Balinese dream of return of idyllic Kuta
Balinese dream of return of idyllic Kuta
The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali
On Nov. 15, thousands of people are expected to attend a special
Hindu grand purification ceremony called the Tawur Agung Karya
Pamarisudha Karipubhaya, to cleanse the "spiritually dirty" area
of Kuta.
According to Hinduism, which is embraced by the majority of
the Balinese, the Oct. 12 bombing in Kuta that killed at least
184 people and caused extensive property damage was divine wrath
for the sins of the people.
A month after the earth-shattering bombing, Kuta is still a
long way from regaining its shine as Bali's foremost tourist
destination for fun-seeking westerners.
Now that Kuta has been shattered by a terrorist bombing,
locals cherish the dream of returning Kuta to what it once was: a
pristine, quiet and humble coastal village in south Bali; a dream
considered unattainable by many.
Western tourists who visited Kuta a few decades ago and
thought they had found the "world's last paradise" would probably
not recognize present-day Kuta.
A historical journal about ancient Bali tells of two European
sailors, Aernoudt Linthens from the Netherlands and Emanuel
Roodenburch from Portugal, who happened in the 16th century to
pass a small island with spectacular beaches and ancient people
who embraced a mixture of Hinduism and animism.
The sailors' account of their "discovery" of Bali soon lured
more foreigners to the idyllic tropical island.
When the Dutch seized Bali in the early l900s, Kuta became one
of the most important stopovers for Dutch tourists cruising with
the well-known Koninklijk Paketvaart Maatschapij (KPM) company.
Equipped with a simple brochure written by an English woman,
Helen Eva Yates, the Dutch tourists came in hordes to enjoy the
beauty of Kuta.
Later, KPM opened a shipping and tourist office in Singaraja,
Buleleng's main city, 100 kilometers north of Kuta. Since then
more and more visitors have been arriving at the more scenic
southern Bali.
Kuta has always been a perfect hideaway for Western artists,
writers and scholars. In the early 1930s, the enchanting Kuta and
its humble residents mesmerized Scottish woman Manx, whose pen
name was Ktut Tantri.
She developed a simple homestay to accommodate her visiting
friends and guests near the beach.
In l936, an American couple, Bob and Louise Koke, arrived in
Kuta and were impressed by the beautiful beaches and immediately
saw the potential for tourism. The couple built the first-
generation hotel in Kuta, now the Natour Kuta Beach Hotel, in
l936.
The flow of foreigners to Kuta stopped during World War II.
Then in the l960s, Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, of half-
Balinese descent, built the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, a quieter
area adjacent to Kuta.
Eager to develop Bali as an international tourist destination,
the New Order government under Soeharto invited an international
consortium, Sceto, to conduct a feasibility study on tourism
development on the island.
The consortium's study came out with a proposal to divide Bali
into three tourist zones: Nusa Dua, Kuta and Sanur. Nusa Dua was
designated as an exclusive resort for upmarket tourists, Sanur as
a quieter tourist spot and Kuta for low-budget holidaymakers.
In the l970s, Soeharto inaugurated the Ngurah Rai
International Airport in Kuta, which was opened to attract more
international visitors to Bali and other destinations in
Indonesia.
In l970, Bali welcomed 24,340 visitors. In l976 it received
100,000 visitors, and that number rose to 200,000 in l980. In
2001 more than one million people visited the island.
Since the early l980s, local, national and international hotel
chains have developed hotels and other tourist facilities such as
restaurants, souvenir shops, and money changers in Kuta.
Kuta covers about 1,117 hectares, consisting of the three
customary villages of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak.
A study done by the University of Udayana in l996 showed Kuta
had 16,472 residents. By 2000, the composition of Kuta's
population had changed substantially due to the transfer of
property to people from other islands in the country.
As tourism continued to expand, locals sold their property to
outsiders to make way for the construction of luxury hotels,
usually located along the pristine Kuta beach. About 60 percent
of land in Kuta is now controlled by "outsiders".
By the year 2001, 67.57 percent of all land in Kuta had been
used for buildings, 28.73 percent was open land and 3.77 percent
protected mangrove forest.
Gde Pitana, head of Bali's Tourism Office and a professor of
tourism at the University of Udayana, says Kuta is suffering from
environmental degradation, unfair wealth distribution and high
criminal rates.
A book titled Kuta Cermin Retak Pariwisata Bali (Kuta,
the Broken Mirror of Bali's Tourism) says that uncontrolled
development is to blame for the degradation of Kuta.
"Kuta has been spiritually disturbed by greedy people who have
long ignored the concept of harmony between humans and their
Creator, humans and their environment," the book says.
It is now almost impossible to imagine what Kuta looked like
several decades ago. Traditional Balinese houses with small
shrines in front are rarely seen in modern Kuta, which is now
filled with spacious hotels, lavish pubs and cafes and designer
boutiques.
The sound of Balinese gamelan orchestras no longer fill the
air, but it is disco music and live music that is heard along the
bustling streets of Legian, Seminyak and Kuta.
The Hard Rock Cafe, the Music Room, Double Six, the former
Paddy's Cafe and the Sari Club are just a few of hundreds of
nightspots. Kuta has become a magnet for everyone who wants to
taste a little bit of the international flavor of Bali.
Kuta must have reached its saturation point after almost five
decades of exploitation. Thousands of souvenir shops, pubs,
restaurants, hotels, boutiques and money changers fill almost
every inch of the area. Even before the bombing, local academics
and activists had been calling for a halt to development in Kuta.
Many people believe now is the right moment to make Kuta a
better place.