Cebu has the second biggest international airport in the country and is a great hub for island-hopping, entertainment options or simply coming back to Civilization after having successfully toured the surrounding islands or provinces. Bohol is an interesting island which features beautiful nature, wildlife and friendly people.

So far, it was only possible to get from one of these islands to the other via ferry services, which takes anything from 2-4 hours, depending on weather conditions. But hear me out, what seems to be in store for the near future:

Bridges or underpasses have long been the fantasies for visionaries in all past centuries. Just remember the underpass the Napoleon wanted to build through the English Channel to invade Great Britain.

Since back then, many impressive structures have been build around the world to overcome distances between islands or even continents. Also the English Channel had finally seen a 50.5 km long tunnel through which cars and trains can go, making the slow and weather-dependent trip via ferries almost obsolete.

In the Philippines there are currently not only rumors but newspaper articles circulating, that point to a similar plan to connect Cebu and Bohol islands even better, which might come true earlier than most people think.

For Cebu that would mean easier access to Bohol’s interesting features, better power supply for Bohol from Cebu’s abundance of coal power plants and even the introduction of modern telecommunications like fiberoptics for Bohol. Bohol could deliver water for Cebu. Tourism would benefit massively, as would the faster and more reliable transport of goods and other services between the 2 provinces.

Probably also more industry would find its way to Bohol – which is of course a double-edged sword – as especially the north-east corridor of Cebu City doesn’t have any room for expansion anymore and daily traffic congestion and pollution are already an accepted situation.

The project is dubbed “Bohol-Cebu Multi-Access Friendship Bridge” and was a brainchild of Bohol’s former governor.

The project now seems already in advanced planning stages, with feasibilities studies done as far back as 2008 by a Korean Company. Now even the funding seems to be close to 100% secured with the Korea Export-Import Bank (Economic Development Cooperation Fund, EDCF), the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a group of Chinese Investors and the International Bridge Construction Company of California being interested in financing the project. As it looks now, the Philippine government would have to cough up not even a single Peso to get the project going under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law.

So far it seems, the only delay for a construction start within the next 2-3 years could come from politics. The initial project was originally endorsed already in 2009, but delayed due to the economical and financial crisis and – you guessed it – politics. In a country riddled by corruption, those kind of mega projects can mean the difference of being a poor joker or a millionaire for a local politician. Currently the ball is with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to give the final ‘Go ahead!’.

The bridge’s end points or anchors would be Cordova on Cebu Island and Getafe in Bohol, not far from the capitol Tagbilaran, spanning a total distance of 17.5 kilometers across the Olango and Hilotongan Channels with some small islets, shoals and shallow seawaters in between. That is already a cut-down version from the original planning of a bridge with more than 90 kilometers in length. Other sources talk about a total length of 40 kilometers due to feeder and highway access connectors.

Still, this bridge would by no means be a small feat, as the currently longest bridge in the Philippines, the arch or ‘s’-shaped San Juanico bridge between the islands of Samar and Leyte across the San Juanico Straight is ‘only’ 2.16 kms long.

I drove over this island in 2009, on my Tricycle trip around the Philippines and it’s really one of the most beautifully designed bridges in the Philippines.

A new bridge between Cebu and Bohol with a length of anything between 17.5-40 kilometers would automatically be in the Top 30 of the longest bridges in the world, following this list of longest bridges. The world’s 3 longest bridges are currently all in China, with the winner – the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, High-Speed Railway bridge from Beijing–Shanghai  spanning a length of almost 165 kilometers!

It seems, the Philippines Government doesn’t even want to stop with building just this one ‘Super Bridge’, as there are even talks of building one more from Cebu to Negros, the largest island in the West and just another from Ilo-ilo on Panay Island to Negros via Guimaras, the Mango Island of the Philippines. Okay, those last 2 are only early plans yet, but for economic development let’s hope those plans work out in the end.

What do you think?

Will a bridge between Cebu and Bohol improve or destroy Bohol’s fragile tourism infrastructure?

–

Related posts:

1. Wanted: Your very own beach paradise island – Bohol or Bantayan?
2. The Magic of the Chocolate Hills
3. New destination: Camiguin/Philippines

Amidst the serenity of its 8km long stretch of sand and (back then) clean waters a night club opened opened in Legian/Seminyak.

It was located directly at the beach, an open concept and opened until the wee hours of the next day. From 6pm to 6am. Thus Club 66 was born.

This weekend, Bali’s most well-known Club, an institution and trendsetter once, closed its gates forever, to be replaced by just a another hip resort.

—

With its 15.000 Watts Sound System, Club Doublesix was a famous venue and in the hearts and minds of most party goers and visitors to Bali – many international top DJs from all around the world like Tiesto, Pete Tong, Steve Gerrard, Mike Hiratzka and countless more rocked the crowds over the years here.

