Bali has undergone rapid development in the last 20 years focusing on tourism.

Kuta, Legian and Seminyak have seen tremendous growth and now other parts of the island are seeing that too.

One area of Bali that has long been popular with surfers is the Bukit (hill) peninsula at the southern end of the island. This limestone plateau has Uluwatu on the western end and Nusa Dua on the eastern, with not much in the middle.

Outside of Nusa Dua the biggest construction project is GWK (Mandala Garuda Wisnu Kencana), the cultural park carved out of the limestone rock. I have passed by before but never had a look around.

To get to GWK from Kuta I rode to the roundabout at Simpang Siur and headed for Nusa Dua. After 15 minutes I took the right turn to Uluwatu and followed Jl. Uluwatu up the hill, eventually coming to GWK on the left side. Don’t worry you won’t miss it, there is a huge driveway and massive sign.

GWK was conceived to be a cultural center and events park and is privately funded. The bombing has affected the pace of construction which was due to be finished in 2003.

Arriving at the small ticket booth in the parking lot I paid 15,000rp and received my ticket. This entitled me to stroll around and view the statue of Vishnu, the Hindu God who is the protector (part of the Hindu trinity Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer), the statue of half man half bird Garuda and the other points of interest including the art museum, open air stage and amphitheater.

Walking up the hill I checked out the view and it was great. I could see Kuta Beach, the bottleneck of Jimbaran and over to Nusa Dua and Benoa. A little ways further I came to DeMiMiDi restaurant a pretty swish looking place with a great view. The food was international and main courses were running about 60,000-70,000rp

Continuing on I ascended some stairs and saw the head and shoulders of the Vishnu statue which is currently 23 meters high. A Balinese school party from Bangli was also there and the whole place was alive with people. I tried to put it off as best I could but eventualy I ended up doing the ‘ tourist photo’ with the school kids.

The plan for GWK was to have a 146 meter gold plated Wisnu riding his winging chariot Garuda and have the whole thing on top of an 11 storey entertainment complex.

The planners of GWK envisioned arriving airline passengers would view the landmark as a warm greeting to Bali. Unfortunately not everyone is over the moon about it. Religious Balinese sometimes complain that this massive statue will disrupt the natural balance in Bali as it tries to compete with the highest spot Gunung Agung. Also the purely commercial nature does not feel right to some people.

Walking round which took altogether 1 hour including stopping for a drink and viewing art I was impressed at the size of the place and the effort that had been put in to tend the gardens. There is a weird kind of atmosphere with this place, almost like its waiting to be a Disneyland of some kind but hasn’t got it together yet. Walking through the open air stage section I though “Wow, what an awesome place to have a concert.” Across the way I meandered down alleys created by cutting chunks of the limestone away. There’s no limit to what they could build at GWK with the newly exposed areas offering more space.

The art museum is located close to a small shop selling drinks. The museum features local contemporary works of art. I didn’t see anything too special in there and it seemed a bit bare. Entrance is free. There are couple of souvenir shops too.

For evening visitors a kecak dance is performed on Tuesdays and Thursdays admission $5.

I think that in future this place will be a thriving business in years to come after the economy picks up, the location is too good for it no to be. I can see concerts and performances being a regular thing and the growing number of foreigners building houses in Jimbaran and on the Bukit will help support this.

GWK is open daily from 8am – 10pm.