Join the Party on the Beach at the Bali International Triathlon
Excitement for Both Runners and Spectators on Jimbaran Beach at Bali International Triathlon on Sunday Morning, June 24, 2007.
Serious athletes and ponderous couch potatoes will have reason to rejoice and enjoy themselves at the inaugural Bali International Triathlon on Sunday, June 24, 2007 at Bali's Jimbaran Beach.
Over 130 triathletes are set for an 8:00 a.m. start on a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bike race and 10 km run. An hour later, at 8:00 a.m., a large group of runners will race a 5 km fun run through Jimbaran village.
The start, finish and transition points for all races will be at the Coconut Grove of the Four Season's Resort at Jimbaran Bay where music, refreshments, free massages and booths from leading local merchants will be on hand to keep race enthusiasts entertained from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m..
Admission is free of charge and spectators have a chance of winning prizes without running a single stride!
Please note: Traffic access to "race central" will be strictly restricted with parking facilities and free-shuttles provided from a special parking area at the quarry-site on Jalan Karang Mas.
Come Join the party on the beach at Jimbaran and watch the dramatic swimming start to the Bali International Triathlon at 8:00 a.m. sharp on Sunday, June 2, 2007.
Official Review of Indonesia's Leading International Airports Sees Bali's Ngurah Rai Getting the Highest Rating.
The Indonesian Department of Transportation has designated Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport as the nation's best in terms of safety, security and service. The accolade was bestowed on Ngurah Rai following a recent audit carried out on five leading international major airports in Indonesia.
Ranked in order of their overall safety and service were the following five Indonesian airports:
. Ngurah Rai International Airport - Bali (DPS)
. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport - Jakarta (CGK)
. Juanda International Airport - Surbaya (SUB)
. Polonia International Airport - Medan, Sumatra (MES)
. Hasanudin International Airport - Makassar (UPG).
The Audit carried out between May 3-18, 2007 covered 94 operational areas with 48 dealing with safety, 13 with security and 33 covering service to the public.
While the most recent review gave passing marks to Indonesia's major air gateways, auditors also highlighted areas requiring upgrades including reporting procedures, hazardous material handling, runway overrun areas, electrical back-up and plane-side facilities. In terms of passenger service, areas marked for additional attention were overall sanitation standards and routine reporting systems.
Eenee, Meenee, Mianee Mo! Catch a Terrorist by the Toe!
Arrest of Jamaah Islamiyah Ringleaders and Bali Bombing Masterminds Hailed as Major Victory in the War on Terror.
Over 15 suspected terrorists have been arrested by Indonesia's elite Special Detachment 88 during a week long sweep at various locations in West and Central Java. Among those apprehended are Zakarsih and Abu Dujana, believed by police to be masterminds of the armed wing of Jamaah Islamiyah(JI) and fundamentally involved in the 2002 and 2005 bombings of Bali nightspots.
Now undergoing intensive police interrogation, the Jakarta Post reports that the arrested terror suspect have testified on tape that the Javanese cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir once led their group. Ba'asyir, an outspoken Islamic radical who was jailed briefly for immigration violations, has thus far evaded conviction on more serious terrorism-related charges. Ba'asyir has consistently denied any connection to terrorists or terrorist groups in Indonesia attempting to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
JI has been credited by terrorism experts for the two terrorist attacks in Bali on 2002 and 2005, the 2003 attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Indonesia's capital, and bombing attacks on churches and public places in Jakarta and Sulawesi.
Police have described Abu Dujana as a "a very dangerous and clever man." Police also cited the Dujana as a foreign-trained expert in weaponry and bomb making who prior to his arrest controlled JI in Indonesia.
Vice-President: Terror Network has Been Dismantled
The latest arrests are seen as a major blow to the enemy in Indonesia's war on terrorism with Vice-President Jusuf Kalla telling the press that "the (terror) network has been dismantled" and that it was only a matter of time before Malaysian terrorist Noordin Muhammad Top is apprehended by authorities. In November 2005, fellow Malaysian terrorist, Dr. Azahari, died in a hail of bullets when police descended on his hide-out near Malang, East Java. [See: Terrorizing the Terrorists]
Love for Life - An Exhibition by 4 Bali-Based Artists
June 15 - July 5 at Danes Art Veranda in Denpasar, Bali.
