We have come a long way since the heart was torn out of Bali eight years ago, and again three years later. Amid the rubble and hundreds of deaths, most of them foreigners on holiday, people said the bombed island would never recover, that its main tourist industry had been fatally damaged and that holidaymakers [...]

Peak mid-year season is in full swing and the numbers are solid: foreign tourist arrivals are up and hotel occupancy rates are accordingly at a healthy circa 70 percent, at many properties even higher. It is an abundantly rosy picture, one in which everyone is benefiting: the government, businesses, Indonesian families and, of course, the [...]

People overseas intending to travel to Bali for a holiday are now questioning whether it is safe to do so, given that the rabies crisis here has hit the headlines worldwide. One couple, from Europe, asked on this newspaper’s website: “Can anyone advise on how bad the situation there is as neither of us want [...]

Almost two years and nearly 80 human deaths later, the outbreak of rabies in Bali has ballooned from a few isolated cases in the southernmost Bukit area to infect stray dogs and kill people throughout the island. It is a deadly picture of chronic eradication-mismanagement that is now making headlines around the world and causing [...]

There is much and apposite concern about the direction our island is heading as it gains more global exposure and appeal, and legions more come here to holiday or relocate. That is good: A vibrant economy of expanding sectors benefits all. But in a locust-like rush to ravage, and then move on in search of [...]

Bali’s rabies crisis is claming more lives and more international media coverage that will hurt the island’s tourism sector. At least 65 people are now known to have died from the invariably fatal virus, which is largely transmitted by dog bites, following two more recent deaths.  And there’s the crux of this problem: Bali is [...]

A proposal by Governor Pastika to compel retailers to give up plastic bags for paper carriers is sound, wise and will only benefit Bali’s increasingly defiled environment. It is of advantage to no one for tourists to report – as they frequently do – seeing rubbish, much of it contained in plastic shopping bags, piled [...]

In parts of Indonesia there are groups who seek to forcibly impose their view, ideology and creed upon their neighbours – or expel them from the community. They reject any notion of pluralism, deeming their way the only way, even though that fine concept is a tenet of the constitution. In Java recently one such [...]

To everyone involved in Bali’s tourism industry, read these words: “Bali is so nice, but the first impression is the worst I’ve had anywhere in the world.” This shameful summation from an Australian visitor (see letter below) is not new, but what continues to shock and mystify is that the inexcusable handling of tourists arriving [...]

Governor I Made Mangku Pastika’s order this week to “arrest the anarchist demonstrators” after hordes of taxi thugs turned up at his office in Denpasar seeking the closure of rival Bali Taxi should make it clear to all troublemakers: You will not be tolerated. The brute force exhibited by recalcitrant drivers – those who proclaim [...]

Bali’s rising death toll from rabies shows that this spiralling health crisis is nowhere near an end and will continue to eat into the human population until the vast numbers of stray dogs are eliminated. At least three more people died this week from the disease, which is invariably fatal once symptoms appear, and which [...]

Our island is one of translucent contrasts: opulent residences line the streets and outside middle-aged women and young children and infants beg for cash. Travellers from around the world come here to experience untainted natural beauty yet spend much of their time sitting in dense traffic that casts a distorting pall over pollutant-clogged environments that [...]