‘Round the World With Your Personal Green Sleuths!
NOW IN: BALI Follow us as we sleuth our way ’round the world on a year-long odyssey in search of great green travel: the very best for the planet and you. Our itinerary is an adventure-in-progress, but it will most certainly include Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Central America and Mexico … in short, locales where sleuthing is sorely needed and trustworthy green travel intelligence can be hard to come by. Awaiting us, we are confident, are green travel venues and experiences that deserve our support. For our latest dispatches from the green travel front, we invite you to check back here often.
Add comment October 21, 2008
Green Traveler Guides Hawaii: First Guide Series For the Green Traveler in Hawaii
It’s all here! Which Honolulu top chefs buy from local organic farmers? We’ll not only answer that, but tell you what percentage of their ingredients meet that green standard. What inns and resorts are the greenest in Hawaii—and exactly why? We’ll tell you that too. Where are Hawaii’s best farmers’ markets and which farmers should you buy from? Yes, we’ve got that covered as well. And that’s only the beginning of our bounty of our great green facts and fun.
Click here to buy!
We personally experience every place we recommend. And choose only the very best green travel venues and experiences.
Best sleeping: green inns, b&b’s, hotels & farm stays
Best eating: organic dining & local markets
Best seeing: eco-heroes & earth-friendly wonders
Easily downloadable e-guides as Adobe Digital Editions (get reader software for free at www.adobe.com) … the greenest choice … paper- and ink-free! Plus the online format gives you instant access to the Websites and e-mail of our recommendations—just click and you’re there!
Also available in island editions: Oahu, Maui (includes Molokai and Lanai), Big Island and Kauai.
Add comment October 8, 2008
Hijau & Bagus
The Perfect Balance Great green travel is, like many things, a matter of healthy balance. Often the places we sleuth out are quite green … but not great enough. So, regrettably, we can’t sing their praises. We’re not necessarily talking fancy, exclusive or pricey. What’s our definition of great? That’s easy: Can we wholeheartedly recommend it to family and friends? Does it give us the GGWFs (Great Green Warm and Fuzzies)? Sarinbuana Eco-Lodge, perched on the slopes of Mt Batukaru a black eagle’s cry from the largest remaining rainforest on the Indonesian island of Bali, gives us the GGWFs all over. In Indonesian, hijau means green. Great is bagus. We’re all about hijau and bagus, and so is this property.
Jungle House Bungalow
Start with its green creds. Sarinbuana’s 4 guest bungalows of traditional Balinese design are handcrafted of local and sustainable timbers and materials. Lighting is energy-efficient. A no-burn policy means everything possible is recycled or composted and remaining trash is not tossed onto a bonfire (as is so widely done here). A no-chemical policy means not only is the kitchen garden organic, so are the rest of the 100+ food, medicinal and ceremonial plants and trees of this mountain retreat’s permaculture “food forest.” All cleaning and laundering is done with natural products. Simple but effective waste water treatment reclaims all used water for irrigation: plants in ”waste water gardens” do the job of removing harmful bacteria.
Waiting in your guest bungalow is what at first glance looks to be standard info about property amenities and services. Look more closely, and you find one of the most impressive articulations of what it means to be an eco-lodge we’ve seen, a point-by-point listing of Sarinbuana’s support of the natural, built and social environments. There’s even a section about being an “eco-guest” with suggestions such as avoiding chemical-based shampoo and insect repellent (the lodge supplies a plant-based bug spray), donating used children’s books in English to Sarinbuana’s tutoring program for village kids and ordering eco-friendly meals (made from food grown within a 20 km radius) from the lodge’s menu. Another way to be earth-friendly as a green traveler, of course, is to offset the carbon impact of your journey. The lodge has its own offset program of planting and maintaining fruit-bearing trees in nearby Batukaru National Park. This increases food sources for wildlife and also creates new income for local villagers who grow the seedlings.
Now let’s talk about the great.
