Behind the scenes with photographer Dustin Humphrey as he shoots the latest Yak fashion spreads.

How to make the world a better place? Simple, says midwife Robin Lim. Provide gentle hands at birth from a midwife and mother figure. Michael Andrews experiences the energy of a woman with a calling to accomplish “some small thing, every single day” – and a quest to infuse our first moments of life with maternal love. Photos by Damon von Lawner.

I’M sitting in the open foyer at the Bumi Sehat Clinic in Ubud and Robin Lim has just burst out of her office en route to one of the delivery rooms. I’m immediately struck by her piercing black eyes and her long dark hair – along with a demeanor that is positively ebullient. There is something fresh and crisp radiating from this midwife of 18 years, who is also a mother of eight and grandmother of two. Previously anticipating a brush with a soft-spoken New Age type – more typical of Bali’s Western caregivers – I was caught off-guard by a directness that wouldn’t be out of step in Robin’s native city, New York.
I had been waiting for an hour and our interview had yet to begin. Instead, I had been caught between a seemingly endless queue of expectant mothers awaiting check-ups and a couple who circled the waiting room joyously holding their newborn child. With a curtness bordering the fine line between playful sarcasm and brusque honesty, Robin Lim spoke her first words to me. “You’re still on hold,” she said. “Mothers before journalists.” She turned for the door, stopped quickly to introduce herself and explained the delay – a baby was about to be born.
As a single man in his mid-thirties who had just spent an hour in the maternal atmosphere of a birthing clinic, I felt the need for a breather. I started up from the couch, asking Robin if an hour would suffice. She shot back: “Why not stay right here and feel and experience the energy of this birth?” The invitation stopped me in my tracks…the energy of a birth? Makes sense, I thought – it’s a tiny three or four kg explosion of new life on the planet, someone who could turn out to be a future President of the United States or perhaps, more poignantly, a beloved and loving grandfather. ‘Birth energy’ was a completely alien idea to me, and the first of many new concepts that I was to encounter through this extraordinary woman. It would also be the first time the word ‘placenta’ crossed my lips, and after studying it, I discovered that the term is strikingly appropriate – from the Latin, meaning cake.
Robin ducked into the delivery room to join two Balinese midwives, Ibu Agung Mas and Ibu Dewa, who would be ‘catching the baby’. Due to Indonesia’s strict foreign employment standards (which protect the jobs of the indigenous population) a Westerner is not permitted to do the actual work here. Robin’s focus is primarily to manage and run the clinic, to teach, and to facilitate. She considers herself the “protective mother and adviser to the Bumi Sehat Medical Team”.

At 53 years old, and with about as varied an ethnic background as one can have, Robin is a mixture of East and West, Old and New World. Her father was part German, Irish and Native American and her mother was Filipino-Chinese. Aside from her roles of midwife, mother and grandmother, she’s also a published author and poet, an environmentalist and a humanitarian who was recognized with the Arthur Lange Humanitarian Award in 2006. Operating three clinics – one in Aceh in the northwest tip of Sumatra, one in Haiti, and her centre in Nyuh Kuning village (next to Ubud), which is also a short 30-second walk from her home. The clinic here is named Bumi Sehat, which is Indonesian for “Healthy World”.
The clinic, which employs 30 Indonesian workers, (nine of whom are midwives) and engages many international volunteers, facilitates an average of almost two births per day, nearly 600 each year. It also provides prenatal clinics, pediatric baby clinics as well as treatments in acupuncture and the energy work of Reiki. It’s a place where all are welcome. Musician Michael Franti can be found hanging out here on his trips to Bali. Franti is a big supporter of Robin’s, devoting not only his money and his music towards the cause, but also his time.
Indonesian rock star Oppie Andaresta caused a commotion when she had her baby boy delivered here, with the clinic besieged by teenaged girls. In a move that surprised even Robin, Oppie welcomed her fans to pop their heads into the birthing room within an hour after childbirth to show them all that she was breast-feeding. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestselling novel Eat, Pray, Love has a special section on her website about the clinic, calling it “a special haven…that operates on a shoestring budget” where “Balinese Muslim women (a not-always-embraced minority) are sure to always be treated with respect and kindness.” She wonders whether or not Robin ever sleeps and requests of anyone planning a trip to Bali to drop off an extra suitcase of blankets or toothbrushes if they aren’t able to make a monetary donation.
Robin and a team of midwives founded the clinics in Aceh and Haiti as a direct humanitarian response to the international emergencies that occurred following the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean (and subsequent tsunami) and the 2009 earthquake in Haiti. Once the initial media buzz of these events had died down and most of the NGOs had packed up their respective operations, these clinics found themselves scrambling for money to fund ongoing operations – so far, they have been able to continue running them on a shoestring budget. Franti and Gilbert aside, the core of their funding comes from regular people making consistent, but very small contributions.

Robin was a ground-zero witness to the horrible aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Aceh where, in the span of an hour, 250,000 people perished and half a million lost their homes, businesses and livelihoods. Likewise, she just spent a month in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and will return there again in September. The horrifying memories of these catastrophes and their respective aftermaths remain so deeply ingrained that they still cause her – and her tough-as-nails persona – to weep uncontrollably. To get through such difficult and inherently emotional situations, Robin focuses strictly on her work and her lifelong devotion – to make the world a better place, one birth at a time. Her de facto motto is to accomplish “some small thing, every single day”, she says. “If we look at the big picture, we can be paralyzed, so I focus on the potential for peace right in front of me at the very moment.”
In Robin’s view, human nativity – especially those occurring in particularly traumatic or stressful deliveries – have the potential for long-lasting negative consequences. On a personal level, she believes that these nascent experiences, though largely unremembered, can have a lifelong impact on how each of our earthly existences plays out. On a macro level, Robin feels that numerous traumatic births have the ability to negatively influence societies for generations.
As with other Balinese midwives, Robin is known simply as Ibu, meaning mother. She feels that the precious first moments of birth represent every new soul’s introduction into the world as the single most important place to begin to make it a better place. If we get this right from the get-go, she believes, future citizens on this planet might have a chance to foster healthy loving relations with each other and to experience such oft-repeated catch phrases as “world peace” and “respect for humanity and the environment”. As the hackneyed expressions of Dale Carnegie tomes and dandruff shampoo commercials go: “We never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This phrase is particularly relevant to Robin’s embrace of her perceived meet-and-greet role as earthly stewardess, believing that each incoming new human being should be welcomed likewise by a midwife trained in the art of compassion and care, instead of isolation and trauma, which can be symptomatic of hospital births.
Of course, fine restaurants employing impeccably trained maitre d’s, department stores filling entrances with perfume offerings, and any company rolling out a new product with an expensive marketing campaign can embrace the value of a good “lead-in”. It’s no small wonder as to why our newest members to the planet – our youngest consumers, customers, and future scientists, lawyers, inventors and financiers, not to mention mothers and fathers – are not treated with the same warm-and-fuzzy welcomes as those epitomized in Western society by the likes of Super Bowl commercials or costume-clad Disneyland greeters. Young minds have always been known as impressionable, and our minds are never younger or more impressionable than the moment we’re born.
Some members of the Western medical community would disagree. The idea that a traumatic or overtly clinical birth could foster long-standing personality problems has not yet hit their radar screens, and it’s unlikely to do so anytime soon. In the US, the focus is on the logistics of a successful delivery, with institutions like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists remaining steadfast in their assertions that obstetricians provide better maternal and infant healthcare than midwives. Hospitals often complain that practicing midwives operate in a grey area – mostly unregulated and with lack of oversight from a governing body. They feel they’re also an open target of midwives who speak out against their perceived injustices, yet they are still there for midwives to fall back on during emergency situations – where problematic births may threaten the lives of mother and/or infant. A hospital will never refuse a person in a critical condition.

