https://www.scmp.com/rss/508494/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com On December 29, 2023, videos of scores of tourists in Bali abandoning taxis and wheeling their suitcases along a street went viral after a toll road connecting the airport to the tourist town of Nusa Dua became jammed. For people who live or holiday regularly on the Indonesian island, it wasn’t especially newsworthy. On New Year’s Eve in 2022, a DJ from Australia spent six hours in traffic to reach a party in the island’s south, and literally did not arrive until the following year. In Canggu, a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3272268/why-balis-traffic-congestion-gets-worse-every-year-and-how-it-affecting-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3272268/why-balis-traffic-congestion-gets-worse-every-year-and-how-it-affecting-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Jul 2024 23:15:09 +0000 There are no ethical ways to see wildlife in captivity in Bali: that is according to World Animal Protection (WAP), an animal welfare group whose assessors inspected every zoo and wildlife park on the Indonesian island incognito, documenting what it describes as “cruel” activities set up for tourists such as elephant bathing and riding, orangutan shows and selfies, and swimming with dolphins. “What may be an island paradise for tourists is a captive hell for more than a thousand wild animals... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3265724/are-balis-captive-elephants-made-do-cruel-tourist-activities-or-healthy-and-happy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3265724/are-balis-captive-elephants-made-do-cruel-tourist-activities-or-healthy-and-happy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jun 2024 03:15:09 +0000 Difficult to get to but a magnet for divers, Central Sulawesi’s Togian Islands National Marine Park is the largest in Indonesia. It ostensibly protects 56 sun-kissed islands and 132,000 hectares (510 square miles) of coral reef – an area nearly twice the size of Singapore – and is a breeding ground for dugong and critically endangered hawksbill turtles. The park is also home to unique species of jellyfish that live in a lake. Isolated from predators, they lost the ability and necessity to sting... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3231645/tropical-island-fantasies-grim-reality-indonesias-togian-islands-magnet-divers-dynamited-coral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3231645/tropical-island-fantasies-grim-reality-indonesias-togian-islands-magnet-divers-dynamited-coral?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Aug 2023 23:15:17 +0000 Recently, 23-year-old Australian Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones made global headlines after he attacked a local fisherman during a drunken, naked rampage in Aceh, an ultraconservative Muslim-majority province on the western tip of Sumatra island, in Indonesia. After his arrest in late April, many of the foreign news reports focused on the fact that, under Aceh’s strict sharia or Islamic criminal law, Risby-Jones faced not only a lengthy prison sentence but also a public flogging. Described by Amnesty... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3223521/truth-about-travelling-aceh-indonesias-marijuana-crazy-ultraconservative-muslim-majority-province?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3223521/truth-about-travelling-aceh-indonesias-marijuana-crazy-ultraconservative-muslim-majority-province?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jun 2023 01:42:25 +0000 A year ago, at the start of the post-pandemic travel boom, when sharp price rises in oil sent air fares through the roof, I saved US$1,500 on a trip from Asia to Europe by buying a patchwork of flights on budget airlines using online travel agent Kiwi.com. The savings were substantial but the journey took nearly two days, and most of it was without sleep. Afterwards I felt terrible for weeks and promised myself never to fly long-haul on budget airlines again. This month, I had to break that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3222188/budget-air-travel-2023-vs-2018-trip-cambodia-cost-me-us350-five-years-ago-and-took-12-hours-now?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3222188/budget-air-travel-2023-vs-2018-trip-cambodia-cost-me-us350-five-years-ago-and-took-12-hours-now?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 May 2023 23:15:10 +0000 At 1am, when the only sound that can be heard in the village of Pengayehan, on Bali’s west coast, is a dog barking, Adik Dika walks towards his pig with an eight-inch (20cm) knife in his hand. The animal squeals as he cuts its throat before draining the blood into a bucket he will later use to make one of the world’s most unusual salads. After removing the organs, he washes the carcass with coconut water and fills the cavity with cassava leaves, spice paste and volcanic rocks to help distribute... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3217030/anthony-bourdain-loved-it-where-eat-best-spit-roasted-pork-bali-and-why-chef-called-it-best-pig-i?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3217030/anthony-bourdain-loved-it-where-eat-best-spit-roasted-pork-bali-and-why-chef-called-it-best-pig-i?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Apr 2023 03:15:12 +0000 The only thing that has surprised people in Bali more than the speed at which tourists vanished at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic is how quickly they have returned. April 2022 – the first full month after Indonesia nixed mandatory quarantine for arrivals – 58,000 international tourists visited the island, according to data from its main airport, Ngurah Rai International. By the end of the year, the same number were arriving every day. Some 2.2 million foreign tourists visited Bali last year... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3214527/6-predictions-decade-change-bali-rise-medical-tourism-end-cheap-stays-and-bulldozing-kuta?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3214527/6-predictions-decade-change-bali-rise-medical-tourism-end-cheap-stays-and-bulldozing-kuta?