For the last stand, nothing was spared and lots of effort was put into making this a special night to remember – anything was possible. The venue was decked out with lavish decorations and light beams, lasers, big screens, 60 DJ’s (!) for this 1 night and a total of 6 stages and music areas all entertaining patrons at the same time.

Venues like Syndicate and Bacio, not necessarily better going Clubs in the area, were joining in the fun and were connected with 66, but walled off from the beaches and surrounding areas.

And they came in droves.

While Club 66 was deserted most of the last couple of months – for the last stand – everyone and his dog who was in Bali came to join the fun one last time.

Around 9pm the place was starting to fill up and even around 4am new guests were still coming and paying the cover charge of 100K Rupiah, to get in and ‘be part of history’ as the final flyer put it.

It was definitely the party of the year so far in Bali!

The owner, Pak Kadek, who also runs several other venues in Bali, was holding court in Bacio, with TV crews and photographers swarming around him to get the best pictures.

The crowds were an interesting mix of Locals, Bali Expats, Hippies, Rasta Men, Butterflies of the Night, Jakarta Nightlife Pros, Bali Residents and Tourists – a lot of different people you usually don’t see together all in the same place.

Most people wore their best or even glamorous attire, meeting old friends and partying the night away in the heaviest fashion.

Heyyyy – but if all is gold, why is it closing?

The truth is, nothing was as good as it seems, already a while.

But nobody, maybe with the exception of Pak Kadek – the owner – knew for sure.

It seems, Club 66 fell out of fashion already months ago. The center of mayhem and night entertainment slowly shifted back to Kuta over the last couple of years.

With the opening of Skygarden and Ocean Beach Club (later closed due to land disputes and re-integrated into Skygarden), Clubs without Cover Charge became the norm. Fire Dancers, Acrobats, Stage Shows, Live Music and Bikini or Lingerie Models dancing on top of bars are all a common sight now in the Clubs of Kuta.

Yeah, you can even drink for free in some of those clubs or use the many drink promos to get your fix of booze for special low prices all night long, if you know where.

While night spots like Skygarden, Surfer Bar, Apache, Taverna or Espresso Bar are packed any night of the week – the signs became clearer that something wasn’t going right in the Doublesix area.

Club 66 with its steep cover charges, dark atmosphere and unchanged ancient concept of heavy techno beats with light shows and nothing else couldn’t or didn’t want to compete with the young and hungry Party Club Cowboys in Kuta.

A ray of hope came through, when the owners of the area around Legian beach tried to transform the place into higher class night venues. Clubs like DeJaVu, Syndicate, Bacio or lately Cocoon Beach Club opened and had initial success.

But it wasn’t good enough.

Nearby La Vida Loca (a pickup place, full of  the oldest and ugliest night birds, was doing its best part to spoil the fun of the high-rolling crowd. And of course the stench of the open sewage system just down the road of Jalan Arjuna (or Jalan Doublesix back in the days) still leaves an indifferent feeling of filth in an otherwise high-price nightlife area.

Drug sellers (fake and real) around the toilet areas in Club 66 and several police raids and undercover busts and constant ripoffs also left dark stains in the minds of carefree party goers.

The Clubs in the area stagnated and were already near empty almost every single night of the last couple of months, maybe with the exception of some weekend nights and special events.

So the inevitable happened. Last week already DeJaVu closed and Club 66 followed this weekend.

If Bacio can stay a strong contender in the area, remains to be seen. Cocoon might probably survive, as its Lounge and Pool Concept with various shows through the week is unique to the area and proved to be quite successful so far.

It’s a pity., Club 66 has to close now, but it had a good run. TIme to enjoy the sunset at Doublesix Beach again in its full serenity, at least the name remains. Oh wait….places like La Plancha and Crystal Palace mushroomed there lately and do there best to keep their patrons happy.

As Pak Kadek put it in his 66 Closing Speech published in Bali Advertiser:

It was a place to meet, where a lot of romance and madness happened, eventually Doublesix became a raving discotheque for all different shapes and colors from around the planet.

If the walls could talk, the stories that went on from opening to the closing would make a great novel. Lots of secrets and memories that will never be told

The tales of hedonistic debauchery that happened in Club 66 would surely leave many breathless! After all – this was Bali’s first super-club, and last weekend, it all came to an end.

Farewell Club 66 and RIP!

For some impressions of the Final Party at Club 66, check out the embedded Youtube Video below:

People Bungy Jumping above the crowds at the Closing Party of Club 66:

So far it seems, that Hackett’s Bungy Jumping Tower will remain on the area of the former Club 66, but nothing is certain. After all, the area will be demolished and  transformed into a new resort, so who knows what will happen.

Anyone has the latest rumors? How did you enjoy the Final Party at 66? Please scroll down and leave your comment below!

Related posts:

1. Fraud and Violence at club MBarGo in Kuta, Bali
2. Nightlife in Bali – Selective Fun paired with Racism?
3. 3 oddities in Bali, which would raise some brows – anywhere else

This May, GQ China interviewed half a dozen Bali and Phuket Expats for a July Special Print Issue about people who left the city life behind. It seems more and more Chinese are overwhelmed by their work and life pressure and looking for alternative lifestyles.

