A Quite Long History of Bali Hotel Architecture Part 0: Bali 1936

There are different stories about which is the first hotel in Bali. Some friends mentioned a legendary hotel in Singaraja was the first one, but no one knows the name, and lack of documentation effectively makes it lost in obscurity. Bali Hotel, built by East Indies’ Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij in 1928 in Denpasar, is considered widely as the first real hotel in Bali — it is now managed by the Indonesian government as Inna Bali Heritage Hotel. In the same year saw Walter Spies’ private home in Ubud dubbed as the first hotel In Bali — the house was built in 1928 though it only became Hotel Tjampuhan in 1970s.

One thing that is certain, two waves of movement happened in 1936. In Kuta, Bob Koke brought laid back surf culture with his seaside Kuta Beach Hotel. In Ubud, the Ubud Royal Family join forces with European artists and gave birth to the Pita Maha art collective. Both movements, unfortunately, didn’t last long. The war in Europe went wide and wild (World War II) and forced these creative people to stop their projects, and even leave the Island of Gods for safety.

The following two stories is highly important to learn, and its legacy remain clearly visible — it help shaped the tourism world of Bali into its currently renowned destination, in the image of arts and tropical life, for nearly 100 years.

Revolt in Paradise — Ketut Tantri, Bob and Louise Koke
In the dry season of 1936, two young Americans traveled from Singapore to Bali by…