Posted by Edward on Monday, 15. February 1999 at 17:03 Bali Time:
In Reply to: Beach gangs stalk paradise. posted by Steve on Monday, 15. February 1999 at 08:07 Bali Time:
Steve,
According to our understanding the incident occured in the remote south west Lombok at Desert Point, an area of excellent surf. Surfers were camped here. Whilst they were sleepng a couple were robbed. The victim choose to go on pursuit and was attacked. Since the incident the surfers have vacated the area. It was not an isolated incident .
We were in the area 6 months ago and found that there were a number of things happening which contributed to ill will amongst local people.
1) There is a high degree of poverty. People are hungry.
2) Big consortiums are buying up huge tracts of land for their resorts. This has the effect of displacing local people many of whom are subsistence farmers.
When we were there we felt quite unsafe (not so in Bali and north Lombok)We witnessed a robbery of a woman tourist (no assistance given by bystanders etc), hotels had guards armed with knives and machetes, we were advised by locals and took guards with us when we went to remote places, travellers had similar incidents to recount.
Steve, Novotel is in a beautiful location, will no doubt be well guarded and the access to that part of the beach under hotel jurisdiction should be safe. Your call we guess...