Living in Buleleng in the north of Bali, you quickly realize that the tourist boom in the south hasn’t quite made it to the north of Bali. Of course, this is great for people looking for a quiet place to stay or live, but there’s not a lot of opportunity for the local population to find work or start a business.

So, it was good to hear the news that the Bali-India Foundation is planning to build Asia’s largest yoga center in Buleleng regency in north Bali.

The center will be built on 1.5 hectares of land near the village of Sukasada.

“The yoga center will be fully dedicated to social activities and the local community’s well-being,” said Dr. Somvir, an Indian professor who lectures in cultural studies and tourism at Bali’s Udayana University

Bali’s governor I Made Mangku Pastika has said he is jealous of Malaysia because of their success in attracting tourists to their country.

Bali is only one island in the whole of Indonesia, so 2 million visitors to Bali is a pretty good effort in my opinion. Malaysia had 22 million tourists in 2008. I think that Bali is now at a point where any more tourists visiting the island are going to have a negative impact on the island’s environment.

Some of the things I enjoy about traveling to Malaysia, compared with Indonesia are the free three month visas you get on arrival, buying duty-free alcohol in Lang Kawi and the pretty good public transport system they have.

My suggestions to improve tourism would include getting rid of the fees you have to pay for visas, allow longer stays, so people might travel further outside of Bali and reduce the high import taxes on alcohol.

At least nine people have been killed in traffic accidents during the Galungan festival that was celebrated this week in Bali from Wednesday.

Most people travel back to their hometowns and villages to celebrate the festival with their families. The cause is often speed and not wearing safety gear while riding their motorcycles.

From Xinhua news:

“Most of the accidents committed by motorists who were not using safety helmet during the ride,” Sugianyar was quoted by the Antaranews agency as saying.

Most victims were wearing Balinese traditional outfit to celebrate the festivities while they rode the motorbikes, he added.

He said that the need to wear helmet should be implanted in the minds of Balinese as most of them reluctant to use helmets when they are in traditional outfits for the festival.

Balinese feared that using helmets would damage their traditional headwears.

Update: Australian man killed in a motorcycle accident.

An Australian man has been killed in a motor cycle accident in Bali.

From NT news:

The man, understood to be a resident of Darwin, was an employee of airline company Strategic Aviation.

The Bali police report identifies him as Andrew MacLennan.

A friend of Mr MacLennan who contacted the Northern Territory News said he was 40 years old and lived alone in Darwin.

Survivors and relatives of the people killed in the 2002 Bali bombings laid flowers at the memorial monument in Kuta this past Monday.

Plans for a peace park on the bombing site are yet to be finalized and land still lies vacant.

Electricity supply has not been able to handle the growth in new development in Bali.

Electricity supply in Bali has once again been disrupted. The supply from the Gilimanuk Gas and Steam Power Plant had to be reduced by 130 megawatt due to maintenance operations.

The Gilimanuk Power Plant will be under maintenance from October 10 until December 6 and could lead to further power shortages.

Bali governor, Made Mangku Pastika, said he will seek alternative sources of energy, such as constructing a high-voltage electricity network that stretches across the Bali Strait.

It would be nice if they would consider “greener” electricity supplies, like wind or solar. Or even if they required hotels to use solar power for their outside lighting, which would at least be seen as a positive move.

I have lived in Japan and China and have now been living in Indonesia for most of this year. It is still taking me time to try and understand how people think here. The longer you stay and the more different experiences you have, the more things you pick up everyday.

The pace of life is slow here in Bali, which is one of the attractions for me to live here. Balinese people spend most of their time meeting their friends, attending ceremonies, talking, cooking and eating. When they get on a motorbike however, it’s as though they can’t spare a minute and just have to get to their destination in a heart beat. The result is some very nasty accidents. I am sure many of them are due to speed and reckless overtaking more than anything else. Once people get to their destination they are more than likely only going to be sitting around drinking coffee and smoking, so I am always wondering what could the rush be?

I am now interested in buying a house here. The house I am interested in, is only small but it had a vacant block of land next door which was included in the price. The land would have been good for a swimming pool, extending the existing house, or even building a brand new house to live in or rent out.