A shared love for life and women has brought 4 Bali-based artists of very different background together in a collaborative exhibition at Danes Art Veranda in downtown Denpasar June 15 - July 5, 2007.
Pande Gede Supada from Singaraja, North Bali; Freddy Sitorus from Sumatra and Kendari, Sulawesi; Made Mahendra Mangku from Sukawati, Bali; and Peter Studer, also known as Surya Suryata, originally from Bern, Switzerland - jointly explore the subject of their love for life in this special exhibition of outstanding original art.
Freddy employs expressionistic and naïve techniques to explore the theme of love from a child-like perspective. Pande, another expressionist, displays his take on love and life. Mahendra predictably uses his trademark intersecting vertical and horizontal lines to speak of love. While transplanted Swiss artists Peter Studer, who has adopted the Balinese name of Surya Suryata, paints highly-refined and stylized representations of the female genitalia in his expressions of a profound love of life.
Love of Life - An Exhibition by Four Bali-Based Artists
Danes Art Veranda
Jalan Hayum Wuruk, Denpasar, Bali.
Open daily from June 15 through July 5, 2007.
Lest We Forget
Bali Hosts Inter-Faith Dialogue on Religious Tolerance Including Former President Gus Dur, Jewish Leaders, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Holocaust Survivor.
Using the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust as a departure point of common understanding, Bali played host to a religious dialogue on June 12, 2007, attended by former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (also known as 'Gus Dur'), Muslim scholars, Hindu religious leaders, Christians, representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and a Holocaust survivor.
Taking issue with recent efforts by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's to rewrite history by historically denying the genocide of the Jews in WWII, President Wahid, said: "Although I am a good friend of Mahmoud Ahmandinejad, I have to say he is wrong. This is important, courage to say the right thing. I don't have favoritism here. The Jews, Europeans, Arabs are all the same. . He falsified History . . . I believe the Holocaust happened . . . I visited the Auschwitz Museum of the Holocaust and I saw the many shoes of dead people."
Also speaking at the one-day conference were well know Rabbi Daniel Landes; Sol Teichman a 79 year-old survivor of the concentration camps; Hindu Spiritual leader Sri Ravi Shankar; Buddhist teachers and a Jesuit priest.
The conference "Tolerance Between Religions: A Blessing for All Religions" was co-sponsored by the Wahid Institute, Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance and the LibForAll Foundation.
Lest We Forget
Bali Hosts Inter-Faith Dialogue on Religious Tolerance Including Former President Gus Dur, Jewish Leaders, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Holocaust Survivor.
Using the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust as a departure point of common understanding, Bali played host to a religious dialogue on June 12, 2007, attended by former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (also known as 'Gus Dur'), Muslim scholars, Hindu religious leaders, Christians, representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and a Holocaust survivor.
Taking issue with recent efforts by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's to rewrite history by historically denying the genocide of the Jews in WWII, President Wahid, said: "Although I am a good friend of Mahmoud Ahmandinejad, I have to say he is wrong. This is important, courage to say the right thing. I don't have favoritism here. The Jews, Europeans, Arabs are all the same. . He falsified History . . . I believe the Holocaust happened . . . I visited the Auschwitz Museum of the Holocaust and I saw the many shoes of dead people."
Also speaking at the one-day conference were well know Rabbi Daniel Landes; Sol Teichman a 79 year-old survivor of the concentration camps; Hindu Spiritual leader Sri Ravi Shankar; Buddhist teachers and a Jesuit priest.
The conference "Tolerance Between Religions: A Blessing for All Religions" was co-sponsored by the Wahid Institute, Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance and the LibForAll Foundation.
Sanur Village Festival August 15-19, 2007
5-Day Fun & Cultural Event Planned at Bali's Sanur Village Community to Coincide With Indonesian National Holidays.
Centered at the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel and Segara Beach Hotel the second annual Sanur Village Festival will take place August 15-19, 2007.
