Losing Bali


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Posted by BaliBlues on Friday, 24. June 2011 at 11:57 Bali Time:

We're losing it. We're losing Bali. It's submerging beneath a mountain of Aqua bottles and black and white plastic bags and Pringles tubes. The barracuda at Jimbaran beach cafes are juveniles, the adults are long dead. A three hundred-room hotel is being built at the end of Jimbaran Bay where only five years ago you could walk from one end to the other and say hello to all three people you met. Where will these 600 new visitors go? There's not that much room on the beach. Where once the highest building was lower than a palm tree, floor upon concrete floor is being piled on top of the graves of the Ubud rice fields. Captive dolphins are being driven crazy in hotel swimming pools and people PAY to swim with them. You can't hear the birdsong for the cement mixers. Visitors have stopped marvelling at ceremonies and talk instead about where's the cheapest place to get your nails done and where's the coldest beer and the biggest burger. Jakartans lounge at KuDeTa and that eyesore 'W' and say: "Mmmmm, cool. Now Bali's hip and happening. It's just like Jakarta."

People --- what are we doing????


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