How Bali is becoming even more "greener"!

Some eco-conscious entrepreneurs on Indonesia's Island of the Gods are working to build a future in tune with nature

By Tannia Vera & Robert Michael Poole from CNNgo

 

The Heart of School at Green School, Bali.

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In Indonesia, the concept of green living is starting to take hold.

This archipelago of more than 17,000 islands stretched along the equator is home to Bali, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and it has seen resorts, tourist facilities, ugly hotels, clubs and all the trimmings that go with those developed over the last several decades.

Now, the island is not only pushing a trend to create structures that preserve the natural environment, it is also establishing new forms of education.

A school, new housing and an affordable luxury holiday retreat show how fast the movement is progressing.

The grass is not greener on the other side when in Bali.

Cleaning up

The modern concept of sustainable, or “green” living, began in 1954 when Helen and Scott Nearing published “Living the Good Life.”

As the world’s population has grown -– to around 7 billion today –- and new technologies have been invented, the environments that we live in have been effected in many adverse ways.

Though some scientists, governments, companies and especially environmental organizations like Greenpeace have sought to confront the wider issues, individuals who simply want to live a more sustainable personal life have sought their own ecologically sound lifestyles.

In Bali entrepreneurial projects are now springing up to meet that demand.

Sixty-four projects recently competed in the Tri Hita Karana Awards, which recognize environmental management. 

According to local environmental consultant Gove DePuy, founder of a green youth culture movement called PT Akarumput, "growth is most obvious in the 'buzz' at this point. Magazine articles, people discussing renewable materials in the cafes and restaurants, green-themed festivals like Ubud's Earth Day Festival.

"But along with that has come actual change. More people refuse plastic bags in the grocery stores, Hypermart now offers cloth bags at the register, Bali's first Green building supply store (Little Tree) has opened its doors and Bali now has a chapter of the World Green Building Council," says DePuy.

Organic food is being bought more often for both personal and commercial use, eco-hotels, resorts and green residential homes have shifted construction materials from concrete to sustainable materials like straw and bamboo, which, as DePuy says "makes a huge dent in the amount of resources consumed by older, less efficient construction." 

Power to the various projects meanwhile is increasingly being generated by highly visible solar panels, water, geothermal, and wind sources.

Students discuss upcoming performances in the theater at Green School.

Green education

Inhabited mainly by Hindus, Bali and its culture is founded on the fundamental Sanskrit phrase "Tri Hita Karana."

Roughly translated, it means “to keep the harmony and balance between human to God, human-to-human and human to environment.”

"Human to environment" has been the guiding light for a number of eco-friendly property developers,  with many implementing environmentally-friendly methods of construction while still serving the growing demand of Bali’s tourism industry to cope with increasing numbers of visitors -- temporary and permanent. 

Green School is one such example. Built almost entirely of bamboo, Green School is redefining what children’s education is about.

Founded in 2008, the school teaches pre-school students through to grade 10, with grades 11 and 12 to be added in the next two years. Located between Denpasar and Ubud, the private school was founded and built by long term residents John and Cynthia Hardy who sold off their own successful local jewelry store before starting the school.

Its curriculum has a central core of English, Math, and Science but it also aims to prepare its pupils to be the green leaders of tomorrow via green studies and creative arts teaching.

Environmental leaders of tomorrow

At entrance lies a playground and cafe.

According to the Green School manifesto, it aims to be “the number one model of sustainability in education in the world."

"This generation of children will be the first to grow up learning about environmental issues from their early years,” says Chris Thompson, father of two young students at the school, aged 4 and 7.

The background of families enrolling suggests the school has a wide appeal, with students from 45 countries attending, and parents with diverse career backgrounds. Chris Thompson is an experienced media consultant who sits on boards in Abu Dhabi and Singapore advising on investment, growth and development strategies.

“We need new leaders to bring change to the world. But these students don't need to become environmentalists to help the world," he says.

"They simply need to have a consciousness about the challenges so that they may apply them in whatever profession they may choose," says Thompson.

Inflatable classrooms

When the humidity gets too much, a blow-up classroom keeps the coolness inside.

During our visit to the school in November 2010, we discovered its vast complex of classrooms.

