Dreamland beach: Too tempting for developers
Dreamland is the largest white sand beach on the western Bukit peninsula. That fact was not lost on Tomy Suharto, who with the help of rich friends tried to develop the place some years ago. For most Bali visitors Dreamland is a cool place to go for a beach afternoon, sip a juice in a local warung and forget about life for a while. Well that’s coming to an end thanks to the men with money who see a great piece of Bali as their ticket to cash. A golf course and condos are planned and Dreamland will not doubt be changed forever. Here’s a letter to the Jakarta Post on the subject.
Tropical nightmare
Dreamland, a place so aptly named for its dreamlike qualities, holds a special place in the hearts of many surfers and beach-goers, local and foreign tourists alike.
The quaint beach-side small food shops (warungs) coupled with an amazing a-frame wave, water so blue that it looks like it should belong in one of those brochures at your travel agent and a beach second to none, combine to create a dream that of late has been shattered and transformed into nightmare by the conglomerate behind a new golf course development.
The beach side warungs look more like a building site from hell now, completely ruining the beach’s previous atmosphere.
A huge desalination pipe to water the golf course now runs out into the surf, whilst diggers and trucks plow the land above, basically what was a place that still held some of the magic of Bali is slowly but surely turning into yet another tourist-filled commercial center that will only add to the pollution and continue the slow destruction of one of the most beautiful islands in the world.
My only hope is that other people like me will come to realize that playing golf in sweltering hot Bali is so out of context that the conglomerate behind the development will go bankrupt once again, thus bringing the whole operation to a grinding halt.
The angry feelings directed at the destruction of Dreamland seems to have made people blind to the fact that barely half a kilometer down the beach in Bingin, the locals are selling state-owned beach-side properties for huge sums to bules who are using the tidal pools as foundations to build their condo-style villas.
Although it is illegal, the state seems to be doing nothing. On top of this, these bules are not taking the problems that the increased amount of sewage and garbage will cause to the environment into consideration.
All these illegal buildings that are popping up at an incredible rate are being built without taking into account the impact upon the beauty of the place, sea and nature surrounding them.
The lack of interest from the local authorities has fanned the flames and has sped up a phenomenon that will ultimately be the destruction of the Bukit coastline from Dreamland to Uluwatu.
As a tourist who has been visiting Bali almost religiously for the past six years I have noticed this decay, so it seems incredible to me that nobody is doing anything about it! Please, somebody do something.
THOMAS HARLAND
Kometjie, South Africa
In hindsight one could of predicted all this. After all there is only so much beach front property and the large hotel companies hunger for it. What chance does a Balinese local have when confronted with that kind of financial power?
By Nick | Permalink
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Comments
Can someone post a photo of what Dreamland looks like now compare to before? A photo looking from the shoreline with your back to the water so we can see all the warungs gone. I just cannot believe it till I see it.
I too would like to see a pic - Dreamland destroyed is a very sad thought, it held many a fond memory!!
Well guys its already gone and the condos are being sold even before there built welcome to the next hawaii where the locals in 10 years will be white and all the locals will have moved somewhere more affordable. Your comments are totally correct but its still amazing that they are still building there is no road, power, sewage, water infastructure but they keep building Bali’s local athorities need to just start imposing a 20% property tax on anything over 100,000,000 an area and it would at least slow down and give the locals a chance
Well, I do agree to a certain extant. But Golf courses are rather beautiful. this might add to the local economy. golf courses also provide alot of employment and training that will help the local community. illegal construction is terrible especially if not done with consideration of impact on nature. Golf courses usually run on a water management system and usually recycle water. Golf courses also provide habitats for birds and other creature. it might not be a pretty site during construction but it will be in the future.
Please don’t get me wrong, but if it is done properly than this might add to the beauty of the place.
Max
Max
Get your head out of your ass
Max u’re such an asshole…i bet u never went to dreamland before, it was one of those places that reconciliated yourself with life and mankind, it was all smiles, nice waves, blue water and fresh bintangs with locals and stoked visitors.the golf course is ran by foreign entrepreneurs and im pretty much sure more local people made a living out of the beach warungs than there are today with the golf course.anyway, birds don’t need yuppies to provide habitats and Man can not “add to the beauty of the place”….paradise lost, i feel really sad.
Horrible but it was bound to happen. I hope Tommy Suharto will soon be taken into prison again and be put away for the time he deserves to be jailed. I was at Dreamland last year and I already feared Suharto and friends were going to try to take over the beach too and to get the little warungs out of bussiness. Maybe you knew the Woodstock beachtavern some at Bloemendaal at Sea near Amsterdam (Holland) some miles north of (disgusting) Zandvoort-beach which is attended by the alternative and creative people of Amsterdam and Haarlem. Dreamland was one big Woodstock.
Shame on the project-developpers.
And the same might happen to another beuatiful place at Bali namely Padangbay. They already pulled down the warungs on the beachside and replaced them by a asphaltroad to the Blue Lagoon. But it is still a very fine place to stay and I hope it will stay so. There are too many Zandvoorts on this earth. I truly hope Bali will not be offered to people who do not care about and probably do not even have the faintest idea of its centuries-old very rich cultural and religious habits.