BADUNG ~ Government officials here voiced their objection this week to a proposed extension of Ngurah Rai International Airport’s only runway, saying it would destroy protected mangrove areas.

Officials of the Badung Development Plan Committee said the regency would not allow an expansion into the mangrove area on the eastern side of the airport.

“It’s not that we are against the project. We will support the expansion of the airport as long as it doesn’t destroy the mangrove forest,” said committee chief Wayan Sudiana.

Other officials think the expansion of the airport into the mangrove area would compromise the stability of the surrounding environment.

Head of the Badung Planning Board Kompyang Swandika said destruction of mangrove area could block rivers in the area and cause flooding.

“It would block the rivers and could flood the Kuta area,” he said.

DENPASAR ~ Drug distribution in Bali has decreased sharply in recent years, due to low demand, Bali Police spokesman Antonious Reniban said.

Police seized 12,623 grams of marijuana in 2005, 11,605 grams in 2006 and 6,929 grams in 200, he said.

Officers seized 8,469 grams of heroin in 2005, 748.5 grams in 2006 and 55.7 grams in 2007.

In addition, they seized 248.8 grams methamphetamine in 2005, 354.8 grams in 2006 and 64.5 grams in 2007.

A total of 6,304 ecstasy pills were seized in 2005, 1,684 in 2006 and 1,448 in 2007.

Reniban said demand fell off after several big dealers were transferred from Denpasar Prison to Nusakambangan Prison off the coast of southwest Java.

“Ever since we transferred Arman (Arman Maulidie) and other big dealers to outside Bali, drug distribution suddenly dropped,” he said, without elaborating further.

Meanwhile, from January to August 2007, police arrested more than 500 drug addicts, including 14 foreign nationals, for a total of 417 cases, said Reniban.

By Mark Ulyseas

For The Bali Times

This is about cross-cultural fertilization…

The land of the rising sun in harmony with the morning of the world.

Of course, one can’t overlook the ubiquitous watering hole.

The jazz, sake and vodka.

Occasionally, I have spent leisurely hours wallowing at my favorite watering hole, downing gallons of draft beer and discussing Sartre while nibbling on chicken satay and pontificating on the travails of living in Camelot (often referred to as Ubud), complete with its bars, nightclubs, restaurants, art galleries.

Talk is cheap but liquor is quicker, as Doc. Dwarka (a visiting Ayurvedic specialist and doc to us) would declare. And what would I say? That my watering hole has now become a Chinese restaurant. In fact, one has to wrestle with the Sino customers to get a seat: you know, like musical chairs - the music being the sizzling sound of pork chops on the barby.

It was here that I had breakfast with an acquaintance, Chris Gentry, the other day. The mornings being the only time the irregulars can get a look-see. Over a meal of ribs, tuna sandwiches, fried eggs sunny side up and crispy bacon, washed down with large tumblers of Bloody Marys, we moan the intrusion into our watering hole by invading hordes of tourists from the Asian mainland. The time is 9:30am. I feel it is going to be one of those days when we will be here till closing time, a comforting thought considering the mayhem that surrounds us all in our daily grind.

Then Chris, in his inimitable bedside manner, gives me a few unsolicited ideas for future columns. I patiently listen to him wax eloquent on Ubudian society.

“Mark, do you know that there are over 150 Japanese women who have married Balinese and are living here in the villages in and around Ubud? My wife is Japanese, so I know.”

“I haven’t seen any women dressed like Japanese in Ubud, let alone elsewhere in Bali,” I reply.

He extols the virtues of the Japanese women who have married Balinese men and have adopted the local culture. They live like Balinese in thought, word, deed, dress and are indistinguishable from the locals - unlike many other expats who have retained their culture in terms of dress and lifestyles and some even their names, Made Wijaya, a friend, being the exception.

Isn’t this ironic as it was only in the last century that the Japanese invaded and occupied Bali? One can still see the tunnels that they built near Klungkung during WWII.

History is the sacred cow often sacrificed by the hands of forgotten memories. The spirits of the innocents who were killed in WWII in Bali must be keenly observing the migration of people like birds, the comings and goings of generations of foreigners on this island, probably pondering the rationale for the bloody past and the incentives for wars.

Just the other day, Graham, a buddy from Ibiza who spends six months a year in Ubud, took me to As One Lounge and Gallery to meet the Japanese couple that run the place – Chika Asamoto and her husband Hutomo Ishii. If you are a jazz fanatic, this is the place to hear Chika on the sax performing with local and visiting musicians. And while you sip sake, you can converse with Hutomo about his artworks, which grace the walls of the lounge. He is an artist who is in love with Bali.

Speaking to Chika and Hutomo, I begin to realize that time is only the vehicle; the essence is the heart of the people who adopt Bali as their home. They bring with them a culture and an acceptance of all things Asian that makes this experience so enriching.

