Hi, M.A.N men!
As it’s been such a long time since we’ve seen your beautiful faces lighting up our modest gay day club, so we thought it was time to fill you in – as it were. News dear, news!
2020 has certainly been a very strange year, and this year, so far, doesn’t look a whole lot better. We have been locked in here in Bali, but not locked up – despite the fact that some of us should be, but all in all it’s not a bad place to be confined to and we are not complaining.
The early days of the travel restrictions started to see a large exodus of medium stay tourists and many long-stay residents decided to return to their home countries as well, which left Bali blissfully traffic-free. Of course, it also meant that Bali was people free too and many businesses became untenable. Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak are a sad sight as shops emptied and restaurants closed. But together with the help of our friends who are still here in Bali and help from overseas, we here at M.A.N have managed to keep going through it all.
Our small community has helped us kept the M.A.N dream alive, working together in a family environment, supporting the staff and their families and we keep enhancing their skills even during these challenging times. We were able to offer free meals to the community in the early days of the pandemic thanks to your help, and our dear friend Mark has walked, cycled, and finally canoed around Bali to raise funds for BaliAid 2020.
As owners of M.A.N we try to do what we can to keep our business afloat. We also received some great support from many of you, so thanks for that!
Last year we launched a new website which uses the ‘pay now stay later’ concept. As a returning guest, you might be interested to buy a few vouchers (pay now) and use them after Bali reopens with a nice discount (stay later). This website will support hard-hit hoteliers and villa owners and can help keep businesses afloat in these unprecedented times and you might get a bargain when travel resumes. If you are interested in taking a look you can find us at www.far2low.com.
We started this website because the need here is high and it’s taking so much longer for the world to reopen. Far2low will be still going through when things return to normal so give us a try as we sign up more properties. And rest assured, M.A.N will be on there!
Some of us at M.A.N have got a Vaccine and we are very grateful to the Indonesian Government for that.
The aim here in Bali is to vaccinate all workers in the tourism sector as a priority and by the time you return all our staff will be double dosed – and no, they don’t need a cream for that!
We don’t really expect Bali and Indonesia to properly reopen before the end of 2021. I hope we’re wrong but all signs look like countries in Asia are very reluctant to release the quarantine measurements they put in place. It is not realistic to come to Indonesia if you have to stay in quarantine first and then quarantine again when you go home.
If that changes we will be the first to let you know! But if you really can’t stay away and have a month or more to commit to our little paradise isle then let us know and we can probably help.
Of course, it’s not all bad news. Building of M.A.N hotel is progressing well and by the time international travel is up and running, we aim to be finished, with other fantabulous features for you to enjoy, like the Japanese bathhouse, the gym, and the ability to stay even closer to your favourite place on the planet.
So with the warmest greetings from the full M.A.N team, we bid you au revoir, as our little French chums would say. We hope to have some even more exciting news in the next newsletter, in the meantime…
Stay safe and we hope to see you all very soon!
