The Yak #17

IDR Rp 48.000 S$9

Issue Seventeen

December 2007/January/February 2008

Cover image: Blue Glue Model: Slyvia Geersen Photographer: Agus Pande Art Direction: Marie Art Work: Vicky THE YAK and THE BUD team: Sophie Digby Agustina Ardie Michelle Lamb Marketing Manager: I Nyoman Budi Aryadhi Project Manager: Evi Sri Rejeki Graphic Designer: Cassandra Phangramond Distribution: Made Marjana, Kadek Arthana, Putu Widi Susanto, Made Sutajaya Design: Island Communications design@icommbali.com Editorial Consultant: Nigel Simmonds, CV Icomm Publisher: PT Saka Wahana Cipta Licence: 1.265/09-04/PB/V/99 Advertising enquiries: Tel/Fax: (62-361) 737 413, 743 1804, 743 1805 www.theyakmag.com Email: info@theyakmag.com theyak@indosat.net.id Jl. Kayu Jati 9Y (Loloan Restaurant) Petitenget 80361 Bali, Indonesia Š PT Saka Wahana Cipta No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced electronically or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.

Opinions expressed within this publication are those of the authors not the publisher.

The Yak and The Bud will not be held responsible for copyright infringements on images supplied directly by advertisers and/or contributors.

If you purchased this magazine with a VENUE COPY sticker on the cover YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE PAID. Please report this to The Yak office.

See page 130 for our distribution and advertisers’ directory 22

contents

26 29 32 40 42 46 50 54 58 62 64

66 68 72 76

84 88 92 94 98

IDOL BANTER Yakety Yak ...

Yak Back CULTURE VULTURES Bundhowi NEW IN THE HOOD Around Town THIS MUCH I KNOW John Fawcett OLD GUARD Mads Lange

COMMUNITY Sweet Charity VENTING IN A VILLA Kemah Tinggi MEMBERS OF THE CLOTH Adine D’Amour FASHION Flight Plans

INTERWHO John O’Sullivan QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS Nicholas Guppy ORAL PLEASURES Chefs’ Night Off TAKEN ....NOT STIRRED World Cups BIG SIX Asian Nation FORK IN THE ROAD Salad Years

106 110 112 114

MEMBERS OF THE CLOTH Samantha Black

120 122 124 126 127 129 130

JUST DOIN’ IT Honourable Members

DUO VIEW The Condom Couple FREE RADICALS Down in the Tube Station OVER THE EDGE Eight Degrees South

ORAL PLEASURES Just Desserts THE CULINARY HOOLIGAN Food Critics CONSTANT WINING Red Letter Day X’MAS SCHEDULE X’mas events

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DWELLING ON A DWELLING Popo Danes

MINISTRY OF INTERIORS Coming Clean

SOUNDS AROUND Wayne Wonder RAVER’S REVIEWS Donni Delivers ARTSAKE Sadu Shines BEING GREEN Against the Grain YAK MAP Don’t Get Lost DIRECTORY Who is Who

Yak Back...

AT a dinner party recently a friend said of another that he was an opportunist, as if it was a bad thing. Is it, I wonder? To some degree or other, aren’t we are all opportunists?

“Remember, I am neither a bear nor a bull, I am an agnostic opportunist.” So said James Cramer, former hedge fund manager and host of CNBC’s Mad Money. “I want to make money short and long term. I want to find good situations and exploit them.” I agree, wholeheartedly! I mean, why bother getting up in the morning if we can’t make the best of any given situation? And believe me, there are at least a couple on Bali each day that present a pretty interesting challenge. I suppose it’s just a mindset, and ours at The Yak is one that wishes to take full advantage of every fabulous opportunity that comes our way…we’d be fools not to enjoy each an every one, so (of course) we can put them all your way for your very own opportunistic enjoyment. This issue we offer up M. Bundhowi, a fabulous photographic artist, as our very own Culture Vulture, then follow him with what’s New In The Hood. This Much I Know comes courtesy of John Fawcett, Bali’s eye cataract Samaritan. Then we take a quick look at the Bali’s past with Mads Lange in Old Guard before we Interwho the main man at Four Seasons Bali, John O’Sullivan. We gripe and grouch in fashionably postprandial style with our very own Culinary Hooligan, then stuff ourselves silly with Oral Pleasures, sipping on a country or two in Constant Wining and Taken Not Stirred. There is little option left but to Dwell on a Dwelling, Vent in a Villa and Come Clean with our Ministry of Interiors. The Yak then steps off a private plane and gets the fashion tongues wagging in a BMW Z3 and a Porsche Carrera, having interviewed Adine, fashion prodigy of D’amour D’amour. For our Duo View we get gritty with Bali’s condom couple – flavoured rubbers for all tastes.

Moving on, it’s time to flush out our hepatic toxins in Free Radicals. Opportunity knocks twice when we get schooner-ed all the way to Komodo and Flores before we check out Bali’s Southern Comforts – Bukit-bound – on a helicopter, no less. There’s nothing left for us to do but pit Member versus Member at the Canggu Club, a giggle indeed.

Should you wish to take the opportunity, feel free to turn our lovely magazine upside down and enjoy the fruits of The Bud – our treasured cultural gem. Oh and just a quick recommendation, with the upcoming festive season in mind, please ensure you are as opportunistic as you can be throughout 2008 and the Year of the Rat. You know it makes sense. May The Yak be with you, party on! S.D.

Yak In The Lap Of...

The cheeky kitchen chap with the affable cockney charm saw fit to visit Bali recently and stay at The Istana, where, we are told, he ran his highly talented fingers through our pages.

We also attempted to get The Yak into the lap of Mel Gibson but frankly it was too crowded with girls. So we left it on the coffee table instead – in the hope that he’d pick it up with his latte in the morning.

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Fan Mail Dear Yak, Re: Must Have Just read an article by Emma Westwood in The Yak Volume 15 June/July/August (View from...Australia). What a witty writer! I have been a huge fan of your magazine from the first edition. I love the High Road/Low Road reviews, our personal High Road is the Breeze at The Samaya and the Low Road is Kolega.

Your magazine is a must-get every visit for me. As we are building in Canggu we just want to know when you will start The Ggu. Karen Clark, Australia.

In time, in time. But first there’s The Bund (Shanghai), The Hong (HK) and The Kok (Bangkok). Oh dear.

Pretty Polly Dear Yak, Re: Respect Hope you are well. I just have one word for the last edition of The Yak. Precious.

Full respect, Patrix, Bali.

Thanks Patrix. We love you too.

Overflowing Dear Yak, Re: Victor Thank you very much for sending me extra copies of The Yak. I did actually buy a couple to send to the chap in New York and my cousin in the UK who I’m sure will be amused to read about the famous Brigg’s travelling brolly. Good quality, I must say – the magazine I mean. And Yakko’s picture has been praised by one and all. A big thank you.

Hope to catch up with you over a beaded bubble or two winking at the brim.

Ciao bello, Victor Mason.

The pleasure was all ours (hic).

Frequent Flyers Dear Yak, Re: Flyers Thanks for the flyers in the September issue.

We had a lot of positive response. Your magazine is looking super slick, by the way.

Congratulations.

Finley Smith, Festival Manager Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

Hangover Cure Dear Yak, Re: Slick Spent some time with The Yak last night and this morning, and although drunk and then hungover I loved it. The cover looks great. Slick and sexy! And the silver…gorgeous. Well done.

Now, back to the espresso cure.

Michael, Bali.

Felicitous Greetings, Re: Airmail I have been reading your fab magazine every time we go to Bali, it’s one of the best magazines published. I adore this island, especially Ubud, and love being up-to-date with the goings on.

So would like a quote for a copy to be sent to me if possible.

Aimee Felices, Melbourne.

On its way (or possibly already sorted by the time this comes out).

Van The Man Dear Yak, Re: YanVan Hope you are fine. We thank you very much for publishing YanVan in The Yak. We just came back from an exhibition in Japan and the result was so positive, fantastic. We now have two agents for Shanghai, China, and Tokyo, Japan.

Hope we can join together with The Yak in the future. Again, thank you very much and best regards from the YanVan family in Bali.

YanVan, Bali.

Human Touch Born in Java, M. Bundhowi is a photographic artist who has translated a dramatic exposure to poverty, disenchantment and disaster into images of universal humanity, peace and regeneration.

Employed as an interpreter, language and culture specialist by organisations including the VSO, Save the Children Federation and AusAID, Bun has lived and worked among refugees in Indonesia, Australia, Laos and Vietnam. “What began as therapeutic art for refugee children developed into stronger messages of peace,” he says. “What I try to convey through each artwork reflects my observation and concern about catastrophic events, be they natural, social or political, resulting in conflicts and war in both Indonesia and other parts of the world. However, my photography is not and never has been about the catastrophe itself. What I want to convey is how one can stand up again after an apocalyptic event.”

Pieces of Eight John, as in Long John Silver (right), has his mind on the creatives and Moyok has his expert hands on the silver – together they have created a singular and unique feel to natural elements. Using shell, bone and coral, they have lovingly embraced these natural elements with one of the world’s favourite metals – silver. From petit resting places just perfect for caviar to substantial spoons for essential Xmas delights such as brussel sprouts or nasi kuning, not counting endless jewellery accoutrements such as necklaces, bracelets and rings for adorning the ‘bod’, this nichette of a shop is perfectly located on the last but one corner before Ku. Tel: 8563192 Yak Map ref: D8

Six of the Best

Sunshine in a Bag Panonpoe – Sundanese for the sun – (next to C151 on Boutique St.) has decided to light our interiors with a taste for soft furnishings and perfect gift ideas (above). This home-décor corner poses everything from photo albums to duvet covers and pillowcases that are coveted (that’s more than covered, dah’ling) by designer fabrics to give each and every item an air of distinction. From aluminium dragonflies for a mere Rp.35,000 – fabulously original hefty gift tags – to perfectly packaged napkin and table settings in a box, each is priced to give that special no-one in particular a bit of colour (or taste) in their life.

Tel: 736714 Yak Map ref: D8

The Tale of Two Islands Linking Bali and Australia with the name Two Islands, wine producer Arpan Bali Utama has created its second range. By harvesting and importing Shiraz and Chardonnay grapes that ideally grow in Australia’s cooler climate, these are then vintaged – un-oaked – in their modern winery in Bali. The island’s hospitality industry can now put a decent bottle of plonk on each and every table and at a pretty reasonable price. www.hattenwines.com

The newly launched SixPoint Café has opened its doors to give Sanur a casual dining venue that welcomes the entire family. Located on the ground section of a recently renovated commercial property, SixPoint Café fills a much-needed niche in the area by serving quality meals at very reasonable prices. The café is divided into two distinct settings, including an outdoor terrace featuring a retractable roof that opens up on clear days to expose the sky.

The air-conditioned interior of the café reveals a spacious environment with a bar and eclectic décor of timber and synthetic rattan furnishings. Open daily from 9am onwards.

Tel: 270156 www.sixpointcafe.com

A Cut Above In line with his signature style, M. Harcourt has perfected a contemporary and sophisticated Fall-Winter collection with meticulous cuts and volumes and a refined palette of colours.

The spirit of this line is a “Créateur” collection regarding style and quality, designed for a modern-day woman in a carefully chosen price range. The collection consists of a “City” line, coats, jackets, trousers and skirts in cotton twill; a theme in suede and leather and a series of shirts, blouses and dresses in silk. Dressy items take a large part: dresses and tops declined in silk satin, chiffon, crêpe and jersey; embroidered models in contemporary styles and long evening dresses. The collection is available at M. Harcourt Paris, Bali Boutique, Jl. Raya Basangkasa No. 1200A, Seminyak. If you wish, you can make appointment with a personal assistant.

Tel: 731964 Yak Map ref: I8

Elliptical Life Jl. Kunti has a great new boutique and, yes, hear me now…geared to both sexes. Next to our beloved Bella Salon is 7 Pers. And the design behind the window, although actually focused on clothes for d’man, also has fab accessories for d’girl. Using cotton canvas for jackets and jeans – each with unique stitched elliptical designs – brings an undefined (as yet) sense of fashion into being.

Also on the male side of things are great shirts and really good-looking belts and bags. Siding for the gals, they have belts, bags and necklaces of all lengths made up of all manner of elements – silver plate, wood, nouveau resins even filigree leather – all perfect for adorning the infamous feminine cleavage: something that the guys may try hard to recreate but somehow get left behind… studying their six pack.

Tel: 734 399 Yak Map ref: I10

X Marks The Spot

Bali from a Condo

Furama International (right) has created FuramaXclusive Villas and Spa by adding 18 villas to their popular 24-villa and spa complex. The empasis of these new villas is on comfort and understated elegance. Natural materials like wood and black granite blend with contemporary soft furnishings and minimalist accents. Clean-lined and chic, this new extension, with its spring-fed pools and spa, is an ideal getaway set in the lesser known foothills of Ubud surrounded by padi and over looking Mount Batur.

Tel: 7463064 www.furamavillasandspa.com/ubud/

Living just got a whole lot sexier with the opening of O-CE-N beachfront on Blue Ocean Boulevard. One hundred and fourteen glamour spaces are located on four floors; one, two, three bedrooms and penthouses bring tropical living to new heights, literally. With everyone gagging for such a superb location, Outrigger O-CE-N Bali is paving the way to change the face of beachfront expectations. From an investor’s view, buy yourself a fabulous apartment, enjoy it for four weeks a year and get a guaranteed return on your investment of six per cent. Alternatively, join the rental pool – or be selfish and simply reside at what is set to become one of Bali’s top-notch addresses.

Tel: 734 587 www.o-ce-n.com Yak Map ref: E14

Grand Affair Feeling Seminyak’d out? Wish you had one of those Beam Me Up Scottie things? You do. It’s called a handphone. Call The Mansion Hotel & Spa (below) near Ubud, get them to send the limousine and in around an hour you’ll step into another time and place fit for little more than relaxation and indulgence. Imagine a grand colonial residence of the 1920s complete with vast pillars and sweeping staircases.

Imagine luxuriously appointed suites furnished with rare and beautiful objets d’art, and quite the most stunning collection of traditional and contemporary Balinese paintings to be found outside a museum. A vast park-like estate. With food to die for.

Tel: 972616 www.mansion-bali.com

King, Queen or Twins?

Beating down hard on the ever-popular villa trail is Disini Luxury Spa Villas (above). Twenty two one-bedroom villas conveniently tucked behind The Yak’s ever-glowing Jl. Laksmana are answering the coupling calling with romantic tropical elegance. Four-poster beds, private swimming pool, a double bathtub...even an in-room massage bed have been twinned with a high-speed Internet connection, gourmet breakfasts, a well-stocked minibar and a 24-hr butler. Twin mattresses are also available for those who aren’t quite that cozy – just yet.

Tel: 737537 Yak Map ref: F7

Nesting Instincts

Makan Angin The stunning Villa Air Bali in Petitenget (left) brings us Mata Air Café, a casual French cuisine café “sophisticatedly designed for fine gourmet”. An open-air setting set in a lush graden with a terraced swimming pool completes the scene – and what a scene it is. This beautifully designed respite from the traffic chaos of Jl Laksmana is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Jl. Lebak Sari, Br. Taman, Petitenget. Check it out.

Tel: 737378 www.villa-airbali.com

Nest Village, set around manicured miniature rice padi, sits in the heart of the action just off Sunset Road. The architecture, inspired by that of a bird’s nest house, offers indoor and outdoor dining that is beautifully torch-lit at night. An interesting blend of fine dining, serving international delicacies such as Nutty roasted tenderloin with herb sabayon, wilted spinach and creamy pumpkin, juxtaposes those dishes that include nothing less than bird’s nest delicacies – scallop with prawn and cave bird’s nest being one of the most recommended. Basically, if you have yet to try the caviar of the East, what are you waiting for?

Tel: 847 7363 www.nestvillagebali.com

Homage to Hotels

Beach Glam

Australian travel photographer Jill Gocher and Bangkokbased lecturer and author William Warren have collaborated on a new tome launched this quarter.

Asia’s Legendary Hotels: The Romance of Travel features some of Asia’s most significant properties, renowned for their rich histories and superb levels of service and luxury. The book takes us around the likes of Raffles Hotel in Singapore to the Ananda in the Himalayas and onwards through 370 pages of stunning colour.

Published by Periplus Editions. www.peripluseditions.com

Blue Glue, a fresh breath of air in the swimwear industry, has built its rep on bikinis of exception that bring glam to the beach. The brand expanded quickly to sell in over 80 countries in under two years, and has since shifted its strategy to franchising. Five major lines have been added to meet the expectations of a wider clientele; elegant lines with perfect fit for more mature women, affordable prints, specific cuts using anti-gravity technology for the more voluptuous, kid-look-like-Mum styles, and…amazing Collectors. The brand’s image has grown with its success. Mamzelle, the company’s original cartoon of Charm, evolved from a flashy junior emblem to softer tones that tuned her femininity. Blue Glue’s latest campaign showcases stunning beauty Sylvia Geersen, (Next Top Model, Holland) as the company’s first ‘face’. Blue Glue’s new concept store in Bali is inspired by light and the translucent essence of water, unfolding a feeling of peace and harmony, purity and eternity. Blue Glue’s design team crafted specific and exclusive materials to engender these sensations with hues of acqua velva, water and glass tones, neutral sand, pure white and shimmering silvery rays of light stretching to all shades of grey. www.blue-glue.com Yak Map ref: I9

Full Moon and Pure Moon

New Nutmegs The newly revamped Hu’u Bar introduces its newest culinary experience. Not content to get au fait about anything, the team has created Nutmegs, an intimate space next to their spring-fed pool that also acts as a show kitchen for the inimitable Chef du Cuisine Abu Goh and his team. Thirty different culinary renderings are created in view of the diner for the their ultimate visual and oral pleasure.

Tel 736 443 Yak Map ref. B6

Debbie Gardner, co-creator of the award winning Begawan Giri Estate in Ubud, and consultant to The Shop at Sayan, has been instrumental in the design and fit-out of two new shops in the retail village at Conrad Bali Resort and Spa. Pure Moon, with its Chinese red walls and ceilings and antique cupboards, houses a wide range of jewellery crafted in Indonesia by European, American and Asian designers, with lovely pieces in every price range. Across from Pure Moon is Full Moon, with an irresistible collection of gift items – homeware, jewellery, antiques, clothing and accessories, sourced throughout the Archipelago and Asia by the inimitable Debbie herself.

Located at The Conrad Bali Resort and Spa, Tanjung Benoa.

Adis Art A gallery with a vision and a programme until 2010… unheard of in Bali, just like this artistic spot. This non-profit enterprise opened on Jl. Bisma, Ubud, with an eclectic array of art pieces. Contemporary is the gallery’s middle name and Adis Art Studio and Gallery is its full moniker.

This art space presents artists; it does not deal with them.

Showcasing a variety of assemblages, reliefs, objects, paintings and sculptures, you can look forward to a new exhibition every three months of frankly original, quirky and diverse art pieces.

Tel: 977 104 www.adisbali.com Bud Map ref: F7

Blooming Days Shopping for something unusual? Head up to Bloomz on Hanoman in Ubud and get a tailor-made corsage or petit flower arrangement with a difference. Choose a piece of Camanae jewellery and Bloomz will provide an artistic posy that will set it off like no other gift wrapping ever has. Bracelets, necklaces, pendants shrouded in beautiful petals or fixed to tropical flowers. There really has never been anything like it before.

Bud Map ref: J9

Sensual Sungai Personal butler? Check. Spa and yoga services? Check. Children’s club? Check. Fine dining and absolute privacy? Check. The new-look Sungai is the ultimate in sophisticated luxe villa living in Bali. Add to the benchmark service, dining and superb cocktails, the decadent new spa facility and you have the ingredients for the most memorable getaway. If you are still to experience Sungai in Cepaka (or the brand new couples’ residence Sungai Gold), you simply haven’t experienced Bali’s best. Unashamedly at the luxury end of the travel market, these discreet villas are hospitality made-to-measure, in contemporary, bold and sophisticated surroundings. Think Bvlgari amenities, Bose sound, WiFi internet, loaded iPods in your guest rooms, the deepest double baths and double showers. The exceptional service begins the moment you step off the plane with the VIP airport service and then chauffeured transfers that whisk you to the villa… and it is so much more as the 12 staff are dedicated to you alone. www.bali-villasungai.com www.baliluxuryhoneymoons.com

Aziz Retrospective The work of celebrated artist Abdul Aziz (19282002) is honoured in a retrospective at Ubud’s Neka Art Museum in an exhibition curated by his wife Mary Northmore-Aziz. Aziz is credited with painting one of the most famous works of art in Bali, Mutual Attraction, yet during his lifetime he did not stage a single solo exhibition.

An accomplished musician, painter and sculptor, Aziz spent the last decade of his life devoted to making violins. The exhibition opens on December 8th and runs until January 13th 2008.

For further information visit www.artistabdulaziz. com or www.museumneka.com

Up The Junction If you are on the corner of Laksmana and Cendana in Seminyak, it might just be time to drop into our newest street-side café for a salad, a wrap or a pita pocket and a cool glass of vino or an ice cold biére. Time to take a cool look at an immaculate, refreshing addition to The Yak’s ultimate meet and greet options! Open for lunch and dinner, The Junction’s white, air-conditioned interior opens on to a cool trellised terrace making it a perfect venue for business meetings, lunching with the girls or that after-office catch up and all the while keeping it healthy.

Tel: 735610 Yak Map ref: D8

Fusion with Finesse Zhuma is a new buzzword for Japanese cuisine and it is the Crystal Lagoon in Senayan City, Jakarta, that plays host to this funky, retrochic Japanese restaurant, bar and pre-club lounge. Two thousand and seven saw Zhuma awarded Best Restaurant of the Year, a top Indonesian accolade, by the YPPI (Yayasan Perhargaan Prestasi Indonesia – a foundation dedicated to recognising excellence.

