Australian villa owners say Bali property market is more resilient than that in their own country, as the global financial crisis worsens. The island’s villa market has experienced exponential growth in recent years amid record tourism numbers, with villas in prime locations going for up to $US3 million ($A4.62 million) off-the-plan. Asia-based expatriates seeking a holiday home cum rental property have driven the buying. With foreigners banned from bank financing, they pay cash, giving Bali some insulation from the credit crunch hurting other markets, property agents said. Continue reading »

Bali police have closed down a Karangasem-based cooperative for allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme. The Develop Karangasem Cooperative (KKM), located in the regency capital of Amlapura, caught the police’s attention after it managed to multiply its capital in a relatively short-time. The business opened in 2006. Continue reading »

Tune Hotels.com will open two hotels in Bali in November which will be the company first hotels outside Malaysia, said chief executive officer Mark Lankester. The two Bali hotels, a 170-room hotel in Legian Bali and a 139-room hotel in Kuta Bali, are now under construction, according to Lankester. Continue reading »

On the heels of a rabies outbreak in Bali, officials on the tourist island are now wrestling with the shadow of avian influenza. Made Badra, the head of Badung district animal husbandry, marine and fisheries agency, said on Tuesday that one person was being treated for suspected bird flu infection, while 133 chickens from the Jagapati Abiansemal village had been culled after one out of five of the sick birds, selected randomly from the group, tested positive for the H5N1 virus last week. Continue reading »

Ni Wayan Lilir is a diminutive Balinese woman with boundless energy and an infectious enthusiasm for helping people learn about the traditional healing herbs of Bali. Lilir manages Utama Spice, a company near Ubud, that makes natural body care products, based on the traditional healing herbs, or obat asli, of Bali.

Utama Spice won an award last year from the local government as the best natural-care company in Gianyar, the Bali district that includes Ubud. In addition to managing Utama Spice, Lilir is also responsible for sourcing raw ingredients and developing new products for the line. Lilir says that herbal lore is “in her blood”. She was born into a large family of twelve children, in Padangtegal, near Ubud, in 1972. When she was growing up, her parents never took the children to doctors when they were sick “They only used herbs,” Lilir said. Continue reading »

On the ‘Island of the Gods,’ the beachfront Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali is named after Baruna, the Balinese God of the Ocean.  Located on three hectares of beautifully terraced tropical gardens and set to open in March, this contemporary, Balinese-inspired resort features 195 guest rooms and suites along a perfect stretch of white sandy beach. Continue reading »

This island’s tropical charms are more affordable than they have been for years. Many five-star hotels offer rooms for under $200, and top luxury resorts have begun to offer steep discounts to attract recession-wary travelers. Spas price hour-long massages at $10. Restaurants sell fresh seafood dinners for less than some fast-food meals in the United States. Local shops offer activities including scuba diving and horseback riding for a fraction of what they cost in the West. Continue reading »

Absolute beachfront villas or eco-friendly hotels are the omnipresent words when getting around Bali. Real estate development on the island is moving at a high pace, impossible to overlook and equally impossible to quantify. It is not easy to get a clear picture of what is currently being built on the island of the gods. There is no central source of information that can clear up the picture of what Bali has to prepare for in 2009 and the coming years, not even official government sources. Nobody knows what anyone else is doing, and many developments are taking place in semi-secrecy. Continue reading »

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika announced Friday that he had rejected an investment offer from PT Anantara to develop Lake Buyan in Buleleng into an eco-tourism resort. “I have rejected PT Anantara’s request to develop Lake Buyan. I signed the rejection papers on Friday,” he said during a meeting with the Forum for the Protection of Sacred Sites and Bali High Priests, at the governor’s office in Denpasar Continue reading »