I have just finished my second book about Bali and this time I have written a guide for people interested in retiring in Bali. Writing certainly doesn’t come easy for me and even though I have all of these ideas running around in my head, getting them written down is another thing all together.

I learnt quite a bit from writing my first book on starting a business in Bali and the feedback I got from it. There has also been this small revolution in publishing over the last couple of years and there is much less stigma attached to self publishing a book. In fact publishers are starting to find new authors after they have had success from selling their work directly to Kindle and other ebook readers.

There are many books on retiring to Thailand, the Philippines and South American countries, but nothing that I have ever seen for Bali or Indonesia. I am hoping my book can help to fill this gap.

You can download the book from the main part of the website here.

Stuart McDonald is the founder and publisher of the popular online travel guide to South East Asia – Travelfish.org. Recently they have made the switch from selling downloadable ebooks to iPhone applications and in their own words: “This app doesn’t supplement a guidebook, but replaces it.” Some application developers have become millionaires overnight with the success of their applications.

For people who don’t own an iPhone or maybe even a smart phone, can you tell us what an application actually is?

An application is a program that runs on your phone. In our case the apps are similar to electronic books in that you can swipe from page to page to get information, look at photos and so on.

Previously on your site Travelfish you were selling downloadable ebooks, what made you take the decision to switch to iPhone applications?

There’s a lot we can do with iPhone apps that we can’t with PDF guides. For example the app contains hundreds of high resolution photos to show Bali at its best, interactive maps to help you find your way around and reams of text to keep you informed. The end product is far more useful than a PDF book.

How difficult is it to get an application approved by Apple?

As long as the programming is solid, it is just a waiting game. The Bali app took about a week for Apple to approve.

With the success of the iPhone and stories of developers becoming millionaires from selling their apps, the iPhone has apparently become a competitive marketplace. Is marketing your application any different from what you would normally do to promote an online business?

It is an extremely competitive market and with considerable downwards pressure on prices unless you’re willing to do a lot of loss leading, there is limited scope to “market” apps in the traditional manner. Obviously we push the app through Travelfish.org, Twitter and Facebook but other than that the only marketing has been through chasing traditional press for coverage. The Jakarta Globe ran a story on the Bali app at the start of the week for example.

If someone has an idea for an app but has no idea about programming, can they still get their app developed?

Yes, but they will need to work with a developer. The coding is quite complex and I’d describe it, at least for now, as a specialised field. One can either work with a developer to build something from scratch or there are some template-style apps that people can populate with their own information with little programming knowledge required — quality can be quite variable in this regard though.

In a previous newsletter, I talked about the success authors are having publishing for the Kindle. Do you have any plans to perhaps create your guides for the Kindle?

We’re talking about it — I need to buy a Kindle first!

Can you give any tips or advice for anyone thinking about developing an iPhone app?

Two things. Keep your expectations under control. The vast majority of apps in the store probably sell less than one copy a day. Gaming is one area where there is a serious amount of money being made, but that is now often cornered by bigger players. For some though, apps can be a reasonable income stream as a part of a larger business.

Don’t underestimate the time it takes to put the app together. We thought it would take 6 weeks to build our first app, when it fact it took six months.

Can you please tell us a little bit about your application you created for Bali? Is it just for tourists or is it useful for expats also?

The Bali app is primarily a travel guide. It covers over 20 destinations on the island, from the popular destinations like Kuta and Ubud through to lesser known spots like Munduk, Medewi, Pemuteran and Nusa Ceningan. It includes reviews of over 300 guesthouses and hotels, 150 places to eat and dozens of activities and attractions. There’s interactive maps, a photo gallery and also a detailed introductory section covering history, culture and so on.

It is primarily aimed at visitors to Bali, but would also be of considerable use to expats living in Bali who are looking for guidence on weekend breaks and so on.

How can people download your Bali travel app?

It’s available in the iTunes Appstore and you need an iPhone to be able to use it. Regularly selling for US$8, it is currently on sale at $0.99 till next Monday.

You can read more about it here http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/bali/id450179078?mt=8

Mumbul guesthouse adalah penginapan di Lovina, wilayah Bali utara. Mumbul guesthouse salah satu penginapan murah di Bali dengan fasilitas Free Wifi, Kolam renang, Pemandangan sawah yang alami seperti di desa, ac, air panas, restaurant.

Mumbul guesthouse memberikan harga murah termasuk dengan sarapan pagi.  Kegiatan yang bisa di lakukan di Lovina, Bali adalah melihat lumba – lumba, memancing, snorekling, diving, dan juga beberapa tour yang lainnya. Mumbul guesthouse juga dapat membantu anda untuk mendapatkan jasa tour di atas tersebut beserta dengan penyewaan mobil, penyewaan sepeda motor.

