Susi Johnston Bali Blog

La Vie villas will be conveniently located in Seminyak. They look more like townhouses than villas, though, but what’s in a word?

Already under construction, the Batubelig Residences is strategically located near the beach on the shortcut road that connects Seminyak and Canggu. These residences designed by Fredo Taffin are expected to sell at well over a million dollars each. Location location location.

Not many units, but lots of design (by Gary Fell) and special features will attract buyers to the Wabi Umalas Villas.

The Sing Ken Ken apartment block soon to rise high in Seminyak. “Sing ken ken,” in Balinese means, “No worries, mate.”

And here’s an aerial rendering of a villa development by Paradise Property out in Tabanan.

And here’s the Ramachandra villa development, pretty dense, I must say. What happens if they all flush their toilets at the same time?

So many developments it makes my head spin! Here’s the Novotel apartments in Nusa Dua. Multi-story, high-density, full-service. The above image is only half of the whole project. There are several more blocks south of the lake!

Here’s a glimpse of a development underway in the sacred east of Bali, on a beach in Karangasem.

There are so many villa and apartment developments going on in Bali it makes my head spin. Here’s one. The multi-use development at Dreamland Beach (formerly much beloved of bohemians and surfers) in the Bukit Jimbaran area. Construction already begun. Locally-owned cafes already demolished, cement and steel rising fast. The masterplan was conceived by the same firm that consulted on the Kukio development for billionaires on the Big Island in Hawaii.

From a bali news website written in Indonesian, called Berita Bali, comes this little item about traffic and parking problems in Ubud, Bali’s most famous hill town. (The translation is mine.)

Parking Chaos in Ubud: Never a Day Without a Traffic Jam

Although it is one of Bali’s most popular destinations for foreign travellers, the Ubud area still has no viable system for handling parking and traffic. People park their vehicles in an utterly chaotic fashion. So never a day passes without a traffic jam in this area famous for the arts.

Although a parking lot has recently been created in from the Puri Lukisan museum, parking still causes big problems in this small town. Most drivers and motorcyclists park on the roads, causing congestion.

“We hope the government will actually get serious about handling the parking problem, so in the future it isn’t total mayhem like it is now,” said Agung Cahaya, a local observer. 

His complaint is not unfounded. Every single day the pleasures of Ubud are spoiled by traffic backups, particularly on the route leading from the Monkey Forest north toward the Ubud palace.

“Sure, the government has made some efforts to overcome the parking problem in Ubud, but they need to pay more serious attention so the parking chaos here can be sorted out properly,” he said.

My experience owning a gallery in Ubud on Monkey Forest Road, and watching the buses and cars backed up every afternoon spewing fumes and noise bears out the points that Berita Bali’s blog post makes. Exactly. It’s mayhem. Inexcusable.