Orchid House Bungalow
The guest accommodations are wonderful without pretension. The Orchid Bungalow, where we lodged, is simple, natural and colorful, with a lovely outdoor shower and a front balcony with jaw-dropping views to the lush mountainside and the distant south coast more than 2 thousand feet below; you enjoy complete privacy, yet light fills your world through elaborately hand-carved windows—the work of a local who, after becoming disabled from a fall from a coconut palm, taught himself the island way of shaping wood into art. Terracotta floor and roof tiles were hand-made from local clays, the copper sink hand-beaten by a Bali craftsman, the furniture locally made.
Sarinbuana’s cooks turn out both Indonesian and Western fare with care and considerable flair. This is the place to introduce yourself to local wonders like sambol bongkot (a mildly fiery salsa made with the flower of the ginger plant), banana stem with coconut cream, and the powerhouse kelor leaf (moringa oleifera), said to contain 7 times the vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the calcium in milk and vitamin A in carrots, 3 times the potassium in bananas and twice the protein in milk! Oh, yes—for dessert, don’t miss the crumble of snakeskin fruit (also known as salak) with a scoop of housemade coconut ice cream sweetened with palm sugar.
Activities are firmly rooted in nature and local culture. In addition to rainforest treks and walks to a mountain Hindu temple (with local guides paid twice what they could earn working in construction), you can take an Indonesian language lesson, learn Balinese calligraphy, ceremonial costumes and make-up and more. We took a fascinating garden walk that showcased plants and herbs used in traditional Balinese medicine and cuisine.
Norm (right) planting trees in rainforest
Norm and Linda vant Hoff own Sarinbuana and live on property with their family. Norm, an engaging Australian, is a former boat captain who helped to institute a network of moorings throughout the Great Barrier Reef to protect coral from anchor damage. When not at Sarinbuana, he consults with international aid organizations on permaculture and sanitation projects—most recently, in areas of Sumatra still recovering from tsunami devastation. Linda, Sarinbuana’s attentive and soft-spoken hostess, is originally from New Zealand; she’s a dedicated organic farmer who set up Australia’s first organic/biodynamic farmers’ markets a decade ago. The vant Hoffs have worked tirelessly to build bridges to the local community, even managing to attract grants that have funded rainforest walk pathways, a new village community building, school computers and library books. In exchange the village elders have declared a 800-hectare area under community protection, with a ban on harvesting, hunting, gathering or the cutting down of trees. “This was just coconuts and grazing land when I arrived,” says Norm, with a sweep of an arm across the incredibly lush panorama of his lodge property. “We planted all of it.”
Add comment November 12, 2008
Bali Eco-Heroes: Ben & Blair Ripple
Green Farm Visionaries Nearly 9 years ago, Blair and Ben Ripple dug deep into dark volcanic soil in the highlands of central Bali and pulled out a handful of potatoes. It was the first harvest for Big Tree Farms. Since then, the Ripples have become the premier producer of sustainably grown (organic) produce in Indonesia, with more than 80 different crops. This young couple from the US Northwest had the idea not only of farming themselves, but also of introducing small-scale sustainable farming practices to traditional Balinese villages. And thus they have also become marketers of Balinese artisan products like handcrafted sea salt, heritage palm sugar, wild cacao and spices.
Along the way, they spawned some unwanted competitors—unscrupulous packagers who labeled conventionally grown vegetables as organic. “It all became unhinged; something had to change,” Ben Ripple told an interviewer recently.
Ben Ripple (right)
To achieve the scale of social change they envisioned, the Ripples realized they had to become more than an “insular organic produce company.” Racheting up their efforts, they sought help from outside investors and earlier this year launched PT Bali Organic Alami (Island Organics). Now they’re dedicated to developing high-volume production of sustainably grown organic produce by providing technical assistance and more sophisticated distribution and marketing to local farm cooperatives. A total of 8 co-ops (some 160 farmers) have signed on for the initial phase of the effort.
These vegetable farmers will become the first anywhere in Indonesia to be certified organic to international standards. (Indonesia is in the process of establishing its own organic certification standards.)
