The following article is written by R.Paulin who was in Taman Ujung or Ujung Water Palace in 1979 before the earth quake destroyed The Palace for the second time.

“About a month ago I was searching the web for pictures of the Ujung water palace that were taken years after it was destroyed. They showed the palace derelect and sitting peacefully in ruin. I originally got the pictures off the web, but in my recent search I could not find them, but I did come across the picture of the reconstructed palace on dee-bali.com.

In October of 1979 my brother and I were in Bali and visited Ujung sometime between the 15th and 22nd of that month. I had to find my old passport to check on the dates that I had entered and left Indonesia and I remember that we had spent about a week in Bali. We arrived at the palace late in the afternoon and I remember walking down the hill and around to the entrance gate after taking the picture you see here looking down at the building. They were ready to close and told us we could enter, if we didn’t stay too long. At that time you couldn’t walk out to the main building. We were told by other travellers in Kuta that the palace was occupied by two western academics who had made some sort of deal with authorites which allowed them to live in there, if they restored the building. There were no other tourist in sight while we were there and we saw none on our walk back around the tank and up the hill.

By this time the sun was getting low on the horizon. We made o! ur way back to Legian and were woken early the next morning by an earthquake, which we learned later was centered near Ujung. The pictures I have above are probably the last taken before the palace was leveled”.

Turtle in Bali especially south Bali (Kuta - Jimbaran - Nusa Dua) was having a terrible life. For information, turtle in Southern part of Bali had been used as part of every ceremonial or and even as daily meal, most of them end up as “turtle satay” or “lawar”. To be honest before I realize that turtle is one of the endanger species in Indonesian Ocean, I had tried the taste, and it is delicious.

Along the road in Jimbaran at that time (some years ago) on the afternoon we can easily find several people sale turtle satay serve with “Tipat” and “sambal”, I must say it was so delicious. Not until I read and watch their beautiful life on TV I began to understand that it was not right for us to eat them all the time, and I feel sorry to finaly know that to have the size of what people to eat take 20 years for the turtles, and it will take only a day to at last end up inside our stomach.

I am so happy when this afternoon watch a local television program about a campaign to safe the turtle life especially the green turtle. I hope this is a start to save one of the life of that poor sea creature.

About a week ago I was visiting a very nice village in east Bali (Karangasem). This village is located along a beautiful beach where you can do diving or snorkeling. What I really like being here is that almost free of polution, fresh air, green environments, hills and mount Agung decorate the landscape.

Do not worry about accommodation here, there are many hotels and bungalows (cottages) along the beach from luxury to something that fit your budget. One of the bungalows here, a beachfront bungalow is Temple Cafe and Seaside Cottages run by a nice lady name Ibu Rangda. They run not just Cafe and Cottages but also souvenir shop and salon for spa and massage.

Please visit their website www.balibeachfront-cottages.com, it is completed with picture gallery of the cottages and the panorama around it.