Backlash against midwifery is nothing new and has its roots in a 1484 document by Pope Innocent VII, with the claim: “Midwives cause the greatest damage (of all witchcraft).” By the 19th century, the medical community commonly regarded the practice as “a relic of barbarism”, as a medical journal of the time referred to it. Today, such negative perception is much less common in Europe, where 70 percent of babies (whether in hospital or home) are born in the presence of a midwife, as compared to seven percent in the United States.
One of the handful of voices that have been pushing for more research, studies and scientific insight into the matter is Obstetrician and Gynecologist Dr. Michel Odent. He’s been doing extensive research into the studies on the physiology of birth and the effects of the hormone Oxytocin, which he refers to as the “love hormone”. Having supervised over 15,000 births since 1953, the 80-year-old Dr. Odent is still looking youthful and spry, as his recently posted YouTube videos and our spirited e-mail correspondence would attest. As a surgeon in Paris during the ’50s, he began to witness hospital birthing procedures first-hand. By the ’70s, Dr. Odent began to push for more home-style hospital birth rooms and was the first to publish in medical journals an avocation of the advantages of birthing pools and the benefits of breastfeeding in the first hour following childbirth. Since then, Odent has published 12 books on a diverse amount of topics regarding birth and newborns.
Dr. Odent is “convinced that those first moments after childhood, which can never occur again, are critical to mother-child bonding”. Feelings of love (factoring prominently in the mother-child connection) “are particularly strong immediately after birth”. This is the instant, he says, “when a woman is supposed to reach the highest levels of Oxytocin that she will ever experience”.
Oxytocin, part of what Odent also refers to as “the cocktail of love hormones”, is not only critical to initial human bonding, but essential for contractions of the uterus; making for easier delivery and subsequent smooth release of the placenta. Adrenaline, which appears in the presence of perceived danger, begins to enter our bloodstream even when we are aware that we are being observed. Adrenaline also acts as the main inhibitor of Oxytocin. “An inappropriate birth environment and a talkative birth attendant can increase the chance of a laboring woman seizing and panicking, which can result in unnecessary intervention,” cautions Odent. While the secretion of adrenal glands can lead to disruptions for humans mothers, it serves a useful purpose in the wild. A mammal about to give birth in a situation of danger benefits greatly from adrenaline to freeze the birthing process and to provide the necessary energy for fight or flight until the mother can secure a safe place to continue with the birth.
The more disruptive the environment, the greater the possibility of pretension – which leads to the increased likelihood of difficult births. Sports psychologists are incredibly valued for their ability to get ballplayers ‘in the zone’ – which, for the layperson, means to stop thinking and become naturally in tune with what is happening. Dr. Odent explains that this activity in the Neo-Cortex part of our brain is particularly relevant in women giving birth (and athletes trying to hit a curveball, for that matter). When intellectually stimulated with direct questions and heady talk, it becomes harder for women to achieve a smooth delivery.

Dr. Odent reports that “interruptions in the birthing process have led to more interventions” such as C-sections, and through this process something very valuable can be lost. For example, with monkeys that give birth by C-section, there is no acknowledgement by the mother of the baby – for the baby to survive it must then be raised by humans. In a University of California study of 4,269 male subjects born in the same Danish hospital, it was found that the main risk factor for being a violent criminal by the age of 18 was “the association of birth complications, together with early birth separation from or rejection by the mother”. Similar empirical studies have linked birth interventions and complications to autism, asthma and anorexia.
Dr. Odent observes that “societies have dramatically disturbed the birth process for thousands of years” – which, he believes, has fostered aggression among certain civilizations and enabled them to dominate nature and other human groups. It seems to be a self-replicating cycle – hostile, successful societies fostering truculent births that produce aggressive humans.
To counteract this, he urges the promotion of a protective mother figure – a strong female guardian knowledgeable about the natural processes to defend the space that the fetus needs to indicate when it is ready to be born, instead of it being over-ridden and ejected in the spirit of efficiency. Science can now show that even in the last few days of a fetus in a womb, finishing touches can be put on the baby’s growth that may not later occur. Although it’s a widely accepted practice in corporate farming, let’s say, to pick bananas at bitter green and let them ripen on the shelf, it may not work for humans. A baby’s lungs, heart and brain are much more time sensitive in maturation – making the birthing process, and the baby’s own indication of readiness, more critical to human potential than originally speculated.
Dr. Odent’s conclusion is simple. “The best environment for an easy and fast birth is when there is nobody around the laboring woman, apart for an experienced and silent midwife who is perceived as a mother figure.” That role of the protective mother is the role that Robin Lim and her staff take seriously with each incoming pregnant woman. “Robin is a legend,” is how Dr. Odent concluded our email correspondence, stating that one of his projects “is to visit Robin one day in Bali, on her own territory, instead of always meeting her at conferences”.
Ibu Robin’s work in striving to foster the healthiest and most psychologically sound babies has meant that she’s had to butt up against countless issues and controversies on increasingly varied fronts. One of these has been the influence of corporations on the food supply and what she says has led to “full belly poverty”. In Third World nations, she says, one of the most dangerous threats to pregnant mothers has been the replacement of traditional rice varieties grown for thousands of years with variety IR-8 and later IR-36, also called Miracle Rice.

