My Indonesian Island Break? Here You Are!

Some of you were kind enough to ask about the short island-hopping holiday which I took last week…

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….so here are a few pictures to entertain you.

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Komodo Island at day-break – I was the only non-Indonesian in our sea-faring gang, so it was up at dawn every day, not my usual life-style by any means, but there is a certain magic to the sunrise.  .

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The fisherfolk on Komodo Island live close to the source of their livelihood, but up in the hills, behind them, there are potential Guardian journalists prowling!

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Komodo dragon

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Actually, all the islands we visited were a joy.

Here’s the view from our hotel balcony in Labuan Bajo, which is not a big city, and in fact reminded me strongly of Bali’s Kuta several decades ago.

Surfer shops, loads of little cafes, a two-story bar with blaring music, and cheap little hostel-type places to stay all over the place.

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Highly recommended as a destination, whence ships both large and small will take you near and far!

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This ship was not the one we sailed on, but resembles ours, on which the crew caught and served fresh fish every day!

I tried my hand with the fishing line, but the denizens of the deep showed themselves to be xenophobic and refused to let me catch them!

Now I’m back in Jakarta, looking like a boiled lobster. The weather was brilliant there and it’s not much different here!

Prohibition Indonesia – Bali Exempt…Sort Of!

Had to get out and about last night to survey the expat reaction to the embryonic ‘creeping shariah’ diktat we’ve already covered here.

.No More Drink? Jakarta on Brink of Prohibition…

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Also to preempt the decree, by sinking as much vin rouge as possible – hence my delayed home-coming (fell asleep on the busway and ended up in Pluit) and my very late emergence today. 

Not hard to gauge opinion – it was the first thing just about EVERYBODY at the party spoke about. My fellow-attendees included Brits, Canadians, Germans, French and Australians – there was a mood of restrained alarm, many a finger crossed that sanity might yet prevail.

Some drew consolation from the fact that even government ministers must soon grasp that any such nationwide ban on booze would devastate Bali’s tourist trade.

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•  That’s Bondi beach, not Bali’s – but a nice photo, yeah?
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• And sure enough, a small grain of sense has percolated through. However, the ‘exemption’ of the Isle of the Gods is not as sensible as the Jakarta Post headline might lead us to hope.

Instead of leaving well enough alone, the ‘exemption’ ensures that minimarkets, food stalls, street vendors and beachside vendors will no longer be allowed to sell beer or other beverages with an alcohol content of between 1 and 5 percent. Thirsty tourists will thus no longer be able to walk out of their hotels or flop-houses and buy a beer two yards  from the door. That’s how densely populated Kuta and Legian, at least, are, in terms of mini-marts.

Instead, a cumbersome network of local government meddling is to be imposed. In Kuta, for example, six customary villages would establish village-owned enterprises to manage the hundreds of beachside beer vendors…

Wayan Swarsa, chairman of the customary village council (MADP) is planning to establish an enterprise for Kuta, Legian, Tuban, Kerobokan and Kedonganan.

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 Kuta Square

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No disrespect to Pak Wayan, but what benefits accrue from local councils running a business already running perfectly well in the hands of free enterprise?  The more state bureaucracies get involved – and I’m not singling out Bali here; it’s a nationwide problem – then the greater the risk of corruption.

Of course by making these arrangements for Bali, the Government is displaying a clear disregard for all those other areas in the archipelago which aspire to attract tourists.

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 Borobudur, Jogja

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Jogjakarta, with its magnificent architectural heritage, Lombok, Flores, not to mention Jakarta itself, are eager to bring tourists and their money to boost local economies.

President Jokowi was Jakarta’s Governor, for pity’s sake, and knows this to be true.

Meanwhile, back at the party, one Canadian demurred from the chorus of condemnation, reminding us that Ontario too has archaic, backward regulation of alcohol.

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Very true!

But it is nothing like the nightmare vision the Indonesian Government offers us, not just the kind of priggish restrictions residents of Stratford, Kitchener and Mississauga must deal with, but a ban on the very act of pouring a beer down your throat on a tropical Sunday arvo.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/17/bali-tourist-areas-exempt-beer-ban.html