Get yours today: Luxury grave sites

Get yours today: Luxury grave sites

A new fad for grabbing space in luxury cemeteries is sweeping Indonesia, apparently. Kipp is dead impressed with the business brains behind that.

June 23, 2010 5:22 by shafeer

People with money have plenty to spend it on, by and large. Often they buy things they don’t want or need, just because they can. After all, once you reach a certain amount of money, well… what else are you going to do with it?

Business people long ago cottoned on to this fact, and a veritable legion of luxury companies has sprung up to service the every whim of the consumer with money to burn. So much so that you’d think every possible avenue of retail for the rich life had been cornered off. And maybe it has, if a new Indonesian trend is anything to go buy.

Because the latest luxury retail fad goes beyond life, and into death. Gulf News reports that a new luxury cemetery in Jakarta, Indonesia, is doing a roaring trade. What’s luxury about it, you ask? Well, aside from a running track and swimming pool, the park boasts an Italian restaurant, a small scale replica of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, and a man made “Lake of Angels.” The park, named San Diego Hills Memorial Park, even has its own helipad. It’s more country club than burial site – as the website explains:

“San Diego Hills is a beautiful, permanent, final resting place for our departed loved ones. It is also a place of comfort and respite for those who are left behind. It is a sanctuary where the solemnity of death and the sanctity of life are co-celebrated,” it says.

The trend for luxury cemeteries started in the US, of course. The new park is inspired by the Forest Lawn chain of cemeteries in America, the resting place of choice for discerning celebs.

Kipp has considered the option carefully, and decided we’d rather use our money in this life, thank you very much. We’re pretty sure that, when the time comes to get buried, we’re not going to care much about the restaurant facilities, and we’d hope that “those who are left behind” wouldn’t be combining our funeral with a quick cardio session and dip in the pool.