So in a 4-hour interview and photo session which took part in the Four Season Hotel in Jimbaran and also Uluwatu temple, I was ‘interrogated’ about how I came to live the life I’ve been living the last 5 years. Here is what came out of it:

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The interview was published in their 07/2011 print issue only. Thankfully my friend Julia Song, who vacationed in her home town in China at the time of publishing could get a hold of the magazine and carried the almost 1 kg heavy package all the way back to Bali.

It took a while to translate it, but luckily, another friend, Hui-Ling Chen from Taiwan (Shadow Chen) did most of the work, so I can present now a good translation of what was being written. A big thanks to you guys!

Some things funnily got ‘Lost in Translation’, as the Chinese Interviewers only could speak limited English, so I took the liberty of explaining some things that were characterized wrongly in the article. See below the quote for explanations. Okay, here is the translation from Chinese into English without any further bla-bla:

Chris Skoda, High tech Millionaire – “I thought I’ll die before I’m 42”

39-year-old Chris, lives in a rental villa in Bali. He doesn’t have to worry about having either enough money or women, the only thing that he worries about, is to not getting sick. After all, without his health, how can he keep enjoying the nomadic life he adopted?

During our interview, he stoked his slightly convex belly and said, it looks like I have to go for a diet to eliminate this.

In his earlier work life, Chris was concerned that he might die before 42 due to increasing workload. Here are the reasons for that:

He was 34 and worked in a big IT company in Europe for 14 years, by the time he quit the job, he was the VP of that company. He owned a two stories apartment building in small town near Berlin, one Porsche, one Benz and one Audi. As one in the high-income groups in his society, he didn’t have any economic pressure. However, he was too busy working to have a normal sleep each day and not even had time for a romance. (He said it was easier to develop a relationship in Bali on a later stage after quitting working). After working many years in Germany, he applied to work in Singapore, which even increased the amount of work load and work hours for him.
 
He had 3 bosses, two of them died of heart attacks at the age of 42. So he thought: ‘Hey, I even work harder than them, which means I might die before I’m even 42’. That was when he decided to quit his job and simply live the nomad life that he had been dreaming about since he was young.

He wrote on his website: “Is normality getting dressed in the clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic jams in the car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, the car, and especially, the house that you leave empty all day in order to live in it?” – this kind of meaningless life, I don’t want to buy into anymore.

After quitting, he did a very non-German thing. He burned all the 25 ties he had on the streets in Singapore. ‘I felt the ties are the ropes that chained my neck. It was like a cleansing ritual symbolizing that I’m having my new life now.’

It wasn’t in a whim to choose a nomad life. He was born in East Germany. Before the Berlin wall fell, the vision of the east Germans were usually narrower. They had more desire to see the world. When Chris was young, he read many books about travel and adventure, and developed an ‘On the road’ complex. He traveled extensively with his Indonesian girlfriend whenever he had time for it. They had a motorbike and traveled around South East Asia. They stayed in Singapore, Phuket, Goa and Philippines. Now he stays in Bali as a base, and travels from there whenever he can.

He’s still very German, careful and organized, so his nomad life has a stable support. He counted for us the rental he gets from the apartment in Germany which pays his bills in Bali; he has some stocks and he also have income from his website. He said those income streams are definitely enough for his retirement. As to the normal man’s needs, Chris has no problem with that. He would restrain to go drinking heavily in bars, but he is also open to get out and meet some girls wherever they would are. Chris said the only thing he has to be careful is not to getting sick.

He has the best control of himself like an east German, but he has a very different romantic nature in his bone. He said that he realized, how big the world is and how small he himself is. There are so many interesting and small things that enrich him and make him happy now, compared to his previous work life.

Finally, he quoted a poem from a Canadian poet, which influenced his life from the early years on:

I will stake my Himalayan memories
Against your estate of a thousand trees.
Pit my Thai sunset
Against your private jet.
Weigh my horse rides at sunrise
To your Italian suits and ties.
I’ll rejoice in friends before I go,
Not the figures of my stock portfolio.

Some remarks in regards to facts in the article:

Some facts were clearly misstated in the article, I just want to take the chance to put them right, as they make me feel quite uncomfortable.

It would be nice, if I ever was a High Tech Millionaire, but that was simply not the case.

In my work in Sales related functions in a IT company, I didn’t have any stock options or the chance to get rich quick. So all I did was saving more than half of my monthly salary, investing early in stocks, property and other long-term investment form and getting out, before the work burned me out completely. I luckily avoided some common mistakes. It was never the question, how much money I would need to retire, but more correctly – how little.

By Chinese standards it might still qualify me as being a Millionaire, after all 1 Mio. Yuan are only about 100K Euros. In Indonesian Rupiah, it would even make me a Billionaire!

