Dreamland Beach

I’m extremely slow at blogging… about one to two months behind and I’ve got many readers and friends asking me for more updates and more photos. I’d try but between work, travel and family… I have just this little window of space to upload and watermark my photos so please do understand. I promise I’ll get the photos and stories out eventually.

A few years back when I came back from Bali, I was raving to my friends and family how wonderful and gorgeous Dreamland beach was. How the pristine waters and untouched nature filled my heart with joy. But this time when I went back to Dreamland beach, I’m sad to report that it’s yet another wonderful location lost to the scary evilness of commercialization. The whole area is packed with tourists and the beach has been vilified!

Initially, Dreamland beach was the pet project of ommy Suharto, the son of the former Indonesian president. He seized the use of the land and drove the locals out, wanting to built some luxury resort and golfing area. But when the 1998 economic crisis and the Bali bombings began, the project was abandoned. Instead this gorgeous area was left alone and was only known as the most beautiful and best surf beach to the locals with insider knowledge. I still remember the first time I step foot in dreamland… it was dirt roads all the way in and definitely no car parks. The beach was almost empty except for a few locals and expats that lived in Bali.

The whole secluded area with astounding beauty stole my heart the moment I laid my eyes on it. It was possibility the  best beach I’ve seen and rivals the beaches of Maldives or Fiji. But as we all know how this sad story is going to end… this didn’t last.

Although the waters are still relatively clear and the waves are still good enough for the pro-surfers, it wasn’t as beautiful as before.

While I feel that the revival of Bali as a tourist destination is good for their economy and helps improve their unemployment rate, Dreamland beach was sacrificed in this exchange.

The rich came back to claim their stake on Dreamland, bringing with them golf courses, 5 star resorts and a slew of touts and shops hawking souvenirs and tee shirts. It’s unsightly to see how these organisations profit from what was originally the locals hangout. And while I understand that nothing this beautiful can escape commercialization, the decline of the beach from the last time I saw it is so dramatic that it breaks my heart.

Dreamland will no longer be the dream beach I experienced the first time I came to Bali and this trip there will most likely be the last time I visit Dreamland Beach. Anyways, I think they changed the name of the beach to Kelapa New Kuta Beach. I can’t bear to see the downfall of the beach any further and I sometimes worry if my children will ever see gorgeous untainted pristine beaches again should every commercialization take place with no thought of retaining that value.

For those who have never visited Kelapa New Kuta Beach before, don’t let my post deter you for it is still a good beach and a million times better than the ones we have in Singapore. But if you are looking to find unspoilt beauty don’t expect too much. It’s still a fantastic beach for pro-surfers cause the waves are one of the best in Bali.

Here’s a really short video.