This week's Sanur Weekly is pretty much all bad news.
The first article concerns the development of a plan to require all people entering a mall or restaurant to provide proof of COVID vaccination. Bali is expected to be one of the first regions to be included in the trials. Now this would all be fine with me if I had been or even could be vaccinated, but as it stands, there is no vaccination for me in sight due to MS and to the lack of vaccines other than astrazeneka. So I can't help but feel kind of bummed at the prospect of being stuck in my house day and night forever.
In the meantime, shutdown has been extended once again, until August 16th this time (at which point it will probably be extended further, given the ineffectiveness thus far of the shutdowns having any measurable effect.
As any reopening of Bali appears very far away indeed, Australians are looking for new paradises for their vacations and seem to have hit upon Saipan as a pleasant location. Saipan, a US territory, is expected to have all of its inhabitants vaccinated in the near future.
The bleak picture is made bleaker yet in recent announcement from the Bank of Indonesia urging businesses and business people in Bali to stop relying on the tourism industry, as it is not expected to recover any time soon.
The one piece of good news is that three different motorbike licences will soon be required, according to what sort of bike one drives. This will make driving the annoying loud motorbikes more expensive (and hopefully, from where I stand, discourage their use).
The Airport Hilton and the Hard Rock Hotel have suspended all operations for "at least three months". There's no one there, you see?
In Denpasar, a Circle K convenience store has been robbed for the second time in four weeks. The break-in occurred while the store was closed. The thief stole 62 packs of cigarettes. It is assumed that he is "probably a pretty heavy smoker".
And that wraps it up for this week.
2 comments:
I love reading the news from Bali. I use to live in Guam. I went to Saipan many times. It is no Bali for sure. It is quiet and laid back. It has great diving and snorkeling
Anonymous--Ah, interesting. My understanding is that it is a US territory and thus would accept Medicare. I've never been there. Would be interesting to at least visit. And I like quiet and laid back. However, I will need to get a vaccine first ;)
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