“Bali could become a model for the world,” Ben Ripple says. “I truly believe that Bali can become the world’s first organic island.”
Add comment November 5, 2008
Bali High in Pemuteran
North to Nirvana Northern Bali is one big ahhhhhhh compared to the anthill of activity to the south. But with its slower pace and uncrowded vistas come a lagging sensibility about the benefits of green living. Yet there are bright spots. One such is the seaside village of Pemuteran, where local fishermen regularly used dynamite and cyanide to harvest their catch. Damage to the local reef (aided also by El Niño) was severe. But then, spearheaded by village dive shop operators, a bold recovery effort was begun, using a little-tested method of stimulating reef regeneration (normally a very slow process) through use of electricity at an extremely low voltage. It’s working.
An equally impressive village project is a green sea turtle hatchery at dive operator Reef Seen Aquatics, which buys newly laid green, olive ridley and hawksbill turtle eggs from villagers who find nests on the beach. Hatchlings are nurtured until release in the Bali Sea. This island, unfortunately, is one of the world’s biggest sea turtle predators; until recent efforts to curb the practice, as many as 30,000 turtles were caught and slaughtered yearly, some for ceremonial purposes, the rest for the meat and shells.
Puri Ganesha Villas
Pemuteran has another bright green spot: Puri Ganesha Villas. Built on 400 meters of coral beach, its 4 villas are the epitome of a stress-free indulgence in eco-conscious luxury. One UK publication called Puri Ganesha “the most come-as-you-are spot in 5-star Bali.” Each 2-story villa, thatch-roofed and modeled on a traditional Balinese village meeting place known as a wantilan, is antique-filled, has its own swimming pool, and comes with a staff of 2. No plastic bottles or even straws here! Excellent cuisine (including fantastic dishes like Balinese betutu chicken with jackfruit curry and many vegetarian and even raw options like beetroot carpaccio with cashew hummus) is sourced from local farmers and offered as a “green menu.” Drinking and cooking water comes from a pure volcanic spring in the mountains. The resort was first in the area to recycle—everything left as trash is hauled miles away to the regional hub of Singaraja. Villa lighting is romantically subdued, never mind that low wattage bulbs are earth-friendly, and fridges are CFC-free.
Diana von Cranach, the Auntie Mame-ish Brit who a decade ago used her superb interior design skills and 200 Deutschmarks (she was just divorced from a German economist) to start realizing this tropical fantasy, says she hopes to bring solar power to Pemuteran in the future.
Villa Santai, Puri Ganesha
Meantime, she and her now Balinese husband, Gusti, have their hands full. She’s about to publish her second cookbook, this one devoted to raw food recipes; she leads weeklong explorations of Balinese cooking and cuisine called Rice & Spice Adventures. Gusti is heading up a program to send local kids to junior high school. More than 80% of households in Pemuteran live below the poverty line, and cannot afford to school their children past the free primary level. Guests at Puri Ganesha and anyone else can directly aid a child with a scholarship donation of approximately $360US a year, which pays for junior high admission fees, uniforms and shoes, textbooks and supplies, a small amount of pocket money, and a bicycle for transport to and from school; donors get information and photos about their sponsored child, plus progress reports. When we visited, Gusti and Diana were planning to go even further by hiring a special teacher for the scholarship kids to make certain the investment pays dividends in learning. This is a splendid opportunity to help a young Balinese reach his or her full potential knowing that your money is well spent and goes directly for the intended purpose.
Add comment November 5, 2008
The 2nd Green Revolution In Ubud
Cafe Bali Buddha
Those Revolutionary Sixties Not so very long ago, all of Bali, Indonesia, was green. Which is to say, before chemicals were widely used on the luxuriantly green rice terraces that feed this busy island of 3+ million inhabitants. The flooded paddies were laboratories of biodiversity, home to eels, snakes, frogs, snails, many insects, even fish. Then, around 1965, the ironically named Green Revolution began. The government pushed a hybrid rice seed that promised higher yields if fed a buffet of petro-chemicals.
