Hotels flourish during Balinese New year

Hotels flourish during Balinese New year

By Intan Petersen

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Tonight is Tilem Kesanga, the eve of the Balinese New Year according to the Balinese Saka calendar. This is the night when monstrous ogoh-ogoh effigies are taken on a wild parade through the Bali's streets before the silence of the next day.

For the Hindu Balinese, New Year's Day, or Nyepi, is a day of silence, prayer and meditation. Everyone is obliged to stay indoors and meditate. No one is allowed to turn on lights, eat, drink, drive, smoke or go outside the house compound. Nyepi means silence, and for an entire day the streets of Bali will be deserted. The silence is to fool evil spirits into thinking Bali is deserted so they will pass over the island.

Villages station guards called pecalang to enforce the rule. Working in groups of two to four the pecalang patrol residential areas to ensure everyone is obeying the regulations. The pecalang also stop vehicles passing through the village and are authorized to take action if they discover a driver doesn't have a permit to be on the road.

It has recently become trendy for non-Hindu Balinese to check into hotels for the holiday. Many non-Hindu Indonesians said they respect Nyepi, but find it hard to stay at home without light and doing nothing, not even watch television.

Bali hotels are permitted to turn on lights, except their external lighting. They are also allowed to run their normal activities, except discotheques and musical performances.

Hotel managements advise guests not to leave hotel grounds from midnight today until sunrise on Friday, March 22.

For the last few years, five-star and non-rated hotels have offered special Nyepi packages to non-Hindu Balinese and expatriates in Bali. Joyce Luthe, the public relations manager at the Bali Hilton, said this year they are offering a special three day package. The rate is US$130 a double room for two nights or $220 for three people in a deluxe room. The rate is only valid for people residing in Bali.

Syeni Setiono, the public relations manager of the Bintang Bali Hotel in Tuban, expects the hotel's occupancy rate to reach 73 percent, a big boost during the March off season. Bintang Bali expects 30 percent of the hotel's guests to be taking advantage of the special $50 a night package. Sanur Beach Hotel in Sanur area also expects a 70 percent occupancy rate during Nyepi Day.

"We offer our Nyepi package for $130," said I Gede Aditha, the Sanur Beach Hotel sales manager. "A 70 percent occupancy rate is good in the off season, even for only two days."

Nearby Lombok, 30 minutes by air away, will also see an influx of guests during Nyepi. Lombok hotels offer special Nyepi packages which include discounted airline tickets. This year a return Denpasar to Mataram ticket, two-nights accommodation for two people including breakfast is selling for $187.

According to Didik Kuswardi, a sales executive at Hotel Lombok Intan Laguna, their package is cryptically called "Look for Hideaway".

Jais Hadiana, who owns a gallery in Bali, has spent the past three Nyepi at a hotel. She said she doesn't like staying at home because she can't turn on the lights and feels strange being confined to her house the entire day. She stays with family and friends at a hotel.

"A few weeks before Nyepi all my friends and I are busy deciding which hotel we are going to stay at, because this is a kind of gathering held once a year," she said.

Paulo, an Italian businessman who has been living in Bali for five years, said he always checks into a hotel for Nyepi.

"I have no particular reason why I stay at a hotel," he said. "I have my own nice house in Legian, and I am not really bothered about no light for one day, but I think Nyepi is a good time to spoil myself at the hotel. I always try different hotels in Nusa Dua."

He said that Nyepi was no trouble for a a single man, "but for many of my foreigner friends who are here with their small children, it is difficult to stay at home without any light. They feel much more comfortable staying at a hotel."

Hotels are granted special permission to shuttle their guests to and from the Ngurah Rai airport. Normally, however, hotel managements advise their guests to book their flights for another day.

According to Raka Subawa, the front office manager of the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel, the hotel has obtained permission for five airport runs on Nyepi.

Raka Subawa said tourists arriving on Nyepi will be picked up by hotel airport representatives. Tourists without hotel reservations could be stuck inside the airport compound because no taxis or other transport is allowed to operate. Most tourists usually check into a hotel instead of waiting it out in the airport. Backpackers, the exception to every rule, usually bunk down in the airport.