As to why – we just have to look at Zhuma’s exceptional décor, quality of ingredients and outstanding presentation. Stirring it up in their own unique style, Zhuma-philes are going noodles over the spicy Red Udon – with slices of imported beef, three types of mushrooms, tofu vegetables and jalapeno peppers. Keeping up the fire is the Zhuma Cream and Crisp Seafood...even the Grilled Lobster comes with a bite – of Wasabi mayo – and the Spicy Octopus Salad, tender imported octopus on a bed of enoki, iceberg and lorossa lettuces served with a spicy Zhuma-made dressing. But it is not all about fire. Their fusion ‘rolls’ are works of art, as is their sushi and sashimi and, alongside their imported Grade 9+ Wagyu beef and excellent Japanese sakes, their own designer sake shots, Koharu, come delicately flavoured and slightly petillant.

Zhuma is a sensorial experience that is an education unto itself.

Zhuma Japanese. Lower Ground Floor of Crystal Lagoon in Senayan City, Jakarta. Tel. 021 - 727 81237

Lace Me Up Uluwatu has long been famous for its elegant range of women’s wear and table and bed linen featuring handmade Balinese lace. Whilst consistently maintaining high quality products using traditional methods, Uluwatu now showcases a more varied collection for a wider clientele and age group featuring more contemporary designs. Uluwatu opens a boutique in Seminyak in January 2008 on Jl. Laksmana.

Welcome to the hood. www.uluwatu.co.id

was pronounced clinically dead in 1981 after a medical accident. He subsequently awoke with amnesia, was given a week to live, ignored this deadline but later lost his job, his life, his family and a wife he couldn’t recognise. Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, he went blind. John Fawcett’s memory and sight were later restored – and he went on to dedicate his life to helping cataract blind people in Indonesia. To date, thousands of Balinese have received free medical assistance through The John Fawcett Foundation.

I THINK I have adapted, from other ideas and philosophies, a way to look at life and to use my time in a positive and constructive way. The unique ability of humans is their capacity and power to create, so I look at life creatively.

To me, to create is to take something that is nothing on its own and change it to an object or idea or sound which is exciting, pleasing and arresting. Creativity doesn’t have to be the ability to create music, dance, art or sculpture. A person who creates an environment, a home, a business, can be an enormously creative person. Sometimes, if you watch children play, some are able to play in a most creative way, using their imagination.

For me, creativity begins in the mind, with visualizations of imagined sequences. It could be a three-dimensional concept or an idea in language. I love to try to be creative in thought about all I do. You can eat a meal creatively, or just gulp it down.

I have great fun in wandering in my mind in quiet moments and am often amazed to find solutions to problems I thought were unsolvable. Problems are great – they are the spice of life. Accept them and want to solve them, that is your challenge.

I believe you only meet five people in your life that you can say changed your life. I know my five – it’s good to find out yours.

One of the exciting things about living in Bali is the high proportion of people who enjoy being creative. One is surrounded by creativity. People walk creatively, sweep creatively and move about their daily lives creatively. If you let it, creativity invades your life in Bali.

I find an environment like this can permeate the humanitarian work I do. We found a 34-

year-old woman in Besakih, 30kg and blind with advanced diabetes. She was close to dying.

Hopeless? No, a creative challenge. She had nothing going but the last spark of life. Some creative thinking, sound medical decisions and, from nothing, we had a life again. A cataract operation, and within two weeks she returned to Besakih, able to manage her diabetes and with her sight restored. To me, that’s creative action. Making something out of nothing.

Something being the return of a life and sight, and nothing being loss of hope, sight and life. This woman was not visible to most people.

None are less visible than those we choose not to see.

It’s good for all of us to really open our eyes and look around. Because we do have amongst us many people who are living at or below the poverty line and, unfortunately, this number is growing daily.

Every five seconds a person in the world goes blind. We have 52,000 blind people in Bali, and four million in all of Indonesia. Of the blind in Bali, 40,000 are curable but unfortunately 23,000 of these are too poor to seek the cure. What a chance to be creative!

To me, to ignore poverty is to yield to the supreme arrogance of the ‘entitlement’ mentality.

It’s important to think about the people around you – to be aware and to be humbled by the problems of others. Not depressed, but to be appreciative of the knowledge.

My father used to say, “It’s one thing not to know something but know you don’t know; the worst is to not know you don’t know.”

I hope people who complain about the poor being lazy truly suffer the fate of their karma pala belief and have to answer in the next life. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that they will. But we need to live in a creative and aware society.

I believe there are a number of factors that measure the culture and society in which we live, particularly the way a society treats its less fortunate, the poor and the disenfranchised.

The way this group is viewed and assisted is a true measure of the level of the development of a society.

A donation of Rp.500,000 – the cost of a cataract operation in Bali – is all it takes to make the difference between sight and blindness. Go online at balieye.org and change someone’s life forever.

when one Great Dane gets loosed on the world. Born on the Baltic Island of Langeland in 1807, Lange went to sea aged 17, later going into business with his partner John Burd, a Scottish mariner employed by the Danish East Asiatic Co. He left Denmark with two younger brothers in 1833, joining Burd in Hong Kong trading between Singapore, Batavia, Macau and Canton. In 1834 the business was extended to include Lombok, where Lange resettled and prospered until 1839 as Shabandar, a position combining the functions of harbour master and head of customs, under the protection of the Rajah of Karangasem-Lombok. In 1839 he was driven out of Lombok at the instigation of George King, an English rival and another extraordinary character, who backed a successful insurrection by the rival Rajah of Mataram-Lombok. Lange fled Lombok with little more than his life, his horse and his ship, arriving in South Bali where he established a factory at Kuta with the support of the Rajah of Kesiman. For the next decade Lange’s factory at Kuta formed a vital hinge between inter-Asiatic trade and the inland economy.

Foreigners were not permitted into the interior and the Dutch, who had by now established their suzerainty in North Bali, were viewed with suspicion by the Rajahs in the rich rice-growing south of Bali.

Through a combination of vigour and charm, combined with a generous spirit, business acumen (which included the import of the kepeng, the actual unit of currency financing trade at a handsome 100 per cent mark-up) with a genuine respect for local ways, Lange was liked and trusted by his royal protector, who often came to the factory in Kuta. Two years after arrival, Lange was to prove his worth when one of the salvage “incidents”, which so bedeviled Bali’s relations with the outside world, took place. The Dutch ship Overÿssel ran aground off Benoa. Lange protected the crew and passengers from murder and enslavement by a villainous local satrap but not the cargo which, under reef rights, the locals made their own. The Governor General in Batavia was ordered by the Netherlands government not just to end all acts of ship looting but also to establish beyond all question the absolute sovereignty of the Nederlands-Indië Government (NIG) over

Bali. An official was dispatched to force Bali’s independent Rajahs to sign on the dotted line – or else. Fortunately for all concerned, Commissioner Koopman was a flexible and intelligent man. Between the diplomatic skills of Lange and Koopman, who knew the Dutch were not in a position to take on a rebellious Southern Bali, and the political savvy of the Raja of Kesimen, the three men managed to put together a document which, through differences in language, managed to satisfy the Hague and the Balinese rulers, while settling nothing.

By 1844 the Dutch trading post in South Bali was bankrupt, largely through the trading success of Mads Lange. Acting with good sense rather than revenge, and on the advice of Commissioner Koopman, the NIG made Lange a citizen of the Dutch East Indies and he took over the management of all Dutch trading interests in South Bali.

The decade 1839 to 1849 was beneficial to Lange. Not only did he acquire enormous wealth himself but also for his Balinese patron and Dutch masters, both of whom had cause to appreciate not only his business talents but his diplomatic skills, most notably serving as a peacemaker in the Dutch-Balinese wars of 1846 to 1849.

Following three botched campaigns, the Dutch finally took over the internal administration of Buleleng in the North, installing their puppet Rajah, while South Bali retained nominal independence. At least so far as the domestic affairs were concerned. Whether the treaty terms were understood in the same light by either side is unlikely and, as it turned out, irrelevant.

Lange’s crowning achievement was his part in keeping Southern Bali out of Dutch clutches for another 60 years.

Meantime, life in Kuta was good.

Lange and his three brothers were all accomplished musicians, a quartet of violin, flute, cello and piano. As good Danes the food and liquor was plentiful and excellent.

The company was convivial and the host extremely generous, affording long-term hospitality to many visitors. Guests included Danish adventurer Ludvig V. Helms, who became Lange’s assistant and later assistant to Rajah Brooke and later wrote the most vivid account of Lange’s life and work.

Also German philologist R. H. Friederich,

Previous page: Mads Lange. This page: Early Balinese dance performance.

Swiss botanist H.H. Zollinger and Dutch ethnographer Baron W. van Hoevall. Each recalls Lange’s extraordinary world and generosity, their writings captured in a later account published in Danish and Dutch in 1941 by the Danish writer A. K. Nielsen.

Unfortunately peace did not translate into continued good fortune. From this time on Lange’s star declined as Bali suffered droughts and bad harvests. The advent of the steamship meant the big Batavian companies could marginalise interlopers like Lange, who were progressively unable to compete. Only the close-knit Chinese were able to keep on trading. Lange’s health began to suffer and in 1856, aged but 49, he died, poisoned most probably by a jealous local ruler nursing some resentment.

Brother Hans continued to run the business, but the business unraveled quickly. Hans himself died two years later and Lange’s nephew Christian, lacking both business talent and the tact required to get along with local rulers, sold what he could and returned to Denmark, deserting his uncle’s two remaining children in the process. The son Andreas somehow managed to continue his schooling in Singapore and obtained a position with Rajah Brooke through the good offices of his father’s friend Ludvig Helms. A kindly English couple took Cecilia, the young daughter, under their care. She went with them to India, England and France and finally to Singapore, where, as a schoolgirl, the Sultan of Johor met her, fell in love with

her and, against all precedent, made her Sultana.

Brothers Mads and Hans Lange lie buried in Kuta, a stone’s throw from where their factory lay, the graves set up and maintained by the kindness of a Chinese friend and business associate. There they lay for 150 years while the world passed them by, in what became a squalid gang by a fetid stream in the shadow of the fumes and roar of Ngurah Rai Bypass.

Fittingly, to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of this remarkable and engaging man, the Danish community in Bali and the sprawling Lange clan from Denmark, Asia and the world, with the energetic support of Peter Bloch, a local Danish businessman, the small cemetery has now been restored, the area marked and rehabilitated, even the stream and its banks cleaned up.

For those of you who enjoy the bitter sweet ironies of human endeavour seeking to make its way in the world and the haunting remembrance of things past manifest today, the gravesite is worth a visit. Fittingly, there’s finally a handsome and comprehensive new book in English relating Mads Lange’s extraordinary story, produced and paid for by Peter Bloch and put together by the Bali Purnati Foundation.

It makes for fascinating reading.

Images courtesy of Peter Bloch - Tanah Merah. Mads Lange, The Bali Trader and Peacemaker, is published by The Bali Purnati Center For The Arts. www.balipurnati.com, email: purnati@dps.centrin.net.id.

46

The Yak: What’s your name…in Gaelic?

JO: My name in Gaelic is Sean O’Suillerbhain.

It means John of the one eye. ‘Suil’ in Irish is ‘eye’, and ‘abhain’ is ‘one’. The original O’Sullivans were from County Kerry in Ireland and the biggest fighter was in a battle and had one of his eyes taken out, and that’s how he got the name.

Who do you most admire, living or dead?

Living would be Nelson Mandela and dead would be Martin Luther King.

Why? Just their natural inspiration and their nonegocentric selves. What they stood for, what they fought for, what they believed in. What they achieved. They didn’t burn out – well, Martin Luther King did but his legacy lives on.

How much do you get paid?

Right!

It’s just a question…

Well, Four Seasons are a great employer that look after all their staff, regardless of level, very well. And it ensures that we are always the preferred employer wherever we operate, and that is true as much for general managers as for line staff.

You’re from Ireland. What do you think the Irish bring to the hospitality industry?

I think the Irish have an amazing ability to deflect, they are the great deflectors. I think the Irish soul is very humour-based and there is a desire to please, and to do it on a reasonably intellectual basis. Which means they are very well suited to this business. The only part of the Irish body that is less suited to the industry is the liver…

We’re going to get to that. Was your childhood anything like Angela’s Ashes?

No, I lived in the west coast of Ireland, I had very protective parents, so I had a very IrishCatholic upbringing. I went to boarding school outside Dublin when I was 12, and then decided to go into hotels. So no, it was a lovely dysfunctional Irish family.

What’s your favourite Irish joke?

How do you recognise an Irishman on an oil rig?

I don’t know…

He’s the one throwing bread at the helicopters. Da da!

Do the Irish need to drink to be funny?

Um, no they don’t, but no-one ever told them that. That’s the challenge. If someone had told us that early on in our lives it would have been a lot easier. I don’t think they do, but it is very funny when the Irish get drunk. Normally for other people more than the Irish.

You don’t drink at the moment, do you?

I have not drunk for six months.

If you weren’t a hotelier, what would you be?

I would love to have been a psychologist.

I sort of feel – and in many ways you are a psychologist in hotels – but I just feel that the idea of being able to be one-on-one with someone’s growth and development is an exciting concept.

You’re a poet, right?

Yes, I like writing poetry.

What’s your best line of poetry?

My favourite line of poetry would be from William Butler Yeats, and it’s the epitaph on his tombstone, which is in Sligo in Ireland, and it’s: “Cast a cold eye on life, and death, horseman, pass by!” I just think it’s lovely because he’s buried under a mountain and it used to be between two mountains, so the idea of the old horseman coming by, and ‘cast a cold eye’…when you’re dead you only have cold eyes left.

And how about your own poetry, what’s your best line?

I think it was from the first poem I ever wrote, aged 12, which is called He. It’s the last lines of it: “He who spoke of all mankind was right, doomed to death, they do not care.”

Is this something you do every day, write poetry?

No, I vomit it on a regular basis, and it is, it’s like a retching. Then I’ll have a Sunday, and it just comes out. I do a lot on planes, I do an awful lot when I’m travelling, it’s just a way of equalising for me. It’s sometimes dark, sometimes happy.

Is it something that you work at? Do you rewrite?

No, never. Everything I do is a retch…it’s a retch, it’s a write, it’s a rap. And I never

change anything. I can often write up to eight or 10 poems in one go, and then fall asleep, and wake up the next morning and read them. I feel a lot of times it’s channelling.

Channelling other people’s lives and words.

Sometimes, when I look in the morning, some of the poems just feel alien to me, but I know that I’ve written them.

What has Bali given you, would you say?

Bali has just been a beautiful energy charger and has been an equaliser between the various parts of my life, personal, spiritual and work, and I just feel as if Bali opens those portals and equalises them, and makes them all one as opposed to random acts, which other places do. Does that make sense?

Perfectly. And how do you give it back?

What do you do for Bali?

We give it back through the people, at both properties…

No, I mean you personally…

Sorry. I try to help other people, try to support other people, try to help local charities, quietly, and try to become involved. There’s the old Chinese proverb that if you give someone a fish you feed them for a meal, but if you teach them how to fish you feed them for life. Our responsibility as human beings is to make fisher people out of people, and I think that’s what I try and do.

Tell us something about yourself that we don’t already know.

I have one regret in life and that is I never made it to a Grateful Dead tailgate party.

Hahaha!

And I wish I could have done that but unfortunately Gerry didn’t sort of last as long, so I just have the memories and some rather badly recorded basement tapes that I have to listen to and imagine the aura!

Are you a giver or a taker?

I’m a giver. I really love giving, I genuinely love the joy of giving – and cerebral giving, to give stuff that is intelligent and provokes people, not from a negative point of view but just as thought provocation.

What has been your most life-changing experience?

I went trekking for almost a month in Bhutan, and I just found that the person that went

in and the person that came out were very, very different…but if you’re talking about a life-changing process, I would have to say the joy of seeing children grow and develop in their own light. That journey is probably the biggest experience.

What’s your worst quality, according to your wife?

Stubbornness.

Do you want to elaborate on that?

No. You are stubborn!

No, really, at times I think I have a singularity of focus that does not necessarily encompass the expectations of every other human being in my life, which I need to be more aware of.

With the onslaught of so many foreign hotels in Bali, how can the culture hope to survive?

I think the culture in Bali has transcended and will transcend. The difference between Bali and other places in the world that I have been to is that the culture is not for the benefit of the tourists, the culture is a natural byproduct of the people and the gods. And it goes on regardless of the number of cars or buses, or the number of people with funny hats and cameras that go wandering by. When I first came here I was surprised by the number of days that people took off for temple visits and temple ceremonies, and then I realised that in a way this was a sort of spiritual taxation all employers pay for maintaining the culture. I don’t feel I should worry unduly about Bali. Now, when I went to Bhutan, and I saw stuff there, I was very worried because I didn’t see anything replacing it.

What has been the toughest moment of your life?

When my son was being born the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and I thought he was going to be choked to death. That sounds like a lyric from a Leonard Cohen record…but there was a moment in the birth when it got complicated.

What’s the difference between John O’Sullivan the GM and John O’Sullivan the man?

I think the man has a lot less structure and

has a range of pursuits from painting, to travelling, to writing poetry and that straightjacket and the sense of being a manager is released. I don’t think they are different people. I’m just saying that there are two different styles. There’s a lot more structure in the general manager than there is in the guy outside.

Do you have a tattoo?

No. If you got one, what would it be?

I would put it on my shoulder, something small, I think it would be a dolphin’s head.

What is the carbon footprint of the Four Seasons Hotel at Sayan?

I have absolutely no idea but I will find out and get back to you. This is a huge thing, and both Jimbaran and Sayan have just been awarded their Green Globe certification.

[Emailed later: The Green Globe Benchmark report says that Four Season Sayan’s CO2 output is 58.3kg/guest night, 65 per cent of which is from the electricity generation of government power plants. The total energy consumption for Sayan is 770.5MJ/guest night (mega Joules), which is 15 per cent

better than the industry baseline.]

You are banished to a desert island. You can take five things, what would they be?

A complete iPod with no compilation CDs. The Rattle Bag anthology of poetry. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. The book Anam Cara by John O’Donoghue. And a wind chime.

What can we expect in return from this one-on-one interview with you?

Whatever you’d like! What would you like?

I don’t know. I just hope it comes through that the inspiration I felt 15 years ago when I first came to Bali, that almost illusionary feel that I had about the island then, was very real. Having lived here for four years now I realise it wasn’t an illusion, it was just a forward inspiration. The joy of living in Bali has been the ability to see it grow. And the feeling that one has been, in a quiet way, part of that evolution.

John O’Sullivan, it’s been our pleasure to interview you.

Thank you very much. Is that enough? N.S. www.fourseasons.com/bali

Affirmative Action Tender actions, love reactions.

Past steps must not trace tomorrow’s shadows.

Aspirations Traced words of affection linear in space; frothed by fetch; drizzled and hugged by perennial shamans.

Discard the keys that guard the dungeon to thoughts ...jaded.

Cairo November 2002

The weeping has calmed; the eye of the storm present ...uninhibited.

Celebrate love through ....the poet’s eye.

Cairo May 2002

Soul Alchemy New found souls known forever.

A minute spent in eternity’s gaze.

Celebrate the moment and its joy, replete with love.

What is borne of the soul cannot be stolen by human jailors.

Cairo May 2003

Death Of myself, I knew little before the first deluge When earth’s sheen reversed its mortal coil darkness is sharper but shallower its ink marks but diffuses faster than light impails I saw metal on metal before the bell sounded; did I hear or see

the darkness first? an escalator skywards seems slower than trudgery downwards if I see death, is it felt more on parting or harvesting? touching the edge is addictive; separation from norms with taxation so infinitely less collected to enjoy the light celebrates balance Icarus flirted; lest wings singed

to kingdom stunned the smell of death; precise, concentrated diffusion on the bridge to evermore dark and dusted remnants appear; energy glazed in reapers breach the astonished masses destitute in the knowledge that the sureness of sheep is no excuse for your lazy living ...in death

bone on bone; remnant spirals oxidised in the (creator(s)) cradle of craze Florida July 2003 Mediocrity Mediocrity is a spiritual cancer.

Dubai May 2003 All poems by John O’Sullivan.

The Yak: What is your name?

NG: Nicholas Guppy.

How old are you?

Eighty two years old. Born 1925.

Where were you brought up?

Until I was 12, I was brought up in Trinidad, a wonderful and very beautiful small island, in many ways similar to Bali. It has a lot of its own culture, music and literature. Trinidad, like Bali, is a highly inventive place…Calypso comes from there, and now each island has its own Calypso. After 12, I grew up in a very beautiful village called Strathaire in Perthshire, Scotland.

A great place for a naturalist like myself, full of lakes and forests, but it never replaced my love for the tropics. I just imagined I would return to work in Trinidad like my father after university. I spent the best years of my life at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later, Magdalene College, Oxford.

What was your childhood like?

My childhood was idyllic, just lovely. Swimming, sea, music, singing, surrounded by lots of lovely, interesting people.

Then I went to live in England with my mother. I don’t know much about my father. He had a terrible stroke when he was 62, which left him a vegetable, and he remained in hospital until he died when I was 10. I remember him as a very nice man; I have happy memories of him until that point. He was a civil servant for the British government, who never wanted to leave Trinidad despite being offered other postings. After the stroke, my mother never allowed me to see him.

What made you come to Bali?

I was on my way from New Zealand back to England after falling for my second wife, whose family all lived there. In those days it was a 24-hour flight that stopped off in Bali. I fell for it immediately…it’s such a creative place with plenty of culture and interesting people. My wife and I have been here a year and are planning to settle in Padang Bai. How long have you lived on the island?

