LALANGLINGGAH VILLAGE, Indonesia – Ni Nyoman Ayu Sutaryani, mother of three, made a living for two decades working as a massage therapist and yoga instructor at Bali luxury hotels and spas. Now 37, she’s back on her childhood village’s farm here, precariously standing on top of a tall bamboo ladder, picking nails.
It is not the life that Ms. Ayu had imagined for herself. But in Bali, which relies heavily on tourism, it is one of the thousands of workers who were forced by the coronavirus pandemic to return to their villages and traditional ways of earning a living.
“This is the first time that I am unemployed, and sometimes I want to cry,” Ayu said. “Everything is going back to the old days. That is what we have to do instead of starving. “
Like Ms. Ayu, many have returned to their family farms, helping to plant and harvest. Others feed their families by digging for clams in the shallow bay of Benoa or launching fishing lines into the sea from one of Bali’s deserted beaches.
In a sign of how far the Indonesian island’s economy has slowed, some rural residents have resorted to bartering fruits and vegetables so they can save their limited cash to buy necessities.
Bali, with a population of 4.4 million and eight times the physical size of Singapore, is Indonesia’s tourism engine, with spectacular beaches, terraced rice paddies, picturesque temples and an ideal climate. Mostly Hindu in a predominantly Muslim nation, Bali forged its own identity as a tourist destination decades ago and was once widely viewed abroad as an independent country. Hoping to capitalize on the name of Bali, the central government began a campaign last year to create 10 “new Bali destinations.”
More than half of Bali’s economy depends directly on tourism, and a quarter is dedicated to tourism-related activities, such as transporting visitors and supplying food to hotels and restaurants. Last year, Bali attracted more than six million tourists from abroad and 10 million from Indonesia.
The number of hotels continues to grow; Some international chains operate more than two dozen. President Trump has kicked in, partnering with a politically connected billionaire to build a Trump-branded hotel and golf resort.
The economy has suffered other disasters: the 2002 Bali bombing, the 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2017 Mount Agung volcano eruption. But the coronavirus outbreak has been the most devastating.
In March, Indonesia banned foreign visitors from the worst-affected countries and, weeks later, extended the ban to all foreign tourists. In May, the government banned domestic tourists from traveling to Bali, though officials and business travelers were allowed a negative coronavirus test.
However, Indonesia has overtaken China in the number of cases to become the worst affected country in East Asia, with more than 88,000 cases and 4,200 deaths as of Monday. In Bali, the number of cases has doubled, to 2,781, and deaths have quadrupled, to 44, in just over three weeks.
Travel restrictions have affected Bali’s tourism industry. During the first half of the year, the island received 1.1 million foreign tourists, almost all of them before the pandemic. That was a drop of almost 2.9 million during the same period last year. Comparative figures for national tourists were not available.
Eager to revive the economy, Bali Governor I Wayan Koster began gradually reopening the island this month, including popular restaurants and beaches. He hopes to bring domestic tourists to Bali starting next week and attract foreign tourists from September 11.
For a generation, young people have been brought from villages in northern Bali to work in resorts, mainly in southern Bali. Many attend vocational tourism schools before working in hotels, restaurants, and tourism agencies.
“Tourism has become the dominant job for most people,” said Ricky Putra, president of the Bali Hotel Association.
The pandemic has forced hotels and other tourist facilities to lay off some workers and reduce the wages and hours of others. Larger hotels have kept skeleton staff on duty, rotating workers for a week or two at a time, while allowing them to earn a little money and return to their villages.
“Most of them go back to their villages,” said Mr. Ricky, who is also general manager of the Santrian Resorts and Villas group of hotels. “Some of them can use this challenging time to help their parents and go back to farming or fishing in their town.”
A local leader, Dewa Komang Yudi, said he appreciated the return of tourism workers to their community, Tembok Village, in the far north of Bali. He said around 400 unemployed workers (waiters, spa employees, drivers and kitchen assistants) had returned to the 7,000 village and were growing food on land that had been fallow due to lack of workers. He hopes that many will stay permanently.
“The urbanization happened suddenly due to the pandemic,” he said. “There are now more people in northern Bali than in southern Bali because many of them returned to their villages. This is what we have been dreaming about. ”
Yudi, 33, who attended a tourism academy and used to work as a hotel butler, said Bali should devote more resources to agriculture, a more sustainable company. Instead, it has become too dependent on tourism.
“People depend on it like opium,” he said. “Tourism is fragile and we have gone too far. We have been abandoning the fundamental things that mobilize the economy. ”
Across the island, some communities provide food aid to the unemployed, such as rice, instant noodles, cooking oil, and sugar. But the receivers say that it is not enough to live. Many also have debts, such as installment payments for motorcycles, a common mode of transportation on the island.
In Benoa Bay, on the southern tip of the island, the low tide draws dozens of people from nearby villages to dig for clams, using rakes made from scrap metal, nails or even their bare hands and feet. On a good day, one can collect more than a pound of clams.
Some also hunt small crabs with a wooden stick with two iron hooks bent as fingers. If your families are lucky enough to have traditional boats known as jukung, they go out to sea and fish for shrimp.
Kadek Merta, 34, who was recently looking for clams, said he had been a hotel manager but had not worked since March. “I feel empty,” he said. “No work. I can only survive depending on the sea. “
Agung Yoga, 39, a junior chef, said he used to fish as a hobby on the beaches of southern Bali, sometimes diving into the waves. But now, first unemployed, he is fishing as a matter of survival for himself and his family.
“If this situation continues until next year, I have no choice,” he said. “Maybe we can’t eat.”
Ms. Ayu, whose sister, brother, uncles, nephews, and cousins work in tourism, preferred to work as a masseuse, because she earned a decent income and was easier. Harvesting nails in the village of Lalanglinggah from the tops of trees that grow more than 60 feet in height can be dangerous. But living in the village, on the southwest coast of Bali, a few kilometers from the sea, also has its advantages.
From the top of a home staircase, Ms. Ayu could see the beach and the forest, and feel a gentle breeze flowing from the Bali Strait. “I feel serene,” she said during a break from gathering. “In the city, there are many people. Having this activity calms my mind. “
More importantly, the return to traditional village life has brought together family members who are usually seen only on important holidays.
“I earn more working in tourism,” Ayu said. “But on the positive side, God has given us this situation so that we can be with our families.”
Nyimas Laula reported from Lalanglinggah Village, Indonesia, and Richard C. Paddock from Bangkok. Dera Menra Sijabat contributed reports from Jakarta, Indonesia.
