Rebirth of an icon

In a 2008 file photo, overseas tourists get information from their guides about Mount Batur in Kintamani, one of the more popular tourist sites in Bangli regency, Bali.(JP/Wasti Atmodjo) Swamped by a dozen women flogging sarongs, hounded by others selling handcrafts and insulted for then diving into a vehicle and screaming “drive”, is not a pleasant holiday experience. 

To be blocked en route to Bali’s scenic spots and extorted for payment on public roads, again by a mob of belligerent women, can be firstly frightening and secondly frustrating.

Anecdotal evidence says episodes such as these have been occurring around Kintamani and Lake Batur for some time, shaking the foundations of an important economic stream – tourism – for the region. 

“We got out of the car to have a look at the view and a group of women crowded around us to sell t-shirts. They threw them at us and of course we caught them, having touched them we had to buy. We bought t-shirts we didn’t want just to get out of there. And then they said we had to buy from everyone. We were really scared and bolted for the car. We won’t go there again,” said one visitor to the area, which was once an “iconic” tourist destination.

In an effort to restore the reputation and visitor numbers to Kintamani and the extraordinarily beautiful crater lake of Mount Batur, Indonesia’s Culture and Tourism Ministry launched Monday the inaugural Lake Batur Festival in Kedisan village on the shores of the crater lake.

Highlights of the festival included canoe racing, a local barong performance and fruit carving.

This last tied to the festival’s goal of presenting Lake Batur as a center of fresh produce and local cuisine, according to Indonesian Chef Association’s national secretary, Margie Gunawan, who attended the festival as judge of the fruit carving competition. 

Crafted by Bali’s master chefs in little over two hours from pumpkin, turnip, carrot, watermelon, cantaloupe and cassava, statues of fish swimming the lake, squirrels quivering in fear of eagles, curled snakes with dragon heads and a delicate arrangement of orchids rose from amid the fruit and vegetable peelings, stunning the local audience and delighting children who snapped fruit sculpture shots with cell phones. 

Nine-year-old local Kadek said the festival was “good because it’s fun. My favorite carving is the fish.”

Among the all male fruit carving team was Kartika Plaza Hotel chef Made Somanita. His tiger head, squirrel and eagle sculpture was staggeringly life-like, the thinly sliced pumpkin wings of the eagle undulating in the breeze.

“I have been learning to carve since I was six years old. I also carve ice, chocolate and butter. Butter is the most difficult. I do this as a hobby and I have competed internationally. There are several carving championships each year in Sanur and Nusa Dua, but this is the first time here in Batur. I think the festival will be good to promote the region,” said Chef Made, 

On a nearby table, Made Giri from the Sanur Beach Hotel was putting the final touches to his serpent carved from pumpkin. Each scale of the reptile was defined, its head that of a dragon with fine whiskers and needle-thin fangs, not an easy task to carve from pumpkin.

“I am a food artist, self taught.  Since I was little I have been carving, I started with wood then when I began working in a hotel I began carving fruit and ice for the hotel. There is a definite wow factor for guests when they see the carvings and I feel this is an interesting art form,” said Made who crafts his own carving knives. 

His kit is formed from paint brush handles joined to fine blades, sharpened and formed steel chisels and for the heavy work, his chef’s knife collection.

“The tools need to be really sharp to slice through hard vegetable, like pumpkin. I buy metal and then shape it to my hand,” said Made. He adds the technical aspect of carving fruit and ice demands firstly imagination to picture from a bowl of fruit and vegetables a finished sculpture, to see the produce from a different perspective. 

“Then you need to study the techniques. Ice is the most difficult to master, if carving from fruit you need to constantly modify or it can collapse, but you can glue fruit. Ice is different. I have never had a collapse as I build on good foundations,” says Made ahead of the judging, which follows a strict criteria. 

Chairman of the Bali chapter of IOC, Ida Bagus Made Parwata, who joined a large team of judges for the competition, explains fruit carving is “one of the culinary arts of Bali. We have a unique style. The number one criteria is imagination and also the expression through the carving of the theme. The theme of the festival is flora and fauna,” said Parwata.

Another element is the seamless matching of fruit to vegetables.

“We look for creative ideas that blend together fruit and vegetables and that also inspire every viewer’s eyes through the color combinations and the level of carving skill,” said Parwata. 

A favorite sculpture for judge Margie Guawan was a series of fish carved from pumpkin.

“It’s a favorite because it is so very difficult to carve an entire statue from one pumpkin in just one piece,” said Margie highlighting that pumpkin is an extremely difficult vegetable to carve, given its density. 

“The chefs need five or six different kinds of carving knives and these need to be very sharp. This is why most chefs make their own carving knives and all these are different,” said Margie. 

On the edge of the small crowd fascinated with the carving process was locally born Putu Gede Ariadi who works as a tourist guide. 

“I think this is really interesting and having the festival with events like the fruit carving may help bring visitors back to Batur. But as well as the festival there must be a change in the culture of selling. Guests who are forced to buy feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. They can’t relax and they can’t even buy souvenirs because they are being pushed. I think the government, the local Bangli government, needs to create rules to control this – if the government does not introduce strict rules, it will just get worse here,” said Putu.

He added that the hundreds of trucks that daily strip the Batur landscape of black lava was another issue desperately in need of law enforcement.

“It’s illegal to take the black lava, but every day there are at least one or two hundred trucks harvesting the lava for building in Bali’s south. The Bangli government and national park officers do nothing to prevent this, which will be an ecological disaster.

“The black lava field where Julia Roberts was filmed for Eat, Pray, Love is now destroyed – the lava stolen – so we have a lot of problems to address if we want Batur to again be a place where visitors want to come,” said Putu.