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Mar 2023 08:15:17 +0000 Gili Air – a popular resort island in the Lombok Strait, between the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Bali – was in bad shape before Christmas, and that was before Tropical Cyclone Ellie swept through. On Christmas Day, Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that five cities and districts in West Nusa Tenggara province, which contains Gili Air and Lombok, had been affected by adverse weather the previous day, before Cyclone Ellie crossed the Timor Strait and made landfall in Western... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3205510/pummelled-indonesian-resort-island-between-bali-and-lombok-has-more-misery-piled-its-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3205510/pummelled-indonesian-resort-island-between-bali-and-lombok-has-more-misery-piled-its-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jan 2023 10:15:10 +0000 Three hours’ drive from Bali’s original surf mecca, Kuta, the village of Medewi, on the island’s far west coast, is a throwback to the Bali of yesteryear: emerald-green rice fields, children swimming naked in creeks, bamboo shacks where tourists can get a meal or a massage for a few dollars, and long, black volcanic beaches littered with coconut husks and palm fronds. Medewi is also home to the longest waves in Bali: curved mirrors of water ranging from two to 10 feet (0.6 to 3 metres)... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3204104/trouble-paradise-bali-surf-spot-medewi-good-old-days-are-gone-tourists-who-forget-what-surfing-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3204104/trouble-paradise-bali-surf-spot-medewi-good-old-days-are-gone-tourists-who-forget-what-surfing-all?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Dec 2022 05:45:10 +0000 In June, Thailand’s military junta did something so out of character, it seemed like a joke. The Buddhist kingdom that until recently had had one of the strictest drug laws in the world became the first country in Asia to decriminalise possession of cannabis for medical and industrial uses. Officially, Thailand has not yet decriminalised recreational marijuana use. Anyone caught enjoying the product without a doctor’s note can be imprisoned for up to three months. Unofficially, though, Thailand... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3203256/what-it-smoking-marijuana-tourist-thailand-weed-dispensaries-everywhere-phuket-trip-difference?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3203256/what-it-smoking-marijuana-tourist-thailand-weed-dispensaries-everywhere-phuket-trip-difference?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Dec 2022 04:45:11 +0000 In June, I wrote about how I saved US$1,500 on a flight from Asia to Europe using Kiwi.com, an online travel agent that stitches together itineraries made of flights with different budget airlines at prices that are almost impossible to beat. The catch? It takes a lot longer to reach your destination than by booking directly with a single airline because of the number of stopovers involved. In my case, it took 41 hours to fly from Denpasar, Indonesia, to Bucharest, Romania, with layovers in Ho... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3195163/want-cheap-flight-europe-asia-without-loads-layovers-book?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3195163/want-cheap-flight-europe-asia-without-loads-layovers-book?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Oct 2022 03:15:10 +0000 In the film Groundhog Day (1993), actor Bill Murray is stuck in a time loop where he wakes every morning to discover it is always February 2, with the same song, Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe”, playing on the clock radio. The story draws parallels to the long held-ambitions of Sandiaga Uno, Indonesia’s minister of tourism and creative economy, to introduce a new class of visa for digital nomads – remote workers and freelancers who travel the globe and earn a living anywhere with a fast and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3193990/balis-digital-nomad-visa-whats-going-indonesia-raises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3193990/balis-digital-nomad-visa-whats-going-indonesia-raises?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Sep 2022 23:15:10 +0000 In the year 2000, Ku De Ta, an Ibiza-style beach and pool club, opened in Seminyak, a popular beach on Bali’s southwest coast. It was an instant hit and continues to draw crowds. On August 16, more than 3,000 people flocked to the venue for its world-famous White Party. But Ku De Ta is no longer the only place where you can order good food and drinks from the side of a beachfront infinity pool. Spain’s Ibiza will always be the home of beach clubs but Bali is the beach club capital of the world,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3191787/inside-3-new-bali-beach-clubs-kuta-canggu-uluwatu-infinity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3191787/inside-3-new-bali-beach-clubs-kuta-canggu-uluwatu-infinity?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2022 05:15:24 +0000 A Paramount-branded theme park and integrated resort – the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia – is planned for Bali’s little-visited west coast. A cooperation agreement to build the park, complete with golf courses and two themed hotels, was signed in Los Angeles in late July between American film production and distribution company Paramount Pictures and Kios Ria Kreasi, an Indonesian technology, entertainment and tourism firm. “Paramount is a global brand that captures the imagination of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3190108/will-paramounts-bali-theme-park-biggest-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3190108/will-paramounts-bali-theme-park-biggest-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Aug 2022 23:15:17 +0000 Before Covid-19 struck, I flew around the world to produce travel stores for about 10 months of every year. But for the past two-and-a-half years I haven’t set foot far outside my home in Indonesia. As things slowly returned to normal, I decided to fly to Europe to reboot my career, starting in Romania. But I was shocked to discover the going rate for the most direct one-way fare from Denpasar, on Indonesia’s Bali island, to Bucharest, the Romanian capital – with only one stop – had skyrocketed... