Bali besieged by the lovelorn

Editors Note:I love it when I am write. Months ago when the Hollywood management of Eat, Pray and Love stayed at our Bali Luxury Villas I was told by the head cameramen that when the public sees Bali through his lens they will flock here.

I predicited that Eat, Pray and Love would do for Bali what "The Beach did for Thailand and it appears my prediction is coming true .

In fact we have hooked up with a major tour operator to offer a day tour of the main shooting sites.See details after below article.



By Anna Coogan

Thursday September 09 2010

Some movies cross the gender divide but Eat Pray Love doesn't look set to be one of them -- when the Julia Roberts' vehicle opened in the States last month, its distributor, Sony Pictures, reported that 72pc of the audience was female, and 56pc was aged 35 years and older.

The Hollywood Insider reported that the hype surrounding the movie - the story of a divorced woman's quest for peace following a traumatic break-up, based on Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling book - is justified. The film opened at second place at the box office, behind Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.

It's a safe assumption that when it opens here on September 22, women will be flocking to see this autobiographical tale, which took Gilbert to Italy to 'Eat,' to India to 'Pray,' and to Indonesia where she fell in 'Love' again.

Yet, are Dublin women prepared for the Eat Pray Love phenomenon? The success of the book and movie is resulting in women worldwide following in Gilbert's footsteps, and travelling abroad in a bid to heal a broken heart, and find love.

The story, which also stars Javier Bardem (Penelope Cruz's new hubby) grossed €24m on its opening weekend Statseside, making it Julia Roberts' highest opening as a leading lady since 2001's America's Sweethearts.

Although Bali, where Gilbert travelled to stay in a cultural centre in a quest to regain her inner peace after a divorce, has survived earthquakes, volcanoes, and terrorist bombings, the Indonesian 'Island of the Gods' is having a hard time surviving the success of Eat Pray Love.

Scores of middle-aged and heartbroken women are travelling to Ubud in Bali where the author found her new partner. They're obviously hoping for a repeat of some of the magic.

In Eat Pray Love, Gilbert (who is played by Roberts) spends the first third of the movie indulging in Rome's dolce vita, then takes an austere, soul-searching turn at an ashram in India, before winding up in Ubud, the art centre of Bali.

Some travel agents in the States are offering all-in-one packages for fans of the book who want to follow in her footsteps with as little hassle as possible. The book, released in 2006, spent 57 weeks on the New York Times' bestseller list, and went on to sell seven million copies worldwide.

For some women at least, it seems a case of eat, pray, and fall in love with this movie.

>ANNA COOGAN

http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/femme/bali-besieged-by-the-lovelorn-2331485.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________Follow in Julia Roberts Footsteps:
Now you can visit many of the shooting sites for the recently released Hollywood blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love
 1st option: Full Day Eat Pray And Love Tour with PALM READING:
Start the tour with a visit to Tirta Empul Temple; a temple surrounds the holy springs, with a large shrine to the God Indra, and here are bathing pools which are supposed to have strong curative powers. MORE at

A new film, starring none other than the hippie-haired Julia Roberts, will only boost a phenomenon that has seen foreign visitors to Bali

Still crazy after all these years (except this time they are loaded)

One woman's spiritual quest spawned a multimillion-pound film franchise and sent tourists flocking to find themselves in six-star retreats

The Independent

Peace and love: Julia Roberts with Swami Dharmdev at Hari Mandir Ashram in New Delhi. The actress was shooting Eat Pray Love, the film of the book by Elizabeth Gilbert which has sold more than seven million copies

AP

Peace and love: Julia Roberts with Swami Dharmdev at Hari Mandir Ashram in New Delhi. The actress was shooting Eat Pray Love, the film of the book by Elizabeth Gilbert which has sold more than seven million copies

It is one of life's ultimate ironies. A book about one woman's spiritual quest to find herself has spawned a multimillion-pound film franchise and sparked a fresh stampede for the hippie trail she followed on her path to enlightenment.

Travel agents have rushed to cash in on the publishing sensation that is Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love – which has sold more than seven million copies since it came out four years ago – with special packages designed for the book's acolytes. A new film, starring none other than the hippie-haired Julia Roberts, will only boost a phenomenon that has seen foreign visitors to Bali, the Indonesian island that featured in the travel memoir, soar to a record 2.2 million last year.

In the book, Gilbert embarks on a journey of self-discovery after a messy divorce. Her alliterative route, which took in Italy, India and Indonesia, has rekindled interest in the mystical hippie trail, as popularised by the likes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s. The one difference is that this time round, rather than hitchhike their way across the vast expanses of the Asian subcontinent, or slum it in 50p-a-night hostels, travellers are hopping on planes and flexing their credit cards to check in to six-star former palaces that have been repackaged as retreats for the materially devout.