nomad4ever

Currently the 12th UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, a follow-up meeting of world leaders to decide on a successor agenda for the Kyoto Protocol (which was ratified by 172 countries but expires in 2012), is receiving a lot of media coverage.

Kyoto was the first international treaty to pledge to legally-binding commitments to reduce emissions of 6 categories of greenhouse gases in a 6-year timeframe.

As more and more countries realize that Global Warming is a reality and not something out of a science fiction movie, it’s interesting to examine some current facts and figures:

written by Chris

The Jakarta Post published today an article on how Blogs and the Internet can help to promote Bali as a travel destination. It shed some light as well on the positive and negative effects of Online Media as Journalists, Blog Experts and Amateur Bloggers, who happen to live in Bali, were interviewed.

Surprisingly I was asked as well by Prodita Sabarini of The Jakarta Post a few days ago, if she could interview me about my view and experiences on the subject. Of course I felt honored and agreed:

written by Chris

And then there were the reports about Mel Gibson visiting the Island of the Gods, letting his hair down like Mad Max during his best times. Actually attending a seminar of Alcoholics Anonymous, it didn’t appear to be his motto later on that evening.

written by Chris

The thing I like about a place like Bali is the sheer variety of venues on where to eat, drink, relax or just hang out. One of those special places where you can do all of the above is Khaima.

What’s the venue?

Khaima is a chilled restaurant in Jalan Laksmana/Oberoi, the new ‘IN’ area of Bali. It’s one of the most well regarded restaurants in Bali and the only authentic Moroccan eatery on the island. It’s run by a Belgian/Moroccan couple.

Here you can eat like in a normal restaurant at a table – or chill Arabic style on large pillows and ground beds and smoke a Shisha (water pipe or hookah).

written by Chris

Having a few days at hand and nothing better to do, we decided to explore Bali’s East Coast a bit and go for a 2-day ride.

How to get there?

Nothing easier then that: hop on your bike or rent a car and off you go. As we were 2 couples and in the mood for chatting all-way-long, we went for the latter option.

Our car was a Diahatsu Feroza, a slightly bigger kind of “Jeep” then a Suzuki Jimney. It offers enough space for 4 people and some luggage and with a price tag of Rp 100.000/day – a quite affordable one as well.

written by Chris

In Bali, as in most parts of Indonesia and other asian countries as well, you have people who earn their living by selling food.

They push a small cart up and down the streets, selling everything from Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), Bubur Ayam (Rice Porridge with Chicken), Bakso (Beef Ball Soup), Cendol (sweet jelly dessert on crushed ice), coconut drinks, jamuh (medicine drinks), cake, donuts, ice-cream and other delicate specialties.

They can cook or cool their dishes in these carts, and of course it pays to check the over-all-hygiene of those carts beforehand. :-)

written by Chris

When you stay a bit longer in one place – basically when you are a traveler, not tourist – internet cafe’s tend to lose their appeal to surf the internet. The disadvantages are many

• you have basically shared bandwidth, therefore slower connection
• they tend to be more expensive than own dedicated access (of course; they have a whole infrastructure and staff to pay for)
• it can be noisy, if many people are around or some kids play shooter games
• it’s not very private, if you want to “Skype” someone, on top of that you disturb the people around you

written by Chris

…because it is run by a bunch of fraudsters and violent criminals!

Why, you might ask? Here is the whole story:

My fiancee and me had a ball of a time partying the night away with friends on New Year’s Eve in Jalan Dhyana Pura, Bali. After midnight, around 3-4am of the first day of the New Year 2007, we thought it might be a good idea to sway in some chill-out rhythms to one of Kuta’s famous in-places – the music club “MBarGo” in Jalan Legian, Kuta. We’d been there before and usually they play a nice mix of music on 2 floors.

written by Chris