home”.

He also found the island was bustling and crowded with visitors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of Asia while many Australians missed out on the attractions of one of the top destinations in the world. Asian millionaires were flying in hundreds of guests for weddings while the Japanese (among the world’s most security conscious people) were coming in record numbers because it is one of the places where they feel most able to relax, he says.

“The island struck me as far safer than Los Angeles, where I maintain a home, or Delhi, which I visited soon afterwards, or New York, or carjack-filled London, or most of the places I visit. The murder rate in American cities has long been higher than even in cities in the midst of civil war, and since the September 11 attacks it is even more the case that places like New York, Paris, Madrid or London are less safe than less high-profile places. Certainly, I felt much safer in Ubud, say, or Nusa Dua, in Bali, where I was staying to promote the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in September than I do in Southern California or in London.
 
“I met many Australians in Bali who couldn't believe that their friends and neighbors back home asked about danger in Bali when, statistically, it remains one of the safer places in Asia. “Indeed, I found myself in my hotel talking every day to an 80 year-old gentleman from Perth who had come to spend four months on the island, even though he was wheelchair-bound. After a lifetime in the hotel industry, living everywhere and grateful to be based in Perth since 1946, he couldn't stop telling me how HAPPY and well taken care of he felt in Bali, to the point where he was taking the first extended vacation of his life there.” (more...) Read more!

Wolfgang Widmoser - the best painter of Bali?

Ubud presents a new website featuring one of the most gifted artists of Bali: Austrian Wolfgang Widmoser, already a well known painter from Europe to the shores of Australia. His astounding body of work is now featured on www.ubud.com/wolfgangwidmoser.

Praised by many previewers as the best website about a Bali artist, it presents over one hundred of his recent paintings in an easy format featuring flash movies and 'resting' stills for those with slower Internet access.

The website affords insight in the inner workings and inspirations of Wolfgang: Inspired by the people of Ubud, his family and the colourful environment in which he lives, Wolfgang treads into exiting and unknown territories from his recent virtual-reality paintings of Ubud water lilies to female Balinese heads to vibrant abstract reality paintings.

Thanks to Wolfgang the site will help promote Ubud as the art centre of Bali and beyond. We invite other artists, galleries, music and cooking class organisers as well as schools of Ubud to present their work in a similar fashion on our website. Read more!

Ibu Murni: Entrepreneur from Ubud

Ubud has been described by some leading entrepreneurs of the world as a hotbed for growing these special speciies of people. Those two professors from Germany, Günter Faltin and Jürgen Zimmer, filled half of their pioneering book 'Reichtum von unten. Die neuen Chancen der Kleinen' with stories about entrepreneurs from Ubud.

John Braine from San Franzisco is especially fascinated also in this respect by the owner of one of Ubuds's early hangouts in the late seventies: Ibu Ni Wayan Murni

He reminds us to peserve a great piece about her published in the Jakarta Post as it is difficult to find elsewhere. Thanks also to Andrew Charles for composing this piece, which was originally published back in 2006 and supplementing what we published earlier about this great entrepreneur and traveller from Ubud. Thanks John for your reminder and hope to hear from you soon again.

Ni Wayan Murni is a revered character in Ubud as owner of Murni's Warung, Murni's Villas and many other enterprises, but it wasn't always like this.
Back in the 1950s, life was hard. Murni's parents split up and, at the age of six or seven, she was sent to live with an authoritarian aunt in Denpasar who made her get up every morning at 2 a.m. to prepare and sell food to the neighbors.

Difficult though it was for a very young girl, the hard work, discipline and selling skills were an important part of her education and set her in good stead for the future.

Murni's mother was an excellent businesswoman, but strict. "She was the only person to sell soft drinks in the market", Murni reminisced. "I remember one of the king of Ubud's servants used to cross the road to my mother's shop to buy drinks for the king's friends."

On the days the market was closed, Murni carried a load of salt from Ubud to Penestanan, a few kilometers away. She explained how her mother worked: "My mother insisted that I should not waste the journey back from Penestanan, so when I sold the salt, I had to find something to buy with the money and then I had to sell that when I got back to Ubud."