Designed to be "bigger and better" than last year's inaugural event. The Sanur Village Festival 2007 is being organized by the Sanur Development Foundation - an organization comprised of Sanur Village residents and businesses dedicated to promoting and preserving the native charm of Bali's oldest cultural-tourism destination.
Emphasis on Fun & Culture
In keeping with the tone set at the inaugural event, this year's Sanur Village Festival will feature a whole range of activities, including: . A cooking competition . Food festival and bazaar . Cultural performances . Cultural parade . DJ parade . Fun bike and city tour . Under water festival . Water sports competition . Traditional boat competition . Surfing and kite surfing. Wind surfing . Kayaking and canoeing . Bonsai and Adenium exhibition . Painting exhibition . Cartoon exhibition . Golf tournament . Rugby tournament . Kite contest . Mass yoga practice. Pillow fights & fun games . Jazz festival
For more information and to learn about sponsorship opportunities visit the [Sanur Village Web Site].
Garuda to Resume Service to Nagoya?
With Japanese Arrivals at Record Highs, Garuda Considers Reestablishing Service to Nagoya and Fukuoka.
The Indonesian-language BisnisBali reports that Garuda Indonesia is actively considering reestablishing flight operations to cities in Japan abandoned when traffic dropped dramatically following terrorist attacks on Bali.
Garuda currently operates flights to Tokyo and Osaka and may soon re-open service to Nagoya, a service twice-abandoned after the 2002 and 2005 terror bombings in Bali.
Another Garuda service to Fukuoka was similarly discontinued when Japanese tourism arrivals to Bali nose-dived due to terrorism.
Bisnis Bali quoted the Airline's manager in Bali, Uun Setiawan, as saying brisk demand from the Japanese market and improving arrival numbers have created a "strong potential" for the reopening of the Bali-Nagoya service.
Japanese arrival numbers during the first four months of 2007 improved +57.53% (107,254) when compared to the same months just one year before. These totals equal Japanese arrivals in 2000 and 2001, years of record-high arrivals to Bali from that market.
Branding Bali - Show Me the Money!
Editorial: Cautious Optimism as Bali Awaits Launch of a 'Bali Brand.'
The visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Bali to formally open the month-long 29th Bali Arts Festival on Saturday, June 16, 2007 [See: 29th Bali Arts Festival] is also being used to launch a "Bali Brand" - the culmination of a six-month long effort to devise an effective marketing identity for the Island's tourism.
The project, rumored to have been funded by a major national tobacco company, fuels long-thwarted hopes that Bali may slowly be moving towards a more professional and measured approach to the sales and marketing of its tourism products. At the same time, the somewhat closed-door way in which the branding strategy has been created and the guarded way in which it is being unvelied to the President and the world, have some concerned that the new brand, once announced, might join the growing stack of Bali tourism initiatives filed and forgotten under "NATO - No Action Talk Only."
We'll leave it you to decide on the appropriateness of the new "Bali Branding" - details of which we'll share on balidiscovery.com shortly.
In the meantime, we beg forgiveness if, shell shocked and jaundiced in from past tourism marketing initiatives, we offer some pre-emptive cautionary thoughts on the "new" Bali branding campaign:
. Let's pray that the experts have traveled to Indonesia's key overseas markets in gathering data and inputs in the process to design a proper brand. The branding of a destination should reflect an objective and realistic assesment of the destination in the eyes of its key customers, as opposed to potentially over-emotive local views of how we want to be seen by our guests.
Good breanding has more to do with what we are and very little to do with what we want to be.
. Any branding program in the absence of a well-funded promotional campaign to secure that brand's position in the minds of Bali's key consumers is sadly destined to failure. The harsh reality is that Malaysia would be less than "truly Asia"; there would be nothing "surprising" about Singapore; and we would all be less than "amazed" by Thailand - if each of those destinations had not spent heavily on international media to establish their brandings.
The prognosis for Bali's new branding program remain dismal when policymakers, both in Jakarta and Bali, remain steadfast in their refusal to fund tourism promotion on a level equivalent to competing destinations in the region.