Wowwwww, way to go, Chris! ‘I wanna be a Billonaire, so fricking baaaaaaaaad!’

I also never owned a Porsche or Mercedes Benz – and for sure not 3 cars all at the same time.

When working in Germany, I had a common company car, which was a BMW 3-series or an Audi A4 at that time, which was considered pretty mid-range. For those I had to pay monthly taxes deducted directly from my salary. I guess Porsche or Mercedes-Benz just sound more German and successful in the ears of the typical Chinese, so that might be the reason, why those brands made it into the text instead.

My own 2-story apartment was rented, not purchased. I don’t believe in the concept of purchasing your own home, as explained here.

My title of Vice President was restricted to the Business Development arm for new services of my Business Unit, a group of at most 120 people – a virtual organization. I was never the VP of the whole company of more than 100.000 people, but titles in general are anyway given in European companies to open the doors for you to reach your respective counterpart or decision maker in the customer company, which were in that case, CEO, CIO or CFO. In Singapore I was Director for Global Strategic Accounts of my company, the same applies here, title doesn’t say anything about your standing in the structure of the organization.

More details about my superiors (bosses), who died in their early 40’s, which were definitely life-changing events for me, can be found in this article.

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It was definitely worth the fun to be interviewed by mainland Chinese. I also had the chance to meet another interviewee, a 70-year old Chinese business man in Bali. He was previously very famous in China for being a self-made millionaire, but lost all his fortunes and then some in the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 90’s. To get away from his debt collectors and to avoid jail, he took refuge in Bali, where he’s living with a small standard of living ever since, surfing every day and just enjoying the good life. It was a tremendous joy to meeting that guy and sharing stories and experiences.

There are definitely more like us, who get out and ask themselves the question, why should be put up with all of that?

Check out the mentioned poem in full length here and change your own life – now!

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3. nomad4ever.com reaches 100.000 Visitors – thanks to YOU!

It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun–
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky –
The wall…

Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!

Poem by Langston Hughes, found in The Bali Times

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No related posts.

A cost factor, that constantly has to be optimized, downsized and monitored for return on investment; restructured and adjusted to fit the firm’s strategies and policies.

What happened to the human factor? To Work-Life-Balance?

Come on – don’t kid yourself! If you don’t watch out for that, nobody else will.

Here is the latest fairy tale from the corporate world, which might just prove that point:

—

Todays Perfect Corporate World

When I was still working for one of the largest European IT firms, we had 1 complete structural overhaul at least every 12 months.

Sometimes 2.

This resulted in higher workloads, countless new projects, longer working hours, endless meetings and video conferences, stressed and frustrated employees, backstabbers galore, colleagues unwilling to cooperate in your projects, change of working location, increasing amounts of overnight or multiday business trips, 24/7 availability via mobile phone, intranet and work groups.

You will get permanent black ‘Panda Eyes’ after a while. (Yes, they even have a word for it). But you keep going; after all – the next Starbucks infusion is just a block away, right!

Life is hard, isn’t it?

Hey guess what, my previous company wasn’t a bad employer or any exception to the rule.

Unfortunately this is the norm now in most modern companies these days. Thinking from quarter to quarter, ever-increasing velocity and introduction of new product and service cycles, stipulating new and old customer demands and the relentless competition nowadays force just about any company on the planet to adapt with the speed of light or be gone in a few months or years.

I’ve seen enough

The CEO of my 100.000+ employee company died of a stroke at the age of 46 – ironically during his first holiday after 2 years with the company.

My direct superior in my last years with the firm died of a heart attack in his early 40’s, while he was jogging through Berlin. He was responsible for the Asia region, with some of our strategic customers  having their headquarters in Americas and our own HQ in Germany. Traveling on 3 continents surely is exhausting!

Yet another Top Manager I knew personally, died at the age of 42 when running a triathlon in Singapore in his free time.

Is that normal?

All of them were bright minds, young and smart people, high earners, married, sporty, in the prime of their lives. They all left wives and children or older relatives behind. Those incidents I witnessed during my own corporate life – they were life-changing for me.

Believe me, I had a reason, why I wanted to leave the corporate life behind after being in it just 14 years, at the age of 34.  I was burned out already and sick of all the office politics played in front of me or behind someone else’s back. Nobody was spared. It affected my health, my mood, my happiness, my capacity to lead a fulfilling and rewarding lifestyle.

The annual longer vacation was at the end merely enough to recharge my batteries by half.

The money they pay you is really just damages or reimbursement for the physical and psychological suffering over the years.

With sadness I noticed today the Facebook update of a former colleague, who is just a few years older than me. He had a longer abstinence from Facebook, but today he wrote the following:

Brain Aneurism resulted in stroke and loss of sight on left eye. Surgery on brain on 18th May. 12th July eye surgery to remove blood clot. Functional capacity of limbs gained with slight weakness of left foot. Eye is better and should be normal in 2-3 weeks.

Back to office in August.

