Nanggala 402 – God Speed The Rescuers!

My regular visitor and I were talking about those guys in the submarine sunk in deep waters off Bali.

We had both been watching the local news, and with friendly nations sending help, of course it’s on the foreign channels too.

Apparently there’s enough oxygen to see the submariners through till tomorrow.

Not a lot one can say, except God Speed!

 

Happy Nyepi! And Be Quiet, Please…

It’s Nyepi, Hindu Day of Silence!

Don’t expect much to happen if you’re in Bali, and if you’re not there, why not have a quiet day anyway – it’s Sunday, after all!

Selamat Hari Raya Nyepi – No St. Patrick’s Partying In Bali!

A Happy Quiet Nyepi to all my Hindu readers…

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…and my sympathy to anyone in Bali eager to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

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It’s not just a question of keeping the noise down.

In Bali, they even shut the airport so as to comply with the rule of absolute silence across the Isle of the Gods. It’s only for a day, so no big imposition on non-Hindus!

No worries here in Jakarta. Saturday is usually a low-key day for me. I go out on the town sufficiently during the week, so other than talking to any visitor who may drop by, there not a lot of noise under my roof.

Indonesian Clerics Scorn Justice? Not For The First Time!

Some people never learn.

Indonesia’s Catholic Bishops’ Commission of Justice (KKP) and Peace for Migrants and Refuges has rejected the imposition of the death penalty in Indonesia.

Reading the report on the conference in the Bali news site we often use, we have to acknowledge that the KKP-KWI has done some good work.

One training programme won legal redress for an underaged child raped in Ruteng, Flores, where a prosecutor refused to impose a 10-year sentence handed down by the courts to the perpetrator.

Because of public protests that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the man who committed the rape was eventually apprehended and placed behind bars.

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Yes, good the swine was apprehended, but that’s exactly the sort of case where the death penalty would have been entirely appropriate. 

Yet we have a ‘spokesman’ making the absurd assertion that “killing someone has never solved a problem. “ http://www.balidiscovery.com.

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Bali Bomb Pigs

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Every child-rapist, and every terrorist, put down permanently after conviction, can fairly be said to have solved a problem.

The filthy brutes will not molest anyone’s children, ever again.

The fanatic savages will not maim or murder anyone, ever again.

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This is hardly the first time we’ve had that spokesman’s kind of guff from clerics here!

Many of us remember the long wait for justice, ten years ago, back after the conviction of the Bali Bomb Pigs.

While most decent people of every faith, and of none, would tune impatiently into the tv news night after night, while tiresome technicalities delayed their despatch to Hell…

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Benny Susetyo

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…we had Benny Susetyo, Secretary of KWI Commission for Interfaith Dialogue, rabbiting that “it is clear that a death sentence would not be able to “reduce” the number of crimes and the brutality of criminals…”

HUH?

The execution of three brutal criminals automatically ‘reduces’ their brutality, along with themselves, to zero threat level.

It also removes three clear and present dangers to society, as far as Indonesia is concerned, because we know that sectarian terrorist vermin are FAR too often released before the sentences they get are served.

Just think back  to quite recent events.

Sarinah Attack – Terror Convict, Freed Early, Faces Charges! 

…and to other cases!

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Hasanuddin the Pig

Indonesian Beheaders of Schoolgirls – Poso Pigs Up For Parole Soon? 

Then think back to Bali – 2007!

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Benny thought  the lives of the scum who did this should be spared?

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When we actually think back to what those jihadist scum did, all those young innocents turned into bloodied corpses, the essential rightness of capital punishment is indisputable…except to Benny!

I think Amrozi merits life imprisonment not death. It is also a very heavy burden”.

Not for Amrozi!

…in the letter signed by the terrorist, he says he is ready to “take up the jihad once again” should he be saved from the execution block…

INDONESIA Catholics in Indonesia: “No death penalty for Bali terrorists”.

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I often criticise another kind of clerics…Many Islamic Scholars Are ‘Former Prisoners and Thugs!’ Gosh! If WE said that…..so  now that I’ve said my piece about a gathering of pastors, religious figures, laity, nuns, community leaders and other members of the Catholic Church…”

 Let nobody say I am anything but even-handed!

Bali Rabies Risk – Could Get Worse, Says Expert!

