Have You Heard Of The Spice Islands?

Did you know that part of Indonesia was the fabled “Spice Islands” from the pages of history? No? Well it’s a long and very interesting story of which I can only tell you a small part here. The rest you should find out for yourself. It’s fascinating. Right in the middle of this vast archipelago

Alistair G. Speirs

A Helping Hand For The Children of Bali

Bali Children Foundation (Yayasan Samiarsa Seminyak) provides educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in Bali. Working mostly in North and West Bali, the foundation offers education scholarships for over a thousand children at school, about 40 in University and delivers English teaching and Computer studies classes to over 1,500 children in 36 communities. While the foundation

Disturbing Facts

Way back in the nineteenth century an English philosopher called John Stuart Mill wrote an essay called “On Liberty”. This defined the individuals drive for self improvement, their desire to “better their station” in life, as the sole source of true freedom. But he qualified this by saying that these efforts must not impede the

Romance and a Great Holiday

When we are young and single, we sometimes go on holiday to find romance; when we get married, we go on holidays to celebrate romance; when we have been married for ages, we go on holiday to rekindle our romance! Whatever the reason, holidays and romance are inseparably intertwined.

Puspadi Bali: Keeping Bali on the Move

In 1999, Puspadi was founded by Nengah Latra to assist people with physical disabilities in Bali. The foundation runs a program manufacturing and providing wheelchairs and artificial legs from their workshop at the Annika Linden Centre. Currently they have 20 staff, 16 of whom have physical disabilities themselves – with this workforce Puspadi has served

Indonesia: Preserving Tolerance

It may be interesting to try to “explain” Indonesia, and in particular to show how this “improbable” country of 250 million inhabitants distributed over more than 17,000 islands has managed to retain its unity whereas most other multi-cultural countries are threatened by chaos when not in the midst of it. However, in order to continue

New Year New Beginnings?

  I suppose we all want to have the opportunity to start again, to get out a fresh sheet of paper and say “this time I’ll get it right”! And I suppose that the beginning of a new year is as good a time to do that as any. But actually I don’t think this

Things Worth Keeping, Things Worth Losing

Isn’t this a wonderful way of categorising things in our lives? So simple and can apply not only to physical objects but activities and most especially, states of mind. (*) If we start with the simple things like transport we’d have to keep cars, trains, buses and planes but noisy polluting motorcycles would be on

Bali’s Beautiful Rejang Girls

The Rejang dance is one of Bali’s most beautiful and visually stunning; featuring a troop of young, fully decorated girls, it is a dance of elegance and grace.  In the isolated communities of Karangasem, life goes on much as it has for centuries. Of course, now, many of the young leave home to take a

The Best Things In Bali

I have just returned from speaking at an international conference organized by the Singapore Tourism Board where tourism officials from 40 countries around the world were invited to come and learn about best tourism practices from some very learned academics and practitioners (present company excepted of course) which was a great learning experience for me,

Balinese Nature, According to Agung Rai

    For the Balinese people, nature is the source of life. Nature nurtures us, and it so powerful that we need to respect it. Sunrise is the light of the Gods – It is so beautiful and artistic. Visitors in Bali should really take their time and explore the nature of the Island properly.

Popo Danes

Balinese Architecture, According to Popo Danes

Popo Danes, arguably one of Bali’s most well-known architects, gives us his two cents on Balinese architecture and design. “What the modern architecture is still trying to achieve today has been implemented in the traditional Balinese architecture for centuries now, where the concepts of energy conservation and environmental preservation are amongst the fundamental elements in

Bali Today, According to Niluh Djelantik

  To me, Bali is like a beautiful, elegant lady that people from around the world admire. She is so pretty and unique that she doesn’t have to do anything or make a move, and many are still attracted and fall in love with her. Sadly, today, Bali has become a cheap woman. She sells

Now Bali
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