Bali without the Sari club 10 years later, by GDL
Ten years ago there was a bomb at
the Sari Club which killed 220 westerners. While the Sari Club has disappeared and in its
place now just a car park, next to it is the memorial that will always
remind visitors of the atrocity which happened there in 2002. The memorial has
become to some extent, a tourist attraction as everyone who goes to Bali visits the memorial.
While the memory of the bombing
will stand there forever, the memory of the killings seems to have disappeared
in view of the strong coming back to Bali by
westerners. The comeback denotes that the fear of any new bombing in Bali does
not even cross the mind of westerners or tourists when they book their holidays
to Bali. The fact remains that that Bali is
still the cheapest holidays in Asia where the weather is always warm, the
beaches beautiful, the hotels affordable, the food and beers are still very cheap.
Bali welcomes some 2.5 million tourists every year. The demand is increasing as hotel constructions are seen everywhere on Bali .From January to June 2012, 1,369,758 tourists arrived in Bali representing a cumulative growth of 7.7 percent . In June 2012, 238,296 foreign visitors came to Bali. Extrapolating foreign arrivals by assuming a steady 7.7 percent growth rate through the end of the current year, Bali should welcome close to 3 million tourists by the end of 2012. According to some very optimistic projections, in 2015 number of visitors can go as high as 5 million.
Bali Island has much to offer, beautiful beaches, cheap shopping at Cuta, night life and entertainment, varied cuisine, the country side is beautiful, the safari parks, the volcano, the big temple, etc… The best way to go around is to hire a car fully air-conditioned with a chauffeur from dawn to dusk for only $30. Balenese respect the tourists and do their utmost to get them to come again.
However the island is fast becoming overcrowded
with 3 millions inhabitants of whom 95 percent are of the Hindu faith, three
percent Christians and two percent Muslims. Religion is not in the forefront as
Balinese, except for the few Islamists fanatics, understand secularism. Not a
single women in Bali wears the “Saree” and the
men will only wear their “Sarong
and Udong ” for religious
ceremonies.
The construction of a new
international airport on Lombok is poised to alleviate Bali
and promoting the island, but this does not seem to be the case until now.
Lombok is a Muslim island, it has the same temperature and beautiful beaches
and hotels but the atmosphere and ambiance at Lombok is far from the one in Bali. Time will tell if Lombock will pick up.
The competitions to Bali, however,
are coming from the Gilli
Islands namely Gilli
Tragawan, Gilli Meno and Gilli Air. These small islands are little paradises
where there are no cars, no motor bikes, no traffic, no noise or any form of
pollution. Tourists tour the islands on bike or horse carts. The hotels on
Gilli Tragawan for example, are of high standard and most tourists coming to Bali would spend at least three nights on Gilli Tragawan.
Dining out on Gilli Tragawan is a real delice with a wide choice of grilled
seafood and salad bar.
Back to Bali.
Herald Sun Insight editor Keith Moor,
spent months interviewing people, examining thousands of pages of court
transcripts and having exclusive access to a range of police and other
documents - all of which enabled him to piece together why and how a group of
fanatical Muslims declared war on the West, and attacked Westerners simply out
enjoying themselves. Much of the details came from the mouths of the bombers
themselves in witness statements made to police. Moor's report traced the
bombers' background, reconstructed what happened on the night through the eyes
of those in the Sari Club and Paddy's Pub, and examined the police hunt for the
terrorists. The conclusion is that the ideology of Bin Laden has found its way in Bali among some young and weak Muslims who believe that the Jihad must go on.
If
the fear of another bombing, as pointed out above, seems to have somehow disappeared,
this is like discarding the reality or playing the ostrich. The possibility of another bombing in Bali still exists
as long as there are elements of Jamma Islamia on Bali.
The treat is definitely still there. When Julia Gillard and her delegation
visited the island for the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the
killings of Australians by Islamists of Jamma Islamia, there was a threat which
prompted the Indonesia
government to take extra security measures. Much has been done in that respect
since the bombings. The Indonesian
government takes any threat seriously even though their intelligence service is
now very effective. Security measures are very high and everyone is checked
when entering big hotels; but this is not the case fro the pubs and nightclubs
of Cuta, Legian and Seminiak. Places
like Ku de Ta and Potato Head, which attract up-market tourists, have very
strong security measures. This is surely not a hazard but rather an omen that
these places could be potential targets.
However, the possibility of any
bomb on the Gillis is very very remote and they should and will remain the little
paradises, not lost, of the Indian Ocean. This is excellent news.