. And, that Bali Tourism Board (BTB) still remains without a Chief Executive Officer some four months after its latest reorganization suggests those who hope for the imminent emergence of a professional and dynamically managed professional body charged with Bali tourism's promotion and, by extension, branding the destination may be sorely disappointed.
No matter how brilliantly conceived the new Branding program for Bali proves to be, it is destined to be little more than a navel-gazing exercise and garner little exposure unless its launch includes a hefty and carefully-managed promotional budget aimed at Bali's key source markets.
While we eagerly await the unveiling of Bali's new branding, we also echo the line of the film character Jerry Maquire who screamed: "Show me the money!"
Now 63 Nations Qualify to Purchase Visa on Arrival at Indonesian Gateways.
Jakarta Post reports that the citizens of 11 countries have now been added to those eligible to purchase a visa-on-arrival (VOA) when entering an international gateway in Indonesia.
Bringing to 63 the number of nations enjoying the VOA facility in Indonesia, citizens of those nations can purchase a 7-day visa for US$10 or a 30-day visa for US$25 at designated airports and seaport immigration posts.
The new countries eligible for VOA effective May 28, 2007 are:
Busy School Holidays Ahead for Bali June 15 - July 15
Expecting Heavy Bookings, Garuda Adds flight to Bali, Lombok and Jeddah.
An extended Indonesian school holiday period between June 15 through July 15, 2007 is expected to see business booming to three destinations - Bali, Lombok and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
In order to meet the growing demand for the coming month on these routes Garuda Indonesia is adding 15,406 seats in the form of 15 flights Jakarta-Denpasar, 2 flight Jakarta-Lombok and 20 flights Jakarta-Jeddah.
Anticipating possible service backlogs over the holidays at major destinations served by Garuda Indonesia, special customer-service task forces will be deployed at key airports to efficiently address any problems that might surface during the heavily booked school holiday period.
Meanwhile, the Airline is asking their passengers to book flights as soon as possible, avoid any last-minute change to bookings and ensure the name shown on tickets matches the name shown on their identity papers. To further speed the check-in process, Garuda is asking passengers to utilize city check-in facilities at city sales offices, available anytime 24 hours prior to scheduled flight departure.
Mass Tourism - A Good Fit for Bali?
Leaders Weigh In on Whether Current Efforts to Grow Arrival Numbers Will Benefit Balinese Culture and Tourism.
A recent article in the Indonesian-language NusaBali suggests that natural carrying capacity limits imposed by Bali's infrastructure and the innate sensitivity of local culture dictate that mass tourism should not be part of Bali's long-term tourism plans.
I Putu Anom, the Chairman of the Tourism Studies Program at Bali's Udayana University called for an urgent creation of an alternative to the current trend to develop mass tourism to Bali. The Educator argues that the Island's infrastructure, land reserves and water supply will not sustain mass tourism. He contends that other tourism approaches, such as Ecotourism, will bring tourist staying longer but in lesser numbers and are therefore more environmentally sustainable.
A dissenting view was offered by John Ketut Panca, past-Chairman of the Society of Indonesian Professional Conference Organizers (SIPCO), who said a means must be found to handle both mass markets and more elite jet setters in order that all levels of Balinese society can materially benefit from the Island's tourism industry.
Commenting separately, Al Purwa, Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (ASITA), supported Anom's view saying that tourism practitioners need to asses if Bali can realistically support mass tourism. Current efforts to seek higher arrival numbers in the absence of a clear infrastructure development plan need to be urgently reviewed.
Keeping Ahead of the Wave
56% of Indonesia's Planned 160 Tsunami Early Warning Stations Now in Place.
The national news agency Antara confirms that the Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has now installed 90 tsunami early warning detectors in locations across the country.
The system intended to provide advance notification to Indonesian residents of tsunami's approaching their shores, the system is part of an eventual plan that will see a total 160 tsunami alarms installed along Indonesia's shores by 2008.
The 90 warning devices now in place cover populated coastal areas in Java and Sumatra.
Concurrent with the installation of the tsunami warning system the BMG is also adding 22 advanced weather radars to serve large metropolitan areas in Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Palembang.
The new radar facilities will be completed by 2010.
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