There are both open-walled classrooms and even inflatable balloon-like classrooms to cope with the occasional extreme heat of the tropical forest, a hydro power vortex energy source to keep the school self-sufficient, organic plantation fields so kids can learn to grow their own produce and a conservation center of endangered avian species for children to observe and study directly rather than just read textbooks.

"Our aim is for environmentally off-grid power sourcing," says head of admissions and enrollment Ben Macrory. 

The school is also home to what is thought to be the largest permanent bamboo building in the world, known as The Heart of School (click "View Gallery" above for pictures).

Celebrity donors

The gymnasium at Green School, like most of the structures, has no walls.

Names of donors to the school as well as the names of the first student of the school are carved in the bamboo poles that hold up the multi-level structure. Among the names, celebrity donors Sir Richard Branson, Donna Karan and Miss Japan 2009: Emiri Miyasaka.

Ben Macrory says the school now has 203 students representing 45 nations. It also has a scholarship program for local Balinese. 

The program is intended to stimulate awareness of green issues among the local community by making the education affordable to Balinese. Regular fees range from US$5,000-10,000 per year.

The Grade 5 classroom at Green School fits into its surroundings.

Balifornian Tours works with charities and organizations like The Green School to help educate, clothe and nurish the great people in many small villages in Bali and Indonesia at large.  Our customized private guided tours encorporate visits to impovershed villages where participants can donate time, gifts, money or whatever they find appropriate.  Our feedback tells us this is one of the most rewarding parts of our tours.

Indonesian Boxer Chris John retains WBA title for 13th time. #Bali

John retains WBA featherweight title for 13th time

Bali and Indonesia is proud today.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian Chris John retained his WBA featherweight title for the 13th time by beating Fernando David Saucedo of Argentina in a unanimous decision on Sunday.
The victory at The Tennis Indoor Senayan improved his unbeaten Indonesian's record to 44-0-2.

John, 31, became the WBA interim champion in 2003 by defeating Oscar Leon in Bali. He then became a super champ after drawing with American contender Rocky Juarez in March last year. Six months later, he outpointed Juarez in Las Vegas.

The country celebrated his newest victory.

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Balifornian Tours offers the best custom holiday experience on Bali and all of Indonesia.  Balifornian Travel Blog is your source for news and fun information on travel, vacationing, upcoming events and much more.

See it all with Balifornian Tours.  Balifornian Tours offers the best custom holiday experience on Bali and all of Indonesia.  Balifornian Travel Blog is your source for news and fun information on travel, vacationing, upcoming events and much more.  We are a hospitality tour company and when you travel with us, you are our family.  Because Maryam is from the royal family, we have access to parts of the island that other tour operators simply can not visit.  Dont be a tourist, be a Balifornian! http://www.balifornian.com

More Praise for Bali as the Best Island Paradise...

Bali Baby!

By Bob Schiff

A scenic view in Bali. (Bob Schiff)

Editor's Note: Our roving international correspondent, Bob Schiff, has been traveling throughout Asia, reporting on the obscure and exotic. Here is his fourth of many communiques detailing his travels. Enjoy Shiff's musings on the locals, customs, accommodations, and certainly the visual and descriptive majesty of the sites he is visiting and documenting.

Bali
A three hour van from Ijen to the port on the western tip of Java, a half hour ferry ride across to Bali followed by a three hour bus ride to Denpasar and a half hour taxi ride and I arrived at my hotel in Legian. I think everyone has an image of Bali in their minds - idyllic tropical island with beautiful white sand beaches and an exotic culture unlike anything back home. Wrong - at least in the tourist area of south Bali. South Bali is a heavily overbuilt and crowded tourist scene. Australian is the predominant language spoken here, mate. There are a few areas that range from high-end Seminyak to the young and wild party enclave of Kuta. The beach runs all along the western shore but with all the development it's not very inviting. It does have killer sunsets though. Rip tides claim quite a few tourists; three people drown on Kuta beach the day I took my first surfing lesson.

Padang Padang beach, about 45 minutes south of the Legian/Kuta area.

Surfing is huge throughout south Bali. The breaks off the entire southern peninsula are legendary. Most of the rental motorbikes have u-shaped brackets to hold surf boards. Surfer shacks and guesthouses dot the cliffs of the southern Bukit peninsula.

