World travel authority finds bustling Bali a magnet to Asians while Aussies miss out

One of the world’s leading travel writers has emerged from trips to Australia and Bali bemused at the huge difference between the fears about Bali often generated in this country and the exquisitely rich and tranquil experiences of those who actually visit there.

Pico Iyer – author of eight books whose articles are published worldwide in magazines such as Time, the New York Times and the Financial Times – says he encountered superb security, among the best in Asia, and “Aussies who couldn't believe that so many of their friends and neighbors were staying at home”.


He also found the island was bustling and crowded with visitors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of Asia while many Australians missed out on the attractions of one of the top destinations in the world. Asian millionaires were flying in hundreds of guests for weddings while the Japanese (among the world’s most security conscious people) were coming in record numbers because it is one of the places where they feel most able to relax, he says.

“The island struck me as far safer than Los Angeles, where I maintain a home, or Delhi, which I visited soon afterwards, or New York, or carjack-filled London, or most of the places I visit. The murder rate in American cities has long been higher than even in cities in the midst of civil war, and since the September 11 attacks it is even more the case that places like New York, Paris, Madrid or London are less safe than less high-profile places. Certainly, I felt much safer in Ubud, say, or Nusa Dua, in Bali, where I was staying to promote the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in September than I do in Southern California or in London.

“I met many Australians in Bali who couldn't believe that their friends and neighbors back home asked about danger in Bali when, statistically, it remains one of the safer places in Asia.

“Indeed, I found myself in my hotel talking every day to an 80 year-old gentleman from Perth who had come to spend four months on the island, even though he was wheelchair-bound. After a lifetime in the hotel industry, living everywhere and grateful to be based in Perth since 1946, he couldn't stop telling me how HAPPY and well taken care of he felt in Bali, to the point where he was taking the first extended vacation of his life there.”

While arrivals to Bali from Australia have increased by up to 50 per cent in recent months, overall international arrivals have risen by a similar proportion, THOUGH IN far larger numbers, with tens of thousands more non-Australian visitors than the same time last year. But Mr Iyer says the backing of Australian visitors and writers for Indonesia, at this time in its history, is important to build human bridges between cultures and to reinforce the fact that we live in a global village and can only gain from meeting our neighbours.

Described by magazines such as the New Yorker as one of the best travel writers at work in the English Language, Mr Iyer participated in the Sydney Writers Festival from May 28 to June 3 before traveling to Bali as a guest of Garuda Indonesia to report on his experiences as someone who has been traveling there since 1984 and writing about it since his first book 19 years ago.

“It was exhilarating to see Bali again after being away since 2003, and I felt well and truly spoiled to be walking along its tropical streets, hearing the gamelan at night from my room, seeing ladies in their finest silks walking, with straight-backed dignity, from their temples back to their villages, as if it were still four centuries ago, and sitting on a sun-sparkled terrace just looking out at the many shades of blue along the beach.

“After twenty-five years of traveling the world, I think I can echo almost every seasoned traveler I know and say that Bali is among the top destinations in the world, maybe the best of all, for sumptuous accommodations, exquisite food and cultural richness. The island has always attracted visitors by offering a rare blend of Nature and Culture--both palm-fringed beaches (emerald rice-terraces, unchanged villages) and a whole complex society that has sustained its ceremonies and beliefs, intact, as very few places on earth have.

“But what has happened in the twenty-three years since my first visit is that the Balinese, often with the help of foreigners, have set up cutting edge restaurants that would be the toast of London or New York, hotels and spas that for service, location and lavishness exceed anything you will find elsewhere and a standard of efficiency, ease and, yes, security that I don't think many places in Asia can exceed.

“Where else can you sip cocktails with black pepper and mascarpone cheese in them, while watching some of the choicest surf in the world? Where else can you enjoy your own private pool, as I did during my week there, while still being surrounded by the sound of dances and chants and a vibrant village life? Where else can you find two swimming-pools and an entire lagoon around your suite, as I also experienced, while also looking out upon a perfect, white-sand horizon?

“What struck me on this trip was how much of the island is filled with visitors from Japan, Korea, India, Russia, Taiwan. I heard of millionaires who flew in 800 or 900 guests for large weddings in the world's most beautiful tropical island, and in the hotel where I stayed there was an "Infinity Chapel" set against the beach that far exceeded any wedding destination I've ever seen.

“In Kuta, the streets on a Saturday night were so crowded that I could hardly walk--and when I offered a workshop on Travel Writing in Amandari, the whole LECURE HALL was full, with more people than I would ever see in California or Britain, and I got to revel in some terrific conversations with travelers and residents from Australia, America, even Korea and Guam.


“Certainly the security in Bali is stronger and tighter than any I have encountered anywhere else: every time my car came into even the smallest or plushest hotel, it was checked at the entrance to the driveway, the hood was opened and a security guard ran a device around the car to make sure that it was safe--security measures that I have never run into even in Beirut or Washington or San Salvador. And I felt the presence of watchful protectors (and even sniffing dogs) everywhere, confirming my sense that Bali has introduced state-of-the-art security in the face of visitor concerns.

“But beyond that, the island struck me as far safer than the other places that don’t get the headlines Bali does…. To those who think Bali hasn’t got a brilliant future I would say go and have a look – a minute’s experience is worth a lifetime of prejudgement.

“To me it's always been a grand privilege to visit Bali--in 1984 and 1985, when I made my first trips there, and much of the island seemed undeveloped, making me feel I'd stumbled upon a largely undiscovered paradise; and also in 2003, when I returned, just after the unrest of a few months before, as well as this week. Bali has always had natural graces that almost anywhere would envy; but now it has the resorts, the chic fusion restaurants, the fashion shows and glossy magazines and world-class facilities that complement those natural blessings and make it among the most desirable places on earth.

“ Indeed, as one who lives in Japan, in part because it is the safest and most convenient, trouble-free place I know, I wasn't surprised at all to find that the island was packed with Japanese (to such an extent that I ran into Japanese-run cafes, Japanese-language magazines, stores on every side owned by Japanese and with signs in Japanese). The Japanese, in my experience, are more demanding when it comes to quality, safety and ease than any people on earth, in part because their home is so well-run; and so it makes absolute sense that they're coming in in almost record numbers to Bali for honeymoons, family vacations and surfing trips. It's one of the places where they feel most able to relax.

“It's no surprise, in fact, that I've taken my 76 year-old mother to Bali, and my wife from Japan; when I was visiting, I was so inspired that I actually wrote two articles about the island, and my sense that whatever is magical and unique about it remains as present and vivid as ever before, even in the midst of modern conveniences.

“And the Ubud Festival, I know, has worked heroically, and reached and moved many people, by building bridges between Indonesia and the world and reminding the rest of us that a trip to Indonesia is as magical and transporting as it ever was.”

Special holiday packages for the Ubud Festival are being offered by Garuda Indonesia, featuring beautiful accommodation and sensuous relaxation in one of the world’s most graceful and attractive settings in the cultural capital of the “Island of the Gods”.

The packages – from $1275* a person ex Sydney and Melbourne, $980* ex Perth and $885* ex Darwin – all include return airfares, transfers, four nights accommodation, free extras (www.balionanybubget.com.au) and registration for the Festival, which was named last year as ‘one of the world’s great book events’ by Conde Nast Traveler and ‘among the top six literary Festivals in the world’ by Harper’s Bazaar.