Bali quiet after annual school vacation

Bali quiet after annual school vacation

By I Ketut Suarja

DENPASAR, Bali (ANTARA): The school vacation is over, students are back at school and Bali is once again deserted.

A number of popular destinations in Bali such as Tanah Lot, Alas Kedaton, Kintamani, Sangeh, Kuta, Sanur, Tampak Siring palace and the mother temple Besakih in East Bali are now very quiet.

In the Tanah Lot area, 32 kilometers southwest of Denpasar, only a dozen foreign visitors admired the 16th Century Hindu temple and its pristine surrounding.

During the recent school vacation (between July 1 and July 16), this favorite tourist site was packed by thousands of visitors a day, mostly school students and local tourists, said I Wayan Darma, a local resident.

In another holiday spot Alas Kedaton, 24 km away, only a few foreigners gawked at the hundreds of monkeys in the forest. During the vacation, hundreds of people came to the forest each day to enjoy its natural beauty and the unique rural lifestyle to be found in Desa Kukuh village in Tabanan. Now, the number has decreased to only a few dozen visitors a day.

Even in the highly popular Kuta Beach, famous for its white sand and huge waves, there are only a few foreigners to be seen sunbathing and surfing.

In Sangeh forest, where hundreds of monkeys freely roam around, only a couple of buses and private cars were to be seen in the parking lot. "Most of them are foreign tourists with only a few being local guests," explained I Made Budiada.

Some of visitors posed in front of the historic Hindu temple, built in the 17th century, which is located in the middle of the 20-hectare forest.

Since the economic crisis and social and political upheavals first started in l997, the number of visitors coming to Bali and other holiday resorts in Indonesia has been sharply falling.

Bali was hit hard in l999 when a riot, fueled by supporters of a certain political party, resulted in the burning down of government offices and the destruction of public facilities. Sectarian conflict in the neighboring island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara also seriously wounded the tourist industry both in Lombok and Bali.

Frequent outbreaks of rioting and violence in Indonesia have discouraged foreigners from taking their vacations in Bali, Lombok and other parts of the country.

The tourist industry revived somewhat when thousands of schoolchildren and their parents spent their two-week school vacation in Bali.

Hotels, restaurants and holiday sites were jam-packed by these local guests. An average of 3,000 to 5,000 people visited each holiday destination in Bali.

During the vacation period, hundreds of buses, trucks and private cars had to wait for 8 to 10 hours before they could depart the Ketapang (Banyuwangi-East Java) and Gilimanuk (Bali) seaports respectively.

A large number of non-star hotels also made a killing and were packed with local guests from various cities in Java, Madura and Lombok.

I Made Budastra, owner of the Aget Jaya Hotel in Denpasar, said that he received reservations a few months before the vacations.

"Teachers and students from outside Bali had booked out every room," he smiled.

I Nengah, an employee at the Catur Adi Hotel, said he was glad to see a lot of guests in the hotel.

"We often panic when the vacations come around because the hotel doesn't have enough rooms to accommodate the increasing number of guests," said Nengah.

But, the vacations are now over. Bali is back to 'normal' and is eagerly anticipating even more guests during the coming Christmas, Idul Fitri and New Year vacations next December.

For the time being, innkeepers, tour operators and local people must again work hard to lure back foreign visitors to this holiday island although the prospects will remain bleak for so long as the current political bickering continues.