Beware of Cheap Imitations

We are also pleased to welcome the Malaysia-based freelance writer Jill Gocher to the writing team. Jill was the editor of Hello Bali back in 2006, and has written for such august publications as TIME, National Geographic and Herald Tribune. As long as we can afford her outrageous fees, we look forward to much more of Jill’s sharp pen in the coming issues. For now, we hope you enjoy her Off Island segment about Penang.

We are very chuffed to be featuring a photo spread by the legendary Djuna Ivereigh, whose Indonesia Wild series has been praised to the skies the world over. Djuna started out as a climate change researcher at University of California, Santa Cruz, and became a full time photographer in Indonesia 10 years ago. Her photo credits range from Elle to Outside, and she is currently working on a feature for Scientific American. Her excellent website is www.indonesiawild.com; check it out!

And we must not forget our many, many readers, and our (very few, admittedly) remaining, long-suffering, advertisers. You have all have had to put up with delayed publication dates and irregular appearances for years now. We are deeply sorry, and hope we can win back your love and your business by groveling profusely and promising to do better. Please love us! A word of warning, by the way: the little twerp who used to handle advertising for this magazine has started up his own rag, not at all coincidentally entitled Tropical Life, hoping to cash in by confusing his copy-cat mag with the real thing. I am confident that highly intelligent, dashingly handsome, debonair sophisticates like your good selves, dear readers and advertisers, will recognize it for what it is.

Meanwhile, back at Tropical Living Towers, we will do our best to keep you entertained and informed about things that really matter in life. On that note we bring you a feature on John and Cynthia Hardy’s great gift to Bali, the Green School; some really profound advise about how to handle Nosy Parker friends from Basil (and Minnie!); your cut-out-and-keep guide to all the Balinese and Indonesian holidays and what they mean; and a very long article about the energy business. It was really fascinating, and infuriating, to learn how we are being led like lambs to the slaughter by the oil and coal industries and their vastly powerful political lobbies. We had great fun researching and writing it: as much fun as we had digging up the dirt on dodgy chiropractors in the last issue, in fact. Enjoy!

Finally, it wouldn’t be Tropical Living if we didn't try talking you into buying our lovely villas, would it? Bali's very first proper Eco Developments, Green Village, a joint venture between Pt Bambu and Tropical Homes, is now open for sale, as is the Plantation, north of Sanur. Gorgeous, solid houses made out of engineered bamboo and FSC certified timber, set in stunning countryside bang on the banks of the Ayung River, less than half an hour from Ku De Ta. Yours for half the price of a concrete shoe box in Seminyak, sir, clear conscience included. Really, come and have a look. You’ll love it. It's Bali living the way it should be, a part of nature rather than paving over it, yet with all the mod cons you could ever want. Welcome, and in all areas, beware of cheap imitations.

Peace & Profit to you all,

Nils Wetterlind