A Facebook post from a foreign resident lamenting the conditions of Ubud’s broken sidewalks after she literally fell through one, has apparently prompted a response from the local government in Bali—which will hopefully eventually translate to action.
The victim to the rough pavements, Elaine, tells Coconuts Bali that she had no idea her post would inspire so much response, especially from the local government and the Indonesian press, who reported on her Facebook post.
“I wanted to bring attention to the plight of the pavements, but no, I never dreamed my post would make the daily newspaper,” Elaine told Coconuts Bali in an email.
“Friends have broken their ankles, and according to the multitude of comments my post got, several people have broken their legs and ankles falling in those potholes dotted frequently on Jalan Monkey Forest.
“I mean it’s not a very nice welcome for tourists. Surely Bali can do better. It makes one angry. I am a senior lady, and don’t need the trauma.
“The holes are deep and dangerous and plentiful, and they have not gotten any better for the 10 years or so I have been coming here. It’s a pretty disgusting state of affairs.”
Posting on June 28 to the Facebook group Ubud Community—which boasts over 57,000 members—Elaine chronicled her fall into a massive hole when walking in the small jungle town on one of the main roads, Jl. Monkey Forest.
“Four hours later, four stitches in my shin, and Rp 1.7 million poorer,” the woman wrote in her Ubud Community post that received a flurry of comments from fellow netizens commiserating in the rough status of Ubud’s pavements.
“To me, it is very obvious the tourist money does not go into fixing up roads and pavements but into buttered pockets.”
Concluding her post with a warning, she wrote: “Be very careful walking down Jalan Monkey Forest and else where in Ubud.
“It is full of enormous deep dangerous holes.”
A collection of photos from Elaine and another netizen followed in the thread of Ubud’s treacherous sidewalks, riddled with holes and danger markers like shopping bags to warn off unsuspecting pedestrians.
But when you are walking in the dark at night, it’s not so clear just how broken the pavement is, even if you spend a lot of time in Ubud, says Elaine.
“I was happily walking down Jalan Monkey Forest on my way back home one evening a week ago. Yes I live here a lot, this is my hood, my neighborhood, my stretch of land. I walk up and down all day. I should know all the potholes well. But I got diverted following tourists behind the parked taxis in the dark and next second, I was down a big nasty dangerous pothole,” Elaine told Coconuts Bali.
“Oh admittedly it looks very quaint in the day time, with branches of trees warning tourists don’t step here, and now the Ralph Lauren shopping bag hanging on one of the branches has added an air of ‘je ne sais quoi,’ but it doesn’t feel very accommodating when you are stuck down it with one leg hanging down and one leg hanging out.
“Thank God the locals rushed over and the lovely taxi driver rushed me to the clinic. I wish I could find him again to thank him better.”
Responding to Elaine’s post, a representative from the area’s regional council, the Gianyar DPRD, I Kadek Era Sukadana says that in meetings, he has repeatedly brought up the need to repair the sidewalks in Ubud, but he has never gotten a positive response.
“As a representative of Ubud, I have often requested for the repair of public facilities in Ubud. But I’m always ignored,” the Golkar party politician told local paper, Tribun Bali.
This is unfair, says Sukadana, because Ubud contributes the largest PAD (locally generated revenue) in Gianyar.
And Ubud’s problems go beyond messed up pavements, says Sukadana.
“We are already overwhelmed with traffic jams. Now, additional facilities like sidewalks are severely damaged. Please, the relevant agencies here need to not just sit in their offices, but frequently go down to the field, to see how the state of Ubud actually is,” Sukadana said, adding that he fears such conditions could turn tourists away.
The politician also insists that the Department of Transportation should conduct an inspection of the many vehicles parked on the edge of the sidewalk, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk on the path—the very thing that forced Elaine off course and into a hole.
Meanwhile, the head of the Gianyar Public Works Office, I Nyoman Nuadi has promised to send staff to review the pavement situation, but the degree to which things can actually change does not sound exceedingly promising.
If the damage is “severe enough,” it will get repaired soon, according to Tribun Bali.
However, an overall, over-sweeping road repair cannot be conducted this year, because of money issues, says Nuadi.
“Because of budget constraints, we can only do limited maintenance,” he said.
