December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97
cover story
Christians in
Paradise
How Christianity came
to Bali
Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout
bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran
The Origin of
Nusa Dua
A fable
People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach
Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre
Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula
arts and
culture
Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography
Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama
The Rat Pack
Who are Bali's literati?
beyond
bali
An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok
Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort
regular
Fashion
Adventure
Into the blue
Food
Jewel of the southren rim
Jungle Drums
Bali Update
On the Road
Home Grown
Made Adi Putra
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There were no roads to speak of and Nieuwenkamp soon lost his way pushing through walls of cactus plants. The heat was unbearable and he ran out of water. Before the day was finished he began to have second thoughts about this hasty decision. Not really sure of his position, he caught sight of a Balinese farmer herding a group of cattle in the distance. The farmer was startled at his encounter with this bulky, sweaty man dressed in a pith helmet and very dirty white tropical gear. As the artist spoke little gear and the Balinese no Malay, they used sign language to communicate. In the end, the farmer brought the artist home to the large village if Ungasan. Previously the existence of any permanent village on the Bukit had not been known and Ungasan came as quite a surprise to Nieuwenkamp. It was one of only a few villages that drew water from very deep wells, which were rare in this limestone highland. In most other villages, people had to collect rain water in pits to survive.
After spending the night in Ungasan, Nieuwenkamp set off once more. Once again, he found himself lost in the wilderness, when suddenly to his astonishment he saw a Dutch flag fluttering near the coast of Pecatu. After hours of climbing he suddenly came to the encampment of a young Dutch man who had been charged to survey the terrain. Relieved, he sat down with the man and related his adventures in Ungasan. Both were very happy to board the boat sent to pick up the surveyor and return to the lush rice terraces of Bali's fertile southern plains. For another eighty years, Bukit was largely ignored, until it dawned on developers that this arid (but cheap!) land was a goldmine for resort development. It just goes to show that the desert can be made to bloom.
photo: W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, 1906.
By Pak Tukang Kayu
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