Thank you for the support and prayers over the last 3 months which were the darkest moments in my life.

1 hour ago

This comes from a Top Dog in the firm and his industry. He is a former Air Force Pilot of his country, still flies smaller planes in his private life – you definitely have to have an exceptional health to fly Jet Fighters. This aside – he is one of the smartest people I know.

He is married with kids, sporty as hell – he skydives with parachutes – he doesn’t wear his nickname ‘Iron Man’ for nothing.

Now, I’m no doctor or benefitted with any special knowledge about health, genes or similar. But I ask you, how come that someone’s health can deteriorate that much in a short period of time, not even a decade, in the middle of your life – when you should be at your strongest? And why does it seem to affect more and more young people in their work lives?

Of course, other factors or family predispositions might play their roles as well.

But I bet my grandfather on it that the corporate world has something to do with it.

(By the way, my grandfather – may he rest in peace – died at the age of 85, after a long and hard-working life, smoked like a train for the most part of his life, having seen 2 World Wars, having lost limbs and a heart pacemaker implanted for the last 20 years).

So, what can YOU do, to not end like a corporate slave? Or do you want to be a candle, burning on both ends at the same time?

Life is still beautiful, but you have to plan ahead, if you want to enjoy the fruits of the modern day slavery you subscribed to for now.

To retire early, you can’t just work from pay check to pay check, hoping ‘everything’s gonna be alright’. You are not Bob Marley, mate!

Tyler Durden says: ‘Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.’

‘Back to office in August’? And after that ordeal? Man, it makes me sooo sad to hear that!

—

And YOU, my dear reader?

If you want to retire earlier than what your government is telling you, you better start to change your life.

Right. Now.

Go ask yourself some questions. How little money do you need to retire? Do you really need that huge house for yourself and your family? Are you constantly doing the same mistakes over and over again, which keep you from achieving your goals?

Now start to change things. The cheese has moved already long time ago. But you need to move also. Check your expenses, savings and income streams and build new ones. Eliminate your debt.

Plan and execute, because ‘there is no spoon, Neo’!

Let me close this post with another quote of my soul brother:

You’re not your job. 
You’re not how much money you have in the bank. 
You’re not the car you drive. 
You’re not the contents of your wallet. 
You’re not your fucking khakis. 
You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Now go, make the best out of it! Your life is what you make it.

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Currently a story is making waves on Blogs and Facebook, how 2 Filipina were allegedly obtained, held and questioned for 1.5 hours upon immigration without initial suspicion, or justification – obviously simply because they were traveling to Bali being Citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.

The debate, if their treatment was justified, is heated and sparked plenty of controversy so far. Here is what happened:

An unpleasant Immigration Experience

The 2 girls were set to enjoy a holiday in Bali, Indonesia’s prime tourist destination. In the immigration line they were singled out, when showing their Philippine passports and taken to an interrogation room.

Their luggage and bodies were thoroughly examined and searched for drugs, they were questioned and in their view treated in a ‘rude and unfair’ manner. Immigration officers are said to have made provoking, intimidating or even degrading comments.

The 2 girls claimed to have suffered a traumatic experience and their website is full of comforting comments and also hateful remarks towards Indonesian Immigration and its officers.

The Philippines media picked up the story as well and even the embassy is pondering to file a complaint with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta.

Just remember, both nations are ASEAN countries, the organization which aims to accelerate social progress and cultural development besides the simplification and harmonization of laws and regulations for travel, transport and economics between its members – similar to the European Union.

Why are Filipinos targeted?

Bali has a long story of drug smuggling and trafficking. Everyone knows the Shapelle Corby case and Bali’s famed Kerobokan prison is filled with plenty of Caucasian and African inmates who tried smuggling drugs and narcotics into the ‘Island of the Gods’.

Recently, drug smuggling rings seem to target more and more Philippine nationals, as they are free to move and travel within the ASEAN countries, can communicate well in the English language and seem to be prone to exploitation, due to the poverty in the country.

There are many cases in the last couple of months in China, where Philippine nationals face the death penalty due to drug trafficking and also Indonesia saw its fair share of Pinoy drug mules lately.

Is Racial Profiling an Indonesian Invention?

Racial Profiling is certainly not an Indonesian invention.

In Israel it’s been done for ages, just nobody talks about it. It goes so far, that it’s difficult or even impossible to immigrate into Israel, if you have a passport from certain Arabic countries or even only passport stamps from suspected hostile countries to Israel.

Vice-versa you won’t find many Israeli travelers in Indonesia or other bigger Muslims countries for that matter.

In the US, Arabic travelers face tougher scrutiny also, as famous 70’s British singer and songwriter Cat Stevens, a converted Muslim who changed his name to Yusuf Islam had to find out in 2004, when he was denied entry into the US.

In European countries it happens also, it’s sometimes just not that obvious or done in more subtle ways.