Seven visits and continuously for the last 12 months in Ubud.

The only reason we’re moving to Padang Bai is because swimming is the only sport left that I like. We’re moving to a

beautiful, ecologically friendly settlement created by a man called Tony Gwilliam.

What has been your proudest achievement to date?

The number one achievement in my life? I founded Survival International after many years as a keen botanist and later as a forests conservator in the colonial forestry service in Guyana. I lived amongst Amer Indians, in a village called Bartica, an area that was a confluence of enormous rivers so tremendously alive with piranhas and electric eels. When I got back to England I was keenly aware that nothing was being done to help the indigenous people, these Amer Indians, from whom I had learnt so much in the jungle. My assistant there, Photograph by Yakko.

HIS grandfather famously had a fish named after him. His son was Earl Spencer’s best man and latterly a convicted jewel thief. His family built the first steam ships to cross the Atlantic and he is intimate with piranhas and electric eels. The Yak put some ecological, erudite and sometimes awkward questions to botanist Nicholas Guppy, founder of Survival International and now grateful resident of Bali.

Jonah – a brilliant man, though quite short – even learnt all the Latin names for everything. These South American Indians had had their lands invaded, their civilisations and cultures destroyed and I thought something should be done to stop the impact of our civilisation on theirs. It was first called the Primitive People’s Fund, though they, the Amers, were the more civilised by far.

Is our planet in trouble?

Of course it is, but it’s more to do with what grows on it because the planet earth is one thing that will go on spinning. Sadly, enormous damage has taken place over wide areas, but at least organisations like Survival have brought awareness to this problem.

How can we help?

Through education. Ecotourism would help if ecotourism

means that it respects the ecology of the place…we could do with more of that…but if tourism itself brings in swarms of people who don’t know how to respect the place at all, it’s hardly ecologically friendly.

Why is ethnic art important?

You have to think of art as the thinking of people and their outlook on life, so the tribal outlook is something we don’t often get to see anymore. It’s important if you want to know what people are thinking and feeling.

You come from an illustrious family of inventors, adventurers, even a jewel thief…

Oh, you must mean my eldest son who went to jail a few years ago for being a naughty man. I like him as a person, but I must say I was deeply shocked when he started being a crook. I think he’s a much more sober person these days, living in South Africa with his wife, Patricia, and children.

He’s so much more interesting than most people and very pleasant company. He’s made a lot of money in whatever he’s invested in…I think it was property in Ireland before it became fashionable.

Who is the most famous Guppy of them all?

There are some thoroughly deserving family members from a while back…like Sarah, my great grandmother who was an inventor, and her son, Thomas, who founded the Great Western Railway and established various other useful things.

They built the very first steam ships that crossed the Atlantic, but the Guppys were never known for being commercially forward, it was all eventually swallowed up by a chap called Cunard. The most famous Guppy? My grandfather, Robert John Bletchmore Guppy, had a fish named after him by the British Museum, but it was later discovered that someone else had found it first, so they renamed it. Since then it’s become the most popular of all the tropical aquarium fish in the world and known as the Guppy, despite the fact that it is no longer guaradanis guppiae.

Who is the most infamous Guppy?

Probably my eldest son, the famous jewel thief who served a few years in jail. Eventually I paid out an enormous amount of money to settle his fine and out he came…(laughs).

How will we banish inequality from the world?

Would we want to? Why would we want people to be all the same? What we want is a loving relationship with those who are different from us and enjoy them, that’s what’s so nice about travelling.

What’s the most important lesson that life has taught you?

Friendships are important. You never know when the spark is going to ignite and that you’ll be great friends…and women are gorgeous.

When were you most happy?

With my darling mother as a child in the Caribbean, and when I was at university.

When were you most sad?

When I wasn’t in love. J.O.

Gary Rosen, Conrad Bali Resort & Spa.

Chris Salans, Mozaic.

Torsten Schubert, formerly of Breeze at The Samaya.

Nicolas “Doudou” Tourneville, Kafe Warisan.

Enrico Wahl, Kura Kura, The Oberoi.

Photograph: Yakko.

Dean Keddell, Dava at The Ritz-Carlton Bali, Resort & Spa.

56

WITH so many talented chefs stirring the melting pot of Bali’s culinary scene, this island is a foodies’ paradise. But when they have a night off, where do Bali’s most critiqued artisans go? Not surprisingly, after 12-hourplus-days slaving over other people’s meals and finishing work well and truly after most of us are asleep, the last thing they normally feel like doing is cooking at home (much to their partners’ disgruntlement).

For special occasions they glam it up with white truffles and foie gras at Bali’s most esteemed restaurants, where they find inspiration in different styles, but otherwise when these guys (and yes, ladies, at this stage they’re all guys) do step out of their kitchens and into someone else’s dining room, they yearn for down-to-earth, everyday food. A burger, steak, sometimes even pizza or cheese on toast.

From dusty backstreet warung where theirs is the only white face in sight, to the ritziest and glitziest dining venues, The Yak tags along to see where Bali’s top chefs find culinary gratification.

Dean Keddell, Dava at The Ritz-Carlton Bali, Resort and Spa HE may preside over one of Bali’s most celebrated restaurants, but at his Seminyak villa, Keddell’s own cupboards are bare. “I have a really good kitchen, but I don’t keep food at home. There’s just a bottle of vodka in the freezer,” he laughs.

Under duress from his girlfriend, he occasionally buys some groceries to whip up a pasta or stir-fry, but more often on his day off, he joins the rowdy expats at Arena in Sanur for steak and baked potato.

“I like simple food, I don’t want to be a food critic when I eat out,” he says.

Arriving in Bali last May was something of a homecoming for the New Zealander, who opened Gado-Gado 10 years ago.

His last stint was at the single-resort Lizard Island in Queensland, Australia, an exclusive hideaway for celebrities and an apt precursor to Dava.

Despite the passing of a decade, Keddell says little has changed on Bali’s culinary front. “The restaurants that were good then are still among the best, like the old faithful Warisan,” he says. “Now, there’s also Mozaic, hands-down the best restaurant in Bali.”

Keddell finds a major challenge in convincing expats to fork out for truly worldclass cuisine. “Expats always complain about how expensive everything is, but in reality it’s not, especially as you’re dealing with imported, thousand-dollar ingredients so you can put luxurious foie gras, truffles and Wagyu beef on the menu.”

Daily fare: Warung Nikmat in Tuban, Baku Dapa on Jl. Dhyana Pura for the “best oxtail soup in Bali, open 24 hours”, and Dewi Sri on Jl. Kartika Plaza for “barbecued fish chosen from a tank”.

Wow factor: Mozaic. “I went with my

girlfriend and had the eight-course tasting menu. Chris cooked us 16 different dishes and matched a glass of wine to each. It was incredible.”

Gary Rosen, F&B Director, Conrad Bali Resort & Spa BALI’S most outspoken, straight-talking chef has no time for what he calls “fluff on a plate”. He likes his food as no-nonsense as his manner.

“I have the same dilemma as everyone else: where to eat?” Rosen says, keeping one step ahead as he marches through the Conrad’s grounds between appointments.

“We need to get back to basics. I’m tired of young chefs coming in here trying to show off and over-impress, producing fluff on a plate, a million different flavours so people can’t distinguish between them.

“That’s not what food’s about. I would rather go to an ethnic restaurant where they’re not trying any of that but the food just tastes great.”

He says people mistakenly think the Conrad’s flagship restaurant Spice is experimental. “It’s not, it’s very simple, upmarket street food that I’ve cleaned up with the best products, cooking methods and presentation.”

Rosen, a 10-year Asia veteran who has been in Bali for the last four, mostly eats local. For special occasions, he rates only two restaurants as worthy of mention:

Warisan and Mozaic.

“Doudou is going to hate me for saying this, but Warisan is like putting on an old, worn, comfortable shoe,” he says. “Doudou is one of the best chefs around, he doesn’t try to impress or surprise you, he just cooks what he does well, which is great French provincial food. He’s the king of foie gras. I also like going up to Chris’ place (Mozaic). I have a lot of respect for him.”

Daily fare: Warung Dobel in Nusa Dua. “Absolutely the best babi guling this side of Bali.”

Wow factor: Mozaic.

Chris Salans, Mozaic WITHOUT hesitation, nearly every chef nominates Mozaic as their best dining experience in Bali. Salans’ experimental style and innovative tasting menu is on-themoney every time, according to his peers.

So, what does the man himself do for a feed?

“I love food, I love to eat, I’m an ogre of some sort,” he grins. “But I personally never cook at home. I’m way too complicated, I need 40 pots and pans, 30 staff behind me, I can’t cook simple. I’ve cooked a few recipes and my wife says, ‘You’re so boring, you always cook the same thing’, which is funny because I’m known for being creative!”

He constantly tries different warungs and restaurants, eating nasi for lunch and Western for dinner, but laments what he sees as Bali’s

Right: Chris Salans cooks up a storm.

limited fine dining options.

“Eating out is a huge source of inspiration,” he says. “The problem in Bali is that the choices are so damn limited.

There isn’t enough volume, money and consistency…Bali needs to focus on local cuisine, open good Indonesian restaurants with basic education and control of hygiene.”

He advises diners to ignore advertisements, listen to word-of-mouth and steer clear of empty restaurants.

Daily fare: “Warung Ibu Oka’s babi guling is the only business card I display at Mozaic.”

He also likes Arena’s no-fuss atmosphere and food, La Sal’s tapas and home-delivered sushi from Ryoshi.

Wow factor: Warisan for consistency, Dava, Spice and the revamped Kura Kura at The Oberoi. “We just celebrated our 10th anniversary and I took my wife to The Oberoi, where Enrico cooked an absolutely amazing meal for us.”

Torsten Schubert, Formerly of Breeze at The Samaya THIS Indonesia veteran, who arrived in Jakarta in 1997 as mass rioting threw the city into bloody chaos, claims that during the last eight years in Bali – a much more tranquil experience – he’s never had a bad meal.

“The restaurant scene has great diversity and is improving as more international chefs come in, attracted by the lifestyle and Bali’s growing (dining) reputation in Southeast Asia,” Schubert says.

The island is still plagued by too many

mediocre restaurants, he adds, and chefs face major challenges sourcing high-quality produce, but this is changing thanks to importers like Lotus Enterprises. Still, people often baulk at imported steak priced at Rp250,000, forgetting that you pay for what you get, he says.

“I would never order a tenderloin worth Rp50,000 on the menu, it can’t be good,” he says.

Schubert rarely cooks at home, apart from toast or sausages, and admits it’s hard to switch off when he eats out. “It’s like a job sickness; if you go out fine dining, you obsess about the food, how the chef did this and that, you evaluate it and compare it with your food,” he says.

“But I’m an easy eater. I’m very tolerant because I know what’s going on behind the scenes. If the food is taking a while, I know they’re just busy in the kitchen, and if it doesn’t work out, I’m not a complainer, I’d never send the meal back.”

Daily fare: Arena is Torsten’s favourite place to meet other chefs and satisfy cravings for old-fashioned comfort food, like wurst salad.

Wow factor: Warisan and Mozaic.

Nicolas “Doudou” Tourneville, Kafe Warisan HAILED as Bali’s most consistently satisfying top-end restaurant, Warisan has stood its ground as others have risen and fallen around it. It’s a Bali institution and Doudou is the rock that holds it together. Big job, yet he’s one chef who can’t take himself out of

the kitchen even on his day off.

“I love to cook at home,” the Frenchman says. “At Warisan it’s serious business, but at home it’s my hobby and it’s relaxing.” His day off, Sunday, traditionally starts with dim sum at Ema at Bali Galleria; occasionally he and his wife trek up to Ubud for Naughty Nuri’s spare ribs. Then he goes home, does some gardening and cooks a Sunday roast.

When he dines out, he opts for Asian: Korean at Kaizan on Jl. Oberoi or Japanese at Dahana on Jl. Petitenget. He likes to try new restaurants, but always waits at least three months post-opening.

“It’s unfair to judge a new place within the first three months, and I never judge the first time, I always go at least three times,” he says. His first stop at any restaurant is the toilet. “In France, you can tell the hygiene of the kitchen by the cleanliness of the toilet, so I always go to the toilet before my meal!”

He also shies away from places serving a variety of cuisines. “If I see a thick menu with Western dishes, Indonesian dishes, Indian dishes, this freaks me out. It’s impossible it’s all good.”

While he misses an authentic, fine dining Italian restaurant, he says Bali’s dining scene is first class and the friendly Balinese hospitality sets it apart from anywhere else.

“Everywhere you go it’s such a pleasure to be served by the Balinese, especially when you return from Europe on holiday, you notice a big difference.”

Daily fare: Warung Ibu Oka in Ubud, Warung Sulawesi on Jl. Petitenget and Mie88 in front of Kuta Galleria.

Wow factor: Mozaic, “my first choice, far and away”.

Enrico Wahl, Kura Kura at The Oberoi THE newest import to Bali’s culinary establishment, Wahl arrived for his first Asian posting in January after 18 years travelling around Europe, America and the Middle East.

“Bali definitely tops the list of all the places I’ve been, food-wise and lifestylewise,” says the German, who shuns his mother-country’s fare in favour of his wife’s national cuisine, Thai.

He has found that loose change can buy an excellent meal at a warung, while if you’re willing to pay for quality ingredients and innovative styles, the high-end restaurants are first rate.

Wahl ignores advertising, relying on word-of-mouth to direct him to Bali’s best eateries. He often prefers simple things like a burger and beer. “I’m really uncomplicated, not too fussy at all. Sometimes I just stay in and eat cheese on bread. I never microwave, and I never eat fast food. I save my appetite for something more tasty.”

Daily fare: Warung Batavia on Jl. Raya Kerobokan, Trattoria on Jl. Oberoi and Ryoshi on Jl. Raya Seminyak.

Wow factor: Spice and Dava. “I always have the tasting menus to experience new cooking styles and flavours.”

Breeze at The Samaya, Tel: 731 149 Dava, Tel: 702 222 Kafe Warisan, Tel: 731 175 Mozaic, Tel: 975 768 Spice, Tel: 778 788

World Cups Italian Martini “This cocktail utilises predominantly Italian liqueurs, using as its base Franjellico and Galliano – named after the Italian war hero, Major Giuseppe Galliano, a member of the expeditionary force that fought during the Italian/Abyssinian war in the 1890s. The bottle still carries a picture of him. This cocktail is perfect for after dinner, with many layers of flavour.”

45ml Galliano 20ml Franjellico 25ml Cointreau 60ml apple juice Garnish with star anise

Mango Lassi Bellini “The original Bellini was created in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice. It was named after the 15th century artist Jacopo Bellini who favoured pink in his paintings.

The original cocktail was made with white peaches and prosecco. We have added an Indian twist here by exchanging the peaches with a mango lassi mix.”

Tiki Tipple “The first Tiki bar was Don the Beachcombers, a Polynesian theme bar in Hollywood that opened in 1937. Along with Trader Vic’s they created such classics as the Mai Tai and Zombie. There has been a revival of Tiki bars in the last 10 years, especially in London and NYC. The garnish adds a modern twist.”

Mandarin Sunset “ This is a superbly balanced cocktail using a Swedish flavoured vodka and Campari, the Italian bitters, a blend of herbs and spices including peels, barks, neutral alcohol, sugar and purified water. It sells 33 million bottles a year worldwide and balances the drink perfectly with the sharpness of the ruby red grapefruit juice.”

10ml Belvedere Vodka 20ml Mango Lassi Mix Layer Champagne Garnish with an orange twist

60ml Ron Havana Anejo Reserva (Rum) 10ml Malibu 5ml sugar syrup Top with nitrogen-charged coconut foam Garnish with toasted coconut

45ml Absolut Mandrin 10ml Campari 60ml ruby red grapefruit juice Dash of Grenadine 10ml orange juice www.barsolutions.com.au

Photography by Yakko at Ku De Ta.

THE RYCH, KUTA BEACH

DAY DREAM, SEMINYAK

Rachel Greaves gives us reasons to go regional as she samples the island’s Southeast Asian cuisine.

Located on Kuta Beach Road, The Rych is a Chinese concept restaurant presenting six different dining experiences spread across three floors. Here, you will have the option of creating your own dishes from the various food stalls on the ground floor where an array of fresh, healthy ingredients is displayed in front of an open kitchen. Alternatively, you can enjoy the more upmarket Shanghai cuisine served on the first floor and adjacent balcony, or cook your own Korean hot pot on the roof top. The menu offers a huge selection of appealing dishes, including crispy fried duck Shanghai style, sweet and sour bean curd, wok-fried tiger prawns with scallion, fresh noodles with sliced beef and shallot, braised black mushroom with bamboo shoots, crispy fried frog meat and much more. Particularly recommended is the wonderful baked sea garoupa with special Shanghai sauce. The chef also makes steamed dumplings, served piping hot in bamboo steamers and stuffed with either beef or a combination of prawn and chicken.

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Slip on your sunnies before you slip behind the walls of Day Dream, for here you will find a dreamy white world where you can lounge upon a sunbed on an island-deck, surrounded by the waters of a large swimming pool.

Everything is white, from the pendopo – the core of the white wantilan building – to the whitewashed floor, the milky walls and the frosted furnishings. Only the mattresses, the pool, the palms, the people and the food display splashes of colour. Day Dream’s comprehensive menu includes plenty of Indonesian and Asian temptations, including kalio buntut Day Dream, which is a twist on the classic sop buntut, featuring imported oxtail stewed with tomato and spices. The clear fish ball soup, known as bakso ikan, is another goodie, as is the chilli prawns, the stir fries and the sweet ’n’ sour fish. If you’re not in the mood for a full meal, you might consider daydreamin’ with some snacks such as the spring rolls, the chicken sate or the salmon tempura before winding up your contemplations with a spiced mango pud.

737641 Yak Map ref: B5

NEST VILLAGE, KUTA

THE TERRACE AT AMANUSA

nutmegs @ HU’U BAR

KEMIRI AT UMA UBUD

There are not so many restaurants in Bali with bird’s nest on the menu, but Nest Village Restaurant and Store specialises in this delicacy, which has been traditionally consumed in China for over 400 years, most often as Bird’s Nest Soup. The nests are created by Southeast Asian swifts, and composed of web-like strands of saliva woven together with a few foreign particles.

Inside, the restaurant is cavernous and barnlike with a soaring roof; outside bale-style seating is positioned around a small, feature rice field. Non-alcoholic beverages blend nests with fresh juices, boasting names such as Nest Punch, Sunset Nest, and Nest from Heaven. The main menu includes Asian dishes such as Jukut Ares, which is a duckflavoured banana trunk soup with Balinese spices, while nest products include the Bird Nest Broth and the Japanese Roll with Bird Nest. Sweets include Mango Lassie and Bird Nest with Green Tea Ice Cream. Open daily from 3 pm.

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The Terrace at the peaceful Amanusa commands a sweeping 270º view of the golf course, the ocean, Nusa Dua and the Bukit. High buttresses are composed of indigenous serai stone, while staircases and cloistered walkways link the various components of this glamorous boutique resort. The Terrace, open to sea breezes and, happily, to the general public, specialises in Thai and Indonesian cuisine. Executive Chef Hamish Lindsay collaborates with Amanusa’s Thai Sous Chef to create authentic Thai classics such as the hot and sour tom yum goong, and the vegetarian wok-fried noodle dish pad wun sen. Indonesian dishes are equally faithful to their origins. Check out the bebek betutu – slow roasted duck in banana leaf, the beef rendang curry with coconut milk, and the Sumatran king prawn curry. A famous Indonesian dessert is the klappertart – a slab of Dutch Colonialism infused with warm young coconut, raisins and cinnamon, topped with vanilla sauce.

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One of Bali’s hip places to hang, Hu’u is famous for its daily offering of sunset lychee martinis and tapas. The Zen-inspired architecture of the open pavilion focuses on a central bar, which is a great spot for people watching. If, however, you are looking for more intimate conversation, you will enjoy the chilled, romantic ambience of Nutmegs at Hu’u where alfresco seating flanks a water fountain and sparkling swimming pool. The eclectic tapas menu, served between 4pm and 2am, suggests a mix of Eastern and Western bites, including crispy bean curd skin and seafood wonton.

The main menu, meanwhile, features Asian flavours fused with elements of Australian and Italian cuisines. Appetising delights include oriental duck pancake, or crispy soft shell crab, each one skillfully balancing salty, sweet, sour and spicy seasonings. For the main course you might want try the baby lobster noodle, or the slow-cooked teriyaki salmon, while meat lovers will surely go wild for the tandoori lamb brochettes.

736443 Yak Map ref: B5

Here’s another one of those beautiful boutique hotels with a breezy romantic restaurant and a cuisine to die for. Kemiri takes its name from the candlenut tree in the gorgeous garden of this hidden gem. A traditional Balinese gateway marks the entrance, a waterfall cascades down a pathway of river rocks into an expansive fishpond, and shady mature trees complete the picture of bliss. Executive Chef, Chris Miller, says: “Best of all, I like to cook Asian food,” and has therefore created a menu that takes us from China to Indonesia, with stopovers in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

In fact, Indonesian island specialties feature significantly with dishes such as stir-fried crab from Irian Jaya in spicy laksa sauce, Bandung tea-smoked quail, and grilled Lombok lobster with chilli paste and kaffir lime. Unusual twists include the chicken and jellyfish salad with sweet sesame dressing, the crispy-fried, soft-centred duck eggs with oyster sauce, and the Szechuan salt and pepper squid with green mango.

