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Around 2 years ago I was raving about the so-called Dreamland Beach in Bali, situated at the west coast of the Bali Bukit, the dry hilly area south of the airport.
It’s one of the closest candidates for a Dream Beach, which Bali unfortunately doesn’t have in the abundance of let’s say Thailand or the Philippines. The only other natural white beach, west of the Padang Bai lagoon is currently developed into a 5-star Hotel resort for a Japanese company with restricted access for the average traveler.
Tough luck I hear you say, but for Surfers and Expats there was always Dreamland Beach – up until now:
A relict of the Asian Crisis
Historically the whole area was marked for development as early as before the Asian crisis, with heavy involvement of Tommy Suharto, the son of the former Indonesian president, snatching the area from the locals for peanuts.
Passing the big Garuda bird near the main road, you were in a land of its own, with Golf Courses, Apartment Housing Developments and Country Clubs for the rich and famous. All this was brought to an halt by the looming of the Asian crisis around 1998, when the Indonesian Rupiah lost most of its value, prices skyrocketed and tourism slid into uncertain times. The first Bali Bomb in 2002 didn’t help either to revive the economy of the island and most parts of those developments slept a very deep and undisturbed sleep.
Backpacker and Surfer’s Paradise
Backpackers and Surfers discovered soon the lonely and remote area, the pristine white beach and the fabulous beach breaks. Beach Huts, Bamboo Restaurants and Surf Shops mushroomed in a short time and the area developed an almost mystique and secretive aura. It felt a bit like Koh Phi Phi before the Tsunami, with cheap food, backpacker hostels or rooms and an bohemian atmosphere of free spirits and other young at heart.
All this slowly began to change with the improving visitor situation in Bali end of last year. Suddenly there were talks of re-animating the whole area and continuing the building and construction developments, even though the whole hill has already water shortages and existing villas have to pump very deep or get their water delivered by truck. The first signs of ‘progress’ was the creation of a huge 5-star cement development in a few months, almost appearing like a Djinni from its bottle.
Progress here we come!
Earlier this year all bamboo structures were demolished by heavy equipment and the law for the ‘righteous owners’ was restored. Bohemians, Surfers, Backpackers and local Shop Owners were sent away to make room for Golfers and all-inclusive or package deal tourists.
Prices are again through the roof, with a Rp 5.000 parking fee for motorbikes (5 times the average for Bali), shower fees of Rp 10.000 or toilet usage fees of Rp 5.000 and standardized Drink Price Lists with 3-4 times the prices above the island standard. Yeah, for outsiders it might be only a Dollar or two, but for Bali, those prices are outrageous. I can buy a 19 liter gallon of Drinking Water for Rp 10.000, while they charge here Rp 12.000 for a 1 liter bottle.
Clearly a sign to bring the area back upmarket again.
The whole development comes with the usual corruption, with the parking guys refusing to hand out too many recipes for parking fees, as those obviously find their ways into their own pockets.
We were 5 people on 3 bikes, but only one got a parking ticket. “No need!” you will hear with a big smile.
The beach is renamed as well, now being called “Klapa New Kuta Beach” (Klapa means Coconut in Indonesian). There are no coconut trees around here, but who cares.
This once secluded and quiet bay is now packed with vendors and hawkers, trying to sell you everything from Sarongs, carved wooden souvenirs, T-Shirts, arrow and bows – exactly the same like in Kuta. 
Commerce and progress are generally a good thing, if applied in the right places and right doses.
For me, Dreamland Beach is no more. It has lost its appeal and will be just another commercialized tourist trap – call it Kelapa New Kuta Beach, or whatever.
It’s very sad but time to bid farewell. Bye bye Dreamland Beach Bali!
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Related posts:
- Dreamland: what a dream of a beach!
- Lost in Translation: Hide your drugs!
- Wanted: Your very own beach paradise island – Bohol or Bantayan?
- 3 oddities in Bali, which would raise some brows – anywhere else
- The flavours of Sex Tourism in Thailand and Bali
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I am shocked !
What a shame !
I am so lucky, that i had the chance to see Dreamland Beach as it was before this fuck happened.
I am also shocked! I had an amazing day there myself and am disappointed future visitors will never know how cool it used to be
Bali was a paradise lost a long, long time ago. It is still a wonderful place to visit but it’s a tourist mecca (with good reason) but sadly it’s no longer a nice quiet place. I’d rather go to lombok or flores!
That also happened to Boracay here in the Philippines. What worse is they relocated the native Aetas (they look like the Australian Aborigines) at the back of the island.