 

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Every so often, we read reports of rabid dogs in Bali, and certainly when I go there, some of the mangy curs visible growling and prowling the back-streets do give cause for alarm.

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But this week, that interesting Bali news site gives us news of a different kind of rabid beast…

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…namely jihadist terrorists, members of the ISIS rape-gang, of whom it’s shockingly said that there are FIFTY such scum resident in the holiday island.

These 50 people are said to be living in various parts of the Island.

Can this be accurate?

Well, the source ought to be reliable enough.

It’s none other than the Chief of the 9th Udayana Military Command, Major General Komaruddin Simanjuntak.

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Not a man to fool around!

What’s even more cause for dismay is that Komaruddin does not discount the possibility that the actual number of ISIS members living in Bali may be much more.

“Compare this to the Philippines where there were 40 ISIS members reported, but after the military emergency of ten days, there were (suddenly) 250 (ISIS members)

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This means the actual number (could) exceed the estimates. If we are logical, it could be ten times more!”

He’s the military commander for all Bali and one hopes his forces do indeed follow his exhortation that the priority must be to put a security system in place for the Island to ensure that every area is safe from terror and radicalism. http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=17019

Bali Break? Beware of Money-Changers!

Bank Indonesia complains that, despite an ongoing crackdown, over 150 illegal moneychangers continue to operate in Bali.: http://www.balidiscovery.com

Since a lot of you readers overseas may be planning a Bali break sometime this year, it seems timely to use the comments from Bank Indonesia as a good excuse to remind visitors to the Isle of the Gods…

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….that, while one can have a wonderful time there, there are hazards too.

Rabid dogs are one such, but the canine strays are so unpleasant looking that steering clear of them is an almost  instinctive response.

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Less obvious, and less lethal, are rogue money-changers, whom one cannot always spot, unless you notice how fast and furiously they shuffle the bank-notes before your very innocent eyes.

You can check out the link above, but I would offer from personal experience one company with branches around Bali, which I’ve used myself and found entirely reliable.

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Another useful source makes another useful recommendation.

The money changers at the airport (just as you leave the baggage claim area) will have a lower exchange rate than those outside the airport in Kuta, Legian Sanur etc. We recommend that you only change a little money here to get you through the first 12-24 hours, until you can get to a changer with a better rate.   https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Travel-g294226-c165765/Bali:Indonesia:Exchanging.Currency.html

And since we’re talking about the airport, may I reiterate my previous advice about taxis.

If you have a lot of heavy baggage, and your hotel doesn’t provide an airport pick-up, you are more or less stuck with the cab companies that somehow monopolise the area beside the Arrivals doors, but if you are prepared and able to walk as far as the main road, you’ll find either Bluebirds…

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….with meters that, in my experience, end up with a fair fare, or else some enterprising fellow whose cab may not be new and shiny but who will be ready to bargain.

OMG! And We Worry About Folks Going To FRANCE?

I got home from downtown an hour ago and tuned into a tv programme about Egypt, whose Tourism Minister told us, truthfully enough, that while foreigners might worry about vacationing in Cairo or Sharm El Sheikh these days, they also might have concerns about going to Nice on the French Riviera.

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Nice

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I used to travel all over Europe when I was a teen, but tend nowadays to worry when told my offspring may be contemplating a trip to those historic nations that once constituted Christendom.

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Silly, yes, but most parents probably have a twinge of anxiety even when their kids are grown-up and go gallivanting to foreign parts.

But I never think twice about flying down to Bali for a wee long weekend break!

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Then I received this week’s edition of that most informative Bali news bulletin!

extract-

Leading news items in this double edition:

An English tourist has apparently killed himself in his Sanur hotel room.

A Dutch tourist collapsed and died during dinner at a Petitienget Restaurant.

A Singaporean tourist was evacuated to Bali for medical treatment after being bitten by a Komodo Dragon at the Komodo National Park.

An American had been found dead in his rented room on South Denpasar…

An Australian man has apparently been murdered in his Sanur, Bali residence.

A Singaporean student, thought to have been under the influence of magic mushrooms, has fallen to his death from a Kuta hotel.

 The link to learn more:

http://www.balidiscovery.com

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Never mind, I’m still heading down there for a grand reunion later this year!

 

Selamat Hari Nyepi!

Sorry, Bali Governor, NO Forgiveness For Jihadist Swine!