Summary

You might ask, what’s all the fuss about? Weren’t the immigration officers simply doing their job? Isn’t it normal to be searched and questioned at airports these days? Maybe it was just the first overseas trip for those 2 ladies and they weren’t aware of how things changed in international compared to domestic travel?

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the increasing difficulties, travelers face in the post-911 world. We all want safety and security on our travels. But to what extend we want to face the repercussions brought up on us by governments deemed necessary, to get there?

When I was traveling to Australia a few years back, my (German) companion was also held and questioned for about 1-2 hours, simply because he changed his arrival/visa date on short notice compared to the initial plan. It was certainly a very unpleasant additional hassle for him, coming all the way down from Germany on a day-long flight.

I also witnessed a few years back an incident, when a girl from the Philippines was held for hours and put back on the next plane return at Singapore Changi airport, when she couldn’t produce the address of the relative she wanted to visit in the city state. The relative, who was waiting in the arrival hall didn’t even have a chance to see or talk with her before her forced departure.

While I see the necessity for keeping unwanted and criminal elements out of the country, things seem to get a little out of hand recently.

It starts with the tiny amounts of Liquids, Aerosols or Perfumes/Alcohol that are only allowed and doesn’t stop with Full-Body (‘naked’) Scanners, which are increasingly called for and installed at Western Airports.

But isn’t it justified, if it makes Air Travel more safe for the majority? What do you think?

Surely Bali would have the funds to install similar Scanners, to make the immigration process a more pleasant and less intimidating one. But where does it all end?

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Please leave your comments after the break or Vote in the new Poll in the left sidebar!

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Related posts:

1. Visa Extension in Bali – how does it work?
2. Philippines and Bali soon directly connected
3. Bali Holiday For Former Thai PM Thaksin

I’m currently researching for a more in-depth article about some new exciting technology making its way to Bali. While this might take another 1-2 weeks for the next update, I noticed that the motivation category also hasn’t seen some new input in a longggg time.

When I surfed on my friend Jerm’s website I found this gem of truly inspiring music.

Although Jerm and me sometimes have different viewpoints and can debate endlessly and full of enthusiasm in regards of philosophy, religion and tech gadgets, this is surely one life motto we can always agree on.

When are we going for Karaoke again, buddy?

So here is to Freedom – which we all got thrown at us when we first started to walk this planet, but some of us chose to abandon it for the comforts of modern slavery society.

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The best place in the world to see them in their natural habitat – are the waters around Donsol, in the Bicol region on the main island South Luzon in the Philippines.

Here is what you need to know, to make it a successful and exciting encounter:

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Donsol is the name of the place

The small town of Donsol/Sorsogon is at the center of the natural migration for Whale Sharks each year. It’s said it has to do with the sea currents or the right concentration of plankton here – but the fact is, Whale Sharks are known to pass through here since ages in bigger numbers than elsewhere.

Over the last few decades, the Whale Shark population is monitored professionally and all sightings are recorded. So far, more than 384 individual Whale Sharks were identified and some of them even tagged for easier recognition. The monitoring and Whale Shark encounter statistics are maintained by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

To take part in a ‘Whale Shark Interaction Experience’, head straight to the Butanding Visitors Center in Donsol. Butanding is the local name for Whale Shark.

Here you will be registerered and assigned to one of the boats, together with a Spotter Crew and a Butanding Interaction Officer (BIO), who will brief you on how to approach those animals and who will also direct you when encountering the Whale Sharks. They are of course very gentle and slow creatures and mean you no harm, but still they are huge and unpredictable animals and an accidental slap from a tail fin or else could cause quite some trouble for you, so better listen to your BIO.

Here are some more tips, on what you can do to make sure, you will encounter whale sharks, while you are here in Donsol:

5. Come and visit NOW!

Although Donsol is definitely Whale Shark Alley, with a high probability of actually encountering Whale Sharks, it is not guaranteed. In 2007 was a record year with about 150 sightings of Whale Sharks. But since then, encounters have dramatically declined. Sometimes, there can’t be any animals found for days or even weeks on end. Some blame it on natural phenomena like La Nina and El Nino, others on the increasing pollution of the seas or even overfishing. So, don’t wait to long….make your way to Donsol within the next couple of years. Who knows, how long those creatures will still be around.

4. Preferably come during Peak season

That might sound a bit counter-productive, as you will be surrounded by lots and lots of other tourists. After all, there are about 100 boat trips per day during peak season, compared to the lower season with 12-20 boat trips daily. But that has only one reason: In peak season, which is between January and March/April, there are definitely more Whale Sharks in the waters around Donsol, than at any other given time. Your chance of seeing some will increase dramatically. Also, outside of peak season, the time you would have to spend to actually see Whale Sharks on your boat tours, might increase or you might not even see any at all. And that would be frustrating, no?

