Is Bali spoiled?

Isnt Bali spoiled? is invariably the question that greets the returned traveller from Bali, meaning is the island overrun by tourists, and are the Balinese all wearing shirts? The questioners are visibly dissapointed to hear the big hotels, fine roads, and motor-cars; there is still enough of the Robinson Crusoe in travellers to make each one of them want to be the only white man among picturesque semi-naked savages, although they would preferably see them from a motor-car or a hotel veranda.

-Miguel Covarrubias-
Island Of Bali, 1937

Miguel Covarrubias brings up a question that you will hear a thousand times in relation to Bali. When is a destination spoiled, how many tourists are too many and is progress really progress?

I remember coming to Bali for the first time in 1993 and spending 2 weeks travelling by bemo bus from 1 little tourist hub to another, Kuta, Ubud, Lovina, Padangbai. Back then people were saying Bali is too developed, Bali is too touristy. Now we are in 2005 and construction of new bars, restaurants, nightclubs, villas etc. is at an all time high, the neighborhood I live in, Seminyak was just a narrow road and rice fields in 1993.

Listening to the Covarrubias description one could close their eyes and imagine the words coming from a modern day visitor almost.

Most westerners have a fantasy of some sort which involves living in the tropics, strange cultures / ceremonies, half naked people and a first person view only. I know when I meet other expats sometimes there can be a weird vibe (get out of my line of sight, you are spoiling my fantasy) from them. Of course the other statement rings true about westerners wanting an unique experience with the locals, but also all the creature comforts of home.

Bali today incorporates a bit of everything. You can party like its Cancun and forget about the annoying locals, you can take a day trip to Tenganan, the Bali Aga village and talk yourself into a bit of culture, you can drive around the highlands visiting untoursity villages and stay in a boutique hotel and you can also go native and live in a village with the locals. The formula here is simple, more experience = more pain. You have to decide how much experience is worth how much pain. By pain I mean accomodation that is not up to scratch, food that is not appealing, people who do not recognize personal space and a timeline that does not realize western schedules. If you can let go of all those you stand a great chance of meeting some very nice people and having life experiences.

The Kuta resort (Kuta, Legian, Seminyak) is part Bali, part westerners playground. Even Ubud, the supposed cultural center of Bali is a westerners fantasy. It has always been a center forthe arts but wall to wall galleries, spas and high class restaurants were not part of the scene when life was truly traditional.

Covarrubias goes on to say that although libraries in Europe had books about Bali for a long while before 1937 (the date Island Of Bali was first published) it was really only around 1930 that Bali caught main stream attention. The medium was several films about the island which tended to focus on sex appeal. According to him the films were a revelation and by 1937 everyone knew that Balinese girls have beautiful bodies and the Balinese people live a musical comedy life full of weird, picturesque ceremonies.

He explains that this newly discovered paradise became the latest substitute for the 19th century romantic conception of primitive Utopia, which until then had been islands in the South Pacific.

And latetly, he continues, travel agencies have used the alluring name of Bali to attract hordes of tourists for their round-the-world cruises that make a one-day stop on the island. On this day, he claims, the tourists are herded to the hotel in Denpasar to eat their lunch, buy curios, and watch hurried performances by bored temple dancer, ordinary village actors who hate to play in the midday heat.

So Bali has changed over the years to suit tourists and provide them with some kind of experience they are hoping for. In doing so it has also changed the nature of the place, sometimes from that imagined tropical fantasy into something quite different.

Artist Pablo Gentile who lives here says Bali is just better and better and I thikn the experience is changing, but that it is still possible to find those images from the 1920s. I met a Balinese woman in Seminayak last year who was sitting in her yard wearing just a sarong making ofering. She could not speal a word of English, or Indonesian! Just Bahasa Bali. Imagine that, living in the heart of party central, 200 meters from Spy Bar and not being able to speak Indonesian. You head out of ton and get off of the main road and you will find plenty of olf school stuff going on, just do not take a tour bus and expect to see that.