The results: a classic case of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Yields did rise dramatically, but then began to tail off, requiring ever more expensive chemical fertilizer. Biodiversity waned. Rice farmers suffered new health problems. By the late 1990s, a movement to return to organic practices was underway. Rice grown without industrial chemicals still accounts for only a small percentage of Bali’s total crop, but the push toward healthier food of all types is growing here, as it is nearly everywhere.
And the cultural, artistic, and spiritual center of the island—the upcountry town of Ubud and its cluster of surrounding villages—is at the heart of Bali’s 2nd, and true, Green Revolution. A few Ubud rice farmers even grow healthier organic brown rice, a rarity in white-rice craving Asia. Their crop, it’s said, is sold out even before harvest.
Our Ubud green traveler recommendations:
Bali Buddha—Ubud’s original organic health food store and cafe (”earth-conscious people serving healthy food”) is as green and great as ever. Since 1984, its owners have been making good on their pledge to source all produce from “local farmers who are trying to make a difference…. The gardens we buy from have been tested, meaning that your food and drinks are as chemical-free as possible.” Upstairs, the mellow cafe offers breakfast, lunch and dinner; from “super health drinks” (try the Detox: lemon, honey, aloe vera and ginger with mint or cayenne) to free-range organic egg and chicken dishes, raw and vegan choices, Italian, international and Balinese fare. Produce is washed in purified water, and organic cleaning products are used on toys and surfaces in a children’s play area. They even deliver within greater Ubud! Downstairs, the health food store stocks local organic produce, healthy baked goods and artisan food products as well as brands you may know from home. 1 Jalan Jembawan (across from the post office), tel (03-61) 978-963
Dr. Wayan’s—Just down Jembawan from Bali Buddha, look for the sign that promises traditional Balinese healing and “vegetarian healthy food” amid pots of herbs and other plants that are actually a living medicine chest. You’ve found a world-famous green eatery. Famous, at least, to the millions who’ve read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling book Eat, Pray, Love. We won’t recount the amazing story of gracious Wayan, except to say that she’s one of a long line of natural healers and that the walls of her office/restaurant are lined with ceiling-high cubbies storing natural remedies for maladies great and small (cancer to help with “narrowing the vaginal orifice.”) With a hypnotic smile and gentle manner, she does body “readings” and sells her herbs, roots, and whatnots. Do come here for lunch, at least. No menu, simply sit down and wait. As plate after plate arrives, each with something interesting and truly delicious, you’ll also get an education: each dish is labeled in English with its attendant health benefits. Grilled coconut: prevents rheumatism. Papaya: digestion and strong eyes. And so on. And all for a few dollars.
Kafe—The menu and adjoining natural and organic health food shop bear similarity to Bali Buddha’s (above) and so does the friendly and laidback expat vibe. Kafe also delivers (the extra charge works out, roughly, to 50¢ US). Unlike BB, this is also a free Wifi hotspot. What really distinguishes this place, though, is its parentage and extended family. Kafe is owned by an American and a Balinese who operate an excellent website that is a resource for Indonesia’s holistic living venues, services and activities. Kafe’s health food retail is run by Bali Cares, a nonprofit that donates a percentage of profits to charitable organizations within the Indonesian archipelago. Just behind the restaurant is an office of SOS, the Sumatran Orangutan Society, dedicated to saving the critically endangered habitat and population of one of our closest relatives (orangutans share more than 94% of human DNA); nearby is The Yoga Barn, under the same ownership as Kafe and offering excellent yoga classes, dance, meditation and special events like a weekly dinner and movie (usually an important documentary) for $7US, including popcorn. 44B Jalan Hanoman, tel (62-361) 780 3802
Ubud Sari Health Resort—Even if you don’t stay at one of the stylishly spare Zen cottages, or indulge in an excellent massage or other bodywork here, don’t miss the raw and vegetarian organic cuisine at the simple and serene cafe. The resort and Nomad restaurant (on Jalan Raya Ubud not far west of the public market) source much of their produce and dairy products from their own organic farm in Baturiti, a village northwest of Ubud; tour the farm for about $25 a person, including lunch prepared from vegetables you pick, by reserving a day ahead at Nomad, or phone (03-61) 749 4115. 35 Jalan Kajeng, tel (62-361) 974393
Ubud Organic Farmers
Organic Farmers’ Market—Every Saturday, from 9:30 am–2 pm, a small but sweetly spirited organic farmers’ market sets up in front of Pizza Bagus, south of Ubud village on Jalan Pengosekan (across from the Arma Museum). Among the small, local and organic farms and food artisans represented here are producers of jams, tofu (look for the tofu falafels—fantastic!), honey, baked goods, coffee, sea salt, dried and fresh fruit and veggies, herbs and body care products.
