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Because of Indonesia's current problems, the decision to hold the festival in the beautiful town of Sanur, Bali could not be made until two weeks before the starting date. At such short notice, less than a dozen international participants were able to join in the mid-year event. Guests came from Brunei, Singapore, Japan, France, Austria, Holland, and the U.S. Bali itself was more than well represented.

A longtime expatriate American, Bauman manages a geophysical services group for a firm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His group does near surface work and focuses on exploring for water and studying contamination sites. It involves itself as well in archeology, engineering, and the search for resources. Originally from Boston, Bauman has degrees from Princeton and the University of Waterloo in Ontario. In recent years he has frequently used kite aerial photography in archeological work and in the study of industrial areas with stressed vegetation.

On a visit to the west coast of Java some years ago, Philippe Cottenceau of the French kite association Au fil des Vents saw a traditional, probably quite ancient use of a kite not many Westerners have reported on. He saw a kite being used to catch food. Bats, to be precise. The scene was the village of Pangandaran, west of Jakarta, where an annual international kite festival is held.

Endang W. Puspoyo of Jakarta, Indonesia, was attracted to kites by their beauty many years ago. She soon began making and flying her own, then took to collecting them. She helped organize the first international festival in Jakarta in l993, and has been a force in Indonesian kiting ever since. With a powerful cabinet minister husband supporting her, she has now opened her own museum, actually a complex of found old buildings and new construction. The museum is 15 miles from downtown Jakarta