972448 Bud Map ref: B1

COMO SHAMBHALA Chris Miller of the famed Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri and Diana von Cranach of Puri Ganesha Villas, North Bali, decided over a couple of drinks last New Year’s morning to team up and try to do something special. Chris Miller’s food reflects Como’s holistic and wellness philosophy and Diana von Cranach has for some time now been perfecting her own personal ‘living’ cuisine – using only local flavours, supporting local farmers and trying to keep her food as organic as possible, somewhat in the vein of that perfected in the US in the early ’90s by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein.

The result of the Miller-Cranach collaboration was presented last March at the ‘World’s First Rawstafel’ lunch, a very different fivecourse degustation menu, re-interpreting and ‘uncooking’ the traditional recipes and tastes of the archipelago to create purely ‘living’ food dishes. With plenty of surprises for the taste buds, their efforts received a standing ovation from the 30 or so invitees.

Since this early introduction, these balanced and exciting lunches – served from 12.30 on the last Friday of every month at Glow on the Como Estate – now have a small but very dedicated following, with one return guest recently overheard saying that Chris and Diana together produce the “best and most unusual ‘living’ food on the planet”. Although taste and food preferences are always very personal, the fact remains that these Rawstafel lunches are an extremely healthy alternative, offering the chance to experience Indonesian food with a twist.

To present her “Rawfully Good” cuisine to a wider audience, Diana is planning to open the Green Spa Café in Sanur. Meals will be only to order for a maximum of 10

Left and below: Como Shambhala Estate.

Time to revisit the salad years with these two highly healthy culinary choices, one high-end, the other, low.

people and prospective guests will be able to choose between a three, five or sevencourse menu, created for lunch or dinner.

The cafe – which will have a policy of bringyour-own booze – doubles as a showcase for Diana’s range of unusual, gourmet Allthingsnice Spice Company products, many of which are used in the Rawstafel lunches.

H.R. Tel: 978888 www.comoshambhala. com LENA’K Romantic dinner prices have just taken a tumble, well at Lena’k at least. Tucked away in a garden on Gang Plawa, Seminyak, this rustic little orchard setting claims to serve an international menu – but it does so much more than that. Apart from global favourites – brochettes, kebabs and grills – it is salad heaven. Out of this world herbed greens blend with lamb and feta; tomato, carrots, celery and parsley give vibrant colour to a brown rice and lentil salad; Middle Eastern flavours pungently pervade the Tabouleh.

There is even a Seafood Ceviche that is on par with that from Peru – its originator.

Other healthy leafed dishes include the Tahiti snapper, Thai beef and Squid or Chicken salads. Green Papaya, Seared Ahi Tuna or Pasta wrap up the choice for those looking to keep it high on greens and low on carbs. There is even a quelque chose for that sweet tooth – Fresh Orange Salad with Chocolate and Roses. There is also a cute Kids’ Menu and even a kids’ mini park – thankfully tucked away in one corner of the tropical garden. Just one word of advice – you might want to bring your own wine as the wine list, if you’re dining for romance, is limited. Prices range from Rp20,000 to Rp70,000. Lena’k is open for lunch and dinner.

Tel: 732 878 Yak Map ref: I11

Swiss Toblerone Chocolate Mousse with Berry Coulis Lestari Cafe, Umalas.

Hold me and control me and then Melt me slowly down, Like chocolate, tastes so good, My heart’s been mended, who’d have thought it would…

Chocolate by Kylie Minogue.

IT may not have been the Aussie pop princess’ most critically acclaimed single, but chocolate is the mouth-watering star of Lestari Café’s dessert menu. You wouldn’t expect anything less from the Swiss management behind the cafe, who specially import their motherland’s most famous chocolate bar for their signature Swiss Toblerone Mousse with Berry Coulis.

Apparently the Toblerone sold locally is made under licence in Australia and, well, it’s just not the same as the original Swiss version, which produces a classically rich and creamy mousse set off by slightly chewy bits of the Toblerone’s almond nougat. An old favourite with a nutty twist. www.lestari-bali.com Yak Map ref.: A.9

Bird’s Nest of Dark Chocolate and Chestnuts on Grand Marnier Pastry with Burnt Orange Compote and Chantilly Cream Maya Ubud.

And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon…

Brain Damage by Pink Floyd.

THIS insanely wicked dessert is too good to share. First, there’s the rich, fudgy filling blended from dark and milk chocolate that is topped with a vermicelli of pureed chestnuts for a delicious crunchy finish.

Then there’s the hint of mocha and the refreshing tang of citrus, thanks to the caramelised orange zest, lemon leaf-infused citrus essence and orange segments. With a side of semi-stiffened, unsweetened cream, it is the ultimate winter-style comfort food for a cool Ubud evening. And with medical research finding dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that may lower blood pressure, what greater incentive do you need? www.mayaubud.com Bud Map ref.: P.7

Strawberry Agar Agar with Vanilla, Young Coconut and Cashew Nut Sorbet Como Shambhala Estate, Begawan Giri.

All right, stop, collaborate and listen, Ice is back with my brand new invention…

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. GUILT-free desserts: oxymoron? Too-goodto-be-true? Think again. Bali’s premier wellbeing retreat takes balanced, creative and refreshing cuisine to a new level. With an emphasis on raw, organic foods rich in living enzymes, the cuisine at COMO Shambhala Estate tastes damn good and leaves you feeling even better. And that means desserts you can eat every day. Like this raw, vegan dish that gives all the pleasure of regular ice cream and jelly without using animal products or heat. The sweet, velvety agar agar jelly sets off the smooth, creamy sorbet that’s made from cashew nut milk to produce the same sensation of normal dairy ice cream. Ingenious. www.comoshambhala.com

Strawberry Mint Salad with Dark Orange Caramel and Praline Cream Three Monkeys Cafe, Ubud.

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung up about, Strawberry Fields forever…

Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.

JOHN Lennon may have been widely suspected of LSD-induced hallucinations when he penned the lyrics to arguably The Beatles’ most famous tune, but thankfully the Three Monkeys Cafe in Ubud is real, and its strawberries are divine. Drenched in a rich dark orange caramel, topped with almond praline cream and scattered with mint leaves for a clean, refreshing finish, these berries are definitely laced with a wickedly intoxicating flavour. Be prepared to enter a deliriously euphoric state, especially if you opt for a shot of Grand Marnier on the side (recommended!). M.C. Tel: 975 554 Bud Map ref.: G.11

Red Letter Days ‘TIS the season to be jolly, so Constant Wining is going to give you something to be jolly about. Red, red and redder, the colour of Shiraz – or Syrah as it is called in France and the US. This precious little beauty is responsible for some of the great wines of the world today, including Penfold’s Grange, Henschke’s Hill of Grace from Australia and the splendid examples from Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage in France. Shiraz is the fastest growing red grape in the world and is booming in every New World wine region, mainly due to its vigorous growth and large, loosely packed bunches that are remarkably disease resistant. Shiraz also enjoys a myriad of climatic conditions, including maritime environments and cool mountainous regions, from which it takes on distinctive flavours. It is a most exceptional grape with which to make wine – whether delivered straight up or used in a blend. It enjoys an immense history and is the subject of many a legend and poetic verse.

Cyrus Kadivar, the Iranian scribe, tells of an ancient Persian legend: Jamshid, a grapeloving king, stored ripe grapes in a cellar so he could enjoy them all year long. One day he sent slaves to fetch a bunch, but when they did not return he decided to go to the cellar himself – only to find that the carbon dioxide gas emanating from the bruised fermenting fruit had knocked them all out.

One of the king’s rejected, distraught mistresses later decided to drink the poisoned potion that had rendered the slaves unconscious, but instead she left the cellar singing and dancing in high spirits. The king realised that this grapey liquid had the mysterious power to render excessive users oblivious to all and sundry, but when used in moderation could make sad people happy.

The juice was most probably made from the

Shiraz grape that abounded in Persia – the oldest sample of wine in the world, dating to approximately 7,000 years ago, was actually discovered on clay jars recovered outside of the city of the same name.

Perhaps the wine’s moniker came from Shiraz, Persia, perhaps not. Perhaps Alexander the Great and his army went on a drinking binge downing countless amphorae of this type of wine, and then proceeded to rape, pillage, loot, and burn Persepolis. Or perhaps not.

What we do know is that joy arrived in France, and later the rest of the winemaking world, when, in the 13th century, the returning Knight Crusader, Gaspard de Stérimberg, brought the grape to France from Persia.

These days the explosion in popularity of this varietal is largely down to Australia, where the wines run the gamut of the flavour spectrum from the big, full, rich, tannin-laden wines to lighter, fruitier, drink-me-now styles with lots of blackberry and raspberry.

In France’s northern Rhone Valley, Shiraz is the grape behind AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) wines like Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, which are often powerful, smoky and meaty. In the Southern Rhone AOC’s of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and others, Shiraz is used as one of the main components in their blends.

One of my very favourite ways to enjoy Shiraz is as a sparkling wine. You may be thinking that I’m completely out of my mind when I suggest this but one of the very great wine/food matches at Christmas is turkey (hot or cold) or baked ham with a very chilled glass – or five – of sparkling Shiraz.

In John Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale, written in 1884, he refers to a purple-stained mouth from a beaker of “beaded bubbles”.

Unless he was drinking with a mouthful of

blackberries, he was probably referring to an early example of sparkling Burgundy. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how it flows: Ode to a Nightingale O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen. And with thee fade away into the forest dim.

If you have never tasted a good example of sparkling Shiraz you may think that I’m referring to sweet, carbonated pop fizz, the likes of Cold Duck (cringe), but I’m not. I’m waxing lyrical about something completely different.

Although sparkling red wine was probably first made in France, they all but ceased production by the mid-1700s and it was in Australia, around 1880, that the ephemeral drop I refer to was first made – ironically by a Frenchman.

Sparkling Burgundy has been taken seriously (by Australians) ever since and some of the country’s most esteemed winemakers are making wines with finesse and depth from some of their best batches of Shiraz grapes, employing the traditional method of making Champagne – Méthode Champenoise.

Today, global consumption of sparkling reds is increasing, particularly around the Christmas/New Year period, but there are many more opportunities to enjoy them.

Foods that pair well with bubble-free Shiraz will also work beautifully with sparkling red wines. Try with any barbequed meats, rich pork ribs, a hamburger or a perfectly grilled steak. Happy silly season. Wine on!

Katrina Valkenburg is a wine consultant and educator. Katrina@mac.com

Black Magic: The Ladies’ back bathroom at Ku De Ta matches black walls with shining chandeliers for a rich, likeable look of luxe.

Arabian Nights: Khaima goes for a desert-red finish matched to a colonial Dutch mirror to send us Morocco-bound.

Green Daze: La Sal goes green with a soft warm lighting and towel box.

Outside World

This Page: Theta Spa. Next Page, clockwise: Old wold charm at Cafe Bali, emerald shades at Prana Ladies’ Spa, characteristic opulence at DaLa, and subdued Moorish tones in the men’s changing room, Prana.

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Bali architect Popo Danes first visited a construction site at three years old. Today he is the vision behind the Ubud Hanging Gardens, John Hardy’s office and workshop, the Ibah extension and Natura Eco Resort. He lives in Denpasar, where his home is an abstraction of a Balinese compound.

The Yak: Popo, you have an unusual name. Where is it from?

Popo Danes: From Bali. It’s just part of my name, which is quite long. I don’t use my real name, Nyoman, as I have to think about branding, and make it easier for people to recognise. You have to be different because I am one of another 500,000 Nyomans in Bali.

How old are you?

I am 43.

Did you build your own home?

Yes, we [Popo and his wife Melati] built it ourselves. In a way we are trying to contribute, to educate the local community about architecture. We are trying to work on a different scheme. We rented the land for 20 years and I had to play with a minimum budget and achieve a style that was suitable for our lifestyle. We often invite friends over for dinner, and I wanted to make it easy for us to socialise. I wanted to build a house that was easy to get to.

We have a long period in our lives when we are productive, so I thought why not live in an area where it is easy to liaise with friends, and here we are right in the centre of everything, in the middle of Denpasar. In a way that was kind of an optimistic scenario because as you know the property market in Bali is becoming so expensive due to international buyers, but I am so proud to share this story with people and show that with little budget we were able to afford and achieve a house in this location. In many ways the house is also partly our design laboratory. I used it to test new materials and new styles.

How is this house educating the local community about architecture?

I am trying to make a new translation of the Balinese compound. Zoning-wise the house follows traditional rules. My bedroom is in the north, the kitchen is close to the entrance, the entrance is in the south, the southwest is the service area…there is a courtyard, which is covered, in the middle. These days we are facing a different life in Bali, we are living more and more in the city, we need more practicality, more security. So this is an abstraction of our Balinese way of life. Now, since I can show people that this kind of home is affordable, I can bring more people to appreciate this kind of architecture.

Is it affordable to engage an architect to build your house? Many people would say it’s expensive…

So many Balinese spend billions and billions of rupiah to build their house, it is part of our tradition to build a home, but it also means everyone thinks they can build a house. So many people are scared about architectural fees etcetera, but with this package, I can tell them that using an architect can help to manage the budget, to get more from it, and look, with this minimum budget, you can have this house. Slowly things are changing. I would really love it if we had more and more local people as our clients.

Have you changed the house at all since you built it?

No. Why is most of the architecture in Denpasar such a problem, do you think?

The Balinese still like to play on a patchwork basis. They think, let’s put the air-con in later, just call this guy and he will come. No one thinks about planning a house so there are no cables hanging everywhere, they don’t think of the mechanics, and they are never able to achieve a proper house.

Which is your favourite room?

This house is not big, it’s not small, but the very good thing is we use all of the space. Some-

times in a house there is some space that is not favourite and not used, but here we use all the space.

What was the first building that you designed?

It was our family mountain house. I was only 17. Up in the mountains in Singaraja.

So you discovered architecture at an early age…

Very early. My father liked building as his hobby. He was not an architect, he just liked to build. He introduced me to a construction site when I was three years old.

He was in the construction business?

It was not his plan or intention to be. He was a self-made developer. He built a house because he was serious about it and wanted to make the best one he could, and then somebody came along and wanted to buy it. So it became his business. Then when I was seven years old – we lived close to here – we had a new neighbour at that time, and his name was Robi Sularto. He was an architect. And then I started to know architecture as a profession, just by looking at the way he was working with drawings. We became very close, our family and his family, and he helped me to understand the profession. He was engaged to design the Bali Handara Golf Club, and my father was part of the management team, and I became informed about architecture and I decided on just one goal, and that was to make it my profession. I started studying books on the subject at junior high school.

How would you describe your style?

I cannot describe a very specific style but what I can say is my style is related to tropical living, related to cultural living, and very much a fusion between these two things. I try to get the best out of each. Like with this house, I am trying to put traditional concepts into modern living, and it works. What’s the point of having a beautiful house that cost me one million dollars? What do I then have to share with my friends? I think we still need to promote how to work with architects in Bali.

How are you doing that?

Because I know that we now live in the era of the knowledge-based economy, I believe it is only right to share knowledge. Our office is becoming a very active learning centre.

What about the government’s involvement in local infrastructure…the roads, the zoning…obviously there are some problems.

Of course, of course. This is not an easy job for everyone because to me this island has had a great shock in recent times with a tremendous amount of change and movement. There has been a lot of pressure created by foreign investment and tourism, much of which has been very sudden. If we look at this positively then this is a fantastic thing because it brings a lot of opportunity. It’s a matter of how we manage this shock, of course. We now need an extra energy to cope. But on the whole I would say that when a lot of investment comes to Bali this should be taken as good news.

Let’s be frank, Bali is a paradise that can’t yet manage its own rubbish.

And this tells us about how close heaven and hell can be.

How are you maintaining Bali as the land of your fathers?

This is important. We must maintain our image. Bali is known as the island of a thousand temples, but it is becoming an island of a million rukos. So of course I care about this. We must preserve the ecology of Bali, and build responsibly. Traditionally we used to live agriculturally, but we failed to put a filter on all the new things coming to Bali. Things must change, of course, which is why communication is very important.

Is all architecture a compromise, would you say?

I think so, most of it. Most must compromise. Architectural projects are multi-disciplined; I cannot work as the only consultant on a project now. There are interior designers, landscape designers, mechanical designers, it’s multi-talented work. It is not so simple anymore.

Does that make it difficult to maintain and control a project?

No. This depends very much on the personality of the individual. Some people are not ready to accept someone else’s idea. I like to liaise with more people and I always think positively…the interior designer comes to make my project more beautiful; this landscape architect is involved because he wants to improve my architecture. Some architects view this is as interference. It depends on how you look at it.

What makes your home a happy place to be?

All of the good things we put together in our daily lives. We are working for what we believe in. Friends are important to us.

Popo Danes, thank you for your time, and for allowing us into your home.

Thank you. What should I wear for the shoot?

Something bright.

Ok. N.S.

Previous page: The living room. This page, Left: Kitchen.

Above: Popo’s lounge. Below: A Balinese compound, abstracted for modern life.

Today The Ambhara is no less dramatic. Featured in several international magazines and lauded as the venue with the most dramatic view of the island, The Ambhara is set into 3,000 square metres of Made Wijaya-sculptured land and offers six self-contained pavilions connected through a network of paths, terraces and reflecting pools. Each pavilion has been carefully crafted to traditional Balinese proportions and fitted out to five-star hotel standards. The master bedroom overlooks a twin-tiered swimming pool and boasts a 50-inch television, although the view from the Jacuzzi is likely to prove more captivating than anything on TV. Bose stereo and Wifi internet connection are standard (as is the computer, printer, copier and scanner), and a king size opium bed on a mezzanine floor offers a sensual place from which to escape the drama of the day.

At ground level the lounge covers 120 square metres of luxurious space that leads onto a spacious wooden deck capable of hosting parties of up to 100 guests. The dining pavilion, decorated with a combination of wooden panels and white textile, is either air-conditioned or cooled by the sea breeze. Eight capable and friendly staff are on hand to take care of the details.

If this were a luxurious private estate alone it would be enough to convince most of its worth, yet the links to a charitable foundation in the form of ISCO make it a very special place indeed. Pascal and his Javanese wife started the foundation for the schooling of Indonesian Street Children in 1999. Your money goes a long way and will make a direct impact on the lives of the underprivileged, with every US$1,000 providing on average 10 years’ schooling for a child – a gift that can only bring happiness, enjoyment and opportunity to both giver and receiver. To date, 1,750

children from 17 slums in Jakarta, Surabaya and Sumatra are receiving education and support through the foundation, with most of the children aged between five and 14 years old. “Every child deserves a chance to achieve their potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens,” says Pascal.

“This is one way for you to make a difference.”

ISCO’s particular focus is on helping the most destitute Indonesian children, those whose families are facing serious obstacles in their struggle for life. Many are children of scavengers, beggars, or have been abandoned by their mothers, yet despite their backgrounds, 24 percent of ISCO children manage to rank in the top 10 of their class at public schools.

The foundation has 18 full time employees with a board of five voluntary counsellors from various countries. ISCO acts by providing the funds for public school fees, for school uniforms and for books. This help starts from elementary school and continues through senior high school, and is in addition to the foundation’s free kindergartens established in each slum in the city. ISCO also offers youth activity houses, as well as modest nutrition programs and health monitoring. Says Pascal: “ In Indonesia, access to education is not universally available and desperately poor parents cannot afford to send their children to school. Too many children are forced onto the streets, often engaging in dangerous and unhealthy work to support their families.

In this way, children are denied their fundamental right to an education, which severely compromises their physical, social and emotional development.” ISCO, in offering a helping hand to these children, deserves to be supported.

Visitors and guests to The Ambhara, with is superb location and excellent facilities, hardly need the extra incentive.

Photography by Yakko.

The Ambhara Jl. Uluwatu – Ungasan (800 metres after the GWK Cultural Park) Tel: +62 361 703491 Fax: + 62 361 703492 Email: pascallalanne@indo.et.id ISCO Foundation Jl. Anggrek Nelly Murni VIII No A43, Slipi Jakarta 11480, Indonesia Tel/Fax: +62 21 549 3238 Email: isco@iscofoundation.org Web: www.iscofoundation.org

IN a distant land – thankfully none too far from Seminyak – rice fields emanate a luxurious green, palm trees sway, volcanoes peek above clouds, the Indian Ocean smooches a nearby beach and there’s not a building in sight…you must be kidding, right? Actually I am not – this is a very discreetly built neighbourhood. Villa Kemah Tinggi, a relative newcomer to Banjar Sogsogan near Seseh Beach, is half an hour’s drive away from the evanescent life of The Yak. Glenn Parker, architect of Bali’s “best built” and founder of Glenn Parker Architects, says of building Villa Kemah Tinggi: “With the site set in the local village with views to the surrounding rice fields, the intent was to create a contemporary Bali villa that still set itself comfortably into its context.”

This luxury four-bedroom villa comes with nearly all the trappings of an international hotel yet without the boisterous lines of holidaying Germans queuing for breakfast – forgive me but in my experience it’s true. In fact breakfast, like any meal at Kemah Tinggi, is elegant yet relaxed. The expansive morning, lunch and dinner menus cater for all – children, vegetarians, fish and meat eaters…none has been forgotten, not even those with slightly more liquid diets in mind: KT’s Margaritas are really top notch.

Each of the four pavilion bedrooms is private yet beautifully positioned to enjoy the open garden area, the

14-metre pool and the expansive volcano and padi view beyond. Slide open the doors and the rooms seem to jump out of a page from House & Garden. Luxurious four-poster beds, immaculately netted, positively pout with soft pillows and high cotton-count sheets. The double wardrobe (his and hers, or possibly his and his) houses sarongs, slippers, dressing gowns, anti-mosquito paraphernalia and a safety deposit box.

