Just Back Report
Rob_Two & Juliette
November 2002
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| 08/11/2002 to 25/11/2002. Out of Perth. Accommodation – Besakih Resort , SANUR… Trip 18 since 1988. Sixth time at Besakih. FLIGHTS:We were originally booked on the Qantas night cattle truck – until Karen, our ever-vigilant travel agent, rang to tell us she had just received the API schedules and we could transfer to API business class for AUD 16.00 each more than Qantas cattle class! After the bombings she was able to transfer our packages to Garuda at the same (API) price. She told us that we were the only Bali booking she had that DIDN’T cancel. Garuda was great, without being excellent. Punctual (in fact the flight up pulled back 8 minutes early and arrived at DPS 25 minutes early!). (But then that long walk from gate 2 to immigration!) The Airbus up and the 737 back were very comfortable. On the trip back someone had forgotten to load the headsets so we had a silent movie! This possibly would have upset some customers but we never tend to watch the movie anyway! No announcement about it! No explanation, unless you asked. BUT why does Garuda persist in serving “pre dinner” drinks at the same time as food.! SITUATION IN SANUR:Firstly I am sorry for the people who cancelled their holiday- I respect their decisions but there was never a need to cancel. They got much well meaning advice (both pro and con) on this forum and other media. Our 31 year old daughter was almost distraught at us going. She, who 6 years ago back packed on her own around Eastern Europe! But most of all I am sorry for our friends in Sanur – they are really doing it very tough! On quite a few occasions when Juliette would buy something in the markets and the sales person would do the routine brush of her money over the stock.- “Your first sale today?” “No, first sale for one week!”. Our friend and driver Gede Ariana HAD been getting more than 8 or 9 e-mail enquiries each week (thanks largely to Mike Tourist’s excellent “Driver” site). Gede has had no e-mail enquiries since the bombing! . In our view the best way to help the Balinese is to go there and spend money at the grass roots level – you know exactly where your money is going. We tipped the porters and room attendants a little more than usual, did not haggle too much in the markets and left a little more shrapnel in restaurants. We spent many days on the beach as the only Westerners within sight – except for a few walking along the path. Slowing things down a little more was the Galungan festival. A bit like Christian Christmas. People return to their village of origin for temple ceremonies, so many businesses and restaurants were closed for a day or two. Cassie, Juliette’s long time massage lady told Juliette “My mother and I said a prayer for you at the temple– If you hadn’t come to Bali I could not have afford to go home and see my mother in Singaraja.” Another problem is the rise in burglaries and theft due to financial desperation. But most of the Banjars (community councils) have it under control. Gede and others give up at least one night per week on community street patrols. Actually, if the patrols catch any felons the police encourage them to be worked over before being handed over to the law. We saw some of these unfortunates with split lips and swollen eyes being paraded on local TV as a deterrent to others! I wonder how this would work in the West?! In Sanur all services, shops and restaurants seem to be operating: Hotels have plenty of vacancies - Besakih vacillated between 4 and 12 rooms occupied of their 79 rooms available. The motor bike and bemo traffic on Jl Danau Tamblingan seemed to be almost as heavy as any other November (always a quiet month) but no tourist busses! Where Jl Tambligan joins the bypass there were, at times, up to 30 blue taxis parked with nothing to do. One night we went to the kekak/fire dance. We were part of an audience of 24 tourists. Apparently they HAVE preformed to an audience as small as two! Restaurants we visited – Bonsai, Kamasami(??), Borneo Bob’s, Koki, the hotel’s restaurant, and our favourite, Frangipani Mardi. All were up to their usual standard – but, of course, very quiet. Discounts at Matahari, Denpasar, varied from 25 to 70%. Quite a few locals shopping but rarely did we see another Westerner. Juliette called into Animale at Kuta. A sign said “30% Diskount”. But it was for only one rack! They will be left with a lot of stock! In the Ubud markets a couple of miniature paintings caught our eye. The shopkeeper asked a ridiculous price and Juliette countered with an equally ridiculous low price! Shop keeper not interested in negotiating! Maybe they were valuable!? SITUATION AT BESAKIH HOTEL:We love Besakih. We are on first names with most of the staff. The official rating is 2.5 star but the staff are 6 star. As I have said before if we were unaccountably rich we would park our Gulfstream at DPS and Gede would pick us up and take us to stay with our friends at Besakih! Most salaried staff had just got their October pay but were apprehensive about the future. As someone said –“ Next month will start to be a good time to buy a used motor bike!”. Beach front of Besakih the massage and manicure girls were getting occasional business but the boatmen, hardly any The hotel is sending the staff on leave and starting to cut down their hours.. A real dilemma for hotels like Besakih: All the staff are long servers, all part of the Hotel’s culture of excellence – to stand anyone down would jeopardise this code. Unfortunately forward bookings don’t look good. No problem getting a booking for Christmas or New Year – and the ridiculous compulsory Christmas NY dinner has been abandoned. In Sanur, Australians were thin on the ground. Of the sparse tourists, Dutch seemed to be in fair supply and quite a few Japanese staying at Gazebo. People in Sanur believe that when the tourists return they will choose Sanur ahead of Kuta. In Sanur itself, the streets were cleaner than ever and the beach in front of Besakih almost pristine with clear water. As part of the conservation project a large groin has been built out from the cremation grounds just South of Griya Santrian- maybe this is helping already. Details on the Beach Conservation Project - |