Posts Tagged ‘Bali’

Governor slams Bali airport performance

Monday, July 13th, 2009

DENPASAR – Bali’s governor Made Mangku Pastika has blasted conditions at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport.

In an open letter addressed to government ministers, state authorities, airport managers and the Bali Tourism Authority, Pastika cited numerous complaints from tourists, tourism industry stakeholders and the general public.

Bali Update (www.balidiscovery.com) commented that “the unusual move by Governor Pastika of writing an open report on the many problems at Bali’s airport brings into sharp focus the anger and frustration felt by Bali’s tourism industry and the general public with the poor condition and inferior service provided to the public at Bali’s airport.

“It also underlines what appears to be a growing rift between the governor and the airport’s manager, Heru Legowo.”

The governor is unhappy that despite a number of coordination meetings with the Bali airport authority, those meetings have failed to yield any improvements in how Bali’s main gateway is operated.

The governor’s letter, sent with a video illustrating his written complaints, listed the following shortcomings at Bali’s only international airport:

  • The presence of “too many” porters at the airport who commandeer baggage trolleys, giving the impression that tourists are somehow obliged to use their services and creating complaints later when tips are demanded. According to Pastika, the need for porters at the airport is questionable, given the lack of porters at many international airports and the fact that in Bali the porter’s presence serves to make an already crowded airport even more crowded.
  • There are only four Visa on Arrival counters to serve the airport at peak operational hours, resulting in long waiting lines.
  • The airport has 24 immigration counters, a number actually sufficient to support tourist arrivals, but, in fact, failing to do the job as only a portion of the counters is ever staffed. Once again, the result: long lines and many complaints from tourist visitors.
  • Airport officials engage in predatory behavior, approaching tourists standing in lines offering “express service” through immigration in return for a fee.
  • The presence of many brochure racks offering package tours and transportation services at low fees that make “no sense.” The services offered in these brochures cause losses to Bali’s official tour and travel operators, who provide a guaranteed level of service and realistic pricing.

Despite numerous past complaints to the airport about these brochures and promises by Angkasa Pura that remedial steps would be taken, the brochures continue to be on display at the airport. According to Pastika, a further investigation by his office also reveals that brochure distribution, counters and advertising at the airport are all controlled by a third party appointed by Angkasa Pura.

  • Tourist Information Counters at the airport which are supposed to distribute brochures and provide information to incoming tourists are, in fact, selling cut-rate tours that anger legal tour operators.
  • There are too many money changers within the airport. In the arrival area, there are 12 money changers all gathered together in a single line of booths near the exit corridor lane of the airport’s arrival section. According to the governor, five money changers would be a more ideal number and that number should be located outside the arrival hall.
  • The accumulation of security staff in certain areas of the airport give the impression that they are “working while socialising with each other.”
  • The over abundance of commercial space rented out at the airport. As a result, the domestic arrival area is very cramped with no chairs, causing disorder outside the arrival hall where people have no place to sit while waiting for arriving passengers.
  • The presence of “special rooms” used by Customs and Immigration to “sort out problems” which, according to the governor, is against the rules of Customs and Immigration.

TravelMole comment: The “special rooms” referred to above are often used by Bali Customs to negotiate “fees” when tourists enter Bali carrying more than their one litre allowance of duty free wine or spirits. The TravelMole editor has had personal experience of these special “fees” – normally referred to as bribes.

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The tricky porters at Bali Ngurah Rai Airport

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

As a tourist who spends long holidays on Bali.

I would like to call the attention of the local authorities to the age-long problems that visitors must face at the international arrival area of Ngurah Rai airport.

To begin with, the free trolleys are stored at the very end area, so out of sight that the vast majority of tourists think the airport does not offer this facility.

The cunning porters read the labels stuck onto the suitcases and call the owners by their name inducing them to believe that they are their guides.

Once they have grabbed ( they work in pairs) the ”pray”, they stop at the first money changer and persuade the customer to change money.

The banknotes changed are always the highest denomination, that is 100.000 IDR.

Before the tourists actually meet the official guide the porters have already required a tip of 100.000 IDR EACH SUITCASE!!!.

If the tourist does not want to change, the helpful thugs are willing to accept 10USD or 10 E if not more.

Besides, there is a tacit agreement with the custom officers who do no check the suitcases escorted by the porters.

On the shameful behaviour of the custom officers, there would be a lot to say and will be said on another occasion.

The notice beside the conveyor which says that porterage is not compulsory and the price that should be charged is 2000 IDR each suitcase is almost always overlooked by the exhausted tourists harassed by these infamous porters.

I sincerely do hope that the Balinese Authorities take a swift action ant put an end to this disgusting situation that makes the Bali airport one, if not the most, unwelcoming airport in the world and give visitors the feeling they have landed on the ” Island of thieves “.

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Ocean Sunfish Fact Sheet

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Affiliations: The ocean sunfish or mola may seem in a class by themselves butthey belong in the same class with all other bony fishes known as Osteichthyes.Here is their pedigree:

Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Subphylum Vertebrata , Class Osteichthyes, Order Tetraodontiformes (includes puffer fish, triggerfish, boxfish and porcupine fish) , Family Molidae, Genus Mola , Species mola. (Currently there are 3 recognized species in the family Molidae: Mola mola–common mola, Masturus lanceolatus-sharp-tailed mola and Ranzania laevis–slender mola. Our genetic work has identifiedpotentially two more species, so stay tuned.