It’s a simple case of quantity over quality. IR-36 and similar strains, which are staples here in Indonesia, have little value other than as empty carbohydrates, and their production also requires a greater use of fertilizer and pesticides. The commercial benefits are obvious – two harvests a year from the same land as opposed to the traditional one, with much higher yields per harvest – and the surprise addition that it can be stored forever without danger of being eaten by rats. The rats seem to be unable to recognize it as food, and have been found, when desperate, to eat the paper containers but leave the miracle rice untouched. What it means for regular people when ingesting this essentially nutritionless food is a sugar spike in insulin levels which can lead to stored fat and eventually a risk for Type-2 diabetes. What it translates to for mothers-to-be, whose diets consist mainly of this rice without many proteins and greens, is a high risk of hemorrhaging after childbirth. It hasn’t been lung cancer, nor heart disease, nor automobile accidents or even terrorist attacks that rank the number one leading cause of death for Indonesian woman in recent years – it’s been bleeding to death after childbirth.
Another obstacle to Robin’s work in creating healthy babies has been the medical community’s promotion of infant formula feeding over breast-feeding. “Even malnourished mothers can produce enough quality breast milk to feed their babies well,” Robin says, and she has seen it firsthand. The World Health Organization recommends that babies survive solely on breast milk for the first six months after birth. She notes the societal and environmental advantages to breast milk over formula – namely, the packaging, shipping and cleanup of hundreds of millions of empty formula tin cans. However, there is one huge over-riding problem surrounding breast milk which she says can’t be resolved for companies – “there’s no money to be made on it”.
Breast-feeding is a practice that has continued to decline in Third World countries, for various reasons. Insecurity has been a major problem for doctors in developing countries who have been schooled by Western methods. It’s made them more susceptible to authority figures, some maintain, including corporations pushing the powered milk. In Indonesia, Robin tells me that a child is “300 times more likely to die within the first year if it does not feed from mother’s milk”. It’s something that’s going to take a lot of courage from doctors here if they are to learn to trust their own instincts again after their Western education and not, as the saying goes, “throw the baby out with the bathwater”.
Robin trusts her own instincts. For her, the natural arts are “a waiting game” – of assisting nature and knowing exactly when to intervene, never forgetting that “nature is calling the shots”. She also seems to use her motherly instincts to keep her staff incredibly happy and well-motivated. Robin’s charismatic nature and her willingness to lead by example impel her staff to work hard in this endless campaign of assisting new life into this world. Jacinta Knell, a volunteer from Australia, told me: “Robin is quite inspiring and is able to draw people in – an amazing gift.” She seems to possess a great sense of humor as well. Jacinta and Robin’s valued assistant, Ayu, recounted a time when they were threading beads to make a necklace as a gift for a new mother on their staff, but were having great difficultly in securing the thick string through the tiny bead holes. Robin came across their missteps and remarked with a sly smile: “You girls are very good at helping to take things out, but not very good at putting things back in.”

Ayu, who loves working at the clinic, admires Robin “for her big heart”. In speaking with others in and around Ubud, it is obvious that Robin is viewed as larger than life. “She’s one of those saintly figures,” confides a longtime Bali resident who wished to be unnamed, he said, because of Robin’s “Mother Teresa-like reputation”. Like the documentary based on her work, Guerilla Midwife, there is a side to her, he went on, that can be quite graphic and provocative in person, and this can come across as off-putting in a way that borders on “self-righteousness…to get others to fervently join their cause”. (The film, which was presented at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, is itself quite explicit and shocking for the uninitiated – including as it does scenes of babies’ heads popping out of vaginas with repeated references to miracle rice and breast-feeding.) He recounted a story of a party at which the film was premiered in Bali. It began, he said, “with a neo-hippie chick citing New Age babble and singing Joni Mitchell-like laments of injustice in the universe,” the audience being told that Robin would be late because of a last-minute delivery. When Robin did finally appear looking “weary”, he reported her as saying: “I wanted to take a shower before I came but was forced to rush here with my clothes soaked with amniotic fluid and blood because I just delivered my third baby today.” Although stating that he has “great empathy for her work and her sacrifice”, her speech, which this Bali resident likened to mirroring the film itself, was in his opinion “designed to instill feelings of guilt”.
For someone with such as strong personality as Robin’s, battling desperately to find operating budgets for her clinics for disadvantaged people, it’s understandable that she is going to get in some people’s faces in her attempt to wake people up to her realities. Far more difficult than delivering healthy babies, Robin tells me, is another part of her work. “The hardest challenge is fundraising,” she says. Whereas I personally know friends in North America who think nothing of spending two thousand dollars to have plastic testicles placed in their neutered dog, citing reasons of giving their male pet more confidence after its sexual organ removal, I don’t know too many people who are actively looking to support a midwife clinic in Indonesia. It’s a struggle she deals with daily.
For Robin, this calling had its beginnings in her “first sex education class in high school at 14 years old,” she says. “I got very excited about sexual reproduction, and I still am! Just think about it – we make babies from scratch, with a little love and some lust and a miracle, an entire human being gets born. It’s ancient and it works so well. And it’s not just human births that hold her fascination. She recalled to me how, on a trip to Maui, she “witnessed humpback whales giving birth. The mother would come to a protected cove with an elder female whale – a leviathan midwife!” Through this experience she came to believe that humans are not the only mammals who have midwives. “Female monkeys also know that they must get far away from male monkeys when they give birth, so that the birth will not be disturbed.”
As I continued to sit outside the birthing room at Bumi Sehat, I began to hear grunts and moans coming from inside. The door then gently opened and closed. It was Devin Bramhall, an American volunteer. She had stepped out of the room due to a spell of light-headedness and explained that this was only the second birth she had witnessed.

At 27 years old, Devin decided to leave her job in Boston working at an Internet start-up, put all her belongings into storage and come to Bali as the assistant volunteer coordinator. With the encouragement of her mother, a midwife who has worked with the clinic for four years helping to run the volunteer program and co-found the newest clinic in Haiti, Devin prepared for many things, but had never suspected she’d end up this close to the process. “A big part of Robin’s gift,” she says, is “to encourage those around her to open their minds up to new experiences.” In her first birth, Robin had instructed Devin to gently stroke the mother, using the soothing qualities of human touch to help the woman to relax. This birth also marked Devin’s so-called “baptism” – a sudden projectile of amniotic fluid from the mother splattered across the room and onto her legs and feet. Her biggest surprise with it was “that it didn’t gross me out”. Rather, she explained, it just felt like a normal part of the life process.
There was something else that had caught Devin by surprise during that first birth – just how little machinery was used to bring the baby into the world. “The woman lay on a bed completely void of equipment, surrounded by her husband, three midwives, me and some rags to clean up her fluids. Even after the birth, there were remarkably few tools required to complete the process: a metal basin for the placenta, scissors, stitches and one needle’s worth of medicine administered before the stitches.”
Devin admitted to me that today’s birth was much more intense than the first one she had attended, calling the energy in the room “thick and stifling”, which had apparently served to push Devin out the door, but not yet the baby out of the womb. She took some deep breaths and then went back in. Sitting on the couch for what seemed to me only a very short period of time, I heard a quiet cry – a small confirmation that the earth’s population of roughly 6.8 billion had been increased by one. It’s another baby that Robin says she might “recognize years later”. She confided in me that sometimes she’ll walk down the street and, even though she hasn’t been with the child since the day they were born, and now they may even be 16 years old, she can still recognize their face, which she says, “doesn’t change”.
A few minutes after the cry, Robin emerged from the room smiling. She appeared much more relaxed. It was evident to me that her tough facade which I had glimpsed earlier was a barrier that she called upon to protect the sacred space that mothers need in achieving an easy birth. It’s a measured mix of strength and tenderness that I suspect must come with the territory of supporting thousands of mothers over the years. In fact she’s seen so many thousands of births that she wouldn’t even give me a number, saying that, if she did, it would appear “as if she was lying”.