Sustainable tourism WILL happen in Indonesia. It WILL be a maritime tourist destination. This nation is still so young and its people are just beginning to rise. Come or don’t…paradise in Indonesia is just beginning to open up to its potential. Champagne is beginning to pop. If you can’t feel it…well, I suppose you’re not living the life that I’m just beginning to taste…
Very nice blog….I like it
Now i’am Very sad i would like to trael in bali i saw dreamland in the net, but now i read your story and i think i’ can forget dreamland. what could you propose to me in bali i would like a white beach, i am travel allone, and i like to surf but i have no experiences, is kuta really the only place ???? Ah ich glaube du sprichst a auch deutsch oder? merci für deinen tipp!
Yes, it’s true….bye bye Dreamland.Touristic cars full of chinese and japanese people are coming very hour…T-Shirts with Dreamland Prints you can buy everywhere….The lefthand waves is overcrowded….
But there are still some good places:
hello, hello Balangan and Padang Padang! The beaches there are awesome and I hope that it will be a small paradise for a while.
That is a real shame.
Is it still like this now?
I thought maybe with the latest crisis work may have stopped?
Is this wishful thinking or a possibility. Has anyone been recently as i am in bali in march?
Thanks for any info
shit..all the guest run from this beautiful beach..i’m interest to surf there anymore..keuntungan sepihak
hola.hey Chris did you know about wayag raja ampat indonesia is nice hope you make new blog about wayag island and misool too is wonderful.thanks
camilla, sorry – never heard of this one. Where exactly is that located?
ola… yes its true dreamland is becoming a brickland… but still there’s hope there’s still places in bali where the sea is undisturbed beauty…
ada, truly spoken! But don’t tell anyone where exactly!
Very upset about this. The first and only time I went to this beach it looked like paradise and the huts on the cliff face beautifully fit into the atmosphere of a cheery traditional location. very upset to hear of this. why didn’t anyone fight for this beach?
mellie, the problem is, that in Indonesia (and elsewhere) – money will always rule. The Dreamland area is rumored to belong to Tommy Suharto, member of one of the wealthiest families in Indonesia, so money can obviously still move mountains, as happened at Dreamland.
Unfortunately I arrived at Dreamland too late and did not get to see it as paradise. When I arrived one afternoon, bus loads of random tourists followed me, and hawkers were selling the exact same things from Kuta.
This writing is very good. I visited Dreamland yesterday with no idea about its history and absolutely hated the place (I couldnt even afford to buy a coke!).
The only time it was good was when I was in the beautiful surf with my back towards the monstrous development behind me.
This place is a tragedy now that I’ve read this history. Sponsored surfers should unite and fight this kind of thing. Yes money rules, but those guys working for Billabong etc have it too, and there has always been proof of ‘people power’ – yes… even in Bali…
Migration Mark and Amy, that sounds like the situation at Dreamland is getting worse. When I was there last time, at least one could still enjoy the beach, if you ignored the vendors and the cement fortress they build right there. Hopefully authorities wake up one day and learn one or two lessons from this lost paradise.
OMG!! I’ve just read this link after telling a friend how Dreamlands was a paradise, and now it is no more. I went there for a day trip in 2001, and stayed for 5 days as I loved it so much. I have had a photo of the place on my desk at work ever since, and now it’s gone. This is the saddest news ever!! What a waste!!
this is horrible news! i am taking some friends to bali this easter (first time for them, 3rd for me) and was just raving about my pleasant day at dreamland back in 2006, which was perfectly capped by a visit to uluwatu temple at sunset (yes, i’m still part tourist, but at least it’s a temple!).
would you be able to recommend another area? i loved how the beach still had people, but most just relaxing, and not just tourists taking photos or hawkers cutting into my reverie. i’m from the philippines, so i’m not exactly starved for isolated beaches with natural views, so what i really loved was the combination of a great beach, unpretentious restaurant, and other pleasant beachgoers (who drink of course).
padang padang is also about to be destroyed (or maybe already is gone for good, i don’t know for sure. the bulldozers were already working from what i saw on pictures in february, shaving off some 70 meters of cliff face on a downward slope to sea level)
it was my favorite place, really loved it. i am going to bali this september again and i am sad beyond words that i won’t see this beautiful place again. in fact, there are awful plans for lots of huge ugly resorts for the whole bukit. balangan, impossibles, bingin won’t last much longer.
there is a group on facebook named SAVE BUKIT – BALI (unfortunately there is a lot of spam on their wall and also in the photo-album) but if you are patient enough to scroll to the beginning of the posts you can find some info about it. there are also some pictures of the buliding sites and drawings of the planned resorts (ignore the first 3 pages of the album, which have nothing to do with the topic, and go directly to page 4 and start displaying the pictures from there on). it is really horrible.
jen, what you say is true, unfortunately. I was there about 3 weeks ago and although I didn’t see any bulldozers – things obviously are more commercial than ever. Hundreds of people are packed like Sardines on that small strip of beach, reminded me of the beaches of Spain in High Summer. Guess, it’s just not a cheap surfer spot or well-hidden secret after all anymore. Hope things get back a bit more to normal when the high season ends here in Bali.