SEMINYAK LUXE

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Seminyak Luxe

There’s a secret enclave in Seminyak called Laksmana Estate, where some of the island’s best and most delectable villas can be found, and it’s a well-kept secret of lusciousness and good taste where all the neighbours enjoy the finer things in life as much as the next. Although you will be spoiled for choice by the uniqueness of each villa, Villa Adasa should feature high on your wish list for any Bali holiday that has ‘luxury villa close to beach & great restaurants’ as key words in a Google search. Designed in a traditional colonial style with high thatched roofs, white-washed shutters, and fans spinning lazily from the high-pitched ceilings, it creates a real sense of place in the sun. The social capabilities are both ideal and endless starting with the open-plan living room, which is filled with dementedly soft comfortable sofas and an impressive hardwood table where meals, expertly prepared by your own personal chef, are served. While the most deserving of your party will obviously take the massive upstairs master suite, the two downstairs bedrooms are equally as lush, with direct access to the pool and a small head start in bagging a sun bed of a morning.

www.villaadasa.com

WAY DOWN IN KOKOMO

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Way-Down-in-kokomo

It may not be as the Beach Boys sang about its namesake 17.5 thousand kilometres away, and there’s no Tom Cruise to serve you drinks, but ko-ko-mo Gili Trawangan Resort has a few tricks up its sleeve that leave the Florida Keys as also-rans in the tropical island holiday stakes. Here in this laid-back Lombok island paradise, where coconut palms actually sway in the breeze and turquoise water gently laps at the edge of the white sand beach like a slick holiday advertisement, you can expect nothing but the very best in personal service and barefoot sophistication, and while island life and sunshine can suck you in to a world of salty-skinned atrophy, back at each villa the modern world is there to ease you back to life with big beds, comfy couches, TVs, DVDs, Wi-Fi, cable TV and lovely hot showers. Occupying a beautiful strip of beach at the southern end of the island of Gili T, far from the backpacker crowds, ko-ko-mo is positively upmarket in its location, service and accommodations, offering 11 private villas, swimming pools, a beachfront lounge, a well-stocked cocktail bar, fine dining restaurant and five star views to sooth all those city blues away. There’s even a huge active volcano to look at.

www.kokomogilit.com

Dressing The Part

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While Miss Indonesia, Elvira Devinamira, may not have brought home the Miss Universe crown she certainly stole the show with her elaborate costume, which depicted with wild gay abandon the temple of Borobudur in all its finery. Titled” Ode to the Borobudur Temple”, it emerged as the winner for Best National Costume at the Miss Universe Pageant 2015, held in January in Miami, Florida. The costume was designed by Dynand Fariz, and made of silk taffeta combined with Indonesian traditional songket motifs, and featured reliefs decorated with beautiful beads and crystals, and a triangular headpiece representing Borobudur’s main stupa with distinct Indonesian motifs, and all weighing in at around 20kg.

Chinese Crack Down

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Worried that their people are not shining the best light on the nation, Chinese authorities are cracking down on their travelling citizens, who they claim are tarnishing the country’s reputation by behaving badly abroad. The new regime comes in the wake of a number of publicised incidents involving Chinese tourists, including one in which a young teenager vandalised a 3,500-year-old Luxor Temple in Egypt by carving his name into it. National Tourism Administration will keep records of problem tourists and rank them on the severity of their poor behaviour. Those that find themselves on the list will reportedly receive messages when they reach their destination to remind them to
behave appropriately. If they fail to comply the government will publicly shaming them, a huge no-no in the Middle Kingdom.

Japan Forever

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Japan is a paradox that sees it living by centuries-old traditions while at the same embracing the future with both hands and holding on for ride. With a fast-aging society, and with not enough land in downtown Tokyo, new cemeteries like the Ruriden are changing the way people view the ever after. In this modern, memorial building, over 2,000 Buddha statues are illuminated by high-powered, colour changing LED lights and visitors are given an electronic card that is touch-activated to then specially light up the grave stone of their loved ones, which sits among the thousands of Buddhas, providing a peaceful and very modern Japanese ending to life.

Nusa Lembongan On High

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Drugs are everywhere in Bali apparently, not least all over the media, but a new haven of supply is under investigation, with the police closely monitoring Lembongan Island just off the southeast coast of Bali, because they believe it to be “an area suspected of heavy infestation by narcotics distribution.” According to I Gusti Ketut Budiarta, Chief of BNN in Bali, “Nusa Lembongan remains one of our targets, because narcotics distribution continues to take place there. We have taken actions in many of Indonesia’s island, one of which is the Island of Nusa Lembongan, that is popular with foreign tourists.” According to the BIN official, Nusa Lembongan’s growing popularity as a site for hotels, villas, dive and surfing operations also makes it an increasingly attractive location for drug transactions.