While Robin washed up, she asked me to poke my head into the next room over and say hello to the couple I had seen earlier circling with their baby in their arms. This woman appeared so incredibly fresh and bright that my initial thought was that she must have given birth a few days prior. Robin told me it had happened only in the afternoon of the previous day. Not quite believing this, I had to confirm for myself – the couple smiled and said it was true. My other experiences with new mothers had taken place in hospitals where visiting friends’ wives had given birth the previous day. I recall seeing those women looking exhausted, worn-out, and then being told that they would be kept in the hospital for several more nights. This beaming Balinese woman who sat in front of me instead looked as though she had just come back from a week lounging in Bora Bora. Could this be the aftermath of her experiencing a natural Oxytocin high, unimpeded by an epidural or other injections?
“When one has Oxytocin-rich experiences, our perception of the world changes,” Robin tells me. “The trees appear greener, we can really hear the birds singing, food tastes more delicious. This is the platform for jumping into gratitude.” There are also other ways than giving birth to get this type of blast, she says. “A heart-to-heart talk with another person or a good hug, or making love, or sharing a meal with a friend, or just smelling a flower.” All of which, according to her, builds more love hormone receptors in our bodies, with “the experience of love building in us an increased capacity to appreciate love”.
It’s the opportunity to be around this kind of insight that brings in busloads of young midwifery graduates to the Bumi Sehat Clinic, “sent by their teachers to learn to infuse their future midwifery care-giving with love”. Here they are exposed to Robin’s formula on the love that a midwife must posses – “Respect for nature together with respect for culture plus a solid foundation in medical science.”
Her experiences have led her to a Zen-like philosophy on life that she sums up with a favorite saying of the midwife who delivered her fourth child. “We know what we know,” translating into what, for Robin, is an unconditional and loving acceptance of our own personal stage of development and respect and non-judgment for where others currently are. In Robin’s own take on acquiring a loving acceptance of all that is in the world, she reminds herself by repeating the words: “Is, is.” This is indeed living a life where nature calls the shots. She tells me: “The big carrot on the stick, enlightenment, as it is called, is perhaps only that, the tiny moment when one first feels agape (unconditional love for all). It is so simple, that people might not even realize they are enlightened.”
A little later Robin invites me to say a quick hello to the woman at whose birth I had been asked to ‘take in the energy’. Walking into the rooms here at the clinic I notice that they look much more like a simple bedroom, devoid of beeping machines, not in the least like stepping into a hospital ward. This brand new mother of one hour, also a Balinese villager, was breast-feeding her baby as her husband sat next to her. She looked happy, content and again, surprisingly fresh.
It seems that it’s true, as Robin has been quoted, that “the poorest women can enjoy the most beautiful birthing experiences, which not even the most expensive clinic could offer”. I’m reminded of an oft-used expression that actresses at award shows have been known to say: “If this film could help just one person, it would have all been worth it.” Well, this year at Robin’s three clinics, 1,400 babies will receive a tender and healthy welcoming to planet earth.
And if Dr. Odent is in fact correct in his observation that “humanity is at a turning point, when all our deep-rooted prenatal beliefs and rituals are losing their evolutionary advantages…and it’s time for humanity to invent a new strategy for survival” around learning the energy of love – it makes one consider what the world could potentially be like if there ever comes a time when a good percentage of the estimated 135 million babies that are born every year are welcomed with such compassion, intelligence and love as they are by Robin Lim and her team at Bumi Sehat. That’s a whole lot of potential natural birth energy to usher in a new way of living in this world.

Innovator, Massive Attack Tour-Dj And Global Underground Top-Seller, Nick Warren Gives Us His Bird’s-Eye View Of The World.