Mumbul guesthouse juga menyediakan buku – buku bacaan berupa novel dengan berbahasa inggris dan buku – buku tersebut dapat di baca dengan gratis.

Selamat menikmati liburan di Bali dengan fasilitas – fasilitas yang bagus, dan menikmati indah nya alam pariwisata Indonesia, Bali.

Mumbul Lovina

+62858 -5743 -8882

I just got back to Bali yesterday from a short trip to Singapore. I had been to Singapore before on a company junket, but that was a long time before I was living in Bali.

Singapore has a fantastic transport system with buses and an extensive subway system. It is easy to get from the airport to the downtown area and anywhere around the island.

The traffic is “normal” where people actually follow traffic signals and wait for pedestrians to cross. There is no rubbish in the streets and the sidewalk gardens are planted with well groomed tropical plants.

The first day I was actually thinking it might be nice to live there. Lots of shops and places to visit. The next day I took an early morning subway ride. It brought back memories from commuting daily on the subway when I was living in Tokyo.

I couldn’t help noticing that tired and distant look everyone had as they traveled to work. I remembered that feeling and it sent a shiver down my spine. No-one spoke to each other and people either tried to get a little bit of sleep or listened to music on their ipods. In fact most people I saw were listening to their ipods or were talking on their mobiles. Everyone living their lives in their own little world.

It was nice to be able to browse the huge bookstores like Borders and Kinokuniya and have a bit of change in scenery, at the same time I couldn’t wait to get back to Bali.

Bali, Buleleng

Saya tinggal di Propinsi Bali, kabupaten Buleleng. Sekitar 4 bulan lalu saya mengurus KTP, namun melalui Kepala Dusun. Kepala Dusun tersebut meminta saya membayar Rp. 750,000 di tambah dengan uang lelah dan total saya bayar Rp. 900,000.
Menurut Kepala Dusun tersebut, saya akan mendapatkan KTP saya lebih kurang tiga hari. Setelah seminggu saya tidak mendapat kabar apapun, lalu saya ke rumah Kepala Dusun tersebut dan akhirnya saya di beritahu bahwa saya akan mendapatkan KTP tersebut dalam waktu lebih kurang dua minggu. Saya masih menunggu dan setelah tiga minggu tidak mendapat kabar dari Kepala Dusun tersebut, saya menemui kembali Kepala Dusun tersebut, lalu saat saya menayakan masalah KTP saya tadi, kepala Dusun tersebut mengatakan bahwa saya harus menunggu selama enam bulan, namun akan di usahakan agar saya mendapatkan KTP dalam dua bulan saja.
Setelah dua bulan, saya masih belum juga mendapat kabar dari Kepala Dusun tersebut, hingga akhirnya saya benar – benar kesal dan marah, maka saya putuskan untuk ke kantor Lurah menanyakan langsung masalah KTP saya karena saya merasa di permainkan dan di tipu. Sampai di kantor Lurah, ternyata berkas – berkas surat pindah saya belum di kerjakan, atau hanya di letak di atas meja, bahkan belum ada laporan apa – apa baik itu ke Camat ataupun ke LUBANG SAMPAH !!!!!!
Karena kesal dan marah, saya minta kembali dokumen surat pindah saya juga uang yang telah saya beri sebesar Rp. 900,000 waktu itu, lalu Kepala Dusun tersebut mengatakan uang tersebut tidak dapat di kembalikan karena sudah di potong ini dan itu dan segala macam alasan. Saya bukan orang bodoh, karena saya punya pendidikan dan selain itu, orang tua saya juga salah satu staff Pegawai Negeri yang mana saya paham benar tugas – tugas staff di pemerintahan. Dimana tugas mereka adalah untuk rakyat, bukan untuk diri sendiri dan merugikan rakyat juga mempermainkan rakyat. Lalu saya minta kwitansi yang menyatakan kemana saja uang itu di gunakan. Dan dari kwitansi tersebut, ternyata uang tersebut di pakai untuk ini dan itu, dll.
Yang menjadi bahan pertanyaan saya, kenapa uang buat mengurus KTP tersebut di gunakan untuk hal yang tidak ada sangkut paut ke KTP ???? Dan lagi pula, saya tidak dapat KTP saya bahkan saya cuma dapat surat perantara untuk mengurus KTP di daerah lain,, Lalu kenapa saya harus bayar ini dan itu kalau KTP tidak dapat bahkan saya malah kehilangan uang saya.
Saya punya bukti rekaman dari percakapan masalah KTP waktu saya bicara dengan Kepala Dusun tersebut, dan bukti tersebut saya simpan dan saya berikan kepada salah satu keluarga saya. Bahkan ada beberapa orang yang mengetahui masalah pengurusan KTP tersebut. Saya berharap sekali, agar KPK atau staff Pemerintah bisa bekerja dengan jujur. Saya bisa saja mengusut masalah ini lebih panjang saat hal itu terjadi, namun karena saya merasa masih ada belas kasihan terhadap tetangga sendiri yaitu Kepala Dusun tadi, oleh karena itu saya berusaha bicara baik – baik dan tidak membawakan masalah itu ke jalur hukum.
Saya salah satu warga atau rakyat yang telah di permainkan atau di tipu tepatnya oleh salah satu staff Pemerintah di Buleleng. Saya hanya ingin berbagi agar kelak hal yang sama tidak terjadi lagi dimana saja dan oleh siapa saja. Peganglah kepercayaan yang telah di berikan oleh orang lain, dan jagalah dengan sebaik mungkin agar baik rizki dan kehidupan kamu. Uang yang tidak halal adalah uang IBLIS dan akan di makan oleh SETAN nantinya.
Kepada masyarakat atau instansi pemerintah yang membaca rubrik ini, tolong agar lebih waspada lagi, dan satu pertanyaan kepada siapa saja yang baca rubrik ini semoga bisa menjawab ….. Apakah sebutan yang pantas di berikan mengenai kejadian ini, Korupsi kah atau Penipuan ?
Terima kasih sebelumnya telah membaca rubrik saya.

