In 1980 – Australian Nigel Mason first arrives in Bali.

1981 – Nigel starts work on a hotel design and development in Lombok (which is later cancelled).

1983 – Nigel meets and later marries Made Karyani (Yanie) from Legian, Bali.

1984 – Nigel and Yanie start Yanie’s Restaurant in Legian with borrowed money.

1987 – Nigel and Yanie open the Original Bali Doll Factory in Denpasar.

1989 - Nigel and his Balinese Wife Yanie set up Bali’s first and foremost white water rafting company, named Bali Adventure Rafting.

By 1992 - Other adventure activities are added to the tour portfolio, beginning with Mountain Cycling, followed by Jungle, Rice Paddy and Village Trekking. By this time, the company’s identity expands to encompass the new products, becoming known as, Bali Adventure Tours (BAT).

1994 - BAT launches Bali Day Tours Transport as a strategy to make tour operations more self-contained and efficient. Today, BAT is able to transport its own customers in company owned and operated, air-conditioned vehicles all equipped with radio control. Yanie takes the retail aspects of operations a step further in 1995, opening The ‘House of Yanie’ Gift Shop, located in Kuta Square.

1995 - BAT operations consolidated under one roof with the opening of Adventure House on the Jalan Bypass at Pesanggaran (between Kuta and Sanur). This multi-million dollar, four-story structure becomes known as The ”BAT” Cave as it houses state-of-the-art communications, dispatch, reservations center, operations headquarters, repair and maintenance workshops and a helipad is later built at the rear.

1996 - BAT starts The Elephant Safari Park in historic Taro village, adding a completely new dimension to the organization. The park contains 9 Sumatran elephants, a sub species of the Asian elephant. These gentle pachyderms are rescued from Sumatra, their last natural stronghold in Indonesia to be relocated in the tranquil Balinese countryside.

1997 - 8 more Sumatran Elephants are rescued from Sumatra and the arduous task of bringing them to Bali, without causing undue stress to these beautiful Pachyderms begins. The journey involved 6 days non-stop traveling, with a 10 vehicle convoy, the journey involved 1000’s of kilometers by road, plus 2 sea crossings, Including 1 vehicle who’s sole purpose is to procure fresh food and water every day along the way. Among the 8 Elephants was 2½ -year-old Ramona who in later years turns out to be a very accomplished painter, with some of her artworks sold by Christies in New York.

2000 - Constant improvements are made this year to The Elephant Safari Park, both for visitors and resident pachyderms. The latest advancements include complete water treatment and waste disposal systems and a large 250 seat restaurant, a park gift shop, and museum.

2001 - BAT introduced helicopter tours - the first of their kind in Bali complete with their own helipads linking their numerous operations together. The purchase of state-of-the-art American built Robinson R44 helicopters brings flight prices to an affordable level for tourists.

2002 - Unfortunately the Helicopter Tour is suspended after the Bali Bomb to be re-instated later, when the top end of the tourism market fully recovers.

The Bali Bombing
The bombing has a disastrous effect on Bali Adventure Tours activities with up to a 98% loss in visitors doing tours directly after the tragedy. The next 2 years will prove to be a test of sacrifice, hard work, and great determination on the behalf of all staff and management to survive this catastrophe.

2003 - This was an extremely difficult year with major outgoing in expenses and very little incoming revenue. Recovery started towards the latter part of the year.

2004 - August: Bali Adventure Tours upgrades their fleet of vehicles with the purchase of ten new 11 seater buses and four new 6 seater buses so as to maintain the high standards of safety and comfort for our guests.

2004 - September: Work commences on the spacious new breeding area for the Elephants, and at the same time updating and modernizing the infrastructure of the Elephant food area, waste & rubbish removal, plus the implementing of a brand new Elephant Manure Processing Plant in Renon, Denpasar where the elephant waste will be turned into an environmentally friendly fertilizer. Features of the new breeding area includes, public access and viewing area, one of the deepest elephant wading ponds in South East Asia. Plus the planting of over 1000 trees including 30 different species of palm trees, landscape gardens and free roaming area for the courting couple. The Park also set about beautifying the area with thousands of native & imported orchids.

