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The post will be published every first Friday (yes, my favorite day of the week embracing weekend!) of the week.

To be honest, entering a school holiday season and soon High Season in July-August, is a bit scary for me, as I know for sure, my daily activity around Jimbaran-Kuta-Seminyak-Denpasar-Sanur will always involve traffic jam, caused by those big tourist buses on the road, almost everywhere. I’d like to avoid some touristy areas for sure, but sometimes I need to get to the town doing my routines, and have to pass these streets, and no other way than join the honking club

So until my next posts about what’s happening in Bali (ie. Bali Arts Festival!), I will keep attending my honking anger management class…as I know I’ll be honking a lot for the next couple of months…Cheers.

]]> http://www.beeamazing.com/back-on-beeamazing/feed/ 2 http://www.beeamazing.com/4-annoying-things-about-living-in-bali/ http://www.beeamazing.com/4-annoying-things-about-living-in-bali/#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 14:01:15 +0000 Bee http://www.beeamazing.com/?p=395 I’m not in a good mood to write a good thing about Bali. Simply because these last few days have been the craziest situation I’ve ever experienced on the road :

- Saturday morning fatal motorbike accident in By Pass Jimbaran that caused 1 man died.
- Big busses from Java start to come and they are everywhere on the street bringing tourists to main tourism destinations and it’s not even a High Season yet! (oh how I miss Bali post-Nyepi Day).
- Traffic jam at 2 same spots all the time, every morning and afternoon during peak hours. That’s on Jalan By Pass, the intersection of Ngurah Rai Airport and at Kuta round about called Simpang Siur opposite Planet Hollywood/Duty Free Shop.
- Road construction along Sunset Road!

Road construction at Sunset Road - still going on as of 07/07/09!

And I can say these four facts are the MOST annoying things about living in Bali :

1. Lack of self discipline on the road
Having lived in 5 different big cities in Indonesia : Bandung, Jakarta, Solo, Batam, and at last Denpasar-Bali, I have to say that Bali is ‘numero uno‘, the winner, on how ‘barbarian’ the bike riders as well as car’s on the road. I’m talking about violating the red light (red might means go ahead! for some people ??), changing line without giving signs, overlap from left side (the correct one is from the right side), never ever think about giving others a go ahead-everyone wants to be the first one to lead, and this caused a traffic jam at some intersection because what supposed to a two lines street suddenly become 3 to 4 lines just because some selfish drivers can’t wait to stay on the line and queuing.

These last few days I could spend about 20-30 min at one traffic light and often felt hopeless that I’d make it through in time for an appointment. This is not Bali anymore! This city has turned out to be like Jakarta or Bandung! One thing I was proud living in Bali is the fact that there are no traffic jam at most of areas, only in Denpasar at some business streets or the road to Kuta Beach..starting from Kartika Plaza street to Kuta Square area and Kuta Beach street..

Tips for those of you who are in Bali right now enjoying holiday, avoid these areas (if possible) in Southern of Bali:
- Airport traffic light if you’re heading from Nusa Dua or Jimbaran (from Kuta direction towards airport is fine) between 07.30 – 09.00
- ‘Simpang Siur‘ / Kuta roundabout or also called Patung Dewa Ruci opposite Planet Hollywood,Bali Galeria Mall, from Nusa Dua/Jimbaran direction towards Kuta/Seminyak, between 08.00 – 09.00
- ‘Simpang Siur‘ / Kuta roundabout or also called Patung Dewa Ruci opposite Planet Hollywood,Bali Galeria Mall, from Seminyak/Sunset Road towards Sanur or Jimbaran/Nusa Dua, between 12.30-13.30 and the worst peak hour is between 17.00-18.30

Look at that!*sigh*I can't make a U turn now-Sunset Road towards Simpang Siur to Jimbaran/Nusa Dua are...gee....

pheww..I'm glad I'm not on that side of the road..

2. Honking anger management
Only in Bali, I found that you can make an enemy with someone blocking your way and to whom you’re honking. Something that made them angry if we do that. It’s like we’re asking for trouble. Contrary with Jakarta and Bandung, when someone honks to you, means you should move aside and give them way, no drama. The funniest and craziest thing I’ve experienced is often these people will give ‘a look’ to you from their bike like or their car like saying “WHATT?!!!! and swearing or screaming back to you, they really take it personal…Aie aie aie…they really should take a ‘honking anger management’ class I supposed…to learn that honking or being honked is OK!

I would personally prefer to honk people who does not know how to drive well rather than have to jeopardize my safety on the road. Those easily get angry people should not get offended when I honk like crazy, because they are really ignorant…

3. Throwing rubbish anywhere, anyhow,anytime
Look, dude…..this island is so beautiful, we do not need to ‘decorate ‘it with rubbish (organic or non-organic). Not sure what the history was, but throwing cigarette butts, mineral water bottles, plastic bags on my blue water beach! or on my Renon Jogging Park that has numerous bins every 10 m around the track! still it wasn’t enough to change this bad cultural habit. Don’t they know Bali lives from its beauty and nature???…No one could answer my question and come up with a great solution. Such a hard habit to break – as shouted by Peter Cetera from Chicago band

4. Smoking & spitting
If only Bali and Indonesia in general apply the penalty rules like Singapore for littering, smoking on public places  and…spitting. I would’ve enjoyed Bali much more than now. Can you imagine sitting alone on the beach and enjoy a ‘me time’ and the view, suddenly you got interrupted and cough & a bit choked from the smoke of cigarette someone standing beside you being totally ignorant, or even worse : someone coughing then spitting close to where you are…yukkkkk!!yeewwwwwww……They really should be fined for doing this non-elegant acts in the public. I would never ever do that and none of my family and friends would do such disgusting thing! Speechless..

At last, I could only hope parents will educate their children not to do those 4 bad habits abovementionned taking a good example from our neighbour, Singapore, or our western friends who have adapted these good habits from early age. Cheers to Bali! I really feel the need to leave this island for a while…

Update on 7/7/09 : I did go to Bandung, the capital of West Java for a week, check out my story on this related post link below.

Related post :

- Bali Riders
- One week in Bandung – Parijs van Java

]]> http://www.beeamazing.com/4-annoying-things-about-living-in-bali/feed/ 16 http://www.beeamazing.com/bolanews-di-hack/ http://www.beeamazing.com/bolanews-di-hack/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:47:00 +0000 Bee http://beeamazing.com/2008/08/25/bolanews-di-hack/
Hari ini gw liat websitenya Bola News di-hack org.
Buset, sadis juga. Jail, dan kurang kerjaan jg.

I still don’t understand until today, what’s in a hacker’s mind doing all that “kurang kerjaan” thing…
Mending nonton gosip Mayangsari-Bambang-Halimah dan Ahmad Dani-Maia-Mulan.

Cape dehh…