The afternoon session at the Ubud Writers Festival

Thursday’s trip to the writer’s festival in Ubud was a change of pace for me and quite enjoyable.

As mentioned before I found locating the main venue Indus Restaurant very easy after finding on our map (its close to the Neka Gallery) and showing up unannounced was no problem too. They sell whole day passes as well as ‘per event’ fees for those people who are more selective.

The highlight of my visit was listening to Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and Moon founder Bill Dalton. The chair was editor of the 10th edition of the LP Bali guide Ryan Ver Berkmoes. It was funny because when I first saw the panel I realized I had met Bill at Bruce Briscoe’s wedding last year and had no idea who he was.

After the morning session I rode back into Ubud from Sanginggan via Jl. Raya Ubud and sipped a beer at Ary’s Warung for 20,000rp. Ary’s Warung is famous in Ubud for fine dining and seems a hip place.

For lunch I rode to the little warung my brother and I went to a couple of weeks ago on Jl. Dewi Sita. My nasi campur and watermelon was 11,000rp.

Returning to the festival I listened to an older lady recounting a very personal account of a trip to Bali including the names of the people who ran the guest house, their kids and what she ate for breakfast. I found the whole thing about as exciting as listening to Al Gore. “What’s the point of this?” said my older American friend as we stood at the bar waiting for Tony & the boys to return. I didn’t have an answer other than to think it was part of a ‘diary dump’ that meant a lot to her.

At 2.45pm the afternoon session was due to continue. The title of this session was ‘A Guide To Bali’.

Bill is a real crack up. Super motivated about travel and the culture of Asia, and an individual who is very opinionated. Ryan kept trying to direct the conversation towards discussing how travel guide books had affected places in Asia, Bali in particular. Bill kept of doggedly telling everyone that it’s best not to use a guide book at all and to take a good novel about the place as well as books on language and culture. “If you’ve developed good travel skills in other countries you’ll be able to re-use them in Bali.” he said.

Tony defended tourism and the part travel guide books play in encouraging tourism and the effects its has on a place. His main argument was tourism has given people options and if you ask them would they like to go back 50 years most of them would say no. He also said that its very arrogant of westerners to complain that there is traffic on the roads and that some places are spoilt because we westerners want to look at a paradise like scene, then go back to our air conditioned room expecting the locals to rough it.

During the whole discussion I kept my mouth shut. I already know my opinions and ramming them down someone else’s throat isn’t going to teach me anything. I was interested in the opinions of the panel and the other members of the audience.

Bill was saying that in his guides he always left some things out like the exact name of a pristine beach. “Tell them where the beaches are located but don’t point out the name of your favourite one” he said, “leave some things for them to discover.” He also said that literary techniques can be used in travel guide writing such as ‘teasing the reader’ to read further.

Ryan told us about writing the 10th edition of LP Bali and his experience finding a ‘new beach’ in Karangasem. He described a white sand crescent, fringed by palm trees that was a picture of paradise. I immediately knew it was Pantai Putih (White Beach) located in Perasi. Its true the beach isn’t on the tourist trail and is lovely. Ryan said he had to decide whether to omit this find from the new book to preserve the natural quality, or to add it and risk the place being wrecked by tourists. He decided to enter it in the new edition and said that helping the local economy was worth the risk of possible negative effects.

The place is far enough away from Kuta that it will probably remain quiet…for a while.

I understand Ryan’s quandry. He finds a new sparkling place just like his employer wants him to, but then has second thoughts about sharing it with the masses. I am in the same spot and generally share, knowing that mass tourism is a child with a 2 minute attention span…if it isn’t within easy reach forget it. Most of the great places I see, package tourists will never see even if I draw them a map because its too far from Kuta.

Tony had mentioned that his travel book business wouldn’t change much and the big change in the travel industry would probably take them all by surprise. He said that maybe science would figure out a way to download information to a PDA or phone, or to your ear. I think travel guide books will always have a place because they are handy, comforting and low-tech…you don’t need batteries for a book.

One member of the audience asked the panel where was their favourite place in Bali. Bill said it depended on what you were looking for and outlined things based on subject. The questioner re-phrased the question and said “forget about subject Bill, where’s your favourite place?” Bill replied “I like to go where there are no other tourists, but I can still get a decent level of comfort.” My mind immediately said ‘SANDA BUKIT VILLAS’. Bill went on to say his special place was in Pupuan and I later confirmed with him that it was Sanda Bukit Villas he was thinking of. Bali isn’t that big!

Listening to Tony and Bill’s stories makes me want to travel again. I talked very briefly to Tony afterwards and we agreed that it’s the adventure of stepping into the unknown that is the magic. To use an expression I have used before ‘the adventure starts where the plan stops’.

My take on Tony, Bill and Ryan is that they are all decent guys who love travel and manage to keep their sense of humor. Let’s face it if you don’t have your sense of humor why bother?

• Map of Bangli
• Meeting Bill Dalton in Bali
• Map of Amed & Aas
• Map of Lovina
• Map of Gianyar

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