The following article is a guest post from Sarah from Damai Lovina Villas.

If someone were to put a pin in a map of Bali for each noteworthy attraction, you would quickly see a pattern very different from the spread of tourism on the island: most pins would be in North Bali, and it is indeed here, not in the south, that the traditional heart and mind of Bali lies. Just a few hours from the airport you feel light years away from the crowds and ready to experience the true Bali.

The main Northern city of Singaraja is a busy provincial town with 400.000 people going about their everyday life with hardly a thought to discoteques, hair beads, watersports or any tourist activities. It is a charming city, cleaner than most in Indonesia, and the wide, shady avenues lined with pretty white houses betray its colonial past. The city we see today was built by the Dutch as their government city, but already before their arrival, this was the island’s capital. The city’s name means ’The Lion King’ and once all of Bali’s kings paid tribute to the king in Singaraja. Today the powers of the kings are mostly ceremonial, but it is possible to get a glimpse into the world of the past. By special arrangement with the royal family in Singaraja, the small boutique hotel Damai Lovina Villas nestled in the jungle clad hills, can arrange special tours in the former royal palace, where members of the royal family will tell the stories of when the last kings ruled here.

Most people arrive to Singaraja by the winding road leading through Bedugul, Bali’s cool and fertile mountain highland. Vegetable, spice and flower farms line the road and in the busy market you can sample the produce and also get a taste of Balinese country living.

Temples and monasteries

The North is also where you find most of Bali’s most important temples. The most photographed of them all is probably Ulun Danu, the heartbreakingly beautiful water temple lying in serene splendor on Lake Bratan, one of the holy lakes of the Northern highlands. A visit here is surprisingly peaceful and uncrowded, despite the temple’s importance. The North is also the homeplace of Besakih, the Balinese Mother Temple on the slopes of Mount Agung, the largest of all Balinese temples. But most telling of the richness of history and culture in the northern region is perhaps an unassuming little clay monastery on the road leading up to hotel Damai in Lovina. No mention is made of it in any guidebook, most tourist pass it by, totally unaware of its existence, and even the immediate neighbours might have difficulty in explaining what the little temple with pretty clay domes actually is. In reality the building is a carefully made reconstruction of a small buddhist monastery built
by chinese traders in the exact same spot in the 7th century, perhaps as a small sister temple to the famous nearby temple in Banjar.

Villages and culture

Most hotels in the North are found in the area of Lovina, a stretch of small fishing villages and beaches along the North coast, mostly famous for their laid-back tropical charm and the dolphins that gather in the bay at sunrise. But just a few kilometers away the small village of Tigawasa harbours another cultural secret. The village is a ’Bali Aga’ village, the Aga people being ’Bali’s Aboriginals’, the people that was already inhabiting Bali when the hindu Majapahit culture, the present day Balinese culture, migrated here in the 15th century. The religion here is a mix of Balinese hinduism and animist beliefs which shows in the distinctly different carvings and offerings found here. The most prized secret here is the 1000-year-old stone sarcophagus from an ancient king, tiny because the king was tiny, hidden somewhere in the village’s hinterland.

A short drive from Tigawasa you experience the Balinese culture at its most charming. The small mountain village of Munduk grows some of the islands best coffee and only few tourists have discovered the joys of having a quiet cup while you enjoy views of amazingly beautiful rice terraces, perhaps with a traditional dance class for the village children just nearby.

