Gili Trawangan A Hidden Paradise

Crystal clear water, white, sandy beaches, people sunbathing at beaches and cottages along the coast set a different atmosphere at the exotic cluster of three tiny resort islands nestled between the famed islands of Bali and Lombok.


The best and most developed of the three isles is Gili Trawangan. Its stunning beaches, the bustling nightlife, breathtaking landscape and friendly islanders make this place truly admirable. 


Day after day, more and more tourists tired of Bali’s crowded beaches and jammed streets spare a one-hour trip by speed boat to Trawangan, the largest of the three islets. The other two, Gili Meno and Gili Air, are quieter and more private.

Watching Eruption of Mount Lokon

 

Mount Lokon showed its strength during the mid-year eruption. At that time, a burst of fire out of the mountain. At the quiet, mountain climbers used to receive guests-climbers who want to explore the beauty of the mountain.

Is the current eruption, tourists decreased? It turned out otherwise, tourists still come to see action during the eruption of Mount Lokon. Today, the mountain is still active and took out his bowels.

Mount Lokon was still closed to tourists who want to climb. However, that does not mean you are visiting Tomohon, North Sulawesi, can not see the beauty of Mount Lokon it.

Bromo is Back ...

 

4:00 o'clock in the morning, when dozens of people across the steep path up the hill in the village of Penanjakan Dua (Ngadisari), District Sukapura, Probolinggo, East Java, in early 2012.

Cold weather and drizzle through the night did not make the tide of explorers. Beautiful scenery at sunrise and view of Mount Bromo, Batok, and Semeru tough side by side into the reasons people continue to roam.

Indonesia Develop "Health Tourism" in 2012

 

Type of tourism which is roughly what would attract foreign tourists in 2012? According to data from global consumption patterns are presented the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy: Mari Elka Pangestu, 27 percent of global consumption of tourists is the health and religion. Meanwhile, the rate of consumption is the largest recreation.

Therefore, the Directorate of MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition) coupled with a special interest. Special interest is health. Other countries have developed health tourism.

In addition, sustainable tourism should be the focus of tourism development. This is related to global climate exchange. Indonesia has a climate exchange plan. Looking ahead, there could be 200 islands in Indonesia will be lost. If the connection with the development of destinations, the destinations can be lost.

Therefore, the construction of hotels and convention buildings, up to tourism activities should be thinking about the environmental aspects of sustainability. For example, diving activities, there are currently planting coral. For other examples of tourism development, is related to the creative economy. One of them by working on the festival.

Because, an important festival for the appreciation of the creative industries. If the festival is looking for people, the festival became the destination and bring in tourists. Sample only Java Jazz Festival, which was considered the greatest jazz festival in the world and able to bring in foreign tourists.

Besides, who needs to be seen as important is the culinary creative economy to tourism. Like a dream Mother Ministry, culinary Indonesia could be the entrance. Because our country has to come out of culinary icons. Maybe it could with Rendang Pandang, to be specific. Then there is Kopi Luwak, Toraja coffee, fried rice.

Some places in Indonesia, for example Serpong, could become the culinary center. Although, there is need for service standards and quality not only for restaurants, but also to the "Lesehan" restaurant.

Discovering an Indigenous Architecture (3)

At the weaving village of Sukarara or Penujak, where the distinctive Lombok pottery is strawfired in the backyards of houses, the same basic architecture can be seen, albeit in a less traditional setting than the villages. But this is probably the perfect compromise, where the villagers are discovering a trade that can help them better their standard of living while preserving their cultural values.

The hotels in Lombok may be uncertain about what “style” the want to adopt, but they are often well sited to take advantage of the natural landscape, often resulting is sweeping views from the hotel verandahs and balconies. The Puri Bunga Cottages while rather non-descript in its architecture, hugs the hill-side to give every individual cottage a breathtaking view of the Senggigi bay and the Lombok sunset.

From the beach front resorts such as the Intan Laguna and the Sheraton, one can see, on a clear morning, the peak of Gunung Agung on Bali as well as a chance to watch local fishermen returning with their daily catch.

Slightly further down at Tanjong Aan, the view gets better. The natural landscape here is near-perfect for development of resorts, and it should not be very long before Tanjung Aan becomes a clone of Bali’s Nusa Dua.

One can only hope that the distinctive architecture of the Sasak villages would not be banished into oblivion.

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image source: SilkWinds 72

Discovering an Indigenous Architecture (2)

Even more fascinating is the richness of the skill displayed in these apparently simple architectural elements made by people whose primitive lifestyle does not demand of them any form of sophistication. Here is a demonstration of the power of aesthetics in its simple, original form.

Items such as woven rattan mats, bamboo floors and thatched roofs so often found in hotels have their humble beginnings in these rural villages, where the handicraft skills are traditionally a means of survival.

The most prominent feature in the Lomboknese architecture is the curved thatched rice-barn called a “lumbung”. Contructed simply in wood framing, bamboo and rattan floors and walls, this “symbol” of Lombok has been thoroughly exploited as an element of “pastiche” in the design of new resort hotels, although the scale at which the “lumbung” is recreated is completely out of synch with the original form.

Some houses still have their floors built up of dried buffalo dung. The appeal of the Sasak architecture is not attributed to any single feature but the perfect combination of everything manmade and the natural surroundings which in unison paint a landscape that is unpretentiously rich.

The distinctive bell-shaped roof covered in rice thatch from a previous season and the use of the “lumbung” for storage of rice illustrate the harmony of recycling. It is also a rather beautiful and almost sacred depiction of the South-east Asian relationship between man and rice.

There are, indeed signs of “modernization” taking place. Driving along the very narrow, hardly accessible roads and trying to avoid horse-drawn carts (the chief means of public transport, cidomo), one can observe the numerous handicraft and souvenir shops alongside paddy fields or concentrated at village centres. A unique form of interactive theatre is constantly taking place, where visitors from all over the world haggle over the prices of hand-made artifacts while the local people gather to witness this phenomenon of tourist invasion.

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image sources: SilkWinds Magazine
techno code: H4FSG7XWBG8Q

Kebyar Duduk: One of The Best Known Balinese Dance

Kebyar Duduk is balinese solo exhibition dance that is performed to the accompaniment of a gamelan ensemble. Developed and popularized in the 1920s by a famous dancer-choreographer named I Nyoman Mario. A popular form of the dance is the Kebyar Duduk, which is performed while the dancer is sitting cross-legged.

Any limitations brought about by the lack of mobility in the lower limbs is more than compensated for by subtle upper-body movements and highly nuanced facial expressions.