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3181870/cheap-flights-kiwicom-saved-me-us1500-was-it-worth-it-my?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3181870/cheap-flights-kiwicom-saved-me-us1500-was-it-worth-it-my?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:15:18 +0000 The year is 2010. Canggu, a collection of eight beachside villages on Bali’s southwest coast, is gaining popularity among surfers and millennial tourists. There are a few cafes and surfboard shops on Batu Belig, the main road, but otherwise it looks like any other neighbourhood in Bali. Hindu temples and shrines draped in prayer flags are omnipresent. Rice fields stretch to the horizon, where the outlines of distant volcanoes hover like ancient ghosts. Down on the beach, there are two or three... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3180022/overrun-hotels-resorts-bars-balis-new-travel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3180022/overrun-hotels-resorts-bars-balis-new-travel?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jun 2022 00:15:21 +0000 In 2015, in a bid to boost tourism, Indonesia added Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to the list of countries for which the US$25 fee for visa-on-arrival was waived. “The potential loss will be US$11 million,” then tourism minister Arief Yahya said, adding that the projected additional 450,000 foreign tourists would earn the state an extra US$540 million. The trick worked. Within two months, tourism arrivals had increased 16 per cent, compared with only 3 per cent over the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3170340/bali-open-again-visa-costs-typically-indonesian-confusion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3170340/bali-open-again-visa-costs-typically-indonesian-confusion?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Mar 2022 03:45:20 +0000 On October 14, Bali’s international airport opened after an 18-month hiatus, ostensibly paving the way for millions of international tourists to return to the island. But Indonesia’s official border policies – and the movement of tourists to and from Bali – have rarely been in sync during the pandemic. Between January and August, 1.06 million foreigners arrived in the country through other Indonesian islands, according to Statistics Indonesia. Scores then caught domestic flights to Bali,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3161490/what-pandemic-bali-clubs-and-beaches-are-packed-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3161490/what-pandemic-bali-clubs-and-beaches-are-packed-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jan 2022 05:15:17 +0000 In April 2020, the unthinkable happened in Bali: authorities closed the international airport to prevent the further import of Covid-19, turning off the tap for 60 per cent of the island’s GDP and causing 42 per cent of the workforce to lose their incomes, according to new figures from data company Statista. Now, after 18 months of border closures and economic pain, three false starts, a deadly second wave that briefly saw Indonesia become the global epicentre of the pandemic, and a vaccination... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3152029/bali-reopening-foreign-tourists-mandatory-quarantine-still?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3152029/bali-reopening-foreign-tourists-mandatory-quarantine-still?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Oct 2021 23:15:09 +0000 While scores of countries are reintroducing border closures and travel restrictions to mitigate fresh waves of Covid-19, Southeast Asia’s two most popular resort islands – Bali and Phuket – are in a race to open to international tourism. The stakes in terms of potential benefits and risks are high. The economies of both have been on life support since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic a year ago. In Bali, which attracted 6.3 million foreign visitors in 2019, GDP shrank 9.3 per cent... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3127929/bali-vs-phuket-which-asian-resort-island-will-win?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3127929/bali-vs-phuket-which-asian-resort-island-will-win?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Apr 2021 05:15:12 +0000 A digital nomad from Australia enters Bali on a business visa, despite having no intention of doing business while in Indonesia. It allows her to stay on the island for up to six months. “It cost me US$580 – the paperwork was a joke,” she says, requesting anonymity. “Getting permission to leave Australia was 100 times harder.” She makes no bones about what she has done. “The visa system in Indonesia is absolutely corrupt and I acknowledge I am part of that.” A Canadian woman tells a similar... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3119104/how-weak-law-enforcement-bali-lets-digital-nomads-get-away?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3119104/how-weak-law-enforcement-bali-lets-digital-nomads-get-away?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Jan 2021 09:15:11 +0000 The scene is straight out of a Dutch oil painting from Bali’s colonial era. Children splash in a clear stream that meanders through a verdant jungle, the cone of a distant volcano visible through gaps in the palm trees, coconuts dangling in a light breeze. In the century that has passed, this once-remote tropical island has metamorphosed into one of the top travel destinations on Earth. In 2019, 16 million people chose to holiday in Bali. They came for the sand and the surf, the Hindu customs... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3116751/indonesian-island-bali-barbaric-practice-pasung?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3116751/indonesian-island-bali-barbaric-practice-pasung?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:15:13 +0000