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Denpasar, Island of Bali, Republic of Indonesia
Monday, 29th November 1993
With a population of close
to four million, Bali is home to virtually all of Indonesia's Hindu minority, and, from the 1980s tourism-related
business made up 80% of its economy. Additionally, it’s renowned for highly
developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting,
leather and metalwork, plus music.
Bali is also part of the “Coral Triangle,” the area with the
highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef-building
coral species dwell; making tourist dive operators quite happy.
The Portuguese discovered Bali in 1512; then came the Dutch in 1597, later
establishing the Dutch East India Company in 1602, making Bali a part of the
Dutch East Indies.
In 1942 the Japanese kicked the Dutch off Bali, but in 1945, after the
war, the Dutch returned to take control and were met with heavy
resistance. By 1949 the Dutch were
kicked off Bali again, and eventually Bali became a province of Indonesia in
1958.
Bali also has problems with active volcanoes. At the east end of the island can be found its
highest point at almost 10,000 feet, called Mount Agung. This is a volcano that erupted in 1963–64 in
one of the biggest and wholly devastating events in Indonesia's history,
killing up to 1,500 people. It is still
active with a huge, deep crater which occasionally belches smoke and ash. From a distance, the mountain appears to be
perfectly conical.
And practically next door is Mount
Batur (Gunung Batur) another active volcano at the focal
point of two concentric calderas northwest of Mount Agung.
So if you’re a tourist visiting Bali, dear
reader, regarding these two active volcanoes, you have to ask yourself, “Do I
feel lucky today?”
Denpasar is the capital of Bali, acting as the main gateway to the
island, and sits on its south coast. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Denpasar
functioned as the capital of the Hindu Majapahit Kingdom of Badung. Thus, the city
was formerly called Badung. The royal palace was looted and razed during
the Dutch intervention in 1906. A statue in Taman Puputan (Denpasar's central
square) commemorates the 1906 Puputan, in which as many as a thousand
Balinese, including the King and his court, committed mass suicide in front of
invading Dutch troops, rather than surrender to them.
After departing Yogyakarta we skimmed along the south coast of Java in
our 737, in an easterly direction, and when the island petered out we entered a
wide bay. Visibility was excellent,
allowing me to easily sight Bali on the other side of this bay. I also spotted the twin volcanoes on the
island’s east side, creating their own weather swathed in low stratus clouds.
Ngurah Rai International
Airport, also known as Denpasar
International Airport, sits on a narrow peninsula of land eight miles south of
Denpasar. This I could also easily pick
out, detecting its single, east-west runway (090°/270° magnetic) with a length
of 9,843 feet. Since the wind was
blowing out of the east, I elected to shoot the VOR approach to Runway Nine,
which gave us an easy, straight-in approach.
The landing was uneventful (my kind of landing) and we had flown the 331 miles from Yogyakarta to Bali in one hour and six minutes.
After unloading and loading passengers and fuel, in an hour’s time we were back in the air for Ujung Pandang.
Upon taking up a northeasterly course to cross the Bali Sea for the Island of Sulawesi, as we climbed out, I caught an incredible view of both volcanoes. Sending a chill up my spine as I wondered when they would erupt again.
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