Balinese, In Which I Wax McMegan

I was pretty sure I'd already titled some post "Down At The Balinese" in honor of the ultra-fine ZZ Top song of the same name, but I see now I just mentioned it in a comment recently. Regardless, you should all go listen to the song, while noting it has nothing ot do with Bali at all. We ourselves just got back from Bali, where we rented a villa with some friends. This is particularly McMegan-esque advice on my part, but if you were going to Bali, renting a villa through Indovillas is amazing and it's actually cheaper than staying in a mid-range or better hotel. I can't recommend them highly enough. It's particularly nice to be able to just eat at the place where you're staying without rounding up hungry, tired chidren to go to an expensive restaurant. (Because, you know, there's a chef. Jesus, I'm feeling embarassed for myself.) I only wish there were something comparable for Phuket but I've never had much luck.

Bali seems noticeably overdeveloped in the Canggu area and north of Seminyak generally in the last few years. Forests of villas have gone up in the rice paddies; it's like houses in potato fields in East Hampton that end up just looking into the windows of other houses after a while. Since my mom and I first stayed there in 2004 there have been massive numbers of new villas put up just on the hill we could see from the place we first stayed. They are, at least, generally put in space-saving rows in long plots with narrow frontage, which is good. But the rice paddies are all sliced up, and traffic has really gotten bad; it takes 25 minutes to get from Canggu beach to the first big, well-paved road (after which it's quite fast to get anywhere), but that's only about 2 miles.

Who's responsible for this--of course, me! Because I want to go stay in villas in Canggu. It's just that I don't want everyone else to do the same. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as well-managed, well-planned development that preserves as much as possible the qualities that made the destination popular, and then there is uncontrolled, traffic-spawning sprawl, and Bali has unfortunately gotten the latter. They've really obviously over-extended themselves, though, and there's about to be a mighty crash as spending by rich foreigners screeches to a halt and the latest, massive wave of developments comes on line. They even built condos and marketed them as investment properties which you can rent for a profit while you're not there, with guaranteed returns for the first 2 years. Condos!  That's going to get ugly.

The idea that tourism will decline and local construction plummet is not a very pleasing one either, though it seems to promise cheap rentals and empty beaches, since it means more poverty for Balinese people. It will take quite a while to use up all the housing they've built, since it's not geared to the local market in any way, and buildings in the tropics tend to crack and mildew fast. I really have no idea what the Indonesian government should do about any of it.

There is an election coming up in Bali, and the roadsides were filled with various campaign posters. They were interesting in that the photos chosen of the politicians were so unlike what would be chosen for a US campaign poster. American candidates are smiling, in motion, vigorous. The Balinese politicians looked serious, and the photos were often unflattering. They all looked like machers, like people too important to go around smiling at everyone and worrying about looking good. Like someone you could go to with a problem, and know that they could help you, if they wanted to. A procession of impassive, neutral faces, some with business suits topped by traditional headgear, and unreadable promises and slogans--a good reminder that I don't know jack about the place.

Comments

[grackle]

"there is such a thing as well-managed, well-planned development that preserves as much as possible the qualities that made the destination popular..."

The question is, does this former model even exist outside of Utopian novels? I have my doubts.

[belle waring]

yeah, not sure I can think of any examples. there's bad and worse, though...

[Brainz]

I remember the sober faces on the election posters a few months ago, but on one poster I saw there was a picture of a cockfight below the candidates. That'll communicate vigor all right.

[dsquared]

Spanish coast developed later than about 1989 is usually pretty sensibly done.

[Mrs Tilton]

I've been saying the same thing about Formentera for years.

[KCinDC]

Posters like these?

[belle waring]

wow, so like those that those are in fact some of them!