Even at that young age she was interested in textiles and sold batik. She said, "When I heard that there were tourists in town, I used to go to where they were and display my batik; I even sold a piece to president Sukarno, who often visited Ubud."

Tourism increased after the opening of the international airport and, from 1965 to 1974, Murni lived in Sanur where she opened several shops.

These were just outside the Tanjung Sari Hotel, where many people stayed, including Mick Jagger. It was at this point that Murni started becoming interested in antiques.

Her major break occurred in 1974 when, with the small amount of money she had been able to save, she bought some land in Ubud on the edge of a cliff overlooking trees and a river, where she opened Murni's Warung. "I was so lucky to get this property," she said. "It's the best piece of land in Ubud."

Initially, she sold only clothes and paintings but things started to improve when she realized that by selling Western food, she could attract more business, and was the first to do so in Ubud.

In 1978, electricity arrived so Murni was able to purchase a refrigerator and serve cold beers -- a landmark occasion!

Diners at the restaurant used to give her their favorite recipes and they often spent hours practicing together. Murni had to modify the recipes as the ingredients available were hardly ever the same as in her friends' countries; even when they were, the recipes came out differently.

For example, she couldn't get pecans anywhere so she changed the pecan pie recipe to cashews; it's still on the menu.

From a very small enterprise, Murni has moved on to become one of Ubud's most successful entrepreneurs and the restaurant is one of the most famous on the island.

Murni has incredible stamina and energy. As well as running the restaurant, which was catering to an increasing number of visitors, she opened two more shops and bought for all of them.

It was hard to keep up with the business. She was the first woman driver in Ubud and drove all over the island in search of stock. She said, "I'd buy as many textiles, antiques and good-quality handicrafts as I could and they'd be sold the next day. Every day was like that in the 1980s. It was incredible."

A visit to Murni's is a delightful experience. The food is excellent and inexpensive with a wide range of dishes, Western to Asian, and a number of real Balinese dishes not found elsewhere.

As Murni's Warung and Murni's shops flourished, she decided to get into the accommodation business. The first venture was Murni's Houses: residential accommodation for visitors in the center of the town.

As if all this were not enough, Murni got the travel bug. It is very rare for a Balinese to want to travel -- and a Balinese woman at that. Undeterred, she took off and traveled all over Europe, Egypt, Tanzania and Turkey. She still loves traveling and is frequently abroad, searching out rare treasures and testing new recipes for her restaurant.

These trips opened her eyes to luxury. About 12 years ago she acquired a stunning piece of land some 20 minutes drive north of Ubud and built Murni's Villas.

Many people in this country have achieved success after starting from humble beginnings and then become arrogant and egocentric.

Murni is one of the rare exceptions. She has five children and nine grandchildren and is happy with what she has achieved, but shows no signs of wanting to retire.

She is a traditionalist but also a modernist. She has embraced the digital age and runs one of the best websites in Bali. With her commitment and energy, there is little doubt that she will be in the forefront of Ubud society for many years to come.

Andrew Charles Read more!

Living Legend Ibu Murnis

Within Ubud living quite a few legends. One of them is known to travelers as Ibu Murni. Whether you are Amy Tan, Alice Walker, Mick Jagger, a businessperson, newlywed or traveler, Murni shares all of her time, energy and friendship. People from all over the world visit Bali specifically to meet with Ibu Murni, dine in her restaurants, discover Balinese treasures in her shops, and live luxuriously in her villas.





Just 15 minutes outside Ubud, between mist-cloaked mountains and ancient emerald rice terraces, reside Murni in her new . Named after the fireflies that magically light up the Balinese night, these villas are said to have one of the best views in all of Bali. Walking through the 6.5 tropical landscaped acres of the Kunang-Kunang villas, it becomes obvious that Murni has attended to every last detail— each stepping stone has been impressed with floral and tree leaf patters, to the 33 handpicked Buddha statues inhabiting the property, to the 50-foot crystal salt swimming pool hidden among lush foliage. Read more!