NICK, how did you first arrive in Bali?
The first time I came was not to play music actually. I came this way to play the Millennium New Year’s in Sydney, so then I came through with the family. On the way back we decided to come for a week in Bali and we stayed in Ubud – I loved it back then. After that, when Supermodified Agency started handling my bookings in Asia, there was an offer to play here which is always fantastic.
What draws you back?
It’s such a mix of styles here and such a wide variety of tourists as well. You know, you’ve got all the high-end hotels and all the private villas as well, and then all the in-betweens. I like the vibe here, mainly because the locals are really, really friendly. I love all the rice terraces and all the clichéd tourist things…there’s a really chilled-out vibe here.
Growing up – what were your musical pointers or first inclinations toward music? Family?
Not really, my parents had what I would call an interesting record collection, which consisted of about six good records and 60 terrible ones. But…I think, that one of the major influences for me moving towards electronic music was that my dad had all of the early Jean-Michel Jarre albums. I used to listen to those with headphones – you know listen to them really loudly as a young teenager. It wasn’t the tracks, but what Jean Michel did with all these mad sounds…like ssshhhhhssshhh… you know all these weird sound-effects that he did to make those tracks – that is what really got me interested.
I would also mention that at the age of 12, I had already started collecting music – seven-inch singles back then. About seven or so every two weeks, and I‘d play them over and over and over again. All through my teenage years and into my early 20s, I’d spend all my money on records, and then it got the stage where I had a huge record collection, and I was good friends with some people at the art college in Bristol, and because I had a large record collection I was able to do house parties. So I was that pain-in-the-arse guy at the house parties. When the music stopped I’d put my cassette in because I thought I had a better selection of music than anyone else. So it evolved from that to me bringing my records to the parties and so on.
From there it went into me deejaying – but then I was never a really strong mixer. But in Bristol we had all of that early Bristol-sound with the Massive Attack and those guys…and from there it was into small clubs, and then a Thursday night in a club, and then Massive Attack asked me to be their tour DJ.
What was the first concert you attended?
Oh yes! Barry White when I about 14 in Bournemouth, which was about an hour up on the coast from Bristol with some friends…and I think my mate and I were the only two males there and all the rest were women.
What do you think it is about Bristol that has born so many talented musicians/groups?
Two things: One; the club scene isn’t very good there. Although saying that, it’s good…but it’s not big. So all the clubs you get maybe two or three hundred hundred people. But, then again, on a Monday night, it might be Drum & Bass; on Tuesday, hip-hop; and on Wednesday, techno; Thursday, progressive…so the clubs there are very multi-cultural, with a big Afro-Caribbean community. We’ve got influences from reggae and stuff like that, and I was an Indie-head – I was into Joy Division, and Depeche Mode, and New Order…if you listen to all the Bristol music you’ve got that cross-pollination of Dub and Indie.
How do you see the whole internet versus music industry equation? Pros and cons?
Anybody who is still fighting illegal downloading is just stupid. It’s there, it’s not going to change. There’s not enough money in music. If you put out the new Harry Potter movie, you’ll probably get back two-billion – so you’ve got a budget there to stop it getting on the internet. If you put out the new Nick Warren single, it’s gonna make a grand or two if you’re lucky, so there’s no budget to try to keep it off the internet. Maybe U2 or Coldplay – they might have the machine to try and stop it going on the internet. But even they don’t win with it, so it’s a waste of time to think that you can control it.
Has parenthood affected the way you operate?
Yeah, I’ve got a 14-year-old daughter. It affected my life completely, but I didn’t change my lifestyle enough because I separated from my wife. I’ve learnt from that, and I’ve got a new partner now, and if we start a family I think I’ll be a lot more understanding. I do have a great relationship with my daughter and ex-wife, and it works really, really well. When I’m home she stays with me, when I’m away she stays with her mum, so you know it’s a life-changing experience having kids.
Do you ever tire of touring? How do maintain your motivation?
Touring is easy because it’s non-stop. There are pretty much no breaks. But now I can record music on the road, whereas in the old days you’d have to be in a studio. When I make music now, I tend to start ideas, and when I’m running on gas, it’s just BANG and in one or two days I can have it nailed, and then you just have to add production values and stuff. But then there’s other times, when it’s not flowing, and I’ll have to go fishing or something.
What’s the funniest situation you’ve had to navigate as a DJ or producer?
Hmmm…well, I don’t know if this is a funny situation, but I was at this festival in Croatia, and part of the stage had collapsed while I was deejaying. One part had fallen about 30 feet through the scaffolding, and I had gotten cut up. But the DJ platform didn’t drop and was still playing, so I scrambled back up the scaffolding, got back in there, and managed to mix the next record in before the last one was finished.
What has been your most fondly memorable gig so far – and why?
Oh yes, always Argentina. Fantastic country, love the country, love the food, love the people, all sorts of amazing landscapes, great football, and the club scene is so, so cool. It’s very late night, no one goes to the clubs until three or three-thirty, and it’s packed until nine or 10 in the morning – they just love deep, underground music.
How would you describe your latest album the Balance 18 release – compared to previous outings?
My vibe is always, well, for mix-albums. I always try to do a journey, and not be too based on the dancefloor really – because I think that the secret to creating a good compilation, is something that you can listen to in the car, in the morning, in the afternoon or at night. So it’s very clubby, but there’s lot of melody and lots of drama and emotion, so it flows.
Do you sort of sketch it out first or does it happen as it goes along?
It’s weird – I get all these tracks from producers, and normally get sent about a thousand, and then I go through them and bring it down to about 60 or 70, and from there on I get 25, so it’s going through all those and seeing what works with what and just the vibe I’m after.
Is there anything you haven’t achieved yet that you’d still like to?
I’ve still not made my best record yet. So from everything I’ve done so far, there’s a few good ones in there… but then I’ve still not made the perfect one yet, and I hope I will do one day.
What’s your favorite footwear?
Sandals or Wellington boots…one or the other.
www.djnickwarren.com

Industrial Colonial Meets The Modern Gent Amidst a Fanfare Of Woks, Noodles and Soups…

GASTRO urban chic meets gentlemen’s tiffin club in the newly-opened confines of Mama San. This new loft-eatery is taking fusion to a new level. Thankfully the ‘fusing’ has nothing to do with the ingredients and everything to do with the interiors. The food remains staunchly authentic as the menu guides one beautifully from Vietnam to Shanghai, Hainan and Peking to India and beyond. Effortless gourmet travel in mouthwatering seconds…But back to the interiors.
Visible brick and brass, polished cement and brown upholstered leather Chesterfields blend and juxtapose as well as the Dhania Gosht lamb cooked with chana dahl, green chili yoghurt and fresh coriander. Mahjong marble top tables with black chairs are a simple, yet elegant pairing as in the Kway Teow of beef with egg, bean sprouts, gai lan & sweet soy. Glass globe Dutch pendant lights, metal staircases and Shanghai-chic art bring the same visual appreciation to the fore as the crispy whole fish with three-flavour sauce, wild ginger, turmeric, pineapple chili and tamarind. Accents of cherry red standing lamps, silk cushions with matt polished cement floors are as a delightful a mix as the Kasoori Korma with chicken, tomato, bay leaf, cinnamon, cashew nut yoghurt and coriander. Then it is the black and white vintage images that offset the on-show industrial air ducts just as the crispy lamb ribs offset the ginger, coriander, lemon and pomegranate sauce they are bathed in.
It is the bringing together of Asian comfort food that has placed Mama San in the record books of the “reservations are a must” world. Yes, there are Asian bites and salads for the health conscious and crispy things for those less so; tandooris, woks, curries and soups for the ultimate hangover or hunger cure. There are even set meals for those whose brain is not quite in gear for the Asian gourmet tour that is their menu.
However, more than just a chic, urbanesque gudang for Eastern morsels, Mama San’s loft bar quietly teems with cocktail connoisseurs, amateurs and those who are still in training. As with the ground floor below, the décor oozes old world with new world charm. The boudoir lighting is highly flattering – sets the stage for a fun take on how to ‘mix’ and be remembered. Choice is king, with a wide range of tipples both ancient and modern. Martini’s come with a dropper of Dry Vermouth giving this classic a conversational twist. The Moscow Mules arrive in shiny, brass, footless chalices, while the humble clay drinking pot pays homage to Cambodia and its road to recovery. The Bloody Mary, a Yak must have, was still undergoing a fabulous Mama San makeover as I write. Now that, amongst every thing else currently in the Mama San pipeline, (and there are rather fabulous things afoot) is something we also look forward to.

Tel: 0361 730436 www.mamasanbali.com

The Yak Joined Bali Fashion Brand Baik At White Milan This Year – Milan Fashion Week’s Most Exclusive Fashion Trade Event.

DATELINE: Milan, Italy…anybody who’s anybody in the fashion world was there to get a glimpse of what the trends are going to be in the 2012/2013 season … at White Milan, that is. The biggest fashion trade show event on the planet with more than 16,000 people attending.
Michela Boriotti of Bali fashion brand Baik and sks SimpleKonsepStore were there too. And she took The Yak along with her to augment the display – of clothing lines – to show that our little island is an increasingly big player in the world of fashion design, production and publication.
“SimpleKonsepStore was developed as an important store,” Michela says “and Baik plays a decisive role in our overall conceptualization.”
“With the delivery of the new Baik autumn/winter collection, we took the opportunity to tell Milan about our new project: a collaboration between sks, Baik and The Yak, a leading international journal, sharing our reality and insight.”
www.whiteshow.it

No Waiters, No Menu, No Joke…What The..? Meet The Young Bloods Of Restaurant Warung Kayu.