2004 - October: 10 new elephants are saved and brought to Bali, including 2 baby elephants, (2 year old Debby & 4 year old Ryan) and transmigrated from Sumatra to join the Elephant Safari Park family thereby making a total of 27 elephants. This journey was documented by an Australian film company to be released later as a 1 hour television feature which is now shown worldwide on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, NHK and numerous other networks.

2005 - In keeping with the commitment of Bali Adventure Tours to the development of new products for the tourism industry in Bali, the company commences the building of our first class overnight stay accommodation project at the Elephant Safari Park with the Elephant Safari Park Lodge & Spa. This includes a full range of rooms from VIP to standard to suit most budgets. A swimming pool and a fully licensed bar, Spa & Fitness room overlooking the Elephants and the Park was scheduled to be completed in late 2007.

The acclaimed documentary ‘Operation Jumbo’ is released to an international audience of millions. The documentary details the nail biting adventures of Nigel Mason as he attempts to rescue and transport another 10 elephants over 3000kms, crossing three Indonesian islands to the safe haven of his Park. The spellbinding tale has been seen globally on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Wildlife Asia Channel and is now available on DVD with Japanese, Russian, Mandarin, French, Indonesian and English subtitles. Operation Jumbo was also awarded as a BBC Panda Award Finalist.

2006 – The Elephant Breeding Program is started after the oldest male elephant, Seng Wong, finally comes into ‘Musth’ ready to mate.

2007 – The 27 room Elephant Safari Park Lodge is completed with stunning attention detail. Featuring an array of beautifully appointed accommodations including an exclusive two-bedroom Taro Suite, as well as Park view, Garden View and Paddy View rooms and a unique Elephant Chauffeur service from the Lodge rooms purpose built elevated landing direct onto the back of an elephant. However the lodge will open in 2008 after an intense staff training period for ‘local’ staff.

The Elephant Safari Park Lodge features include the Safari Wellness Spa – the first safari themed spa in Bali which garnered accolades form prestigious travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler as HOT SPA 2008, a Fitness & Weights Room, swimming pool and Mammoth Head Bar & Lounge.

The Park at this time also enhances its wedding facilities with a new Wedding Pavilion and Private Gazebo. A traditional antique four post Javanese Joglo portrays the ceremonial pavilions featured in the palaces of royalty in central Java and commands the marble and stone purpose built facility. The private dining gazebo was added to provide a romantic and intimate setting for bridal couples. The whole park is further up-graded to match the hotels ‘5 star’ facilities.

2008 – On 19 January 2008, the Elephant Safari Park Lodge officially opened to present an unparalleled destination experience in Bali and the world to stay and experience the daily life of elephants in their lush retreat. The Elephant Safari Park Lodge offers a world exclusive experience to interact, feed, ride, observe, learn, play and stay with 27 beautiful Sumatran elephants, one of the most rare and endangered species of elephants left in the world today.

Simultaneously Nigel Mason launches his self penned and published children’s book The Tale of the First White Elephant in Bali in both English and Indonesian to fantastic reviews. The book was noted as Best Seller in bookstores throughout Indonesia.

The DVD release of the acclaimed documentary Operation Jumbo is made available for purchase with Japanese, Russian, Mandarin, French, Indonesian and English subtitles.

2008 – In August 2008 the company re-releases and vastly expands its product brochures and catalogues with stunning new photography and information in English, Japanese and Russian print versions. The addition of a new Lodge Brochure and new Wedding Brochure as well as a new company DVD and Souvenir CD were also added to range of collateral.

A new adventure tour, Safari Under the Stars – An Evening with the Elephants is introduced in late 2008 allowing visitors for the first time to experience the Park at night. The evening with the elephants includes a special night show and dinner.

In December 2008 the expansion of the Elephant Park Boutique with its mezzanine level is completed as well as many Park enhancements including re-roofing of the Park Restaurant, completion of a new Shade House for the Elephants and a new docking bay from the Lodge’s Mammoths Head Bar and the installation of ramps and access points to ensure the Park is Wheelchair Friendly, a disabled toilet was also installed and an elephant ‘Nursery’ area added to the park.