Much more dramatic is the mountain village of Kintamani, balancing on the edge of a vast volcanic crater overlooking the stark beauty of Lake Batur. Her Bali’s volcaninc past and present is very obvious. Inside the volcanic crater a new volcano is slowly rising, literally a volcano within a volcano. And experiencing the mist-shrouded temple here will enrich any Balinese holiday.

Nature and landscape

North Bali is rightly famous for its natural beauty and varied landscapes. The region is home to the National Park, that sprawls over almost the entire north-western tip of the island. The park also extends beyond the island itself an includes the island of Menjangan which calm and crystal clear waters are recognized as the islands best dive and snorkeling site. The Botanical Gardens in Bedugul is a stunningly beautiful park, but in many ways the nature outside the park is just as beautiful. But like with the cultural attractions, many of North Bali’s finest natural sights are hidden gems, that still waits to be discovered. One example is the waterfall of Ambengan. It is just as tall, and perhaps even more beautiful, than its more famous cousin, the waterfall at Git-git. Hidden at the end of a winding jungle path, a 30-meter waterfall cascades into a cool mountain lake. On some mornings, monkeys come to play in vines around he lake. And unlike Git-git there will be no tour buses filling the parking lot in front. In fact there is no parking lot, only a local farmer, who is delighted to talk to people coming to visit him from far away and welcome them to the true heart of Bali.

Menjangan Island atau Pulau menjangan, adalah salah satu lokasi pariwisata yang ada di bali. Tepatnya hanya sekitar satu jam dari lovina, buleleng dan sekitar tiga puluh menit naik kapal ke pulau menjangan tersebut. Menjangan island dengan keindahan alam bawah laut, benar – benar dunia nyata di dalam laut. Pulau menjangan ini memiliki pasir yang putih dan pulau yang terpencil dan berada di tengah – tengah laut lepas. Pulau menjangan ini, hanya di perbolehkan untuk snorekling saja dan tidak di perbolehkan fasilitas hotel atau restauran. Dengan snorekling atau diving, kamu akan melihat indahnya dunia bawah laut dengan berbagai macam ikan – ikan yang berwarna warni , karang – karang yang ada di dasar laut , seluruh binatang – binatang laut , dan rumput – rumput laut yang melambai indah di dasar laut. Semua keindahan itu hanya bisa kamu saksikan di pulau menjangan.

Tanah lots, Bali, Indonesia adalah salah satu tempat wisata yang sangat menarik dimana di tempat ini kamu dapat melihat keindahan bali yang masih natural. Di tanah lots ini, selain kamu bisa melihat keindahan alam bali dengan pantai yang indah dan ombak yang menerjang karang di sekitaran tanah lots, kamu juga akan melihat pura yang tepat berada di atas bukit. Pura yang besar dan masih aktif hingga saat ini. Di tanah lots ini juga kamu bisa melihat tarian bali yaitu tarian kecak. Tarian dari seni kebudayaan bali yang di gunakan untuk acara – acara khusus di bali.

Idul Fitri is the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the month long fasting of Ramadan. Many Indonesians from Java will return home for the holiday and a large number of domestic tourists will visit Bali for the holiday.

Police will be monitoring the massive movement of people leaving and entering Bali through the port of Gilmanuk where ferries connect Bali with Java. Not only will there be a high chance of traffic accidents, police fear terrorists might target the holiday period to enter the island of Bali.

Generally a good time to avoid travel if possible and many government offices, including immigration, are closed during the period.

Hot spring di kawasan Lovina, tepatnya sekitar 3 Km dari pusat Lovina. Tempat pemandian air panas yang banar – benar berbeda dari tempat permandian air panas yang lain.
Hot spring ini memiliki beberapa tempat bagian pemandian, salah satu berupa kolam, ada juga berupa tempat terapi massage untuk terapi yang agak keras pada bahu anda, dan tempat terapi massage yang lembut untuk bahu anda.
Di hot spring ini anda juga bisa mandapatkan massage dan spa karena di tempat ini mereka juga menyediakan saloon untuk massage dan spa.
Air di hot spring ini tidak lah panas sekali, hingga anda tidak perlu kawathir karena walau siang bolong, anda masih bisa bermandi ria di hot spring ini, karena airnya hangat.
Anda juga bisa melihat pemandangan indah yang ada di lokasi hot spring ini, dimana taman – taman tersebut di tata khusus mengelilingi kolan – kolam tempat permandian. Restaurant juga ada di hot spring ini, restaurant yang berbentuk lumbung, berpadu design bambu yang unik ada tepat di lokasi hot spring ini juga.
Biaya masuk hot spring sangat lah murah, hanya Rp. 3000,- per orang, jadi kamu dapat lebih sering berkunjung ke hot spring ini sesering mungkin.