There is a great beach near the southern end of Bukit called Padang Padang that runs true to my vision of Bali - tiny crescent of white sand surrounded by steep cliffs. Calm turquoise water with a surf break beyond the bay out in the Indian Ocean. Lunch is available from a traditional warang right on the beach. I went there three times during my week stay in south Bali.

Unlike the rest of Indonesia, Bali is primarily Hindu; a beautiful interpretation of Hindu unique to Bali. After weeks of traveling through Java during Ramadan it was refreshing to get to somewhere where there was pork and a vibrant nightlife. The Balinese dishes are a nice change from the rather bland and somewhat limited food choices in Java. My plan is to wait out the rest of Ramadan here in Bali. The holy month ends with the two day festival of Idul Fitri and a nine day holiday of Lebaran when Muslim people go back to their villages to celebrate with their families. It is a crowded time to travel in Indonesia. In Bali many of the workers (mostly from Java) go back home and many of the rich from Jakarta come to Bali with their families for holiday. Many hotels are booked during this period and prices are firm.

Padang Padang beach.

Now this is a magical place. Ubud is in the hills a little over an hour north of the south Bali tourist area. Steeped in the Balinese rendition of Hindu culture it exudes charm. Incredibly green rice fields and tropical mountain jungle everywhere. Many of the vistas are breathtaking. Unfortunately it is deservedly-so a major tourist destination. The roads were never designed to handle the larger vehicles used by the hotels and tour operators to move people around so traffic is a nightmare. Not unlike Rt. 27 in the Hamptons in August. On a motorbike with no visible enforcement of traffic regulations I easily skirt the worst of the congestion.

There are endless performances and religious celebrations and festivals. Every evening just after sunset one can hear a mix of many gamelan musical performances throughout the village. One can't help but feel the spirituality and ancient mysticism in this special place. One evening there is a parade from the main temple in town to another a few kilometers away. Most of the local townspeople, dressed in traditional costume, participate in the procession.

Tough to find good value with accommodations but I did luck into two great places for my week long stay. There are many four and five-star hotels and spas and plenty of great restaurants. Nightlife is limited. As I'm exploring the area by motorbike I'm distracted by the sweet smell of barbeque from a smoking grill on the sidewalk in front of a crowded warang - Naughty Nuri's Place. It's packed with Asian tourists. I strike up a conversation with a table of local expats and am invited to sit down. One of the guys, Brian, is a very funny New Yorker and immediately we hit it off. He and his wife, a local named Nuri own the place. It's the same scene as at Cyril's table in Amagansett - a group of middle-age guys sitting around all afternoon drinking and telling tales while the place just jams with business. I feel right at home and spend about five afternoons there with my new friends. Oh, and easily the best pork ribs for thousands of miles.

The Balinese architecture around Ubud is spectacular. Dozens of temples and traditional family compounds. There is a large artist community and many galleries. Crafts - wood carvings, stone carvings, architectural details, garden features, etc. - from all over Indonesia are presented to the wholesale export trade in the Ubud area. I'm tempted to try my luck at a container of goods but quickly come to the realization that I'd most likely loose my shirt. Plus, I'm not ready to stop traveling yet.

Finally I tear myself away from the beauty of Ubud and my new friends at Naughty Nuri's and head to Sanur to sort out transportation to Gili Trawangan island – my next port of call. 

Tours can be planned through Balifornian Tours- The leader in custom tours to Bali and Indonesia.  make the most out of your holiday vacation.

Bali- The ultimate Island Paradise- and the islanders are happy to share it

 Bali prizes serenity -and the islanders are happy to share it
 
Benevolent spirits, elaborate temples
 
By PATTI NICKELL, McClatchy-Tribune; Lexington Herald-Leader

Foreign tourists sunbathe on Kuta beach on Bali: it's a rare travel magazine that hasn't tempted readers at least once with stunning visuals of the island's beaches.

Photograph by: MURDANI USMAN, REUTERS, McClatchy-Tribune; Lexington Herald-Leader

The Indonesian island of Bali -half a world away -has become synonymous with grace, simplicity and serenity, an oasis in an area of the world that is frequently tempestuous.

Bali's easygoing way of life has caused the rest of the world to take note. It's a rare travel magazine that hasn't tempted readers at least once with stunning visuals of the island's beaches, terraced mountains and palm-filled jungles. Spas around the world have tried to copy the famed Balinese massage with varying degrees of success. And try as hard as they might, no one has come close to copying the graceful elegance of Balinese dancing. To what does this tiny island owe such great good fortune?