3. Take at least a few days time

You should spend at least 3 days in Donsol. I know that sounds like a lot, especially since there is nothing much else to do in Donsol, which is really a small and sleepy fishing town. But as everything in nature, there is no guarantee that you will actually see Whale Sharks on your Whale Shark Interaction trip. They are very difficult to spot, as the Whale Shark Spotters on your boat are normally just 2-3 meters above the water level and have only a radius of maybe 20-40 meter to spot Whale Sharks.

As Whale Sharks are more like Sharks than Whales (but they mainly survive from filtering plankton from the waters) they also don’t produce any bubbles and are therefore only to be seen by their own shadow just under the ocean’s surface. No sonar or other tools are used by the Spotter Crews and you might experience 1 or 2 days, where not a single boat has seen any rat’s tail of a Whale Shark at all. Considering the fact that between 20-100 boats are out daily with maximum 6 passengers, that can be a whole lot of frustrated tourists. For myself in early February, it took 3 trips to actually see some for myself and it would have been a frustrating experience to leave after 2 days without having see anything. Only on the 3rd day, we had 12 separate encounters with 2 animals of 5-7m length in just under 3 hours – but that made it all worthwhile!

2. Preferably go out on sunny days, avoid cloudy days

The reason for that has also to do with the conditions of spotting the Whale Sharks. On cloudy days with choppy seas, it is even more difficult to spot them gliding through the waters, as clouds produce lots of shadows on the water surface. It’s much harder for the whale spotters to distinguish between those shadows and make out the Whale Sharks, as they only see a small radius of ocean surface around the boat.

After a while, the spotters will get tired easily and I saw them getting less enthusiastically to look around and actually finding Whale Sharks in rougher seas or on cloudy days. You see them gazing towards the horizon and wishing of being back home with their families. After all, for them its a job, they have seen countless of Whale Sharks already. But for you, it should be the experience of a life time, you wouldn’t do that every so often. So make sure, you catch a day, when its easier and more pleasurable for your boat crew to spot Whale Sharks in the wild.

1. Use a boat with Sun Roof

The boats you are assigned to at the Butanding Visitors Center are price-wise very similar. They cost 3.500 Pesos for up to 6 hours per day and only 6 tourists are allowed per boat, together with the boat crew, the Whale Shark Spotters and 1 BIO (Butanding Interaction Officer). Besides those restrictions, the boats can vary in several ways, some are bigger, some smaller, have slower or faster engines – but the most important feature I found – is a Sun Roof.

Some have it, some not. When at sea around Donsol for 4-6 hours under the the merciless sun of the Sulu Seas, any sun block you use will most likely fail. I’ve seen dramatically burned foreigners coming back in the evenings from their Whale Shark Encounter trip. They looked like lobsters in a fresh pot  of hot water and they were crying still days later, because of the severe sunburns they received on their trips, because they were unlucky enough to sit on a boat without Sun Roof.

Trust me! It pays of to ask specifically for a boat with sun roof. Use Sun Screen and cover up on top of that. And you really don’t need that Skin Cancer, do you?

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Most tourists certainly experience the sellers and hawkers on Bali’s beaches and beyond. ‘Rolex, boss? Transport, transport? Girls? Magic Mushrooms?’ – it seems they are everywhere. You can’t avoid them and it’s THE major annoyance on the Island of the Gods.

If you are a ‘bule’ fresh off the plane, with that lovely pink teint of yours, they will spot you from miles away and like swarms of flies will be all over you before you can even say ‘Bintang’.

Nobody should be really surprised, that now also the Police wants to have more than their fair share of the tourist money, which is pouring into Bali this year more than ever.

So next time, when you come drunk home from one of Kuta’s famous nightlife and party joints, like Skygarden, Bounty, EngineRoom, Paddies, ViAiPi or Eikon, just try to flank down one of the cars of the ‘men in brown’. They are here to serve and to protect. and it would be probably the safest mode of transportation.

The Power of Money

Recently there was even an article in The Bali Times, that a wealthy business woman, who was convicted of fraud, was sentenced to spend 3 months in jail.

But what did she do? The convict simply paid a poor woman to impersonate her and spend the time instead of her in the ‘Bali Hilton’ in Kerobokan, while she herself was going on a longer holiday of absence.

The thing only came up, when relatives of the convicted woman wanted to visit her in jail and her substitute was shown to them instead.

Examples for those kind of arrangements here are legion. Even Shapelle Corby, the previous Australian Model – who was caught smuggling more than 4 kg of Marihuana into the country and sentenced to spend 20 years in Kerobokan’s most popular and thought-after facility – was seen more than once drinking Cappuccino in various Cafe’s in Bali. Other celebrities even took part in Tennis Tournaments here, all decked out with wigs and camouflaging sports gear. Ahhhh, the power of money!

So, what’s the right thing to do?

Of course, the best thing is to not get caught in any illegal activities, as it is even officially suggested by local authorities and governmental bodies.

Bali is not there yet, that you could be arrested and caned for kissing in public, like recently happened in Sumatra – or for publishing a magazine with pictures of fully closed women, even though you are licensed to naming it after the original with those bunny ears.