Move through to KT’s interior/exterior bathrooms… here, dwarf pink banana trees and heliconias blossom in the petite flowerbeds as squirrels move confidently up and down the adjoining trees. Fluffy towels, double sinks, a large oval bathtub and a rain shower dotted with Molton and Brown bath products add an elegantly surreal touch to this bathing-in-the-jungle experience.

As a west-facing property, the balconies, sundecks and pool all enjoy the afternoon sun and expansive rice field view. A small stream running along the bottom of the garden gives way to a vast well-kept lawn area, the size of a small football field, and a cushioned gazebo. Cricket for the kids, cocktails for the sportingly challenged – what better way to spend an afternoon with friends?

Exhausted – or tipsy – it’s time for the KTP to whisk up their magic (the Kemah Tinggi Perkforce, tirelessly fulfilling our every wish or whim, from special dietary needs to

excellent massages. I believe there was even a two in the morning request for cigarettes). And so to the dining room: whether enclosed or open, the views are just as stunning.

The menu spans the globe – mouth-watering guacamole, blinis and smoked salmon; Australian imported rib-eye… even butter chicken with mango chutney and papadums.

KT’s entertainment space is well contrived. A huge double level open-air pavilion serves as a high-ceilinged sitting room, while oversized upholstered sofas and armchairs (as well as some turn-of-the-century pieces) enhance the sumptuous Balinese feel. Annexing one part of the vast ceiling, gallery-style, is the air-conditioned television room with wide, comfortable sofas, coffee table books about Bali and things Balinese, a bookshelf of bestsellers and an extensive library of DVDs – including a large collection of titles for the under 10s. It is an ideal room for that lazy siesta that one never seems to has the time for.

In fact, no-one says it better than architect Glenn. “Kemah Tinggi celebrates true tropical living, one that balances indoor and outdoor spaces together as one living area.

Spaces are created to put one at the interface between the built environment and the natural environment, allowing the occupant to live fluidly between.” Quite so, cheers. S.D. www.kemahtinggi.com

S.D.

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Photography by Yakko.

The Yak: Adine, did you know that your name can mean tender, noble, gentle, delicate and even, in contradiction, fire (depending on whether it’s the Brits, Germans or the Brews). Which suits you best – or are you something totally different?

Adine: No, I didn’t know that. But, I like what my name means. Funnily enough I find that each of those meanings does have some resemblance to my character, but I relate mostly to fire, maybe because it has something to do with me being a Fire Horse in the Chinese horoscope. They used to put our types to death...we’re not good marriage material!

So what is fashion all about, anyway?

Fashion for me, I would have to say, is an ever-evolving panorama of done, re-done, and yet-to-be done. An inexplicable parody of what’s hot and what’s not.

The where, when, what, why and how of your getting into fashion. Tell all.

Where? Well basically in Italy, where I have been living for the past 15 years and where I studied design in Venice for a short time.

Why? I had already been involved in the fashion industry as a model, which I did for several years in the US and Paris. Modeling allowed me to meet a lot of people, travel and get a close look at the fashion world from the business end rather than the consumer end...not that I was really wanting to broaden out into the fashion industry after my modeling career...it’s just that I got

a first-hand glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes, so to speak. Changing in and out of clothing all day long used to drive me nuts! So I developed a sense of comfortable fashion and started wearing tee shirts continuously when I wasn’t working. I think this was when I first started to think about designing tank tops for myself and my girlfriends, who were looking for funky sexy tops to just throw on but still look good. So I went to design school, bought an industrial sewing machine, started up a small studio in my Venice apartment, designing and sewing. Girlfriends were coming to the studio and buying up all my tees! One good friend brought over a woman who owned a very trendy high-end boutique to see what I was up to. She loved the tees and put a whole lot of them into her shop and they sold out straight away. I was super surprised and super chuffed. I thought, why not to turn this into something other than a garage start-up situation? I packed up the studio and my apartment and moved to Florence, where they have a strong textile industry.

Not long after my move, another close friend called a studio in Milan. They were willing to see my work. I sent them photos of what I was making and they set an appointment for me. I left for the fashion capital of Italy with my Louis Vuitton travel bag full of tee shirts, some of them with graphics stuck to them with Scotch tape! I was sure that these heavyweight fashion people would laugh in my face, but to my surprise and total

delight, they loved the tee shirts. Even the ones with the graphics stuck to them. They told me they would like an exclusive on my line for Italy, France and Greece...I was over the moon with joy, believe me. I left the tee shirts there in their studio, located right in the heart of the fashion district, and before leaving to head back home, two of their clients who had dropped by to see another collection that they were showing that day, took a look at the tee shirts and both placed orders there and then. I was thrilled. So before I knew it, the line was up and going.

We had a successful first season selling over 10,000 units, and the rest is history. Looking back, I think I was incredibly lucky and was definitely in the right place, point and time when I embarked upon this project.

Sachs and Barney’s. Is the USA your only market?

No, we are selling in over 12 countries worldwide. The most exciting is the South of France – in Monte Carlo at Events, Cannes at Via Veneto, St Tropez at Brigitte B and more…and as for Italy – Milan, Naples, Salerno, Como, Rimini, Portocervo and even Cortina. Italy is my primary market.

What’s your line called?

D’Amour D’Amour.

Why that, particularly?

A name known in all languages. Another choice could have been Filthy Cute...

Is it imperative to have truckloads of money to have your own line?

My own line, absolutely.

What do you bring to the fashion industry that differentiates you from the rest?

I have no idea. I just love making tee shirts.

Do you see the fashion industry joining the greening of the globe? How? Not really. So the ‘how’ does not apply.

Have you reached the peak of your career?

Absolutely not. I have been on the market as a brand now for six seasons. Not that long, in fashion terms, but I have survived the crucial point of five seasons. If you don’t make five seasons, you pretty much fold as a brand. And I feel I am growing as a designer more and more all the time. And this won’t stop, just as long as I am still designing. Like life really, I believe there is always something new to learn or improve every day. But I must say that I am starting to feel far more

accomplished now as a designer and owner of my own brand in comparison to maybe a couple of years ago. Every day I feel blessed that I can achieve what I really love doing, because it is not an easy industry to work in at times and troubles loom at every corner.

But I love tee shirts and I love making them, so I just get on with bringing them to life in my own Filthy Cute way!

If leaving Bali forever was one of the conditions to fame and fortune, would you go?

Absolutely. That’s a really funny question. As much as I adore being part of this Indonesian archipelago and feel fortunate to be living here and experiencing all the wonders it has to offer, Bali just doesn’t cut it as much as fortune and fame. Sorry guys.

As a designer, how would you class your style: classic, innovative, resort or retro…?

Filthy cute!

Are you an intuitive designer?

Totally.

Commercial immorality or affordable interpretation? What is ‘copying’ to you?

Affordable interpretation...without a doubt.

What makes you tick?

Dangerous question! But to give you some idea, I would have to say raw energy of any kind. And French men get me ticking too!

What is a typical day for you like?

Typical day? Wow, um...I try to avoid typical... but exercise manages to manifest itself quite often and I spend a lot of time with my staff just creating and designing and fair amount of time just plain Yakking to friends on the phone.

Do you work weekends?

Yes I do. I love my work and see inspiration everywhere, so it is hard at times to detach.

Packing for a holiday. Do you ‘think colour and pack black’?

Well I don’t think colour so much as practicality, but black is always a staple colour in my luggage, alongside a very big space that I always leave for new acquisitions.

Who do you have in your cupboard?

The Postman...he’s filthy cute. Right alongside my Kenzo cashmere and lamé thread poncho that I never leave home without. S.D.

Ari (left): Shirt 3/4 sleeve from Puravida, waistband shorts and waist belt from Body & Soul, velvet shawl with fringe from Paul Ropp, pumps from Nilou, handbag from Sabbatha, ring and earrings from Jemme.

Ayu (right): Long-sleeve knit dress and puff sleeve with hood jacket from Puravida, strappy high heels from Nilou, shoulder bag from Sabbatha, earrings and necklace from Jemme.

Ari (right): Mini tulip dress from Body & Soul, Mary Jane pumps from Nilou, handbag from Sabbatha, necklace and earrings from Jemme.

Ayu (left): Skirt worn as a mini dress from Paul Ropp, ankle strap sandals from Nilou, shoulder evening bag from Sabbatha, necklace and bracelet from Jemme.

Ari (right): Mini satin jewelled dress and halter bikini from Lulu, mary jane pumps from Nilou, earrings from Jemme.

Ayu (left): Midi baby doll dress and obi belt all from Lulu, ankle strap sandals from Nilou, necklace from Jemme.

Ayu: Spaghetti strap baby doll dress from Lulu, diamond necklace from Jemme, open-toe platforms from Nilou, clutch bag from Sabbatha.

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Ari: Jewelled satin top from Lulu, Aladdin pants from Spicy, open-toe pumps from Nilou, earrings and bracelet from Jemme.

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Ari (left): Mini dress from Paul Ropp, waist belt from Body & Soul, strappy sandals from Nilou, stone necklace and earrings from Jemme.

Ayu (right): cotton print top and denim shorts from Body & Soul, gold sandals from Nilou, silver bangles from Jemme.

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Ayu (left): tube, waist shorts and scarf Body & Soul, necklace from Jemme and strappy high heel shoes from Nilou.

Ari (right): Fifties midi dress from Puravida, shoes from Nilou and bracelet from Jemme.

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ENTERING Samantha Black’s home – a tropical open-air haven hidden away on a back street in Seminyak – I am struck by a profusion of purple. From her violet floor cushions to her huge rattan chair with its plum-coloured seat, there’s no denying Samantha’s tastes leans towards the unconventional.

She confesses to being a longtime Bali resident, but playfully intimates she doesn’t want to say how long she’s been here because she doesn’t want to give away her age.

Samantha, a jewellery designer, exports to countries including the States and throughout Europe, where she has achieved recognition with clients like Cher and other stars, who have become big fans of Samantha’s unique wearable art pieces.

“I specialise in one-of-a-kind and very limited production,” she says. “When I was younger I did some production in Thailand, where I made 6,000 of one piece and 2,000 of another, but then something always went wrong so I didn’t make any money.”

On occasion Samantha will use the same image in her jewellery, but then the girl in one motif might be dressed completely differently in another design. Her gorgeous fairies and elves collection is a perfect example of this. By nature, Samantha is a very private person who hasn’t really wanted to show her jewellery to the world, but now she feels ready to make her presence known. She made her debut with her beautiful art jewellery at an exhibit at Maru Gallery in Bali in October. The exhibition featured delicate angels with intricate filigree designs alongside more modern, linear pieces that included a selection of fun, alienlike figures as well as abstract images. Samantha has a keen interest in creating jewellery with traditional filigree work, for which the Balinese are famous, because she’s concerned that this is a dying art form.

“We’re not going to have any antiques for the future,” she says. “Nothing’s special; that’s why I’m working towards my own version of something that is truly magnificent – an heirloom, so to speak.” It is in this spirit that she continues to create one-of-a-kind pieces in the hope that these traditional art forms can be preserved for future generations.

Samantha Black was born in New York but left the city at the age of 17. She went first to Holland with no idea that she had a natural facility for languages. She quickly learned Dutch and went on to acquire seven other languages. During the ’80s, she became a dancer and travelled the world working on fashion dance shows for two of the world’s top choreographers: Norbert Schmidt and Bernard Trax. It was on one of her trips to Southeast Asia that she first discovered Bali. She knew the moment she laid eyes on the tropical island – some thirty-odd years ago – that she would be back.

Her process of creating art jewellery, not unlike her life, is also unconventional and inspiring. “It’s like cable TV, 24/7,” she says. “On this creative station, there’s an ongoing stream of shapes I can tap into that are constantly moving and forming.”

Samantha makes a distinction between jewellery that she makes for commission and that which she is inspired to create. If it’s a commission, she will find out exactly what the client wants. She gives an example of how one client asked her to make a large brass bat that could be used on the back of a leather jacket. Samantha asked her “guardian of angels” if there were any bats in the area. After musing the question, images of bats just started

flowing. She paused as they came, started sketching and developing the overall concept until it was complete.

“Then there’s another process, which is ‘No Mind’,” she says. “What I do is I get a lot of stones from my boxes and put them out in a line, from no colour all the way through the rainbow until black. I literally just play with the stones until the combinations of colours come alive.”

And come alive they do, with exquisite pieces like ‘Female’, which combines a regal Egyptian headpiece with moonstone. The Vermeer gold finished fan below is adorned with African amethyst stones on either side, with Sugelite at its centre; a square-shaped tourmaline with an oval garnet dangles below.

Samantha’s medieval collection also impresses. It was inspired by an image that she drew 10 years ago of a woman whose face reminded her of a corridor filled with many people, floating in a family gallery replete with candelabras and glass chandeliers.

All of Samantha’s pieces combine natural stones, which are often accented with gold overlay, giving her work a rich appearance without utilising expensive materials. Some of the stones have also been cut into specific shapes, in order to create a more interesting effect.

Samantha’s work ranges from the whimsical to postmodern, offering something singular for everyone. She manages to reach far beyond the ordinary with her jewellery, widening our definition of art. “Is this a piece of jewellery? I don’t know,” she says. “It is, because you can wear it by definition, but it’s also art-ware. What I’m offering people is a three-dimensional manifest of creative energy. I believe that we all have the ability to create.” www.solamenteUno.com

O, come...

Irritate me!

by Kayti Denham

FROM John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Pearl to The Girl with the Pearl Earring and Prince’s album Diamonds and Pearls, the allure and seductive qualities of this great natural gift are never far from the imagination. Provocative yet feminine, at one time the domain of the genteel, pearls have been reinvented as symbols of sensuality. Their luminescence against the skin and their mythical powers combine to combust into a luxury jewel that drips with desire. Yet few luxury icons are the result of such a tumultuous challenge as the south sea pearl. This luminous gem is born from the giant of pearl oysters, Pinctada maxima.

As we know from childhood, it takes a special character to face a giant. Fortunately there are some bold enough to take up the challenge of farming this rare and somewhat elusive shellfish – one such company has

its head office right here in Bali and has its sights set on creating the premier luxury icon for the island of the gods: the Atlas south sea pearl.

To understand the audacity of this undertaking, you first have to take a brave and scientific journey that begins at the end of a microscope staring at millions of dustsize larvae. Follow them through the fouryear cycle to harvest, withstand challenges of both natural and manmade proportions, then endure a painstaking selection process before bringing these lustrous spheres to the hands of the craftspeople that design and craft them into brilliant jewellery – pieces we see worn by the world’s fashionistas, powerbrokers and mavens of media. A pearl’s briny catwalk from submersion to spotlight is an epic journey appreciated only by the few, like the people at Atlas south sea pearl.

The oyster commences life as a tiny speck, nothing more than part of the myriad of microscopic organisms that float on the currents encircling the equatorial waters of Asia and Northern Australia. The specific environmental requirements of this pearl oyster are such that it is the rarest in the world. It is simply not acceptable to remove the oyster from its limited natural habitat, so Atlas has created a hatching and farming facility to breed Pinctada maxima and ensure a sustainable supply of pearl oysters, specially selected for the purpose of growing the world’s most exceptional pearls.

It takes four years just to get to the first pearl harvest. In those four years, Atlas’ dedicated scientists, technicians, divers, skippers and crews must do everything to nurture and protect the oyster from the ocean’s ever-changing moods.

The Atlas philosophy is succinct.

“Producing this wonderful natural gem is a rare privilege,” says Dr Joseph Taylor, Managing Director of Atlas south sea pearl.

“And with such privilege comes responsibility: a commitment to sustainable practices, care for the environment and ensuring community benefit and involvement in our projects.” With Atlas south sea pearl comes philanthropy and Atlas has dedicated resources to an assortment of community and environmental projects. In Bali, Atlas directly supports over 20 under-privileged children, who are now attending school for the first time, while youths from remote Papua have received scholarships to attend university.

Two young men from the tiny village of Selpele (total population less than 200) have already received university degrees through the scholarship programme. Royalties from pearl production are used to help improve the welfare of local fisherman, and a number of cottage industries have been developed, allowing those unable to work directly on the farms to work from home.

Committed to best environmental practice, the Atlas pearl farms have supported the work of international conservation groups including supervising the building of a dedicated conservation ship. The Kalabia will be supporting the work of Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy in Raja Ampat, now considered to be the most bio-diverse marine habitat left on the planet.

Very early in their 15-year journey, a commitment was made by Atlas to ensure that local people were trained in every aspect of pearl production. To this end, they have trained over 20 pearl technicians, responsible for the delicate surgical procedure required to initiate the conception of a pearl.

“Our technicians are from all over Indonesia,” says Dr Taylor, “and represent the great variety of ethnicity and culture of this island nation. Javanese and Balinese work side by side with people from Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara Timor, Papua and Ambon. We are exceptionally proud of the leading role that women play in the process. All our pearl technicians are women and most of the local management is also female. The innate understanding that Indonesian women have for nature and nurture, the incredible control of movement and amazing concentration, make them exceptionally competent technicians. As a result, several of our senior technicians have worked in Australia and Myanmar on other pearl farms.”

The credentials of Atlas south sea pearl have been backed by Conservation International’s Senior Advisor, Dr Mark Erdmaan, who says: “In my professional opinion, pearl farming is the most environmentally friendly marine resource industry that I’ve encountered in 16 years’ experience in marine conservation.”

Atlas has patiently and painstakingly studied the oyster’s secrets to discover how they can encourage this unassuming shellfish to grow the most exceptional of pearls. Over the past 15 years, Atlas has dedicated itself fully to this task in some of the most beautiful, and remote, areas of Indonesia. From Bali to the Raja Ampat Islands of Papua, Atlas has been discreetly working towards perfection.

The farm near Pemuteran, North Bali, has become a centre for public education. In an industry shrouded in secrecy, myth, mermaids and tall tales, Atlas has taken the unusual step of opening its doors to an enquiring public.

Guests to the North Bali Pearl farm have the unique opportunity to see the hatchery, the farm and a pearl seeding and harvesting demonstration – all on, or beside, the azure waters of the ocean. www.atlaspacific.com.au.

Monte The December 10th 2007 Reverse Climate Change Swim will be the American’s 6th UN-related swim in 20 months.

Bali–based humanitarian ocean swimmer Monte Monfore will swim 7 kilometers from Serangan Island to Nusa Dua as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.

Monfore

His series of swims promotes the UN Millennium Campaign; this event will focus on Millennium Development Goal # 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability global warming threatens the world’s endangered coral reefs.

This event is supporting Bali-based Advice For Life Orphanage. Learn more and donate to hungry children at www.monteswimmer.com.

Photograph: Yakko.

The Yak: How old are you?

Endyk Bagus: 34.

Sarah Bagus: 27.

How did you meet?

EB: I was the chef at an Italian restaurant in Sydney and Sarah lived across the road from where I worked. She spotted me first.

SB: I’m not sure who spotted who first. We were both looking at each other but we didn’t talk for months and months. Then one day I was standing on the balcony of my apartment and he went up to the second-floor of the restaurant, leaned out of the window and called out to me. We went out for drinks.

EB: It was only three or four months before we got married.

It wasn’t a shot-gun wedding was it?

EB: No – it was just like boom, let’s do it!

So why did you move to Indonesia?

EB: Sarah wanted to go to Indonesia, my birth country, and I was okay with that, because I had been working as a chef in Australia for three or four years and I wanted to create my own business. There are more business opportunities in Indonesia.

SB: It’s a lot easier to try different things here than in Australia. If you look on the streets in Indonesia, there are small businesses everywhere and for first-time business owners there is more freedom to explore.

Back home, the environment requires more capital and there are more regulations on certain types of businesses.

Was it a lifestyle decision too?

SB: For sure. We rode from Jakarta to Bali on our motorbike and that was something we maybe wouldn’t have had time to do at home, so it’s being able to do those things as well as opening our Black Market hobby store in Jakarta, our wholesale business and now The Guard.

Have you previously worked in family planning or sex merchandising?

EB: No. The Guard is the first.

What prompted you to open Indonesia’s first condom shop?

EB: I saw many problems with the population – too many people and not enough jobs.

Also, the spread of HIV is happening so fast.

SB: I had heard so many stories of pregnant women who hadn’t planned for another child, didn’t have the financial means to support another child, but whose husbands said they didn’t like using condoms. I knew that with the range of condoms available today, there is something to suit everyone and that many people were just not aware of the products out there. Condoms are still taboo here and they shouldn’t be. They really are a necessity.

So there’s still a kind of stigma or embarrassment associated with condom use in Indonesia?

EB: Yes. The Guard is trying to educate people away from the image that using condoms reduces satisfaction.

SB: Family planning needs a lot of attention, as does awareness of safe sex practices. We are trying to get people to understand that purchasing condoms means that you’re aware and in charge. People from all walks of life have supported us in fighting this stigma – both in an official and personal capacity.

Were your friends and family surprised you were opening a condom shop?

EB: At first they were like, what are you doing? How can you make money from condoms that sell for as little as 3,000 rupiah? Some of them thought it rude that we were going to open a sex shop, but after I explained it’s not just for profit and it’s not like a sex shop, it’s to help fight HIV and help family planning, they were very supportive.

Why in Bali?

EB: Bali is Indonesia’s window to the world,

other countries can see that Indonesia is serious about its fight against AIDS. SB: And honeymooners and holidaymakers from all over Indonesia come to Bali. If they can see the message that condoms are safe, necessary, enjoyable and part of responsible living, they can take that message back to their own community.

Do you have kids yourself?

EB: No, one day when we’re not so busy.

Right now, we both work seven days, no break, nothing, if we’ve got a kid it’s not gonna be good for the kid. When all our businesses are settled, we’ll move back to Sydney and discuss family.

How many different kinds of condoms does The Guard sell?

EB: Hundreds.

