Just general surfing stuff

[Beanpole]

I think part of the problem at Byron is how expensive parking is. You can’t do van life in the car park unless you are loaded.

[Pants]

Isn’t the problem the number of people?

[Pants]

The complete opposite here.

Back in the 80s the breakup was roughly 60% Ozzie's, 20% US, 10% Saffa and 10% Euro

Yes, so Xenophobic Aussies are responsible for ruining another country by their presence and desire to travel. How strange.

[Beanpole]

Watched some footage of maxing Kandui with a cast including Mr K. Slater. Everyone was getting flogged including the old GOAT. He seemed to sneak through a few more than the rest of the crew but was looking on the verge of spinning out half the time. Some serious beltings.

[Cranked]

The complete opposite here.

Back in the 80s the breakup was roughly 60% Ozzie's, 20% US, 10% Saffa and 10% Euro

Yes, so Xenophobic Aussies are responsible for ruining another country by their presence and desire to travel. How strange.

How did you draw that conclusion?

[Pants]

The fact the place is inundated with Australians and has been for years and years and years…

[Beanpole]

Not sure if Bali qualifies as “another place”, Pants. Can’t think of many other places that have been the focus of Aussie travel as much as Bali. I mean it’s usually used as a primary reference.

[Cranked]

The fact the place is inundated with Australians and has been for years and years and years…

Your logic is woeful, you have indicated lots of Australians go to Bali, you have not explained how this is destructive. The opposite may well be, and probably is, true.

If you want to lay some blame you could start with the destruction of the Balinese by the Dutch. The Dutch make Australians seem like a bunch of fairy godmothers.

[Cranked]

You should have seen what Kuta and Legian were like without the Australians, or any other tourists. I was on the first flight back when Australia restarted flights to Bali.

They were like ghost towns, everything locked or abandoned, rubbish everywhere. Prostitutes and drug sellers the only business. It was abandoned and derelict, and most depressing. I walked down the Legian St, the centre of everything and I was accosted by gangs of drug dealers and prostitutes about 20 times, until I was just yelling at them to fuck off. I didn't see another tourist.

The only thing worse than an Aussie tourist is no Aussie tourists.

[Cranked]

My mate Chris was staying in one of the best hotels in Kuta for $5 a night. He was the only guest. He cleaned the place and kept it going.

[Beanpole]

It always has cracked me up how many Aussies right Bali off without ever having been there. I’ve had non surfing friends who did that for years until they went. Obviously if you think hanging in an Aussie Sports Bar in Kuta is the real experience you aren’t going to think highly of the culture. Developments pretty crazy these days.

[Trev]

"write"

[Pants]

The fact the place is inundated with Australians and has been for years and years and years…

Your logic is woeful, you have indicated lots of Australians go to Bali, you have not explained how this is destructive. The opposite may well be, and probably is, true.

If you want to lay some blame you could start with the destruction of the Balinese by the Dutch. The Dutch make Australians seem like a bunch of fairy godmothers.

Right.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/eb ... 13e06ab111

See why the authorities have gone “fuck, what have we done”

[Cranked]

Yes, all really good points, Bali does not have the infrastructure to support the current tourist numbers.

But where do the tourist dollars go?

I'm pretty sure the high end market is backed mainly by non-Balinese investors and the benefits go back to Java.

The smaller and cheaper accommodation and facilities (shops, accommodation and services) are run by the Balinese and the profits stay local. So that cheap end of the market benefits the Balinese more effectively than the high end expensive tourists. All the really low end work is carried out by thousands of Javanese who are paid a pittance and live in truly pathetic shacks that they throw together on site.

Some of the biggest infrastructure improvements have been facilitated by UN grants.

So in summary the Balinese get the most benefit from the low end tourists as their money stays local, the high end goes to Java.

[Cranked]

The single biggest protection for the Balinese is the requirement that non Indonesian citizens cannot own land, nor have companies that have less than 51% Indonesian ownership.

[Beanpole]

Yep, Tommy Suharto and Dreamland being a classic example of non local development.

[Pants]

Yes, not a pop at anyone in particular. It’s just so overrun and the infrastructure and “services” cannot support the tourism population. It’s pretty much a giant garbage dump.

[Cranked]

Which brings me to the cliffs at Uluwatu. The same clan has been in control of just about that entire strip of land from the Uluwatu temple to Single Fin, roughly 4k by 4k. Their village is still intact and it's where I've stayed for nearly forty years now.

An American surfer has been leasing land from them and has been building low density villas along that strip for 20 years now.

A few years ago several leases along the cliff top were up for renewal. Some very large players entered the bidding war. The American guy said to the clan leaders that if they leased the land to him he would continue with his very low profile developments and leave a lot of the land vacant so that the village could continue with their usual activities - cattle farm farming and small leasable villas.

They voted to go with him, so the cliffs and their lifestyle are safe for the next 25 years.

A lot of Oz surfers who are architects and builders are involved. They just finished a fantastic free skate bowl for the local kids, plus a whole series of low profile villas.