You can still Eat, Pray and Love here, like that blissful movie suggests.

Just don’t shoot movies of your inappropriate adult activities, as those files could easily find their way to the public internet, which is rumored to be currently under heavy scrutiny and censorship by the central government in Java.

Local Popstar Ariel Nazril Irham of popular Popband ‘Peter Pan’ is currently facing 12 years of jail for a years-old-romp with 2 females celebrities. The whole action was caught on camera and spread on the internet like wildfire. This could easily happen to you also, if you decide to bring your computer for repairs, or only just your handphone or blackberry with your star shots still on it.

You surely don’t want to be the one they will sing about: ‘Dan mungkin bila nanti kita kan bertemu lagi’.

Okay, back to topic – the picture with the ‘Police Car for Transport’ above was shot in the early morning hours in front of Pantai Doublesix, which is home of some famous nightlife spots like Bacio’s, DejaVu and La Vida Loca. The ‘owners’ of this police car in their neon-bright vests were standing smoking and chatting just meters away.

So, would you ask the Police to take you for a ride here? After all, the picture suggests that it would be perfectly possible and acceptable.

Or was it all only a joke by some jester with the right dose of humor, while the powers-that-be weren’t watching?

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Click also here for Holiday cover.

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While that would certainly mean more options for fast food and pizza lovers, some might argue also that the original character of Bali might get spoiled even more.

The island is pretty much splattered with foreign franchises already, especially in the over-developed South, where Burger Joints and American(-ized) Fast Food Franchises like McDonalds, A&W, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or KFC are operating outlets in abundance:

So is the plan behind it to increase the weight of the average Indonesian up to western standards, complete Fast Food World Domination or normal expansion in an improving economic climate; not even worth to mention?

The State of the Union…ahem…Fast Food

I remember eating my first Domino’s Pizza in a shabby hotel room in Las Vegas sometime in the early 1990’s. The Berlin Wall had come down a bit earlier and America with all it was worth to us had a strong pull. Never heard of 2-for-1 offers for $9.99 previously.

Traveling with my old buddy Michael through the western states in a bright-blue Toyota Camry; we made use of one of those offers and tried to down those huge wheel-sized pizzas with sixpacks of Budweisers and Coors Light. If I remember correctly, we were completely incapable of moving after and had to spend the rest of the evening watching ‘My So-Called Life’ with Claire Danes and Jared Leto on Hotel TV.

Ahhh, the good old days!

Back to present times, these new developments in Bali are taking place in the Discovery Mall aka Centro aka Kartika Plaza (the name of this mall changed a couple of times over the last 2 years) in Bali’s Tuban area.

This mall features a huge shopping area on 4 levels, combined with Karaoke, Wellness, Bars, sea-side terrace and a traditional Food Court.

You can find here lots of Western Brands for clothing and foods, Coffee Joints like Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or TCC – The Coffee Connoisseur, but also Asian Franchises like ‘Bread Talk’ and ‘Roti Boy’ from Singapore.

Previously hailed Krispy Kreme Donuts seems to have gone out of business in Bali and closed down their outlet of overprized fat-filled and sugar-loaded cake rings in Discovery Mall about half a year back. During the 1990’s, Bali also had some Wendy’s Burger Restaurants, but those were all shut down in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis which occurred in the late years of that decade.

In-house dining or delivery?

Currently, Pizza Hut or Papa Ron’s Pizza offer American-style pizza inhouse and also home delivery in the Southern Kuta/Legian/Seminyak area up to Kerobokan or within Denpasar. Even McDonalds is delivering their popular menu items of questionable quality with their own fleet of motor-bike delivery boys.

On top of that, ‘Bali Hallo!’ is offering delivery service for a fee from a variety of over 20 popular Indonesian and international restaurants, including Burgers and Pizzas, in the more populated tourist areas of the island.

Now – if only Carl’s Junior would open an outlet here as well; because as Singaporeans could find out already – size does matter, right?

The interesting thing about international fast food chains in Asia is that they adopt their menus partially to local customs, like McDonalds is not offering pork-based burgers in Indonesia, but also Nasi- or rice-based dishes or even burgers.

Or Domino’s Pizza doesn’t serve any beef on their pizzas in India. All food items are ‘halal’ of course, a big selling point in muslim-populated countries.

Estimated time table for the opening of BK and Domino’s

The new Burger King outlet would be the first on the island of Bali, although other cities in Indonesia have seen their fair share of them already.

Latest rumors are, that it’s said to be opened still in 2010, the shop installations are progressing pretty fast, as can be seen on the picture to the left.

The new Domino’s Pizza outlet just next to it is still in its early stages of construction – the opening is therefore scheduled for the first quarter of 2011. Stay tuned, if that works out as projected.

So ‘…..BK is from Texas’? Not quite right, Mr. Jay Z!

Maybe your multi-talented wife Beyonce Knowles is – but Burger King will definitely be from Bali soon.

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