SB: We’ve got chocolate, strawberry, lychee, mint, banana, mango and durian, and different textures like close-fit, ultra-thin, ultra-safe, pleasure-max, performanceenhancing, dotted, baggy, tingle, deluxe ...there’s something for everyone, and many more are on the way.

If male condoms are yet to really catchon here, I’m guessing female condoms are almost unheard of?

EB: We’re the only place selling female condoms in Indonesia.

SB: Even though they have been around in other parts of the world, they haven’t been brought out in Indonesia on a large scale yet so we’re not sure what the response will be, but anything that gives women the opportunity to take responsibility for what happens to them is a step in the right direction. The more options we have to act safely and take care of ourselves, the better for everyone.

How do they work?

EB: If you come to The Guard, we can show you!

You mentioned durian-flavoured condoms. Durian is notoriously so foul smelling that it’s banned in hotels. Do people actually find it a turn-on?

EB: I think so. It sells well, people like things that are new and different.

What’s your favourite?

EB: Fiesta.

SB: Well…not durian-flavoured, I’m afraid.

The Guard, Discovery Shopping Mall, Kuta.

Tel: 769 482.

HAVE you ever been on The London Underground? The Tube opened in 1863 (a full century and a year before my entrance to the world) and has been looking decidedly under the weather ever since. Ancient escalators creak up from the bowels of London, transporting the city’s lifeblood to their offices. Millions and millions of nine-to-fivers, the cogs and wheels of Britain’s economy – without them, where would the UK be? The English are a nation that is London Transport Dependant – LTD. So how come it has been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair? Simply, because it has yet to collapse. It was built to last. It has withstood the test of time. It does not complain. And if there is ever a need to patch up a line, then there is a choice of other routes that can still get your average Joe to work… albeit a bit late.

Ok I admit it. The Tube in this instance is just an analogy for my liver. By this stage in my life, this vital and much-loved organ I imagine to be dark, dingy, clogged with stones and in serious need of a retrofit; a confluence of ducts and tubes awaiting a long-overdue spring clean. If I wanted it to last, I decided, it was time I gave it some attention and subjected it to the now-popular liver cleanse. So, following the lead of a number of slightly more spiritual characters (namely Frederique Nolte of the Holistic Healing Centre in Kuta Poleng, who pre-guided me through my cleanse-tobe; Nicky Walsh and a couple of mates with a similar lifestyle to mine), I took the plunge into what has also been called non-invasive liver surgery.

The challenge? To follow a six-day, non-fat, non-protein diet and – wait for it – stay away from alcohol. I might just mention that the longer one does the alkalizing diet, the deeper the cleanse will be, so it’s totally up to you how deep you want to go. The diet was simple to follow, as my agenda is no longer filled with the wine-tasting dinners of old, mainly due to a Customs and Excise-imposed shortage of booze. I stayed home. I caught up on some much-needed rest and TV viewing. I drank a litre of apple juice a day. This magical nectar softens kidney stones and allows for easy release.

On the day of the cleanse, step-by-step instructions turned into a fabulously egotistical round of massages, reflexology, manicures and pedicures, with the only downside being the downing of an Epsom-salts-and-water mixture – the last time I tasted something that chemically foul was, I believe, in pill-form on the dance floor of a nightclub.

Then, after a glass of pink grapefruit juice and extra virgin olive oil, it was time for bed. The next morning, bright and early, I hit the Epsom salts again and hey presto, the stones came-a-tumbling, totally painlessly. There was a narcissistic fascination with what had been dwelling in my body (and presumably increasing in size with each passing year), the cumulative result of many a high day and holiday spent consuming foie gras and fine wines with Bacchanalian enthusiasm. With each purge there was an immediate upsurge in energy and clarity of thought, with the added value of better-looking skin and sparklingly white eyes. A day later, full of the joys of spring, I went for an all-important

second colon cleanse that, I was told, would rid my lower tubes of stones that did not quite find their way out with the last of the olive oil and Epsom salts.

My first hydro-tubular experience had only happened a couple of days prior to the actual liver cleanse and had rid my large intestine of a lot of latent gunk that had been lining its walls like ancient graffiti. Having never previously had a colon cleanse, I admit I viewed it with trepidation – just the thought of it… well, let’s just say I have certain British attitudes to all that. However, I have now overcome that mindset, thanks to the brand new, positively stylish Miracle clinic in Renon and their team of professional therapists.

Book three treatments of one hour each for just over a million rupiah (instead of about £85 for a single hour in London) and start your own life-enhancing, tube-cleansing programme. Just remember, when it’s all over, there’s always the return journey back home: from detox to retox.

Do not embark on a liver cleanse without the necessary medical assistance and advice. The Liver Flush requires six days of preparation and approx. 16-20 hours of cleansing. It is important to do a colonic hydrotherapy prior to the cleanse, and one not longer than 48 hours after. For more information on liver cleanse information, contact Frederique Nolte at the Holistic Healing Centre on + 62 361 766259. Email: healing@indosat.net.id. And for colonic hydrotherapy and other treatments: Graha Miracle Bali on +62 361 246148. Email: denpasar@miracle-clinic.com.

Over The Edge - Jogjakarta

116

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This is a less-than-accurate on-board account of a six-day trip in search of dragons. One might think there is enough wildlife in Seminyak, but I, having promised my son a photo or two of the real thing, had little choice.

I hear the word ‘charter’ and I balk. Is there no better word? ‘Charter’ in my mind conjures up images of cramped Thomas Cook flights to “Magala” or “Eebeeza”, as coined by any original Mancunian (Manchester) heading for sunny Spain.

I board the Raja Laut, (King of the Sea – a great name but aren’t boats female?) with a slight hangover courtesy of Ku Dé Ta, a couple of packets of cigarettes, a case of wine – corkage is charged and I needn’t have bothered to BYO as they have some very nice bottles of a very good year – and mostly the wrong clothes. The hangover lasts briefly, the cigarettes last the first two days, the case of wine makes merry and lasts until the fourth day…as for the clothes most

are still neatly folded by the time I come to disembark. If there is ever a next time I will pack more Paul Ropp Resort wear. I must just mention that this 30-metre gaff-rigged schooner does actually sail, as opposed to the ‘ultimate Indonesian sailing experience’ the Phinisi – for me they are cargo boats of yesteryear seemingly all the rage. I may be wrong so forgive me, but they have no real sailing value and roll like pigs in a swill, tub-like…unless heavily laden with porcelain from China.

Day 1 – We sail East.

Thankfully, the Raja Laut is pretty upper-deckish yet not at all snobby. There are three double cabins and three twins, below deck. There is fresh water for showers and teeth cleaning and a toilet that flushes automatically…what more could one want? Ah, aircon…there is even that too – plus a clever ventilation system that allows all rooms to cool with two large units that chill the spacious sitting room (below

deck) and double dining room on deck level. Talking of dining, there is the talented onboard chef Joy, as well as Asi, his assistant, and if we are talking sailing, let’s not forget the swashbuckling Adam, who fearlessly climbs dizzying heights to hoist sails and drive the Raja Laut’s tender (a Zodiac) Bondstyle, and Conni, divemaster from Switzerland. And lastly, bow down to the host that knows the most, Will B – snorkels and dive bottles off for Monsieur Le Capitain!

Lombok-bound in search of waves.

Allow me to introduce you to the characters on board this six-day voyage, in no particular order…Dave – American filmatographer, documentarist, diver and definitely our very own funnyman onboard. Lorca Leuras – wave master of Indo Surfing, all hail to the Indonesian Surf bible, quite the babe on board. Muriel Loots Ydo – long-term Bali resident, ocean traveler, eco fighter…and well-sailed Indophile. Graham Abbott – ‘dive’ is his middle name.

Small Pleasures

Hey Good Looking ...

Advertise in this space for less than Rp.850,000 a month For more details, contact THE YAK at 737413.

Previous Pages: Sunrise heading East; comfort on deck. This page, left to right: Plotting the course, Tarzan’s waterfall lagoon, cliffside boat bunny.

Will Dickens – our man from KK (that’s Kota Kinabalu to those that aren’t clued up on neighbourly geography). Will B – Our very own Corsican captain, and cute too! Conni – divemaster from a country with no sea – that’s why she is better than the best…and nicknamed ‘honey bunny’ by the lads. Sebastian – the shy photographer…well almost. Derek – instructor and trainer to muscles in the USA, diver/surfer/ wakeboarder and a humorous unsophisticat. Leifrey – the quiet dude from Hawaii. Buttons – a wig in the style of Donna Summer on a bad hair day. High seas and what a swell party that was!

A rather big swell put those with a bigger than average Bali hangover back below deck as the rest of us hold on to the railing tightly, with a gentle-yet-maniacal smile…seaworthy?

She turned out to be comfortable even in the rolling Indian Ocean. Anchoring in Belongas Bay, south Lombok, we had made good headway for the surf footage on the next day.

Day 2 – Filming at Maui (a Lombok surf break) Time to get horizontal and book it while the ‘lads’ lug thousands of dollars of equipment to a ragged outcrop to catch the surfers cresting. Late afternoon and overnight we leg it up the west coast of Lombok, full sail, with a pretty tight filming schedule of North Sumbawa and diving. With a clear head but not yet daring to uncork a bottle or two, Muriel and I volunteer for the 4am watch – good eyesight is essential for spotting perahu, traditional fishing boats, that seem to float barely two inches above sea level.

Day 3 – Pulau Moyo and time to shoot the fall.

Arriving at Moyo island, famed for the Aman Resort of the same name, we trek into the hinterland – thrilled at scoring a whole carton of Marlboro Lights on the way – to a refreshing waterfall that cascades into veritable swimming pools. A swinging rope attached to a tree services the Tarzans of the group. They jump, they whoop, they even do back flips…we – the girls – sit down. Back on board we fine dine, fine wine and sail on…all night and my second daybreak watch.

Day 3 – North of Komodo.

We pick up a buoy – pronounced buwey or ‘boy’ – and spend the night. The day is filled with dives, snorkels, filming, kayaking, trekking and filling Eski’s – wine and beers are firmly back on the menu. A local manta ray chills within five metres portside, as our ‘mermen’ film the deep and gorgeous blue.

Turtles, dolphins, reef sharks, Trevali and calamari…if it’s in a dive book, it’s down there!

Day 4 – Weighing anchor, we head further East.

Time to stop and find Steve Corwin’s famous dragon poo and the Komodo, a monitor lizard of up to five metres in length that has been wandering the planet since before time began (well almost). On land, Bpk. Johnny is the man to talk to if you wish to safely wander the isle of the dragons – he can also assist with crates of beer, cartons of cigarettes and mementos of the island lizards. Staying overnight to see more scaly monsters comes at the price of Rp. 65,000/night … but I prefer to grab my cigs and head out to Pink Beach. Some dive and some snorkel and some only gently tan – I am of the latter variety, especially if the Eski has an ice bucket, a glass or two and a chilled bottle of Montana. We motor out to Pink Beach, so named as crushed red corals make up about 40 percent of its sand. Inevitably there may be a touch of rubbish on this glorious beach, so as a suggestion, bring your own dustbin bag and do a spot of beachcombing. And, if you’re lucky, a couple of Italian’s from Firenze might possibly materialise seemingly out of nowhere. So bring extra glasses. I cannot possibly suggest what to do with them, the Italians that is, because we had a dinghy full of divers with empty tanks and a dustbin bag full of broken sandals, so it was back on board the Raja Laut before the sun even sets – the boys are going wakeboarding and we want to enjoy a sundowner. Time to party, anchored. David’s iPod is a sensation, as is Joy’s dinner menu, not to mention a multi-appearance by Buttons.

Day 5 – Flores bound Here comes the first late-ish rising and I’ll blame it on the iPod and Buttons. The Raja Laut is in full cruising mode, hitting 10.8 knots. All sails are up and the seas are the colour of hardto-come-by aquamarines. Shouldn’t we all be living here? But wait, we have almost run out of wine and we are just a touch too far from the Bali mini bar!

Arrive Labuhan Bajo just after sunset. A string of karaoke lights wink at us from the bay and the boys volunteer to get some beers. Muriel accompanies to get port clearance and confirm the outward-bound flights to Bali on the morrow.

All return successfully to embark on the second round of David’s birthday celebration…Joy magically whips up a cake that even Bali Deli would be envious of and the alcohol

flows (what’s left of it anyway). Buttons once again makes an apparition that brings us all out of our shells – or could it be the Pernod we downed at lunch?

Day 6 – Home.

I have totally lost my land legs and I am not too keen on getting back to a life where traffic, noise and people will inevitably be the culture shock of the next couple of days, and where oh where are my land legs? I best get home, turn off my phone and lie down in the hopes of being rocked into a gentle state of reverie by my memory of the Raja Laut. at a glance Must take: Sunscreen/after sun/hat.

Warm clothes/windbreakers.

Smart clothes are not necessary – practical ones are.

Pencils and schoolbooks to give to the island children (better than sweets.)

A diary – your trip will be well worth documenting.

Camera, music, batteries and books.

Alcohol (The Raja Laut is well stocked but one’s favourite tipple is always good to have.)

The Raja Laut: Builder: Georges E. K. Carraz.

Type: Gaff Rigged Topsail Schooner.

Length: 30m; beam: 7.2m; fuel capacity: 7,000 litres; sail area: 400msq.

Top speed: 10 knots; top sailing speed: 11 knots.

Fresh water: 3,000 litres; reverse osmosis 200 litres/hour.

Communications: Inmarsat F33, satellite phone and Internet.

Navigation: Simrad GPS, Chart and Echo Radar System.

Tenders: 4.7m inflatable Yamaha 60HP outboard.

Diving Equipment: eight complete dive sets; Compressor Bauer Capitano x 1.

Sports

Equipment:

kayaks,

water

surfboards.

Passengers: 12 guests overnight.

Day/Sunset Cruises: 50 – 60 guests. www.rajalaut.com

skis,

snorkelling,

Wayne Wonder slums it with Sir Norman Jay MBE.

The Yak: Did you grow up in a musical household?

Wayne Wonder: I guess my love of music mostly came from my Dad’s side as he’s a musician who plays guitar, banjo and a few other string instruments, including this mad thing I’d never seen before (or since), a one-string fiddle! My folks split up when I was a kid but I went to stay at my Dad’s house every other weekend. For the majority of our time spent together, music was involved, whether it was messing about with a guitar and harmonica or watching my Dad playing ’20s and ’30s jazz with his band in a smoky pub in Putney on Sunday lunchtimes. That’s where my love of jazz started, even though I didn’t realise it until later. My Mum wasn’t a musician but she did play piano when she was young.

When I was a few years old, she bought this big wooden stand-up keyboard and I used to play on that. There was always music playing at home, whether on the radio or records. My Mum had a collection of disco, reggae and rock, so it was normal to see a big stack of albums in the front room as part of the furniture.

When and where and how did you first start DJ-ing?

WW: I first started playing out back in London around 1991. By that time, I had a fair few records as I’d been collecting soul, disco and hip hop since 1983, but I had no plans to DJ at that time. A visit to a mate’s house who owned turntables and a mixer changed all that. I had a try that afternoon and loved it, so the following week I bought myself a Garrard twin-turntable/mixer that was so old it had 16 and 78 rpm speeds on

it. Trying to mix on that was impossible, so I quickly got rid of it and bought a couple of cheap decks and mixer instead. Three or four months later, a friend and up-and coming DJ, Richard Sen (Bronx Dogs), had a house party to play at somewhere in North London and asked me to play too.

The party was going well until Richard’s amp blew and we had to drive back to my house to get mine. By the time we got back, there were only a handful of people left, but we were so determined to play again, we didn’t care.

Who would you say were your strongest influences?

WW: The people that influence me the most are the ones that have a passion for what they do. There are far too many DJs to list but here are a few; Norman Jay (one of the founders of Kiss FM), Gilles Peterson, Mr Scruff, David Holmes, Richie Hawtin, Joey Youngman and Mario Fabriani. Event and party organisers including Tony ColstonHayter, who put on the legendary Sunrise parties. These events attracted more than 15,000 people that danced all night and most of the next day in a field in West Sussex, or an aircraft Hangar near Windsor.

And those parties weren’t even legal! Farm owner and pensioner, Michael Eavis, the initiative behind the Glastonbury Festival, is another.

When and how did you find yourself first in Bali?

WW: January 2001 was the first time I arrived here. I had been visiting friends in Thailand and then Australia and on the return leg from Oz, the airline had two stopoff choices, Singapore and Bali. I chose Bali

and even though I didn’t know a soul here, it didn’t take long for me to settle in and feel at home. I have been back to England a few times since but trips seem to be getting fewer and fewer.

How would you describe the Seminyak music scene?

WW: This summer has been great, with a lot of quality names coming through and some good diversity. Of course things have calmed down now high season has finished. I think generally club promoters work hard trying to entice partygoers to their nights, but many places seem to have difficulties getting enough people through the door. Over the last year or so, a few new spots have opened up, many with elaborate designs but the numbers don’t seem to be there. I would like to see more styles of music being represented; some drum ’n’ bass, more funk, breaks, reggae, techno and house. I know that electro is popular but we don’t need 10 clubs/bars playing it every night – do we? I think many promoters opt to play safe by booking DJs to play music they assume the masses will like, but maybe the masses have just got bored. I don’t know for sure, but when I have seen DJs that do play a different style, more often the night is a great success. For example Jon H (Fort Knox Five) at F Lounge.

What a night that was!

What are the biggest challenges you find in DJ-ing?

WW: In Bali, the obstacles that I have been faced with are down to the music I play, which is looked upon as alternative.

Because of that, a few places haven’t been willing to give it a try. The music that’s really

exciting me at the moment is Chicago house. It’s funky, it’s irresistibly danceable and you don’t need to be off your nut to enjoy it. For me that’s not alternative. I know some of the funk and ’60s R&B I play isn’t for everyone, but I’m convinced the house is going to blow up soon. I’m just surprised it hasn’t done so already.

What has been your favourite gig so far and why?

WW: Favourite gig has to be a party that I threw in Goa, India. It was held at a disused café that opened up to a big open space.

There were supposed to be two of us playing but the other DJ dropped out at the last minute due to food poisoning.

The party started at midnight and filled up quickly. I played techno, acid house and later on, drum ’n’ bass, and the crowd was well into it. At sunrise a change was needed, so the funk and rare groove came out and at that point, everyone went wild.

What has been your worst gig and why?

WW: The worst one was at a house we squatted for the night in North East London.

Exactly how this happened I’ll never know but somehow, when the party was in full swing, the bathroom upstairs caught fire and everyone started freaking. We had to try and stay calm, get everyone out and unplug all the gear and get that out too.

Not too easy when you think the ceiling’s going to give way any second. Luckily, no one got hurt but it was a while before we did another squat party.

Who would you most like to hear come play in Bali?

WW: Difficult to choose one but I’d love to see Richie Hawtin out here. He’s the

God of second-generation techno and the figurehead of minimal. I remember seeing him play a house set on a Sunday night at The Cross in King’s Cross, London, and he blew everyone away. What he does with the filters, effects and even the volume is unbelievable. Where the track breaks, he pulls the volume down until there’s almost silence before unleashing it back up when the beat comes back in, giving an explosion of sound. After he’d finished playing, people were lining up just for a chance to congratulate him. Mr Scuff is someone else I’d like to see over. He’s a party DJ who plays every style imaginable in one set. The last time I saw him play was in Brighton a couple of years ago. He finished his set playing High Tech Jazz, a seminal piece of techno from Underground Resistance, followed by a rock ’n’ roll number by Chuck Willis. Unreal!

My third choice and possibly the one that would go down best here in Bali is Joey Youngman. I’ve never seen him play but if his style of Chicago/San Fran jackin’ house is anything to go by, he would tear the place down.

What advice would give any young DJs that are just starting out?

WW: For those DJs just starting out I would say, be persistent, play music you love and most importantly, never give up.

It’s a competitive world we live in so be prepared to take knock-backs. Don’t take them personally. Take advantage of the internet because there’s a never-ending supply of great music out there. Take your time choosing music. Focus on quality not quantity; it’s better to have 50 mind-blowing tracks rather than 500 average ones.

How would you compare the different mediums that you have worked with from vinyl to MD to laptops?

WW: Nothing beats vinyl for me, the sound of it, the feel of it, everything. I needed to change the way I DJ-ed in India about seven years ago, as it was impossible to bring all the records I wanted. Not only that, there were no decks there. At that time, there were only two choices, DAT or MD. I chose MD as selecting tracks was quick and easy. Imagine playing a two-minute ska track and having to find and cue the next track by pressing fast forward on a DAT machine? The MD player I had worked exactly like an old CDJ and had a pitch control to adjust the speed of the track so that they could be mixed together. The downside was losing the hands-on feeling and control that a record and turntable allows. The upside was I had the equivalent of 10 or 15 boxes of records with me. This worked well for a few years but as this was an unorthodox way of DJ-ing, not everyone welcomed it with open arms, which meant I had to work twice as hard to get gigs. These days, DJ-ing with a laptop is more and more common. Using Final Scratch, you get the best of both worlds; all the music you want and the control of a turntable. Obviously, record shops here in Bali are rather limited, so this is an ideal solution. Everyone has their own preference and there are pros and cons to whichever medium you choose, but if it works for you, that’s all that matters. At the end of the day, what’s important is what comes out of those speakers.

What’s your favourite footwear?

WW: Duffs – chunky, round, comfortable and last for donkeys!

125

AfroDiziYaks Music Reviews By Lou Nietunz Ku De Ta 2 - Sunset Soundtrack Crafted by Donni 1 EXPANDING upon their first sonic sojourn, Seminyak’s very own wine and dine institution Ku De Ta returns with more. Hot off their heels from another blazing summer, a saucy selection of downtempo grooves awaits your listening pleasure. Melbourne music man, Donni 1 brings back his resident talents for a savvy mix of eclecticism.