When in Bali, pick up free copies of Bali Advertiser, an English-language tabloid aimed at expats and visitors, for its regular “Greenspeak” column. The columns are also archived on the publication’s website.
Add comment November 5, 2008
Taiwan Treasure
The occidental tourist Taipei, the megapolis on the island nation of Taiwan, greeted us with an overcast sky that revealed itself as mostly smog and a zillion motor scooters piloted by stony Taiwanese wearing designer surgical masks to ward off the suspect air. The architecture on the ride in from the international airport seemed to ape the drab concrete of post-Stalinist Russia. But first impressions, as we all know, can be superficial, if not downright deceiving.
The Taiwanese are an unfailingly polite and helpful people; they offer you seats on public transit, and whenever we pulled out a map, an eager local (usually a woman) stepped up to ask in perfect English where we desired to go; one such lady even phoned ahead to our destination to make sure of the route.
Our first clue to an emerging green spirit came even before we left the airport. Signs in restrooms proclaimed that all paper products were made from recycled material—a claim not many U.S. airports can make. We soon began to spot recycling bins in city parks and public buildings. We found organic offerings at restaurants. One of these, Green Leaf, in Zhongshan district, offered a tasty dish featuring smoked organic chicken.
But our favorite find during our short stay in the city is at 273 Roosevelt Road just a few short blocks from Taiwan National University’s main campus and the Gongguan subway stop. It’s called Cotton Fields (though there’s no English signage at the entrance). For a few bucks, we enjoyed a tasty and healthy Taiwanese lunch in the upstairs dining area (listening to piped-in renditions of “O Susanna” and “Amazing Grace”). This venue, however, is primarily a first-rate natural and organic foods store. Here you can purchase anything from organic grape seed oil to local pineapple and bamboo shoots certified by TOFA (Taiwanese Organic Farmers Association) to rice and grains of many varieties, breads and local eggs, vitamins and natural body care products. When in Taipei, It’s a green oasis worth a special trip.
Add comment October 21, 2008
Maui, Green and Wild
Smoothies in Paradise Most people venture into the ever-greener wilds past Hāna on Maui to check out the pools of Ohe‘o Gulch or Charles Lindbergh’s grave. We go for organic fruit smoothies whipped up in a bicycle-powered blender. Or for a cup of smooth, shade-grown coffee, brewed from biodynamic/organic beans roasted that very morning; they were dried on a trampoline in a Bucky Fuller dome with help from a solar-powered fan. (Make mine with a splash of coconut milk, please.)
You’re in Kipahulu at the roadside stand of Laulima Farms, the most beautiful middle of nowhere you’ve ever seen. Look around. Sloping upward from the too-cute stand, this is the epitome of alive, a natural riot of food-in-the-making, flowers, butterflies, and pollinating bees. At a nearby pond, ducks make snacks of slugs and other garden pests. Because you’re on the gentle haunches of Mt. Haleakalā, you’re in a United Nation’s biosphere reserve. The good folks of Kipahulu have also declared it a GMO-free zone.