Made Mangku Pastika, Governor of Bali

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Bali’s Governor, speaking on October 12, 2016, at the 14th commemoration of the First Bali Terrorist bombing held at the Ground Zero Monument –

“In fact, we desire to forgive. I feel certain that we have already forgiven (those who committed these acts), but it is not possible that we will ever forget.”

http://www.balidiscovery.com

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Like Hell!

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Unlike the Governor, I hope the Bali Pigs are burning in Hell and will continue to do so for all eternity.

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I very clearly remember the filthy jihadist pig Imam Samoedra (that’s it, in the middle) being asked by a reporter, during the Ramadan month before the terrorist trio were put to death – it’s a time when people ask forgiveness for any wrongs they may have done over the year – if Samoedra would ask it of his victims and/or their kin.

‘Why would I say sorry to kafirs?’

That was the fiend’s response.

I enjoyed my bacon buttie and beer the day they were put down.

No way should anyone forgive them….

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…nor should we forgive those who laud their satanic cause.

 

Tourists! Enjoy Beautiful Bali – But Beware of Besakih!

I’ve been warning people for years about Besakih, that grand Hindu temple in Bali, and the appalling avarice of the A-holes who somehow seem to have control over much of the ‘tourist industry’ in its vicinity.

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• So it was good to read ( in that Balinese  website I often like to use) that Bali’s provincial legislature may at last be taking steps to curb the swine.
• They’re are not only unpleasant in themselves but also leave visitors with a poor impression of the Hindu faith, which is a great shame because most Balinese, who are Hindu of course, are decent friendly sorts.
• I like Bali a lot, for numerous reasons. 
  

  Bali Hindu King – Don’t Kill Our Cows! Muslim ‘Scholars’ – Get Lost!! 

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 Unpleasant A-hole!

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No need for me to repeat myself – you can go back to my previous posts…

Bali’s Besakih Temple – Ten Years On, Still Disgracing The Isle of The Gods! 

….but here’s my first-hand account of what went on during my first visit over FIFTEEN years ago

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The badgering to hire a ‘guide,’ who knew little enough, and to hire a sarong, were just about tolerable, but the ridiculous price asked for simple admission, with ‘suggested’ charges listed in dollars and yen, made me wonder if this was truly a place of worship of gods or of Mammon.

(When we looked askance at the importunate buffoon, he promptly showed us a ‘guest-list’ – it appeared to be signed by various overseas visitors, proudly acknowledging contributions of immense generosity. A work of fiction, or a testimony to the gullibilty of foreigners? I haven’t yet figured that out)

Mammon, we decided, so made to walk away, but then suddenly Rp.50,000 was enough for the two of us to gain entry.(as a sometime amateur archaeologist, I really like climbing about old temples and would have been irked had I not called their bluff successfully)

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But what finally hacked me off was after the climb, when we emerged onto the road lined with tatty souvenir shops and warungs.

A cold drink was in order, so down we sat and ordered two cans of Pepsi.

You can buy them in mini-markets in Jakarta today for under Rp.5000, so back then the purchase price was maybe Rp.3000. Given that it was a tourist trap, I expected a bill for maybe Rp.10 or 15 thousand. No -THIRTY THOUSAND Rupiah, or more, I think, was the sum demanded by the unsmiling crone who served us.

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…and now here’s credible back-up for what I said.

Foreign tourists are again complaining about extortion practiced by “local guide” who prey on visitors to Bali’s most sacred holy shrine – the Pura Agung Besakih…com, these complaints are being considered seriously by a special commission on tourist guides established at the Bali House of Representatives (DPRD-Bali)

http://www.balidiscovery.com.

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 Chairman Ardana

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Commission Chairman Anak Agung Ngurah Adi Ardana’s most telling statement has to be this.

“If there are tourists who do not want to use the services of a local guide, I ask that they (local guides) do not try to force or coerce tourists to use their services.”

 He has expressed his concern at the negotiated prices now being applied and the impression received by many tourist visitors that they are being victimized and preyed upon.

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As indeed the poor tourists are!

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Ardana would do better to arrest the most offensive ‘guides’ and send them off to Aceh for a sound thrashing,  rather than talk to them.

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There’s nothing wrong with corporal punishment if it’s administered for real offences, like exploiting innocent foreign visitors,  rather than the imbecilic sectarian garbage ‘crimes’  – like guys holding hands with their girl-friends or girls straddling motor-bikes!