Some Balinese will tell you it's the gods that define the tempo of daily life, whether it's the "good" spirits that inhabit the highlands or the "evil" spirits that dwell in the lowlands near the sea. Good or evil, pious or impish, all have their place in Balinese mythology.

The outward manifestations of the belief in these gods are the places of worship that dot the island -from the simple shrines in every home and business to the more elaborate temples that illustrate the Balinese love of harmony and nature. While Bali lacks the huge temple complexes such as Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, on the neighbouring island of Java and Angkor Wat in nearby Cambodia, it does offer a chance to see temples in a variety of gorgeous settings.

Among the loveliest is Taman Ayun ( "beautiful garden"), a name that could not be more fitting. The temple, built in 1637, is in its own Eden, separated from the rest of the world by a moat. Another temple, Pura Ulun Danau, also was built in the 17th century to honour the water goddess charged with protecting the rice crop. It sits on Lake Bratan in the crater of an extinct volcano.

Perhaps the most exquisite setting is that of Tanah Lot, dating to the 15th century, which hugs the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. At low tide, the island on which it sits is accessible by foot, and while each evening, hundreds gather to watch the sunset, many are careful to go no farther -perhaps because of the giant snake reputed to live in the temple, protecting it from evil spirits and intruders.

Religion in Bali is very complex. Unlike the predominantly Muslim islands of the rest of Indonesia, Bali's religion combines polytheistic Hinduism with Buddhism and borrows from ancient indigenous mythology.

The temples are bastions of serenity on an island that prizes serenity. You can see it in the graceful movements of the traditional legong dance performed each Friday at Nusa Dua Beach Hotel's Budaya Cultural Theatre or in the other traditional dance, the ketjack (monkey dance), performed by more than 200 people at one time during ceremonies in rural villages.

You can see it in the Balinese love of symmetry, a good example of which is Eka Karya, Bali's botanic garden. It is a tropical rainforest in the volcanic highlands and lake districts of central Bali that just happens to have 1,200 species of plants ranging from orchids to cactus.

With the tragic exception of the 2002 terrorist bombing at a popular nightclub, serenity is such a way of life here that the turbulent outbreaks in other parts of Indonesia seem light years removed. One afternoon, as I sat in a beachside restaurant in Singaraja after a day spent touring the coffee and tea plantations of the highlands, I stared out over the ocean and watched as a dolphin executed a perfect leap right in front of me. I saw a lone boatman, paddling a canoe piled high with bananas, breadfruit and mangos. In Bali, it seems, the grocer still makes deliveries.

Another day was spent driving around the interior of the island, where the mountains were decorated with row upon row of terraced rice paddies. Every so often, the lush green was interrupted by a silvery flash of falling water as a waterfall erupted from a hidden spring. I reflected on those good spirits residing in the mountains and thought what a lovely home they had.

Plan to spend a day at Ubud, Bali's arts and crafts centre. You will find shops and galleries offering island specialties from colourful batiks and wood carvings to Balinese shadow puppets. These are small, beautifully crafted leather figures lit from behind so that when their images are projected onto a screen, they become shadowy creatures of the imagination.

A good place to stop for lunch after a morning in Ubud is Kamandalu Resort in lush green hills above the town in an area once famous for its royal palaces. The great hall of Kamandalu, with its rattan furniture and ceiling fans, is open-air, affording a spectacular view of the surrounding hills, rainforest and Petanu River.

For a real taste of local colour, visit Jimbaran Bay for one of the famous barbecues. Everyone sits at folding chairs at long tables on the beach, breathes in the smoke from hundreds of pits and eats succulent lobster washed down by cold beer. It's the Balinese equivalent of the Friday night fish fry, where tourists are outnumbered by locals. Don't miss it.

Where to stay: Bali's popularity has resulted in lodging choices for every pocketbook. While all the luxury chains have properties on the island, a proliferation of smaller properties such as Bali Garden, Barong Cottages and Green Garden Hotel have nightly rates from $100 to $300, and local guest houses are cheaper still.

For more information: www.indonesia-tourism-board.com.

Balifornian Tours offers the best custom holiday experience on Bali and all of Indonesia.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

 



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