Easing into it, the vibe is softly introduced with steamy trumpet and lazy spoken word on Acoustic Chapter 1 by Naoki Kenji, before kicking off the shoes with Eazy Living

by Hilton FM & Miss Claudia. Feist follows up with the ethereal One Evening, a dreamy ballad that tiptoes between melancholy and sensual yearning. While many of the artists on this 14-track compilation may be unfamiliar, they are all very good at what they do, which in this case is to make you recline as your toes bounce divine.

The tempo is chill, but the arrangement of pieces works to keep your ears captive. The crackly age and simplicity of And I Love Him by LTJ X-Perience is a stirring trip back in time. Nina Simone carries this vibe further with the almost haunting Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair.

From there, the tempo picks up with Alex Cortiz’ Magic Touch, a bass-driven session of keys and laid-back jazz guitars. Half way through, the Jacuzzi is bubbling nicely, and the tone turns to our Latin sensibilities with Camiel’s El Alba, a soulful bossanova gem that wanders down the beach with lofty flutes and syncopated piano. Jocelyn Brown lends her honey-dipped vocals to ride the sunny beats of Beautiful Day by Hardage. While the ghetto-definitions that open El Barrio seem a little out of place on this high-class affair, the relaxed cowbells and Latin trumpets keep you wanting more. From there, the Latin flavour continues with Danni Carlos’ rendition of No Doubt’s Don’t Speak. While it is often tricky to out-do the original, and this acoustic version borders on melodramatic, it doesn’t lose the beauty of Gwen Stefani’s talents. France & Dom pick up from there with Rhythm Music, a lackadaisical cocktail of wah-wah riffs and strings. Lady Z’s sultry voice commands a string-washed

synth romp on Love Magic by Los Chicharrons, before Bali’s own troubadours Saharadja present an Arabesque acoustic version of Sting’s Roxanne. Their talents far surpass the cover-band category, and as such, one of their original pieces would possibly serve them better. Having said that, it is a stirring rendition comprising the best of worldbeat traditions and a unique dose of the multiculturalism that keeps Seminyak so special.

Closing out this saucy escapade is Hi Fi Mike’s Secretly Watching Me, a cozy spaced-out track with sexy female rapvocals and cosmic bass lines.

Overall, a fine collection of grooves can be enjoyed here, although more in the mixing department would leave a less disjointed progression.

The result comes off as a crisp collage rather than a seamless tapestry. Either way, the quality of talents here speak it self.

DVD – High Season Parties AS a sexy bonus to this purchase, one finds a separate DVD highlighting some of Ku De Ta’s best events from over the summers. Shot and edited to dazzling effect by Canadian videographer Rob Koster and OpenEye Productions, this T&A fest combines some classic club tracks by the likes of DJ Pippi, Escuba and others, with some of the best bouncing booties that have ever graced our shores. A potpourri of retro art and poetic musings along with international glitterati and international stars come together in a fiery celebration of all that is Ku. While blowing their own horns at times, this serves as a true testament to the level of entertainment, production (and marketing) that Ku strives for. Hats off to everyone that helped put this together, for as with any good journey, what’s it worth without looking back once in a while to see how far you’ve come? Be sure to pick up a copy next time you stumble down to Seminyak’s favourite sunset spot, or grab one for friends back home as a withdrawals bossanova kit until their next visit to Ku-Ville. www.kudeta.net

THREE different companies with websites that reflect their business position, all developed by one company based in Bali: Barefoot Multimedia.

While the company’s name conjures images of people sans footwear, the driving personalities behind Barefoot Multimedia coined it to reflect the working relationship between the company and its clients.

Explains Chief Designer Adrianto Soejipto: “The word ‘barefoot’ reflects how, in ancient times, barefoot servants served the king. Their attitude was attentive and formal, yet humble. This is a reflection of our service to clients.”

Lest you think that Barefoot Multimedia only develops websites, their capable staffs also handle a host of complementary services for clients. These include website promotion through online sources; logo design; developing company image, and co-ordinating the production of marketing materials.

In fact, these additional services have set the threeyear old company apart from other web development companies.

Chief Programmer Roberto Capodieci reveals: “Websites are mainly used by clients for advertising their services and products. When approaching the development of a new website, we also present refreshing ideas, unique designs matching colour schemes and arresting logos to our clients.”

Adrianto adds: “In the process, clients often ask us to oversee the production of their printed marketing material such as brochures and catalogues. Although Barefoot Multimedia does do not specialise in these, we would will co-ordinate the work with our affiliates rather than turn our clients away.”

This foresight in anticipating different client needs has resulted in a loyal client base that now spans Australia,

Indonesia, Europe, United Kingdom, and United States of America.

However, Barefoot Multimedia credits their success to the combined co-operation between their clients and its staff.

Roberto elaborates: “We like to listen to the input of our employees and clients, whether it is for refining how something works or customising something for various needs. Everyone plays a part in providing proficient and professional service, even our clients! In this way, both the company staffs and the clients are satisfied with the final product.”

Barefoot Multimedia appreciates all efforts in accelerating the work process, especially when they are approached with precise and detailed project plans, or an available budget for the company to work within.

What happens if the client has neither sorted out?

Adrianto provides an analogy: “A project without clear boundaries is like an unconquered mountain: regular training sessions are required to strengthen the muscle and mind before you can overcome the climb with ease.

In the same way, such projects challenge us to develop both mentally and technically, resulting in more innovative solutions that suit our clients.”

With such assurance, there is no doubt that having your company’s website developed by Barefoot Multimedia will turn out exactly how you envision it to be.

The sleek Vision One Productions website (http:// www.visiononebali.com/) reinforces their position as professional event organizers.

Engaging and fun, The Yak magazine online (http:// web.theyakmag.com/) reflects the spirit of the print version.

Barefoot Multimedia Jalan Raya Seminyak No. 30, Kuta, Bali 80361, Indonesia Tel: 62-361-3136530 Email: info@be-barefoot.com Website: www.be-barefoot.com

Cheerful pictures on the Bali Hai Cruises website (http://www.balihaicruises.com/) urge: “Have your next exciting cruise trip with us!”

Duduk Bersama, 2007. Acrylic on Canvas, 145 x 298 cm.

FOR this edition of our artist profiles, we chase down the young, up and coming Balinese painter, I Wayan Sadu.

Hot on his heels from his second solo exhibition, A Brush with Irony at the Griya Santrian Gallery in Sanur, Sadu agreed to meet to discuss his works at his studio house in Sayan, Ubud. Luckily we were escorted there by the local curator of the exhibition, Wayan Sukra, through what seemed like Middle Earth to Sadu’s family house set amongst towering bamboo thickets, trickling streams and mammoth, grunting pigs.

As it turns out, Sadu is the first-born of three children, and gets his creative juices from his uncle’s side of the family.

His uncle was an accomplished painter of the Pengosekanstyle, renowned for its muted, packed portrayals of Balinese village life in action.

This is fitting, as much of Sadu’s works revolve around modern interpretations of life he observes in and around his village today. His recent exhibition showcased his uncanny, engaging, graphic talent, simultaneously portraying humour and sadness in various angles of village life. A beautiful woman rides her bicycle into the sunset, chased by dogs.

A teacher scrawls on a blackboard, as students quietly gaze beyond. Sadu’s subjects are trapped silhouette-like in white space. He works from the outside inwards, until his figures or animals, create a positive-negative buzz against their surroundings. The white field in which they are set is so flat, and often spaceless, that there are no distractions from the dialogue or interplay of his characters. Even his own selfportrait is worked as a stark, enigmatic silhouette.

One look at Sadu’s storeroom of paintings speaks volumes of the long path he has travelled to reach the style that is now his own. Stacks of large canvases testify to his digging and searching for that method that ultimately satisfies his eyes. Although Sadu’s compositions may appear simple to the untrained viewer, there is a carving element present that ultimately strips away the unneeded, until the core of his idea or message is all that remains, naked and vulnerable. Regarding this openness, Sadu remarks, “I like the idea of a painting posing as a joke to hide how corny and heartfelt and everyday it actually is. It’s like it has a protective shield…”

His perspective is true indeed, as his pieces pretend to appear naïve, yet it is this sense of naivety that he has crafted and perfected, like a card-shark bluffing his opponents.

Slices of everyday life, isolated or frozen in time, timeless. His choice of subjects could well be found a hundred years ago, just as they have occurred in his village for centuries.

Even though Sadu has had the opportunity to travel beyond Bali’s boundaries, to Germany and Japan, studying the works of the masters, and is an avid reader, what he takes from his travels is a better understanding of himself and his own culture.

Rather than looking outward, trying to work with concepts or subjects that are not his own, he delves inward to his own community, striving to identify and capture his own people’s behaviour and attitude towards life. He has realised the value of this direction early on, not only for himself, but for his place in the community. He has learned

the methods and values of Eastern and Western visual traditions, before deciding upon his own.

There is also an inherent sense of a rebel at work with this man. Though soft spoken and sparing with words, he nonetheless achieves great power with his images and runs against the grain of convention. His first solo show of work was held in ’99, while he was still a student. Unlike his fellow art colleagues who exhibited in one of the many art shops in Ubud, Sadu put together his first show in a rice paddy in his native Sayan. Since then he has participated in numerous group shows in Bali and Jakarta, before preparing for his most recent second solo exhibit.

In what is normally unheard of for such a young, notyet-established artist, Sadu’s works created a feeding frenzy. Seventeen of his 18 pieces on show were sold at the opening. When asked if this reaction surprised him, he replies softly, with a faint smile, “No, it just seemed normal.”

Ah yes, the great ones make it look easy, right?

With such a strong talent, purpose, and an understated humility, Sadu’s digging may some day find him a place in Bali’s art history books. He still sees many possibilities with his present technique, and we can only wait and see how far his talent takes him. Keep an eye out for Sadu’s engaging works of irony, and watch for his name coming to a gallery near you.

For more information on the work of I Wayan Sadu, as well as updates on future exhibitions at Griya Santrian Gallery, please contact wasuk@hotmail.com.

Against The Grain Heritage rice – Bali’s original, chemical free, organically grown hardy – is making a comeback as more and more people recognise its health and ecological benefits, writes Cat McNicol.

BALI’S spectacular rice terraces have enchanted visitors for the past century. Cascading from the mountains to the sea, the verdant fields soothe the eye and the heart. Rice is central to Bali’s soul. Complex rituals to appease Dewi Sri, the rice goddess, are performed at every stage of the growth cycle.

Many of these sculptured rice fields have been producing crops for over a thousand years. Even then, the farmers worked cooperatively to ensure that there would be sufficient water for every field. The traditional subak, or group of fields served by a single watershed, was highly organised. Sometimes the irrigation water came from distant lakes or springs, and long channels were cut through the soft mountain rock. Many of these feats of early engineering are still in use today. Irrigation canals lead the water to the highest terraces in the subak, and from there it trickles from one field to the next.

Most rice farms in Bali are small (under half a hectare) and traditionally cultivated by the family or by sharecroppers.

Machinery, apart from a small cultivator at ploughing time, is seldom used. Bali’s rice is still planted by hand, weeded by hand and harvested by hand. Threshed by women in the field, it’s then dried in the sun before being stored in the lumbung or rice barn. With this level of human energy in every grain, it’s no wonder that Bali’s rice tastes good.

But best of all are Bali’s ancient heritage rice varieties, now emerging again after half a century in the shadows.

Until the 1960s, the Balinese used leaves, rice straw and animal manures to fertilise their crops. When food security became an urgent priority to feed Indonesia’s rapidly growing population, farmers were ordered to start using hybrid rice seed stock and chemical fertilisers. Forced to abandon their tasty but slow-growing red, brown and pink indigenous rice, Bali’s farmers applied themselves to producing three crops of hybrid rice a year to feed their

hungry compatriots. But some of the older people still preferred the flavour of their old rice, and continued to grow a little for their own use. So the seed stock survived in remote mountain villages and distant valleys.

Last year a small rice festival was held in Ubud to celebrate Bali’s heritage rice. The organisers sent out the word through their various organic grower networks, inviting people to bring in a sample of traditional local rice for a tasting competition. They expected four or five varieties, but by the day of the festival about 15 different varieties of rice had been brought in from every corner of Bali. They all have distinctive colours, flavours, grain sizes and textures, and are all nutritionally far superior to C-64, the commonly grown white hybrid. About 100 people attended the first rice festival, taking away with them a new awareness of Bali’s rich heritage of traditional varieties.

Some parts of Bali managed to escape the tidal wave of chemically grown hybrid white rice. Jatiluwih, a stunningly beautiful valley in Tabanan Regency, never did stop growing heritage rice and the farmers there have never used chemicals. Its’ now famous Padi Taun is in high demand. The tall traditional rice is harvested and tied into large tassels, which are left in the sun to dry. Because unhusked rice can last for several years, only enough for immediate consumption is taken to the miller. One farmer from Kintamani told me that his family always kept some unhusked rice on a shelf over the wood stove in the kitchen, where it slowly acquired a smoky flavour that was much prized.

Awareness of Bali’s heritage rice has been rising over the past few years, and demand for it is growing. Chefs from leading restaurants and five-star hotels are incorporating it into their menus, and small amounts can sometimes be found for sale in the supermarkets. Encouraged by the higher prices it commands, more farmers are starting to

plant the old rice again.

In step with the return to traditional varieties of rice is a growing movement toward chemical-free cultivation. The heavy use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides over the past four decades has taken a heavy toll on Bali’s once-fertile soil. Before the introduction of hybrid rice, the terraces teemed with eels, snakes, frogs, freshwater crabs and millions of insects. Besides enriching the soil, these animals also added protein to the diet of farming families. But over time these creatures were killed by the chemicals, and the rich topsoil of the fields began to float away with the irrigation water. Because the farmers were told to grow as much hybrid rice as possible, they no longer practised crop rotation, and since they used only chemical fertilisers they stopped adding organic matter to the soil.

Today, even increasing amounts of chemicals can’t force the exhausted soil to grow rice in some areas.

Rice cultivation in Bali faces other challenges. Water is becoming a serious issue; the level of Lake Tamblingan in West Bali has dropped seven metres in the past few years due to increased demand. About 1,500 hectares of rice fields disappear each year under housing estates, factories, resorts and villas.

The Department of Agriculture’s response to decreasing yields was twofold. In 2004 it announced a policy to make Indonesia the largest producer of organic food in the world.

And it now encourages farmers to adopt a new cultivation technique called the System of Rice Intensification, which uses much less rice seed and water and adapts well to chemical-free growing.

Bali is struggling to find a balance between burgeoning development and its ancient agrarian culture. Perhaps a growing awareness of its heritage rice will help ensure that the island’s magical rice terraces will continue to ease the eye and the heart into the next millennia.

EVENT ORGANISER Pro Motion Events Tel: 287250 Fax: 270906 www.pro-motion-events.com page 107

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Rim Cargo Tel: 737670 www.rimcargo.com page 77 Yak map G.8 MUSEUMS Rudana Tel: 975779 Fax: 975091 www.museumrudana.com Inside back cover Bud map N.17 PROPERTY Elite Havens Tel: 731074 Fax: 736391 www.elitehavens.com page 1 Yak map I.1 Exotiq Seminyak Tel: 737358 www.exotiqrealestate.com page 2 Yak map F.8 Karma Developments Tel: 8475475 www.karmadevelopments.com page 41 Panorama Tel: 736733 www.panoramaresortbali.com page 16 -17 (Yak map H.8) Paradise Property Tel: 737357 www.thelayar.com page 74 Yak map G.8 Rama Chandra Exotiq Real Estate Tel: 737358 www.ramachandrabali.com page 19 Tropical Homes Tel: 767888 Fax: 767999 www.tropicalhomes.com,sg page 33 RECREATION Bali Hai Cruises Tel: 720331 Fax: 720334 www.balihaicruises.com page 89 Yak map E.8 Canggu Club Tel: 8446385 www.cangguclub.com page 57 Yak map B.1 RESTAURANTS&BARS Cafe Bali Tel: 7801515 thecafebali@yahoo.com page 63 Glow at Como Shambhala Tel: 978888 Fax: 978889 www.cse.comoshambhala.bz page 142 Bud map A.1 Hu’u Bar Tel: 736443 Fax: 736573 www.huubali.com page 61 Yak map C.6 Kemiri at Uma Ubud Tel: 972448 Fax: 972449 www.uma.como.bz page 142 Bud map B.1 Khaima Tel: 736574 www.khaimabali.com page 89 Ku De Ta Tel: 736969 Fax: 736767 www.kudeta.net page 3 Yak map C.9

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AT A GLANCE Name: Puri Tupai.

In a nutshell: Twin joglos set in a large formal garden; grass tennis court; swimming pool; fully staffed.

Facilities: Four AC bedrooms; fully equipped kitchen and bar area; satellite TV, DVD, stereo hi-fi; shuttle service to Ubud; pool, tennis.

Address: Lodtunduh, Ubud, Bali.

Tel: Call rentals manager Luanne on +62 818 356446 or at Puri Tupai +62 361 981655.

Photography: Yakko.

IT’S always refreshing to have a reminder of a distant home, especially in the tropics, and especially when the memories are good ones. My own are of an England in perpetual sunshine, when the long summer nights allowed games of lawn tennis on a grass court surrounded by Norfolk pines. There is something about the greening of a tennis net and the sound of ball against racquet that sets a scene for pre-Fall innocence – plenty of which exists at Puri Tupai, a retreat hidden amidst the rice fields of Lodtunduh outside Ubud.

The entrance to this dreamy and charming estate is suitably pastoral. A drive through a picturesque Balinese village, where artisans ply their trades, leads to a small sign and a turning that takes you adjacent to a waterway where the Balinese bathe uninhibited by clothes or cover of any kind. We were greeted at the gates by smiling staff whose hospitality during our weekend stay was unwavering.

Puri Tupai consists of two traditional joglo houses, incorporating the best of Javanese and Balinese architecture. The left wing contains two bedrooms, the open kitchen, living area and writing table. On the right there are a further two bedrooms, a bar, day bed and upstairs a mezzanine entertainment lounge. A wide verandah overlooks the garden, at the bottom of which is a grass tennis court and a pair of dainty lumbung. The gardens feel formal and well ordered, and before the tennis court lays a gorgeous pool that stretches the width of the property.

I will assume readers are familiar with the arts and attractions of Ubud – the galleries, the dances, the bohemian atmosphere – but these charms notwithstanding, one wonders why anyone would need to leave Puri Tupai. The gardens, the pool, the tennis court and a variety of nooks and crannies make this the ideal family hideaway, a place to kick back with the kids, some family friends and a case or two of Pinot.

The property is fully staffed. Maid, cook, gardeners, a manager and night security are all unobtrusive and I would have to say well trained. Leaves and various other tropical debris appeared and disappeared as if by magic. I never saw anyone clearing it up, but cleared it was. A recent renovation of the bedrooms and bathrooms marries modern luxury with old world charm.

The villa is under Western management, and it shows. Special requests can be accommodated without issue, and there is a well-ordered calm about the place and a wealth of local information just a phone call away. All in, Puri Tupai offers everything needed for an idyllic stay in Bali’s central foothills: all you need to do now is get away from your desk. T.S.

The Yak: What’s your name?

CG: Christopher Gentry.

Where are you from?

CG: I grew up in a little town called Three Rivers, California. That’s the southern drainage of the Sierras, so it’s right up against the foothills of the giant redwoods, the largest living things in the world.

How long have you lived in Ubud?

CG: Six years. Hong Kong for 11 years before that and two years in Japan prior to that.

What do you do?

CG: I am the chairman and founder of a company called Asiaworks, a training company. We take a group of people and put them in a room and pretty much stir it up, and keep stirring it up, to have them notice, for the most part, what are their fixed beliefs – and I mean fixed. Beliefs that are transparent, our automatic way of being.

The trainings that I am a part of are designed to be an interruption to these beliefs without it being crisis driven. So what I do is I’m a facilitator, coaching, and I use the

trainings.

Why should we do an Asiaworks programme?

CG: The training we do is not for people who need fixing, it’s for people who are moderately ok with themselves and I’m going to say with the general possibilities of life. Yeah, life’s ok, but do I have a sneaking suspicion that there could be a great deal more? That I could be firing on a cleaner engine? Yes. So, why should you do an Asiaworks programme? To interrupt the current conversation, the ongoing conversation of who you are.

To date, how many people have done the courses?

CG: Twenty five to 30,000. There are about a thousand people a month in Asia going through our courses in seven different countries. We just did a training for the Malaysian government, finished it up, it was a three-year project, we trained 380,000 kids in a 10-day programme. And this was a programme written for the

whole island to shift overnight. I am so embarrassed about what America is doing right now, but that said, there is something that occurred in America that I would like to see happen in Asia, which is a commitment to something larger than just self.

Explain please.

CG: When the industry that I’m in started it was all about discovering the child within.

Uncovering the layers to the diamond within, and dealing with all the past shit, you know, my mummy locked me in the glove compartment and that’s why I’m afraid of road maps. It was all about self working on self. I think that is pure crap.

I don’t care, and this drives people crazy when they come into the training, I don’t care how you feel, I don’t care if you watch your sister undress, I don’t care all the crap you did, we’re not about that. Every time you ask the question, ‘What’s wrong with me, what’s missing in me?’, you’ve got to answer it. And where am I in relationship to life, where am I in relationship to you? When

Chris Gentry wanted to be a cowboy but he ended up as the founder of Asiaworks, a training company that promotes self awareness to thousands of people in seven different countries throughout the region. Go figure. relationships that the people in the room have with each other as the mechanism for people to wake up, first to the transparency of their lives and then to make conscious choices.

