There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

Image
It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in

Padang Padang Beach, Bali

Padang Padang Beach is the beach made famous by American actress Julia Roberts in her much maligned film “Eat Pray Love”. The beach is accessible from Jalan Labuhan Sait, Pecatu, and about a 15-minute drive from the huge – yet uncompleted - statue of the Hindu God Vishnu at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park. Just follow the road and look for the off-street parking sign.



To get to the beach from the car park it’s a 5-minute walk on a path which takes you through a narrow crevice between some huge rocks. I’m pleased to say that this beach is a huge improvement on the now ruined and overly-commercialized Dreamland Beach which is not far away.

Padang Padang Beach, Bali

The sea at Padang Padang is really calm and some people even do a bit of snorkeling – not that they will find too much sea life though! Further out, however, and there are some big breaks and this explains why Padang Padang has become famous as Bali’s premier surf spot despite being very dangerous because of the exposed rocks.

A far better option than trying to tackle the hazardous surf is just chilling out on the beach. Work on the tan. And read a book - as long as it ain’t that rubbish novel about an American woman trying to “find herself” in Bali! Hahaha!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The 10 best plus plus massage spas in Jakarta

20 things you should know about Indonesian women

The comfort zone (Jakarta hotel and spa)