It was all guava and cane grass, recalls Josh Stearn, the farm’s manager, when it was purchased by his family (which owns the organic, vegan, and raw Café Gratitudesin the San Francisco area). Laulima means “many hands together,” and that’s what it took to transform these 13 acres. Most of the labor, then and now, comes from interns who trade use of their hands for the chance to live in this beautiful place. Today they’re harvesting all kinds of leafy greens and tasty veggies, herbs, roots like ginger and turmeric, tropical fruits (including 8 varieties of banana), cacao, not to mention the awesome coffee. Nearby Hotel Hāna-Maui, an awesome green oasis of a much tonier sort, buys tons of this bounty; the rest is sold at the farm.
All power flows from solar panels, the wind, or a back-up generator that runs on veggie oil (as do the farm’s vehicles and motorized equipment, including the small coffee roaster). Plantings are done permaculture style-permanent agriculture—to minimize energy use, human and otherwise. Ground cover, for instance, is the low, quickly spreading peanut plant, which need no mowing and puts lots of nitrogen back into the soil. The farm stand is a local gathering spot for talking story, checking out crafts by local artisans, and bulletin boards with flyers and newspaper articles about organic agriculture and sustainability. There are even weekly farm tours.
This post is a sneak preview of Green Traveler Guides’ Hawaii, our e-guide to all things green in the Aloha State, which goes on sale in September 2008.
1 comment September 15, 2008
3 Reasons To Be a Green Traveler
Best for you Study after study shows organic foods are more nutritious. They also contain more antioxidants—up to 40% more than non-organic counterparts—to help ward off cancer and heart disease. One study states “the health benefits were so striking that moving to organic food was the equivalent of eating an extra portion of fruit and vegetables every day.” Agreement among experts is growing that even small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect us, and especially so our kids and babies in the womb. Local food is best for you because it’s freshest (and carbon-emitting fossil fuels have not been expended to carry it thousands of miles to your plate).
Feel your best on the road. You’ll spend roughly half your travel hours in your lodging. Why spend them in the company of off-gassing petroleum-based furnishings, carpet, and wall coverings, toxic chemical cleaners and pesticide residues, and the rest of the uninvited roommates in the typical hotel room? It’s well documented that people in green buildings are happier, more productive, and are sick less often. Thus “sleeping green”—where nontoxic and natural cleaning products, linens, furnishings, and building materials are used—is a gift to your health and well-being. It’s critical to sufferers of serious environmental sensitivities, asthma, or allergies.
Best for the planet We know now that humans are to blame for climate change. How do we react? If everyone in the US chose organic for just a tenth of their diet (according to Mission Organic 2010) more than 6 billion pounds of carbon would be restored to our soil (where it belongs, instead in the atmosphere!), and more than 2 billion barrels of imported oil annually would never add to greenhouse gases. Who says little changes can’t have a big impact? Green travel is a win-win. You have a great travel experience … the planet breathes easier.
Best for local green business By supporting green businesses where you travel, you acknowledge their efforts to protect the environment, support their success, and encourage others to surf the same green wave. Buying local and organic means supporting local farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and those who make other local organic products, and helping them to lead healthier lives without toxic chemicals and other hazards to themselves and the planet. Never underestimate the power of your economic choices.
Add comment September 15, 2008
The Good Dr. Coconut
Nuts to us On Maui’s fabled road to Hāna, not far east of Pā‘iā town, there’s a roadside bamboo hut with the sign that reads HUELO LOOKOUT. Not only will you find fresh organic tropical fruit here ready to eat—whatever’s in season, be it mango, rambutan, lychee, papaya, and more—but there’s no better spot to sample cooling, healthful coconut water and soft young coconut meat right out of the shell. If you’re really lucky, the guy with the machete who deftly cracks the nut for you will be the fruit stand’s owner, Phillipe Visintainer, a Frenchman by birth who’s made it his mission to save Hawai‘i’s coconut palms from a deadly fungus that produces coconut heart rot. After the state told him it didn’t have the resources to fight the spreading infection, Visintainer used research begun by the University of Hawai‘i to create an inoculation that gives healthy coconut trees a 98% chance of avoiding the disease. Mahalo and merci!
Add comment September 8, 2008