You don’t just sit them down and teach them out of a book, do you? It’s a full on, in-your-face training, isn’t it? It gets quite heated...

CG: Yes it does. Our trainers are trained to seriously interrupt people’s lives, and that can be intense. I’ve never been hit in the training room, but one time my translator in Japan was just chewing out this guy, and I was just ripping this guy, just in him, and the guy looks at me and looks at my little translator and bam! He just popped her, put her down. It’s not an intellectual experience. We would come under the terms of experiential training. The only value that occurs for people is when they have a personal shift in their lives. Nobody can teach you that. I haven’t got the information for that, so that’s what gets generated in my

Malaysian government for their four-month mandatory national service. We wrote it, trained the trainers, trained the facilitators.

You’re talking about a significant amount of people. My question would be, what change are you bringing about here? When five million people have done Asiaworks trainings in 20 years’ time, what’s going to be left from that?

CG: You’ve heard of the 100-monkey story?

It’s a story about some Japanese scientists studying some monkeys on an island, and they wanted to get them out of the jungle and down to the beach. So they brought these raw sweet potatoes and threw them on the beach. But they were all dirty and muddy, and the monkeys didn’t like that, and these monkeys hated the ocean, and wouldn’t go near it. Finally one of them went down and started washing the potatoes in the tide pools, then a few others did. Then one day, the whole tribe came down and started washing them. So the theory was that it took about 100 monkeys to get the

I live in that question of what’s wrong with me, what’s missing, I get more empty and my relationships with other human beings become non-existent. So my training is not about working on self. Ultimately it comes back to what am I generating around me.

There are two domains that we live in – the domain of thought, concept and feeling, and then the domain of results. And we think that if I love myself, then I can love you.

That’s bullshit. My mother didn’t love herself all the time, but she was committed to me whether she loved herself or not. When you think of the richest, most intriguing times of your life you were not thinking about how you were doing. You were not looking at how you felt. You were committed to something outside of self. So to answer your question, when people’s general commitment and focus is to something other than self, it’s a better world.

Many people on the island have an opinion of you, some of whom have never met you. Why is that?

CG: I think, um, 99 per cent of these people have never done the training, so first of all we’re dealing with their interpretation of what they think I do. Then we’re dealing with their interpretation of me, and whether they know me. Some do, some don’t. And then when you say an opinion, I’m going to say an opinion of less than stellar view. I have never proclaimed to have the answers to life. I’m going to live my life in a way that is profound and right for me. What I do have to look at is what am I generating around me. So if I’m generating a conversation out there about me that’s not stellar, then I have to look at that. I can either make them wrong, or I can go, all right Chris, what is it you’re doing? I can have all the evidence in the world that they are wrong. Doesn’t matter. If I am generating that conversation I have got to ask myself what is it that I am doing that is generating it? And take it in as really valuable feedback.

Tell us about your parents.

CG: My dad was a colonel in the air force, OSI, special intelligence. Never saw him in a uniform; we never lived on a base. We pretty much lived up in Three Rivers, and he was here and there. Real intellectual, very strong military type, and then he retired and became the principal of the local elementary school. My mum was the first female lifeguard in Venice Beach, back in the ’30s. She’s 85 now. My mum was pretty wild and gregarious and my father was very strong and studious.

What was your childhood like?

CG: Growing up in Three Rivers I thought I was going to be a cowboy. I wanted to be a cowboy. I went to one of the big ranching families when I was about 16. The head of the family said to me, ‘Son, there are two ways to get into ranching. Either you already own land or you marry into it. And my daughter doesn’t even like you.’ So that was the end of my cowboy career.

What did you do in college?

CG: I rodeo-ed in college a bit – my degree was in rehabilitation and counselling – and then after college I was a counselleor for pretty hard core kids in Los Angeles.

After about a year and a half I got pretty disenchanted with the traditional systems and wrote up a grant and started running ‘alternative to incarceration’ programmes.

The Ubudian

We were the first ones to coin the term ‘youth at risk’. We would take these kids out for 45 days into the Sierras. I was working out of Hollywood, and that was my first exposure to the city and Hollywood life, but we got major recognition and then I got invited up to Alaska to set up the same program with American Indians, and then Outward Bound adapted the programme and took it on, and so I was running the Youth At Risk Programme for Outward Bound out of Washington State. Then I moved from that and became the Director of Outward Bound for Alaska, Washington Oregon and California, for all the programmes.

Did you always want to work with kids?

CG: The reason I got into Outward Bound and counselling was I was diagnosed as retarded at elementary school. My mum

saw the movie Forrest Gump and she said, ‘I saw this movie and I was thinking of you’.

I found out later that I wasn’t stupid, I have different ways of hearing things and seeing things, but as a dumb guy, anything that you do that is successful is pretty good.

Anything you fail at, well, what do you expect from a dumb guy? So I had it wired.

And I kind of got busted on that, so that’s what motivated me to start working with these kids, and my role was to interrupt, and I mean seriously interrupt, their conversation that ‘I’m a piece of shit’, that ‘I’m a loser’.

You do 45 days in the outdoors, making and breaking camp, getting up mountains, getting down rivers…it’s enough time to create a shift in their belief that they can do something, that they are worthy, and have a true commitment to the other guys on the

team. But then at 38 I started getting fed up being wet and moldy all the time, so I started doing the work I am doing now. It created the same results, but not outside.

What’s the most inspiring thing you have ever experienced?

CG: The birth of my sons.

What’s the most dispiriting?

CG: The state of the American government is truly appalling. I am just abhorred by it.

Watching what America has done in the last six years is just devastating to me.

What’s your worst trait?

CG: I think I have an incredibly high approval need.

But you’re the chairman of a private company, who is going to give you approval?

CG: No one. That’s the problem! And I

married a Japanese woman. I’m the woman in the relationship. I’m the one that wants to talk about our relationship, I want approval for brushing my teeth, and she’ll throw me a bone about once every other month and I have to be careful to catch it. Plus I’m a fat bastard.

What’s your best trait?

CG: I really, really, really, do care about people. I love being around them. I love finding out things about them. I have an inquiring mind. And the best part is, once they leave I can become an expert on whatever it is they know! It’s got me where I am today.

What value do you place on money?

CG: On one hand, money’s never been my motivation, ever. It’s weird, when I focus on money, I just fall flat on my face. When I first

started Asiaworks, I read this article on Bill Gates and he was so proud that he had 100 millionaires at the time working for him. And I go, that’s it, I want to create a place where other people can be really wealthy. I’ve got people making more money than me in my company now. In the last 10 years, I have done so much more monetarily than I ever thought I would, but I guess even a blind pig finds an acorn if he roots around enough.

So is it what drives me? Absolutely not. But here’s what I do miss. I do miss having the wolf at the door. I’m not as tenacious.

When were you happiest?

CG: Happy is not a big component of my life. It’s not. I think happy is way overrated. I think happy is cheap and small. I have no real interest in happy. What I have a real strong interest in is wholeness, accomplishment and contribution. If I want to be happy I’ll take a hot bath. Go to Disneyland.

Ok here’s one for you. You’re walking along the road, it’s at night, and there’s a dog in the road that’s just been run over.

It’s back is broken. It’s struggling…

CG: I’d immediately go over and kill it.

Absolutely. Immediately. Put it out of its misery. There was a time in America in a big snowstorm and somebody had hit a deer and it was struggling and its whole back quarters were smashed. Forty cars backed up, and I walked over with a big rock and immediately killed it and dragged it off, quickly. You’re not going to save the animal.

I hate to see animals suffer.

If you were to die tomorrow and could come back as anything, what would that be?

CG: The Sioux warriors have a battle cry called ho ta hay, which means ‘today is a good day to die’. It doesn’t mean I want to die, but that if I do, there is nothing in the future that I need to do before I am whole and complete. Because of my work I get invited to some other classes, past life regression and all that. And there are people there who were Cleopatra’s slave, etcetera, and I honestly believe I was a potato in a past life. I think I was a tuber. I think this is my first time up as a human. With everything I know now, I would love to come back as a skinnier, better-looking guy!

If we were to ask your closest friends in confidence to describe you in five words, what would those words be?

CG: Articulate. Sarcastic. Funny. Committed.

Caring.

Do you believe in God? CG: I’m a fence sitter. I have a hard time believing that we are just a small-minded, miniscule group of people here. I am so anthropocentric, it’s all about human beings for me, but I have a sense that there is something bigger…

What do you give back to Bali?

CG: I’m an active player in my own little village here. Just as part of the banjar, and in terms of employment, and I’m involved in

the cremations. Maybe you know about all the stuff I did for the tsunami? It was Boxing Day, and we were having a big party here, and we heard about the tsunami, nothing was evident and we didn’t think about it.

Next day we realised how terrible it was.

I said at that time, I can’t sit here and do nothing. So I got on a boat with the local yayasan, I was on the team from Bali, and we hit this town 150 miles south of Banda Aceh. We were the first people there. A town of 12,000 people and there were 900 people left. We buried more than 60 people in the first four days. So I got really committed to it, and because of Asiaworks and the service projects that we do, I bought a 44-metre, 700-ton cargo boat, refitted it, and the plan was to hit all these little towns.

We had two small boats so we could run stuff up on the shore. World Food gave us 150 tons of rice to take out to this small island. We delivered 50, delivered another 50, dropped off the last 50 on the way back out and then caught a plank and sunk the fucker. So that was a little bit of swinging dick, you know, I’m a pretty hot guy, and God goes, erm, no. Well anyway somebody did. So I lost my boat. I like to do things big, that’s part of the approval need. I can’t just do little things. I had to buy a huge boat and do this huge project. I’m also involved in different little orphanages, so I got little projects going now.

Does your training give you the ability

to size people up quickly?

CG: I have an ability to read somebody very quickly. Yes, I can see where someone is operating from, how they hold themselves and how they see the world. The skill in that is not being able to recognise who they are, but who you are. When I’m with you, I see what comes up for me – anything that’s not me, must be yours. So I get fixes on people very quickly. To do the work I’m doing, you got to be pretty committed to not being right. You got to get off, quick.

What’s the last thing that goes through your mind when you go to sleep at night?

CG: Recently it’s been construction. I’m building a wine cellar. At times it’s about my boys. I didn’t get married until I was 41.

I’ve got an eight-year-old and a 12-yearold. Just the physical aspect of being alive and healthy and being able to take my kids on river trips and things when they’re 16, 17. So I think about their health and their wellbeing and how they’re doing at school. Also my projections of what I went through as a kid, and I wonder whether they are going to have to go through the same things. I also worry that the kids have life too easy here. You don’t have to work that hard to survive out here. That’s what crosses my mind at night.

Chris Gentry, thank you very much.

CG: You’re welcome. I hope that gives you an idea of who I am.

PRUDISH social attitudes may be making headway in Indonesia, but Bali remains home to the art of unselfconscious nude bathing in rivers.

First, a warning. This is not some 1920s drive to entice voyeurs to boob-watch. The days of Gregor Krause are long gone. Those inclined to shoot 4,000 bare chests while on holiday should head for Miami or Brazil.

Nyuh Kuning, one of my favorite villages in Ubud, is just south of the monkey forest.

There I have the use of a friend’s riverside cottage where I am lulled to sleep and awake to the sound of trickling water from the ravine-side springs that continuously feed the gurgling river below.

All along this river are bathing areas. Men, women and children come to soak, splash or swim in the river, wash clothes, and have a final rinse under spring-fed fountains. I’ve found a 20-metre stretch of deep water where I can do laps and water pilates before floating downriver. Weightless in the current’s cool silky threads, I glimpse fleeting patches of blue sky through a canopy of palm fronds.

Walking down the stone steps carved into the cliff to my favourite spot, one day I come across a father and daughter by the river. The father is modestly wearing his underwear while he scrubs the family laundry on a boulder. The daughter, who I guess is about four, is in her birthday suit. She is trying to catch a dragonfly, completely oblivious to me passing.

Further upriver, three teenage boys are noisily diving in and out of the water.

Communal bathing remains a fact of life for those who cannot afford the luxury of privacy. In crowded bathing areas, the art of nude bathing lies in the languid lifting and rolling of a sarong onto a bundle on the top of one’s head as the body melts into water.

The modest manage to place their threads on dry ground without baring too much skin above water. While the self-conscious go for the clinging wet sarong look, the fine art lies in accepting exposed skin as a normal part of life. Men and women usually bathe in plain sight of each other, with only a small courtesy of distance separating them.

Perhaps nude bathing is an earthly subject unworthy of intellectual discussion, but the attitudes towards it are a fascinating source of debate. Locking verbal swords with fundamentalist groups demanding laws to govern decency, freedom-of-expression lobbyists point out that porn producers and those supporting a strict dress code that bans women from baring arms, navel and legs have a lot in common: they depart from the same point of view that women’s bodies are merely objects of sexual attention.

Just as the body has more functions other than sex and procreation, so does the body have more senses other than sight. The hegemony of sight over the other senses, however, has dulled sensuality. As Derrida pointed out, “There is a sacred and ancient friendship between light and power.” A dominating focus on worldview leads us to treat the world around us as projections that we observe without entering to touch and explore with our skin.

Picture by Rama Surya.

Bathing in the open splendour of nature is much more than a ritual cleansing for the body. It revives our tactile and aural senses as well as the innocence of judgment-clouded vision. Trusting the universe in our nakedness, we re-establish our connection and feel at home once again inside the womb of creation.

Most visitors who come here are spellbound by the view. They sit on the comfortable reclining chairs of the open pavilion and are content to watch the river go by. Hardly anyone dips a toe in it. We all breathe the same air, but water for ablutions is perhaps too intimate to share.

Fresh, the little girl walks up the steps. Her father follows, bag of laundry on his back.

She’s still a little goddess who has yet to learn about harsh reprimands. She has yet to learn to scrutinize her image in mirrors and learn to feel the eyes of the world upon her. For how much longer, I wonder, will she be free from modesty?

Photograph: Yakko.

Heard Mentality IT became fashionable a couple of years ago for journalists to talk about ‘the Arab street’ – a sexy phrase that implied that Western journalists sent to the Middle East could speak Arabic.

There is an enduring seduction about the idea of reporting Simply What One Hears on the streets of an exotic country; and although Ubud is not legally an independent nation, it’s peculiar enough to generate its own national street talk. As in: “Oh, darn it!” – a tourist breaking her ankle on one of Ubud’s horrible sidewalks.

Overheard in a bakery: “Are you here for the leadership conference?”

“No.” “Oh. Sorry.”

In front of a vegetarian restaurant by a tourist trying to get away on a bicycle: “I’m leaving Bali right now and I’ve arranged my own transport, thank you.”

At a Periplus bookstore: “Could you please take the wrapper off this book?”

“Why?” “I want to look inside.”

“Why?”

“I want to see if the pages are in the right order.”

“No, I’m sorry. You’ll have to buy it and take your chances.”

In front of Left Bank at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival: “Did I hear,” said Arthur with Ubudian caution, “that Tati had died?”

“Not Tati. It was Judith,” said a local shrew.

They were talking about the wives of the late Wija Wawo Runto, founder (with Judith) of Bali’s seminal boutique hotel, the Tandjung Sari, and a man who had far more than his fair share of charm and good looks. It is an international secret that Wija was the devil referred to in the title of the sexiest book ever written about Bali, Le Diable Vert by Muriel Cerf, for which she won the Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud in 1975.

It reminded me of a story I recently heard from Idanna Pucci, moments after she had received by phone news of the death of her friend Judith Wawo Runto Tumbelaka, a widely beloved woman among whose children is the lovely Ade Wawo Runtu of Café Batujimbar.

We were seated on a concrete block in a graveyard in Karangasem, at the cremation of the blessed Dr Djelantik. The fires were still burning, and to pass the time and perhaps also to help assuage her grief, Idanna did what she does best, which is to tell a story.

“Shortly after Wija died in Italy,” she said, “Judith took me to her house there and showed me wonderful pictures of him and the family. And she told me the story of how Wija met Tati.” It went like this. Judith and Wija and their five children had recently moved from Jakarta to Bali, although Wija still had things to attend to in Jakarta, and often made trips there. In those days – it must have been the late 1960s or early ’70s – air travel between Bali and Jakarta was rare, so the visits were usually long, and Judith communicated with Wija by letter. To deliver the letter, she would take it to the airport and give it to someone on the weekly flight from Jakarta to Lombok to Bali and back to Jakarta.

One day as she was waiting at the airport with her letter while the people from Lombok disembarked, she saw come off the plane a young Javanese women of extraordinary beauty. They got into a conversation, and the young woman (whose name was Tati) agreed to deliver the letter. As they chatted about their families, Tati revealed that her husband was in jail in Lombok, and that she was going to Jakarta with a bag full of money to bribe a general to get her husband out of jail.

“Well, the upshot of the story,” Idanna said, “was that the husband stayed in jail, the bag full of money was spent in a week by Tati and Wija at the Hotel Indonesia, and that was the end of the marriage.”

I tell this story with the deepest respect for the grieving family of Judith, and for Tati as well, trusting in my belief that, in different ways, it is a credit to all of them.

Of course the Balinese population of Ubud also speak on the streets, but mainly of spiritual matters. Balinese women, who perform the role of priestess in their own homes, engage in an informal exchange of ritual knowledge as they pass in the street.

“Yey, how much did you pay for those bananas?”

“Rp25,000.”

“That’s way too much.”

“Everything’s too much. I can’t take it anymore.”

The men of Ubud also speak in the street, of course – or rather in public men-only realms. These were once in the shade of a banyan tree, where men exchanged thoughts as they exchanged fighting cocks, but more often now in the dark and greasy tranquility of a motorcycle garage or a billiard salon. Balinese men tend to speak more quietly than Balinese women; and the greater the importance of the topic, the more quietly they speak.

Anything to do with the local palace, for instance, or regional politics or magical gossip or real estate, reduces them to a murmur, which is why I have no quotes in this paragraph.

Around our house compound, the women talk about offerings and money, and the men talk about chickens (mostly about fighting cocks but also about where the hens are laying and how many chicks just hatched and how this whole business of bird flu is overblown). With two children under a year old, there is also a great deal of baby talk. “Say ‘chicken’! Say ‘chicken!’” Call me at home anytime and a chicken will answer the phone.

Cultural Dance Calendar

Come on, own up, how many of you have enjoyed the pleasures of bathing au naturel in Ubud’s gorgeous rivers? We do, on a regular basis, which is why we asked our writer to explore the virtues of skinny-dipping in the waters of Bali and why today this is still a common practice among Ubudites and villagers alike. And if you really want to know what the Balinese think about our buff or otherwise white(ish) bodies, read Uphill with Diana Darling, a scribe of note who listens while the world speaks…and overhears some wonderful nuggets of truth on subjects as diverse as the price of fruit and the goings on of the island’s much-loved heroes of yesteryear. Artmarket explores the spirit behind Tony Raka, gallery owner and a man with an art mission, while our Ubudian this issue is the very likeable Chris Gentry, Harley-riding bon viveur and founder of training outfit Asiaworks. Then it’s time to take a break and play a game of tennis at Puri Tupai on the town’s outskirts while we enjoy excellent cuisine at the Hanging Gardens in Mood Food. It’s all great fun, of course, which is what living and visiting Ubud and its environs is all about. Take care in the rice fields, walk slowly and remember, never carry a big stick. Enjoy.

When 1st & 15th of every month

What Gambuh dance (The Ancient Drama of Bali)

Where Pura Desa Batuan

Every Full & New Moon

Kecak Dance

Arma Open Stage, Peliatan

Mondays

Legong Dance Kecak (Fire) Dance Ciwa Ratri Dance Barong & Keris Dance

Ubud Palace Tunjungan Village Pura Dalem Puri Jaba Pura, Desa Kutuh

Tuesdays

Ramayana Ballet Legong Dance by women Spirit of Bali Kecak & Trance Dance Wayang Kulit (Shadow puppets) Legong Dance Legong

Ubud Palace Puri Saraswati Jaba Pura, Desa Kutuh Jaba Pura, Padang Kertha Kerta Accommodation Puri Kaleran Peliatan The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah

Wednesdays

Legong & Barong Dance Wayang Kulit Kecak & Trance Dance

Ubud Palace Oka Kartini Padang Tegal

Thurdays

Gabor Dance Legong Dance (Children’s gamelan) Barong Dance Kecak Dance Calonarang Dance

Ubud Palace Puri Saraswati Puri Saraswati Puri Agung Peliatan Mawang Village

Fridays

Legong Dance Barong Dance Kecak & Trance Dance Legong

Ubud Palace Peliatan Village Pura Dalem Ubud The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah

Saturdays

Legong Dance Legong Dance Calonarang Dance Legong Dance Wayang Kulit

Ubud Palace Puri Saraswati Mawang Village Pura Dalem Puri Ubud Kerta Accommodation

Sundays

Legong of Mahabaratha Kecak & Trance Dance Wayang Kulit Legong Dance Female Gamelan and Children’s Dance

Ubud Palace Padang Tegal Oka Kartini ARMA Peliatan Village

A unique opportunity to witness the spectacular revival of Gambuh – the ancient dance drama of Bali. Performances every 1st and 15th of the month at 7.00 p.m., at Pura Desa Batuan, (11km from Ubud). Entrance fee Rp50.000. Free transport from Ubud Tourist Office at 6.30 p.m.

For reservations telephone 974 528/295 846.

Issue fourteen December 2007/January/February 2008

THE BUD Ubud Views UPHILL Heard Mentality TIMELESS TRADITIONS Bali, Uncovered ART MARKET Tony Raka UBUDIAN Chris Gentry RAVINE RETREATS Puri Tupai MOOD FOOD Hanging Gardens BUD MAP Cover Photography: Rio Helmi - www.riohelmi.com

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