Bali having a quiet Christmas 2006

Christmas in Bali is the high-season, when prices go up and hotels are full. That’s the plan anyway. Prices for rooms have certainly risen in the last 2 weeks, and some of the places we have visited in the Kuta / Seminyak area are happy to let us walk away, confident they can get the price they want. Ask anyone who lives here though, and they’ll tell you Bali is quiet now. I certainly do not get the impression many people came over from Australia, this time.

Safety is a concern and terrorism can be random. With government warnings and crazy stuff going on in SE Asia (Philippines, Southern Thailand etc.) one can never be 100% certain of safety. However, you have more chance of drowning on an Australian beach, than you do of being in a terrorist event in Bali.

The Jakarta Post talks about how Christmas celebrations are going in the capital.

First Christmas Mass goes on smoothly at Jakarta Cathedral

JAKARTA (Antara): The first Christmas Mass held at Jakarta Cathedral went on smoothly on Sunday despite drizzle showering down the capital.

The congregation came to the cathedral since 3 p.m. while police officers were on alert outside the 2,000-seat church. The church also deployed 80 security guards.

Security personnel checked all churchgoers and their belongings to ensure the mass safety.

The first mass was led by Fathers J Situmorang, Y Purbo Tamtomo and PA Deshi Ramadhani. The second mass is slated at 7:30 p.m. while the third at 10 p.m.

Jakarta Police deploys 18,000 officers at churches in the capital while tens of thousands are on duty elsewhere across Indonesia.

Western countries, especially the U.S. and Australia, warned that the threat of an attack over the holiday season was “serious” and “credible” and that foreigners could be targeted, but did not say on what the alert was based on.