A month ago, Jill Gocher, a photographer friend, took me for dinner to Hyroshi, the Japanese restaurant on the high street. Unfortunately, as I don’t eat seafood, the dinner was nasi bungkus with ayam for me. But the experience left me wondering about the Japanese who have settled in Bali. What has lured so many back?

Chika and Hutomo, the soft-spoken, hugely talented couple, don’t carry with them the burden of history. What they have brought to Ubud is the intrinsic passion for culture – art, music and the best sake in town.

Let us revert to Chris Gentry, an American who is married to a fine Japanese lady and resides in Ubud. Okay, I’ll not go off on a tangent on this one but suffice to say, Bali is the prime meridian between light and dark. Those who venture onto this isle must understand the rules of peaceful coexistence. Methinks Chris has got it down pat.

It is 6pm and doc grabs a copy of The Bali Times from me and starts reading it aloud. He abruptly stops and remarks, “The world is [expletive]. Take a look at this…” He hands me the paper, pointing to the Health page, which carries the news item “Doctors use Vodka Drip to Save Tourist.” Apparently, a man in Oz who tried to kill himself (like we all do while driving in Bali) was resurrected from near death by a constant drip of vodka for three whole days. Hooray! Our endless days of depravity have finally paid off. All along, we assumed that vodka would be the death of us. In fact, it has given life to someone, albeit in tragic circumstances. But on the flip side, can you imagine the hangover he must have had?

“So, doc, what do you have to say about this?” I ask.

“Absolute vodka saves absolutely,” he replies while sipping his sinful martini.

The morning has now become night, Chris has left and there are only a few stragglers, like doc and yours truly, sluggish at the square table.

Quietly, doc confides in me his dream to set up an Ayurvedic retreat somewhere in Europe. I announce that I plan to visit Japan to find out why my favorite Japanese writer Yukio Mishima - author of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - committed hara-kiri in his mid-20s. Oh well, we are like two sodden souls waiting for the Day of Atonement.

Later in the night while returning home, I hear Chika playing a soulful rendition of Louis Armstrong’s What a wonderful World, her saxophone wailing in the night. Whether it is real or imagined, I don’t know, but it strikes a chord in me. Could it be that the Morning of the World and the Land of the Rising Sun have found peace in each other … in Camelot?

To Chika Asamoto, her husband Hutomo Ishii and all the wonderful Japanese who have made Bali their home, I bow and say…

“Arikato.”

Thank You.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om

By Sophia Read

For The Bali Times

SEMINYAK ~ Vincent Van Gogh once said, “I often think that the night is more alive and richly colored than the day,” and nowhere is this more true than beneath the surface of the ocean. Diving, or even snorkeling, at night, one enters a whole new world of wonders – a “world of waters, dark and deep,” said John Milton. To some, night diving is the ultimate thrill, to others, simply an obvious extension of their daytime activities.

The night, the dark, stirs a primeval fear in the human soul. Since we huddled around fires to keep predators away, humans are naturally (and sensibly) wary of the dark. Our major sense, sight, is disabled. To venture willingly into what is essentially an alien environment - we cannot breathe or maneuver with our accustomed ease underwater - may seem foolhardy at best. But night diving has it’s own unique set of attractions.

Basically, diving at night, provided you follow correct procedures, is as perfectly safe as diving during the day. Scary monsters do not lurk in crevices (during the night they come out!), and a giant shark is not waiting for the middle of the night to attack your fishing vessel.

Night diving offers a whole news set of challenges and enjoyments – a familiar, oft-dived site becomes mysterious and alluring. Daytime creatures have vanished and a new range of fascinating and colorful life abounds. At night the reef quite literally comes alive: the coral polyps emerge to feed. All divers know that coral is alive, but when diving a reef during the day, it is difficult for us to conceive that something that resembles rock and stone so much can possibly be a living creature – diving at night, it becomes obvious.

One of the main reasons for taking a course in night diving is that it will ensure that you know the correct safety procedures. At night, even more so than during the day, the diver is completely reliant on his equipment, most directly the dive light. No one should go night diving without at least two light sources, a primary and a backup. Many divers carry three. The PADI Night Diver Specialty course will teach you how to choose a dive light, and, more importantly, how to maintain one.

The sign language that divers have developed as a means of communication underwater is limited at night. You need to be sure that your buddy can see your hands, and to do this you need to get their attention. Anyone trying a night dive also needs to ensure that they have secured their alternate air source, and the low-pressure inflator hose is in easy reach. Remember, one hand will be holding the dive light.

In Bali, we have several sites suitable for night diving – the wreck of the USAT Liberty on a full moon night is a wonder to behold, a living, breathing, sleeping, fighting, mating tumult of life. One of our favorite night dives is up on the northwest coast, at Pemuteran, the Biorock Regeneration Project. Here, at night, you can almost see the coral establishing itself on the structures as it reaches out to feed, a complete insight into how a reef is formed. Within reach of southern Bali, there is a great night dive available near Padang Bai. You take a short jukung ride to the still waters of Blue Lagoon, where diving at night often attracts schools of fish to the beam of your light – diving with an escort.

