Revisiting Bali ten years later

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.