OK guys, let’s start cooking … Ryan?
Ryan Simorangkir, age 23, single, born in California, grew up in Santa Barbara and Jakarta.
That’s a twist – elaborate on that a bit …
My dad grew up in Michigan – high school and college – met mom in California and moved to Jakarta for business reasons. I was nine months old at the time and from then on, back and forth, family in both places, international shuffle, but normal high school.
Where did the culinary schooling come into play?
I went to Cordon Bleu School in Pasadena, California, that’s where I met Tyler.
Where did that lead?
From that Tyler hooked me up with an internship in Puerto Rico at the W Hotel, towards the last month there we were figuring out what to do when my dad called – who by the way is a wine supplier here – and he said he would invest in us if we came to Bali.
This is your father’s place?
No, he only invests. The other investor is Dermot Monaghan who owns Soho Diner on Jalan Oberoi.
Before coming to Bali, what were some of your culinary experiences?
I did the Grammy and Academy Awards events with Wolfgang Puck.
Stop right there, working with Wolfgang Puck – top of the pops – that’s quite an experience right there …
For sure, but cooking for thousands of people, not my thing, I didn’t like it. During culinary school, Tyler and I and a few other friends set up a catering company, we did our first wedding – what a mess but we got through it.
Do you have set menus for the days ahead?
No, everyday we sit down and work ideas out and sometimes we get so excited – we usually have more than enough. If we get requests for a certain dish, of course we will extend that. We welcome requests or any ideas – we’re more than willing to go for it.
What’s the deal in the kitchen?
We have three cooks – 18, 19 and 23; a pretty young crew. Our hostess is 18 as well. One of our cooks started off as a tukang, building houses. He built this place, then he became my dishwasher, we slowly trained him with basics and knife cuts, everything, now we can just leave him in the kitchen and he’ll start cooking.
From the frying pan to the fire, Tyler?
Age 23, born in Tampa Bay, Florida, moved to Tennessee, when in high school started cooking for a catering company, casual stuff, weddings and barbeques.
Tennessee, hmm, yippy-ki-yay kind of thing …
Yeah, exactly. I moved to California, needed a job, so working in a place called Kings Highway – prep and line for about a year, then I decided culinary school was my thing. Los Angeles was perfect for cooking schools, big demand, catering to the stars etcetera. That was when I was about 19.
Did you always like to play with food?
Yep, growing up I was always watching Iron Chef. I like putting different flavours together and trying different things. I don’t like conventional flavours: main course with meats and some fruits; lamb with chocolate sauce topping, my thing. We read a lot of books, more idea’s and such.
So you like to play with the public?
I went to Spain to study languages and business and ate a lot of food in Spain, that’s when I decided to go back to California and enroll in culinary school.
Interesting decisions for the both of you at that age, careerwise, especially with everything else coming at you these days. Bravo, ha, my daughter is still trying to figure out where her underwear is … how would you describe your shtick?
Casual fine dining – we like to play around with dishes; tacos, for instance. We do a deconstruction taco with different components of the dish, looking like fine dining, but still a taco.
You’ve been open eight months, how have the responses been, reviews, especially given the place is so youth-oriented?
Great! We’re a bit different in that we don’t have waiters or waitresses. We’re the waiters, we greet our guests and we recommend dishes based on their tastes.
Looking around, seating for 36, all well and good, what happens, Ryan, when you get really busy, which you most certainly will?
We want to keep it this way, more personal, maybe more tables in the garden pretty soon for lunches.
No lunches right now … so what is the restaurant schedule?
Six days a week, Monday through Friday, 7pm until whenever we close …
We actually opened for lunch for a month and it didn’t do well, so in the future with marketing and so forth, we have a large lawn, plenty of space, so parties and events will come, no problem.
What would you call your culinary signature?
Ryan: A lot of people ask me that question; I don’t know what to say about it.
Tyler: I like traditional French cooking, but more of the modern technique, like liquid nitrogen, it freezes foods instantly, spherifcation, molecular gastronomy technique.
What? You sound like a rocket scientist …
It’s a new way of cooking.
Tyler, your take on life?
I always have this quote: “life isn’t about finding yourself, but creating yourself”.
Ryan?
If you want to do something, just do it, don’t regret it, you’ll never know or find out unless you do it …S.B.

Warung Kayu is closed until december 12th.

A Franciscus Geissenhof Violin From 1783 … Who Is This Young Guy Playing That Kind Of An Instrument? Violinist Iskandar Widjaja Talks To Salvador Bali About His Passion For Playing … From A Life Writ Large.

