Comments: Yes, Ubud was a quaint city

I have lived here for almost 20 years and have seen what was once a lovely quiet and quaint place has turned into a "sophisticated" tourist nightmare. As much I want Ubud to be nominated as the best city I object to this designation. Come and visit our market, with its open garbage heaps.

Take a walk on the sidewalks, but keep your eyes downcast in case you fall in the many gaping holes. (By A.J. Maes, Ubud, Bali)

Your comments:

I have to agree with you about helmets, policemen, cutting down the trees, garbage, and especially the gaping holes. I have lived and worked in Ubud for nearly a year. Living in Ubud, for city folks like me, delivers new hope for green, healthy, spiritual living. So do I agree that Ubud can be the best city in Asia?

Yes. If they consider the natural beauty, the spiritual atmosphere, the very traditional yet modern touch it has. But, there is still plenty of room for improvement: limit the population, control the homeless, and the police should sort out what is in their and what is in the pecalang's (the traditional police's) jurisdiction.

I just hope the royal is thinking of developing his town rather then taking a business course in a foreign country just to work for a multinational company. You're lucky, AJ, at least you were there when everything was still lovely.

I.R. Yara
Jakarta

I'm an avid Ubud lover who has traveled there for more than a decade, and agree with your every word. I was even there for the royal ngaben (cremation).

Ubud's authority and the much-revered Ubud royal family should spend more time seriously and carefully thinking about, preparing for and leading Ubud's inevitable rise to fame.

Or the tide will be controlled by the uncontrollable power of commercialized tourism and Ubud will sadly end up like the lost beach areas of Kuta and Legian, the places that are as banal as any overexploited beaches around the world.

Lynda I
Jakarta