The writer is sales manager of AquaMarine Diving – Bali.

By Amy Chavez

For The Bali Times

I have always been fascinated by the shops on Jl. Legian. How can they all sell the same stuff? And a lot of it is just cheap junk. Who would buy this stuff?

Well, I’ll tell you who.

“I give you good price,” says the Balinese woman, begging us to come into her shop. “Oh really?” said my two friends, dragging me into the store with her. My friends were on holiday. They only had five days in Bali, and they were Japanese.

Cha-ching!

The Japanese have their own style when it comes to traveling, and the Indonesians know this. As my Japanese friend says, “It’s your vacation! You should treat yourself to the best of everything: the best hotel and the best food. Indulge yourself - shop!”

This is in contrast to Westerners, who tend to take longer vacations and might choose to stay in a losmen.

Imagine having only five days of vacation once a year. That’s barely enough time to eat and buy some local products, let alone do any sightseeing. The result? Japanese in Overdrive.

My Japanese friends were not interested in the sea, since Japan is an island country and most people grow up near the sea. No, what impressed these girls most about the Bali island paradise was the shopping.

Giving in to the slightest suggestion of the local hawkers to “Come look, ma’am,” the girls did exactly as they were told. They readily identified themselves as shop-o-holics to the hawkers (in Japanese!), and they shopped indiscriminately. They were like children in a candy store – except with enough money to buy the whole store. And they did.

They bought clothes they would probably never wear, multiple gifts for the same people back home and cheap knickknacks galore. Cha-ching!

I often lost track of the Japanese in Overdrive as they were regularly consumed by crowds of hawkers pushing their wares. At one point, I suspected the paparazzi would arrive thinking they were celebrities. And this was just the first day!

These girls were anxious to taste the local food. Forget eating fresh fish on the beach at Jimbaran; they eat fish all the time in Japan. These girls wanted beef. And they ate beef at every meal, as well as taking part in local exotics such as goat satay, and foreign exotics such as lamb chops. “Enok!” they screamed with delight.

The second day we spent going back to some of the same stores to buy more, and on the third day, they wanted to go to the outdoor market in Ubud. On the fourth day, we went back to the outdoor market Ubud. The fifth day, they claimed they could not fit any more in their suitcases, but that did not stop them from spending. One wanted her hair braided like Whoopi Goldberg’s, and the other wanted a temporary tattoo. In addition, on a whim, they would get their toenails painted pink with pretty little white flowers on them. Cha-ching!

On the last day, we had a couple of hours free before taking them to the airport, so they wanted to go down one of the shopping streets they hadn’t been to yet. As we made our way down the street, one of them was unusually quiet. I sensed something was wrong. We hadn’t even entered any stores. An hour later, the Japanese girls still hadn’t bought a thing! “What’s wrong?” I finally asked.

“We’re out of money!” they screamed with delight. I lent them some money and they continued shopping.

A few days after I saw them off at the airport, I received an email from a Japanese man who was a friend of a friend. His son had just graduated from university and was taking a trip to Bali with his friends for five days. Would I show them around Kuta?

I met the recent grads at the airport a few days later. All nine of them. These young guys were into water sports, so I took them directly to Nusa Dua. There we were given a menu of all the water sports available along with prices: everything from banana boat rides to parasailing. “Which sports would you like to do?” I asked them.

“All of them!” said the Japanese in Overdrive. So all nine people did all 10 sports, all day long. Cha-ching!

A few months later, some other Japanese friends said they were coming to visit me in Bali. These are old friends of mine who had traveled quite a bit, so I was relieved, knowing this would not be a five-day shopping spree nor a five-day motor-powered holiday. When the six of them arrived in Bali, I said, “What would you like to do?” They all said one thing: “Drink!”

So every day the Japanese in Overdrive and I spent all day under the same tree on Kuta Beach, drinking Bintang beers from the same vendor. I had never drank so much in my life.

And the vendor had probably never sold so many beers. Cha-ching!

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SAN FRANCISCO ~ Spending on computer technology will top US$1 trillion this year as the industry grows increasingly vital to national economies worldwide, according to a study by technology market intelligence firm IDC.

An analysis of 82 countries and regions found that information technology (IT) businesses - computer hardware, software and services - are major generators of jobs, companies and tax revenues.

“Growth of the IT sector is critical to the world economy and each of the countries we study,” the International Data Corporation report concludes.

Indonesia’s exports are projected to grow 14 to 15 percent in 2008, with strong commodity prices likely to offset weak demand from the country’s major trading partners, a minister said this week.

Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said that Indonesia would also try to increase its exports to emerging markets.

“We need to anticipate what is going to happen next year and the following year because there has been some analysis (showing) that a slowdown in our main markets may last for one to two years,” Pangestu told reporters.