In Reply to: JBR 6/5 to 20/5 posted by Poppet on Saturday, 22. May 2010 at 21:55 Bali Time:
of course everyone has different expectations and needs, so no one place will suit all.
But with regard to "style" "ambience" "Baliness" or whatever you like to call it, it's an interesting point.
When you think about most of the new developments around the town (Nirvana and the place on Mejahapit etc etc) they are all being built in a "European" or at least non-Balinese way.
They clearly focus more on quality European type facilities like glass showers, euro type toilet facilities and any number of non Indonesian channels on the plasma.
It seems that this is the way of the future for development in Bali.
There seems to be no requirement from the planning approvement viewpoint for any building to be Bali...ised" which is a shame.
The older established places have this, but will inevitably age and fade away to be replaced by the new regime and style.
In a similar way with rising land costs, the focus is how many rooms one can get onto a piece of land, and how high, rather than provision of spacious leafy gardens so common in past developments.
However, it takes more than a piece of wood across the door and an outside bathroom to be Bali for me.
I find my Bali in the people, out on the streets and around the island.
It would however be nice to see some architectural enforcement of at least cosmetic Indonesian influences, although of course, wrapped around the modern air-con, micro waves, plasmas, fridges and water coolers that we all value so much.