Name: The name mola while sounding Hawai’ian, is Latin and means millstone a visual reference to the mola’s round body shape. In other countries mola have a number of names: poisson lune (moon fish) in France; schwimmenderkopf  (swimming head) in Germany and Manbo in Japan, to name a few. The common name “sunfish” refers to their habit of lying on the sea surface apparently sunbathing. Tagging studies suggest this behavior is tied to warming their bodies

between repeated dives into cold deep water. Such sunning behavior may alsohelp mola rid themselves of their many parasites since at the surface seabirds can harvest parasites from the mola’sexposed skin and cleaner fish can aggregate under the mola and pick off parasites from below. This is a very usefulservice as mola can host some 40 different genera of parasites–even their parasites can have parasites!

Habitat and Range: Mola are found throughout the tropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean basins–everywhere except in the polar seas. While they may travel into the middle of ocean basins, most observations and tracking studies reveal them to be primarily coastal residents.

Depth: Mola spend most their time in the upper 40-50 m (150-170 ft) of the ocean. During the day, they can repeatedly dive to depths of 100-300 m (300-1000 ft) and can even dive below 600 m (1968 ft) on occasion. During the night theyare typically less active and rest near the surface, exposing them to dangerous encounters with ship traffic.

Size, growth and longevity: Mola are the world’s heaviest bony fish with the current record holder weighing 2300 kg (5,071 lbs) and measuring 2.7 m (8.9 ft) from mouth to tail. This fish was caught off the coast of Kamogawa, Japan in1996. Historic records reveal mola of longer proportions that likely weighed even more. Mola can increase in weight 60million times from larval to adult size making them the vertebrate growth champions of the world. This is equivalent to a human baby growing to the weight equal to six Titanic ships. In captivity, mola can pack on the pounds–one mola held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium gained 364 kg (800 lbs) in only 14 months. Based on length/weight curves, mola can reach full size in 10 years and live more than 20 years.

Diet, Predators and Role in the Ocean: The bulk of the mola diet consists of gelatinous zooplankton like jellies–a food supply that appears to be rising due to rising human impacts on the ocean. Mola are also known to eat squid, fish, larvae,crustaceans, algae, eelgrass and various midwater and seafloor invertebrates. Mola fall prey to sea lions, sharks and killer whales and provide a wealth of eggs and parasites to other fishes and seabirds.

Reproduction: Mola are considered the most fecund fish in the world. One 1.4 m (4.5 ft) long female was estimated to be carrying more than 300 million eggs! Males and females release their eggs and sperm into the water where fertilizationtakes place however no one has ever seen mola spawn in the wild. Based on plankton collections across the globe, severalspawning areas have been identified including ones off Baja, Japan and in the Sargasso Sea. There are likely many more spawning locations yet to be discovered.

Conservation: Mola comprise a significant portion of bycatch in many of the world fisheries including the California andMediterranean drift net swordfish fisheries and South Africa’s horse mackerel fishery. Our work is helping revealbehavior patterns of mola so as to better conserve these magnificent fish and their vital jelly-eating role in our ever-changing ocean.

For more information visit www.oceansunfish.org

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First Annual Bali Dive Safety Symposium

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Well known for its abundance of turtles and reef sharks, Gili Trawangan has long been regarded as one of the most popular dive locations in Indonesia. Trawangan offers easy boat access to at least 18 dive sites around the Gili Islands. Beautiful reef flats and expansive reef slopes are teeming with life and will excite divers of all levels. Diving does not get much easier than this! In your non diving hours, the island offers a myriad of dining options, activities and characters.

As you may know already, Bali is a DivePhotoGuide favorite. For years now Jason has said its diving is under rated and I recently made the argument that its a world class dive destination in my two part special about the Indonesian island. In lieu of this ,we happy to announce that our friends at Hyperbaric Health and Bali Diving Academy have joined up to create the First Annual Bali Dive Safety Symposium. Here is the press release for the event-

While Bali has been a world renown destination for travellers for many years, the Island has only recently received the accolades she deserves as a world class diving destination. Growing numbers of divers arrive in Bali every year seeking to enjoy not only icon species such as the Mola mola and Manta’s of Penida, the Harlequin Shrimp of Seraya or the Mimic Octopus of Puri Jati, but also a range of marine habitats and species diversity matched only in a few places on our Blue Planet.

Divers are embarking on more intense diving programs, for longer periods of time, in Bali. The “coming of age” of Bali as a diving destination brings with it many challenges for the industry on both a service and safety level. Succeeding in meeting the challenges, is integral to the long term success of Bali as a diving destination.

It was with this in mind that Peter Manz of Hyperbaric Health joined with Michael Cortenbach of Bali Diving Academy, with support from Divers Alert Network Asia Pacific and the Indonesian Marine Tourism Association, Gahawisri, to create the First Annual Bali Dive Safety Symposium.

Multi Day / Multi Dive programs are now common place in Bali. Combine this with some deep recreational dives targeting Icon species, cold water and occasional strong currents on some sites, plus altitude considerations when moving between dive locations, it seemed obvious that the focus of the First Annual Bali Dive Safety Symposium be Decompression Sickness and Management.

The Symposium is designed to provide Dive Professionals, Doctors and Clinicians an opportunity update and / or further enhance their knowledge of an important and fascinating aspect of Dive Safety.

The First Annual Bali Dive Safety Symposium will be convened on the 27th of November 2008 in Sanur. For further information and registration, please contact: peter@hyperbarichealth.com

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