Miss World In Bali
The Miss World Contest started yesterday and will now be conducted entirely on the island of Bali.
The contest opened on Sunday and later rounds were due to take place in and around Jakarta, with the winner originally set to be crowned at a venue outside the capital on September 28.
Indonesia said on Saturday the final of the Miss World pageant later this month would take place on the Hindu-majority holiday island of Bali instead of near the capital, after days of Muslim hardline protests.
Although the Miss World organizers had already promised to replace the contest’s trademark bikinis with Balinese sarongs for its beach fashion segment, thousands have taken to the streets this week to denounce the decision to hold the contest in Indonesia.
You can read the full story at news.yahoo.com/miss-world
Boom Boom Bar In Ubud
Ubud has always been known as a quiet retreat where visitors go to kick back, relax and get away from it all. It is nothing like the beach side areas of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak where the hundreds of clubs and bars are alive until early hours of the morning.
Only a couple of short years ago the only place to go for a little entertainment in Ubud was the Jazz Club.
Things have changed a little, and now visitors have a choice of a few places to have a drink and enjoy some live music. It’s still nothing like Kuta with the live music in most places finishing well before midnight.
One of the latest bars to open and is enjoying some good success is Boom Boom Bar and Restaurant. They serve some good food and have live music every night.
The staff are friendly and make you feel welcome. The waiters can always be seen entertaining their guests with some magic or party tricks. The bar staff also put on show with their cocktail mixing, juggling and fire tricks.
There are seven different bands so unless you’re there for more than a week, you won’t here the same band twice. The music varies from night to night and includes Reggae, Blues, and Pop Rock.
Probably the most popular band is the Friday night group called Kawitana. Here is a video of Kawitana playing Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits.
So if you are in Ubud for a night or two and want a fun place to relax with a cold drink and enjoy some music, you should check out Boom Boom on Monkey Forest Road.
Ceremony For Coman’s New House
Coman has been working hard over the past few months building his new house in his family compound in Tabanan. The house is almost complete, but they cannot live in it until they have a ceremony to bless the house.
Early in June the family and a few guests were invited to join the blessing ceremony. It was held in the middle of the day and went about 3 hours. Some fabulous local food was served for lunch, and together with some cool drinks and great conversation it was a nice afternoon.
Now Coman only needs a few finishing touches and he, Putu and the kids will have somewhere they can call “home”.
Bali Visitors Fingerprinted
Airport Delays Expected As Authorities Introduce Fingerprinting Of Tourists
(17/4/2010) The Jakarta Globe carries the news that visitors to Bali can now expect yet another delay in the notoriously long lines at customs and immigration at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport with the introduction of a mandatory fingerprinting for tourist visitors.
The head of immigration’s sub directorate for Information-systems, Rohadi Iman Santoso, has announced the new requirement to be introduced at Bali’s airport, with subsequent implementation planned at all international gateways in Indonesia.
The fingerprinting, carried out with ink-less electronic fingerprint readers, will only be required for those using short-stay visas. Foreigners who have permanent or temporary stay permits and who have already been fingerprinted in the process of obtaining their residency in Indonesia are exempted from the new requirement. Children under the age of 14 and those traveling on diplomatic passports are also exempted from the requirement.
Rohadi also announced that tourist visitors would also be photographed using a system that completes the process in 2 minutes.
Rohadi acknowledged that the new requirement would add to the delay for those processing through Bali’s immigration and customs process. Only 10 of the 23 immigration counters at the airport will be initially equipped with the fingerprint scanner.
The system will be introduced nation-wide by July 2010 with scanners then in place at 21 airports, five seaports and at the border crossing between Malaysia and Indonesia at Entikong. The trial introduction now underway is fingerprinting visitors arriving in Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Solo.
The immigration department has apparently seen little need to socialize the new fingerprinting system with Surya Dharma, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Ngurah Wijaya, the head of the Bali Tourism Board, claiming no knowledge of the new system.
Biometric screening procedures are already in effect in a number of countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and the United States.
This story is reproduced with the permission of Bali Discovery Tours http://www.balidiscovery.com
Eat Pray Love Trailer
The movie Eat Pray Love starring Julie Roberts is due for release in August 2010. It was filmed in Italy, India and Bali during 2009. The filming in Bali took place on various parts of the island in September and October 2009.
The movie is a big-screen adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling book “Eat Pray Love”
Here is the trailer for the movie Eat Pray Love.
Can’t Find Julia
It has been reported that Julia Roberts is in Bali for the filming of Eat Pray Love. Everyone is quite sure she is here, but no-one has seen her.
A village north of Ubud was overtaken by a film production crew on Friday and Saturday, but roads were closed and the security was very tight. The film crew moved out late Saturday and headed south.
It is understood that further filming will be done in the Ubud area, as well as Uluwatu and Nusa Dua, but none of the details are known.
The media hounds are having a rough time of it. It seems the locals are all prepared to give information, but it always ends up at a dead end.
Tight Security for Julia Roberts
Security is expected to be extremely tight when Julia Roberts comes to Bali for the filming of the Movie “Eat Pray Love”.
During the filming in India, India eNews reported that she had 350 security personnel, including police and private security guards.
Almost 350 security men, bulletproof cars and a chopper too – that’s what it takes to secure Hollywood star Julia Roberts, who is here with her three children to shoot for the movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love’.
Are Australians Computer Literate?
I thought that Australians were fairly computer literate. That was until I was given this list of Australian computer terminology.
LOG ON: Adding wood to make the Barbie hotter.
LOG OFF: Not adding any more wood to the Barbie.
MONITOR: Keeping an eye on the Barbie.
DOWNLOAD: Getting the firewood off the Ute.
HARD DRIVE: Making the trip back home without any cold tinnies.
KEYBOARD: Where you hang the Ute keys.
WINDOW: What you shut when the weather’s cold.
SCREEN: What you shut in the mozzie season.
BYTE: What mozzies do.
MEGABYTE: What Townsville mozzies do.
CHIP: A bar snack.
MICROCHIP: What’s left in the bag after you’ve eaten the chips.
MODEM: What you did to the lawns.
LAPTOP: Where the cat sleeps.
SOFTWARE: Plastic knives & forks you get at Red Rooster.
HARDWARE: Stainless steel knives & forks – from K-Mart.
MOUSE: The small rodent that eats the grain in the shed.
MAINFRAME: What holds the shed up.
WEB: What spiders make.
WEBSITE: Usually in the shed or under the verandah.
SEARCH ENGINE: What you do when the Ute won’t go.
CURSOR: What you say when the Ute won’t go.
YAHOO: What you say when the Ute does go.
UPGRADE: A steep hill.
SERVER: The person at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
MAIL SERVER: The bloke at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
USER: The neighbor who keeps borrowing things.
NETWORK: What you do when you need to repair the fishing net.
INTERNET: Where you want the fish to go.
NETSCAPE: What the fish do when they find the hole in the net.
ONLINE: Where you hang the washing.
OFFLINE: Where the washing ends up when the pegs break.
Ubud Pothole Update
The pothole in the Ubud Main Road that first appeared in early July is being repaired. 10 days after it appeared an excavator was brought in to find the problem. After digging a hole 8 metres deep, 8 metres wide and 20 metes long, the cause is quite clear. There is a river running under the road. 3 weeks after the excavation, work has started to repair the damage.
Watch this video and see this monster pothole for yourself.
Krakatoa Back From the Dead
Some stunning pictures of Krakatoa have been captured by an amateur photographer. Krakatoa lies between Sumatra and Java and in 1883 killed 36,000 people when it blew up.
More pictures can be found at Nine MSN.
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