BEGIN at the beginning …
My name is Iskandar Widjaja. Which is an Indonesian name, but I was born in Berlin, Germany, age 25, my home base is in Berlin, but I travel 50 percent of the year,
What is your parental mix?
My dad is Arabian-Dutch, from Maluku, my mom is from Chinese origin, also from Indonesia, and I speak English, German and Indonesian.
Schooling background?
Normal high school, but I was accepted in college at age 11.
Stop the music, Age 11? I need more of that …
I was studying violin at that time, alongside adult students, my mom thought it would be good to get support as soon as possible.
At what age did you start playing violin?
I was four years old.
What brought that on?
I was actually asking my mom to buy me a violin.
At four years old?
It’s not unusual, my family is full of artists – my mom is a pianist; my uncle is a conductor; and my grandfather, Udin Widjaja, in the Soeharto era, was a famous composer; my aunt a ballet dancer. So, totally encompassed with music, I thought it was normal. By the time I was 11, I was already sure I wanted to pursue a musical career. Not even a concert pianist, I wanted to be a soloist. I was already designing my own CD covers.
That’s quite a passion for a child.
When my mother was pregnant she would be practicing Chopin all day – genetic, who knows?
For sure, osmosis …
I started off with a method from Japan called the Suzuki method: the point being to learn the music intuitively, like a mother tongue, so you don’t learn with the notes, but learn from hearing. When driving in the car with my mom, she would play the music and afterwards I would try it on my violin, without even knowing the notes. It’s a very good method for children.
You said you went to college on a scholarship?
In Germany there’s lots of support for the arts, and it’s not very expensive to learn an instrument.
When and where was your first performance?
At age seven, in Italy, I played a Vivaldi Concerto. That was my first performance and the mayor of the city, after my solo, came and shook my hand. I was so proud.
From there?
The feeling of being on stage, especially as a youngster, makes you kind of high. I knew then that’s what I wanted to do as a career.
Are you saying that you feel like another person on stage?
I try to be just a tool for the music. I try to get rid of my personality and let the music speak for me, and it’s the most wonderful feeling.
And so the progression?
There’s a supportive program for highly gifted children – the Unistand Institute – where they organize concert tours in Europe. I was accepted for that and rubbed shoulders with other gifted students my age. I graduated one-and-a-half years ago from the University of Arts, Berlin.
Before that what were some of your accomplishments? Don’t be shy …
The Gold Medal of the first International Violin Competition; first prize in the German national competion, Jugend Musizert; best Bach and best Beethoven sonatas in the XXI Concorso Violistico Internazionale Postacchini; Julios Junior – Young Talent category, awarded by Berlin’s mayor; scholarship from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben; performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Orchestra de la Suisse Romandi and others. Festivals, Kissinger Summer, Valdes Sommersymfoni, Festival de Saint Prex, Music Phnom Penn and Kesher Eilon; also conducted master classes at the Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta.
What brought you to Indonesia?
I came here six years ago because it was my parents’ home country and I had a unique experience in my musical endeavors – instantly showing that the music reached the Indonesian people; they would immediately applaud during the pieces which you can’t expect in Europe. I was surprised by that – a new experience.
Europeans are very silent and attentive; they applaud after the piece but Indonesians are more relaxed. Five years on, I tried to reestablish a career in Europe – the base of classical music. Through that I established a tour of South East Asia. There’s huge interest here (in my music), especially in the younger generation. Recently I had a big concert in Medan – 3,000 people, full house, the Sky Convention Hall.
What brought you to Bali?
My dad is friends with Tom, the owner of JP’s Warung and he asked me if I would like to have some fun in Bali – come over, relax, nothing serious and jam in the club. I gave it a go and really enjoyed it. The classical concerts can be quite stressful with all the rules.
Being 25, I presume that you are influenced by all the other music that’s going on, do you enjoy everything, and do you play everything?
My main focus is classical, but I love to sing a lot, and now there are many articles saying, oh this classical artist, blah, blah. I’m not this uptight classical artist, I’m having fun.
Backing up a bit: you said you wanted to be number one, did you accomplish that?
There are competitions in Germany, and yes I won (laughs), but then again, music is not like sports, you can’t really measure it, you can’t say he’s the fastest or the best. It’s taste as well, if you have reached technical perfection there’s many more things to judge, so there’s no such thing as number one in music. I’ve come second and third all the time, judges have different tastes or they have their own students and like them better. In the end it comes across to the audience what you do.
What about America?
I performed in the Chicago area where I received a scholarship when I was 16, at the time I considered my musical base in New York. But Europe has so much tradition and it’s kind of sacred. I was born in Berlin, which is kind of the Mecca for classical music. I stayed and never regretted it.
Is there one place that you would like to play in?
Yeah, Carnegie Hall in New York. I had a chance to play there twice, but I couldn’t make the schedule, but that’s my dream. Also a dream come true was the Berlin Philharmonic, that was a Christmas concert last year, to play there is incredibly hard, they only invite international artists. Being born there and accepted – overwhelming.
So now where do you go?
I don’t make plans, I believe there’s a plan already in order, I just try to be as flexible as possible for the energy to guide me to the places life wants me to go. So I’m happy that life has guided me to this point, I have no objection.
Future plans for Bali?
Actually I fell in love with the energy here in Bali, so my secret feeling is in about five or six years to buy a place here and make it my second base. Berlin for half the time – it has cool energy – but the east and Bali is so easy in a way. In Germany there’s the structure and order, Bali is easy and I love that, also to combine these two worlds into my playing.
What about recording?
My recording company, Oehms Classics, is available in Indonesia, but I don’t want to make a big project out of this. I have plans for Indonesia that is easy listening, accessible to the Indonesian audience. I talked to many people about this and the recording companies are all in agreement.
Your philosophy on life?
Let it happen and believe the believeness [sic] of it.
To your fans?
I appreciate all the love; it’s not about me, but giving me the energy to work hard.

Credits:
1: T-Shirt – Nico Perez. Pants – Milo’s. Shoes – Stylist’s own. Hat – Brixton. Sunglasses – ENKI
2: T-Shirt – Nico Perez. Vest – Milo’s. Pants – Milo’s. Shoes – Stylist’s own. Hat – Brixton
3: Shirt – By The Sea. Board Shorts – By The Sea. Bag – By The Sea. Shoes – Stylist’s own. Hat – Brixton
4: Hat, Tank Top, Canvas Leather Backpack, Selvedge Stretch Denim Deus Ex Machina. Yacht Shoes- Vans
5: Blazer – Biasa. T-Shirt – Biasa. Pants – Biasa. Shoes – Stylist’s own
6: Wax Canvas and Leather Travel bag, Khaki Chinos – Deus Ex Machina. Boots – Red Wings. Shirt – Nico Perez

Photographer: T.Hawk
Styling: D.Hump & J.Z.

Eat Street’s Moroccan Meeting Place Is Reborn, writes Sarah Douglas.

THE philosophical, dark-eyed Moroccans cast a seductive spell that few can resist. When Khaima arrived on what would become Eat Street, festooned with coloured lanterns and redolent of dimly-lit spice markets, it soon had a crew of diners swooning.
Ten years later, Jl. Oberoi is filled with slick international restaurants and diners have a world of choice, and Khaima has had a change of heart. Entrepreneur and restaurateur, Driss…has finally coaxed his wife Nora from behind the stoves of the Morrocan-based restaurant that was a very personal project for her.
“This was only the second restaurant in Oberoi, after Mykonos, and friends were always asking us to open a restaurant,” Driss says. “Nora has always loved to cook and entertain. This site came up and was quite a lot bigger than what we were looking for, but we went for it. The first night was a disaster, people waited over an hour for food, we ran out of food completely. We didn’t have portion controls and really were out of our depth,” he laughs.
They sorted it out quite quickly and went on to establish Khaima as a quality restaurant before opening Café Bali with a partner and then The Junction, both in Jl. Oberoi. These days the couple are asked to consult for new restaurants, such is their success.
Khaima’s make-over has completely transformed the site. The stripped wooden façade is an arresting design that has worked its charm on a new set of diners. A newly appointed executive chef worked with Nora to choose the most popular of the Morrocan dishes and then added his own spin on Indonesian and Western dishes to create a more eclectic menu.
“He is very creative and his pastas are some of the best I’ve ever had,” explains Driss. “The Indonesian dishes are also popular and the chef really shines with the presentation and preparation of some of the best local dishes, it is working really well.” The committed diners keep coming back and have been loath to let go of their favourite elements, including the belly dancer who suddenly appears as if from another planet, in the thoroughly modern dining setting created by local design house, Desain9.