The seller explained that it was on a separate title, which was fine with me. We had a meeting with the seller and the notaris this morning and discovered that the seller didn’t even own the vacant land and it was his “friend’s” land. His friend is currently working on a cruise ship and it would be some time before he got back to Bali.

The seller has bought and sold properties before, so I wondered how he thought he would be able to sell off a piece of land that wasn’t even his and didn’t have the title for the land. The house by itself is nice enough. A foreigner had been renting it up until now and it is a comfortable enough place to live and I am sure can be rented out fairly easily.

I just can’t work out why the seller wasn’t upfront about who owned the land. He said he had his “friend’s” permission to sell the land. Yeah, right! I have seen the house a couple of times now and the owner keeps dropping the price, because he says he really needs money. I am still interested in the house, so I made an offer much lower than what the seller wants.

I wonder now how he will react. I imagine most people would just walk away from the deal. What do you think you would you have done?

Police have arrested an Indonesian man who is accused of murdering Japanese tourist Rika Sano. The Japan Times reports that an Indonesian man known only as “David” was arrested by Indonesian police in Malang in East Java Province and has since been brought to Bali and is currently being held by the police in Bali.

Bali Discovery reports the suspect’s full name is: David Goltar Wicaksono and is actually 26 years old.

The suspect is originally from the town of Bandung in West Java. The suspect was employed in a cigarette factory near Ngurah Rai International Airport.

A Japanese woman’s body was found on Kuta beach yesterday afternoon, according to Tempo Interactive news site.

The body was semi-naked and some of her possessions were found with the body. The woman came to Bali with a female friend and had been seen together at her hotel, Hotel Prani in Legian, with a local Indonesian man.

Update: Just found this story from JapanToday. The tourist is identified as Rika Sano.

‘‘We are still investigating the cause of her death. So far, I can only say that she was the victim of violence,’’ he said, adding her body is being kept at the Sanglah General Hospital for an autopsy.

According to Marpaung (detective unit chief at the Bali Police Headquarters), Sano checked into the Prani Hotel in Kuta with her friend Mayumi Someya, 30, on Thursday night, and at around 2:30 a.m. Friday, a man claiming to be a policeman led her away from her hotel.

According to the online news portal Tempo Interaktif, the man showed police identification and a badge to the hotel’s security officer and said Sano was a drug trafficker.

Japanese are only second to Australians in tourist numbers and are well known for how much they spend on holiday. The story is likely to be covered at length by the Japanese media, because of the brutality of the crime and the way the perpetrators allegedly posed as police officers.

Update #2: Just found another new article in the Straits Times:

‘The body was lying face down, half-naked in a bush, with only her black shirt on. We also found her mobile phone, underwear and a bag,’ he said.

‘The motive of the crime is unknown and is being investigated by our team.

We conducted an autopsy late last night but we can’t reveal the results now,’ said police spokesman I Gede Sugianyar.

The police are now denying that the perpetrator impersonated a policeman.

I noticed the build up in a number of yachts and catamarans in Lovina over the past few weeks and just realized that they are part of Sail Indonesia 2009. Last night they had Balinese dancers on the beach and central Lovina was packed with people.

Sail Indonesia is a three month trip around Indonesia which leaves from Darwin Australia and also travels to Langkawi in Malaysia. I am sure it would be a great trip and it provides a good boost to tourism in the region.

From September 30 to October 4th there are a number of events and activities planned especially for the sailors.

Unfortunately there is not much information available on the events taking place other than this billboard on the beach.

I went out looking at some land in a small village called Kalisada yesterday. Foreigners are looking for more and more quieter places to live near the beach, and Kalisada looks like one of those few places where you can still buy beach front property in Bali at an affordable price.

There is even an eco village under construction which is due to open next year.

The Batak style house is based on traditional houses found around Lake Toba in North Sumatra. Lake Toba is generally fairly cool at nights, so I think transporting the style of house to north Bali where is hot and dry, is a little impractical.

North Sumatra Batak style house

Open style kitchen in the Batak house

Pool in front of the Batak house

Stairs on the outside of the Batak house

The beach at Kalisada