(Short Essay) Bali Is Nice, But Not Everyone's Dream Place

Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean to expose the negative sides of beautiful Bali island. No. I like Bali. I visited this magnificent island many years ago, to be precise in 1990, when I was graduated from highs school. I had a plan to enroll in a university in Bali so that I went there. Sadly, I didn't pass the test and came back to Jakarta. However, I took some days to enjoy myself in Bali during my stay there. Really... it's a beautiful island. The people are also friendly. Since then, I never went to Bali again and busy doing things in my hometown, Jakarta. 

Let's take a look a while to its history. According to some reliable resources, it's known that Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated from the island of Taiwan to Southeast Asia. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed: Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Vaishnava, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, and Ganapatya. 

At around 989 AD, Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter Mahendradatta married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001 AD. Mpu Sindok was a ruler from Mataram Kingdom in Central Java. So, this marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali.

In 1597 AD, the Dutch colonizer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established in 1602 AD. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of 19th century. Dutch political and economical control over Bali began in 1840's. 

During World War II, Imperial Japan occupied Bali for some logistic reasons. Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali as the airfields, on which didn't suffer from heavy rain like in other islands outside Java back then. During the Japanese occupation, I Gusti Ngurah Rai (a Balinese military officer) formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of Japanese occupation made them more resented than the Dutch colonial rulers. 

Let's take a look to modern era after Indonesia was free from colonialism in 1945. The first president of Indonesia, Soekarno, built Bali Beach Hotel in 1963 in Sanur and it boosted tourism in Bali. Since then, constructions of hotels and restaurants began to spread throughout Bali. 

Tourism further increased in Bali after Ngurah Rai International Airport opened in 1970. There're several famous tourist destinations in Bali, some of them are: Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Sanur, Ubud, Jimbaran, Nusa Dua, and Pecatu. In march 2017, TripAdvisor named Bali as the world's top destination in its Travellers Choice Award, which it also earned in January 2021. Moreover, Bali is also famous as a home of the Subak Irrigation System, a UNESCO heritage site. Wow...

Yeah... Bali is a very beautiful island. However, I'm sure not every one --especially in Indonesia-- take Bali as their "dream place" to visit. It's because Indonesia has so many other beautiful places to visit, guys... don't get me wrong. Take Java island as an example. There're many historical places to visit: Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya (just mention a few). 

Nice museums can be found in those cities as well as many other tourist attraction sites. The greatest Buddhist temple in the world (Borobudur Temple) is located in Magelang (Central Java), so are Hinduism temples: Mendut Temple and Prambanan Temple. I personally like visiting those places better than Bali because I can't swim and don't like water sport... haha.