With its Japanese sensibility, the new design seems somehow at odds with its former identity, yet closer inspection reveals Morrocan elements. The stripped wood that appears as bamboo is actually strips of natural wood bound together with twine, the lanterns are still there but this time in shiny chrome with clear glass, and the dining room still echoes with middle eastern sounds and smells.
A younger crowd seems to have moved in and women seem to outnumber men at the larger tables. Young couples seem to be taking advantage of the mixed menu and sharing dishes ranging from Moroccan inspired dips to the Balinese betutu. This is how it works here.
Nora has finally let go of her place behind the stove, reluctantly we are not surprised to hear. “This was her baby,” explains Driss, but he is very happy with the way the new look has been embraced by a new crowd of diners, and the long bar facing the street is a popular meeting place.
Nora has turned her hand to the business and will be visiting the kitchen of The Junction to create new dishes while still keeping an eye on her baby, Khaima. While she may have given up her apron to a new chef, there is definitely a sense of her that remains in the building, a blink of the eye reveals the ghost of the old Khaima. It may be shiny and new but it is not only the guests who remember, the very building seems to echo with the sense of her celebrated days as Bali’s best Morrocan cook. The tagines, the grills served with cous cous and the mint and cumin scents still float to the top in this modern international restaurant, brilliantly situated in the centre of Bali’s now famous Eat Street.
Tel: 0361 735171 Map Ref Q.8 www.khaimabali.com

The Pan Pacific Bali Nirwana Resort is undergoing a facelift to beat all facelifts. Fore!

JOHN Berndt . . . tell us a little about yourself and about how you came to Bali.
I am a career hotelier, grew up in New York, summered in the surf on east coast beaches, enjoy professional challenges, food & wine events and playing golf – the way it was meant to be played. I first came to Bali in 1997 to assist Ritz-Carlton in opening their property in Jimbaran. My wife and I fell in love with the authentic character of the romantic tropical island and the genuine, gentle spirituality of the Balinese people.
We hear there are moves afoot to up the ante at your resort – what are your plans?
The resort has great bones and wonderful potential. Best of all is it’s location at the edge of the universe overlooking Bali’s iconic Tanah Lot temple – the most revered site on the island, on a beautiful 103-hectare tropical garden oasis that would be next to impossible to replicate in this day and age, anywhere and at any cost.  Nirwana has frustrated operators, guests and partner suppliers since inception for many good reasons. The resort, designed by one of Asia’s top architectural firms, WATG, is of a similar design to the Ritz-Carlton, now Ayana. The timing of several hardships involving economic crises and terrorist bombings saw that the resort was never properly completed or maintained. It’s a shame really, because now it is so much harder stripping back the patch-quilted band-aides rebuilding from scratch and repositioning it as a niche resort and not a makeover of an old one.
It seems to us the resort has been something of a sleeping giant for a while now . . . we imagine that’s going to change.
Oh yes!  We have talked to Sade about doing an opening launch event for us in March. We are working with talented producers and promoters about concert series following our Bloody Mary Jazz brunches Saturday and Sundays with outdoor cliff lawn sunset performances with the Tanah Lot backdrop memorializing the event. Preceding and following Jakarta’s music and Jazz festivals we are targeting artists such as Stevie Wonder, Esperanza Spalding, Jakarta Philharmonic Orchestra, Dianna Krall, Chuck Mangione, Kenny G (a golfer) and Santana. We are hoping to host an annual WTA tennis event as a warm up to the Australian Open in Melbourne. The golf course will be modified to host an annual Asian Tour championship and made-for-TV challenge events involving celebrities, young talents, women and seniors.
OK, it’s always been a great golf course. Why should we play golf with you?
Our 18-hole championship golf course, designed by Greg Norman is his favorite course. It has never been in better playing condition. It is scenic, challenging with memorable experiences on every hole that begs to be played again and again. Just today we played with Miguel Ángel Jiménez hot off the Singapore Open, last month Pablo Martin spent three weeks here playing every day and Scott Barr is returning in January to get married with golf events entertaining his family and friends. Truly it is the best golf experience in the region. The readers of Asian Monthly and the World Travel awards have recognized us as the best golf resort in the region.
Which are the best holes?
My favorites are the short par fours: 12, 13 and 17 because they dare you to cut the corner for birdie chances that just as often kill the good round you have going!  Most golfers prefer the scenic challenges of hitting over the Indian ocean into the wind on par three 14 or our signature hole, 7, with the hundreds of Tanah Lot temple dwellers cheering you on.
And what do you shoot?
I work hard at maintaining a 10 handicap playing client golf once a week and twice a month I treat myself to a relaxing round with my wife or (laughs) beers and small money bets with friends.
The resort…what’s the most exciting development going to be for you?
I have always admired the talents of professional builders, designers and architects. I like to build things and enjoy creating something special that will be appreciated by discriminating people for being useful – appropriately contributing to lifestyle and environmental enrichment. All these opportunities are on Bali.

Is it just a refit, or are we talking a total change in direction?
Total reposition appealing to a niche market that appreciates Nirwana’s unique barefoot elegance and one-of-a-kind spiritual tropical setting for special occasions, meetings and leisure travel from Australia, Jakarta, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. We have always been well known for value and incredible sunsets, now with the support of a refreshed facility our product, services and programming will bring the richness of this vibrant very special part of the Pacific World to life. It will not only be seen, it will be felt; engaging and heightening every sense – taste, touch, sight and sound – in an experience that is at once familiar, surprising, reassuringly consistent and delightful.
And now for the important questions…how many types of wine do you stock in your cellars?
Currently we have over 100 selections of premium wine which we sell at incredibly low margins to counter-attack the extremely high tax which plagues all restaurants and resorts here on Bali.  We sell retail wine by the bottle in our new “TLC”café bistro Tapas wine bar. We feature wine by the glass of all our bottle selections in Merica, our contemporary brasserie, Pool Grill and Golfers’ Terrace restaurants. We augment a simple foundation of old world favorites with many peppery boutique new world wines from Australia, New Zealand and South African – blends that we can offer at surprisingly good value.
You have so much land here … and so few rooms by comparison. What else do you do on the property?
We have 27 free-standing, privately owned, freehold villa’s and are preparing ocean-front lots for custom build-outs.  We are building strata title golf resort residences to add to the resort homes and timeshare units already on property. We have 278 hotel resort rooms including 40 Pacific Club ocean view rooms, 22 suites and 12 pool villa’s on the ocean and golf course. We are planning on inviting celebrated artists to teach and exhibit in an educational crafts center forum that will provide participatory exhibits with learning opportunities in film, dance, music ceramic, oil, acrylic, photography mediums.
Are you planning any major golfing events in the next couple of years.
We hope to host an annual Asian tour event as early as 2013, as soon as we resurface and complete the golf course renovation in addition to hosting fun and challenging made-for-television events, with celebrities, women, popular young up-and-coming stars, and seniors.
And finally – what are you doing for Christmas!
As a devout Christian, Christmas is more spiritual than commercial for us, and year end is a time for thanksgiving and reflection. New Years we celebrate achievements and set goals for the future. We have family from the states, Cornell buddies from US and Singapore and golfers visiting from Dubai all making a memorable melting pot holiday. We are all decorated in a natural traditional theme organically inspired by the resort grounds complementing our spiritual serene setting featuring children’s choirs, costumed carolers and classical musicians throughout the season with traditional holiday fare in Merica, and alternative popular music in our romantic seaside Pool Grill. We have festive holiday events for the entire family – Christmas and New Years Eve, Christmas and New Year’s day.