2009 – Sees the company celebrating 20 years of unparalleled adventure experience as the first and longest standing Adventure Tour Company in Bali.
In mid 2009 the Park’s first naturally conceived baby elephant is born. This is world first for the Park and a testament to the Park’s efforts to conserve and breed this endangered species. All goes according to nature and plan and this marks the first baby Sumatran elephant to be conceived and born in captivity in Bali. The first birth was quickly followed by two more this year. The last baby birth, ‘Riski’, was put on YouTube and has had millions of hits, because of its graphic and dramatic footage.

Bali Adventure Tours embarks on the total re-building and upgrading of its White Water Rafting operation on the Ayung River.

Bus fleet increased yet again in size to accommodate increasing tourist numbers.
 

Company Owners Profiles

Nigel Mason
Born and educated in England, Nigel Mason spent his early years in Egypt. Bitten early by the adventure bug, the 15-year-old left England in 1959 with the “Big Brother Boys Movement” to work on a farm in Victoria, Australia.  For the next four years, he traveled Australia, cutting timber and sugar cane, picking fruit, hunting kangaroos, and helping construct the Sydney-Melbourne standard gauge railway line. He learned to enjoy scuba diving and snow skiing in his spare time, as well as playing classical guitar.

Nigel landed in sales and moved into the recording music industry for a few exciting years, rubbing shoulders with world famous EMI Label artists - including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker and Roy Orbison. He launched his own ‘bottled garden terrarium’ business and later a landscaping operation but returned to music - this time in retail with the large Brashs chain of music stores.

In 1980 he gave up the ‘rat race’ and flew off to Bali with a couple of old hippie mates and was captivated by the island. He survived by doing small exports to Australia before meeting his future wife, Yanie in 1983.  Since arriving in Bali, Nigel has established numerous business enterprises, his first being Yanie's Restaurant. He later built the first White Water Rafting operation and added other adventure activities as he went along, including his own transport company. The Elephant Safari Park and helicopter sky tours are more recent additions to his stable of companies both being firsts for Bali.

Outside business operations, Nigel is well known for his outspokenness, a ‘fight for right’ attitude, and his Harley Davidson. He spends leisure hours with his wife and two sons, often working together in his ‘Mangrove Project’, planting saplings to conserve eroding wetlands. Over the past four years, the Masons have planted over 100,000 mangrove trees behind their Pesanggaran Head Office and re-established the area to its former state and ecosystem. Nigel’s work with elephants has led to his appointment as an advisor and consultant to ‘Flora and Fauna International’. He is a long-time, active member of Skal International tourism industry organization and is a well renowned member of the Bali community.

Yanie Mason

Made Karyani “Yanie” Mason was born and raised in Legian village, one of seven children in her family. She spent her childhood in a very different Legian and Kuta than we see today, long before electricity, roads or tourists. In fact, she didn’t own her first pair of rubber thongs until she was 11 years old. In those days, life was quite a struggle for the average family and Yanie learned to be tough. With an inquisitive mind, she always was questioning things she saw around her.

When tourists began to trickle into the village, Yanie learned to supplement the family income by selling anything possible to tourists, be it a flower she’d picked from someone’s garden or soft drinks on the beach. In fact, the first English phrase she remembers learning was: “Allo! You wan coll dring?”

Yanie was a straight-A student, always at the top of her class, especially in English. She was the first girl from Legian to enter university, where she was still studying when she met her future husband, Nigel. While studying, she was the general manager’s secretary at the then-newly opened Intan Cottages Hotel.

Yanie is probably best known for the famous “Yanie’s Restaurant & Bar”. But, she also is known as a woman who stands up against injustice and whom has fought for recognition as who she is and what she believes in. She has become recognized as one of Bali’s top businesswomen, while managing to mix a happy family life and raise two sons in a blended Balinese-Western culture. Yanie has gained respect among the Balinese and the expatriate communities, both of which have watched her climb the ladder of success over the past 15 years.

In her leisure hours, Yanie enjoys gardening, Balinese and modern dance, and badminton on the family court.  An example of Yanie’s continued community involvement; she is an active member of the following organizations:

• GAHAWISRI – Water Sport Association of Indonesia

• B.I.W.A. (Bali International Women’s Association)

• W.I.P.I. (Wanita Industri Parwisata Indonesia), a division of I.F.W.T.O. (The International Federation of Women’s Travel Organization).