Breathtaking Bali; Uniquely Ubud

One normally associates Bali with beautiful beaches, deliciously cheap cuisine and an exuberant nightlife. But away from the madding crowd that is Kuta or the mass package travel havens of Sanur, there lies a quieter and more peaceful facet of the island. Ubud, tucked away on the slopes leading to the central, is often overlooked and deemed only worthy of a day trip from Kuta. But as the growing expatriate community there can testify, in Ubud lies the real beauty of Bali. Despite Ubud’s renowned world class resorts and inevitable tourist traps, there are temples and rice fields which allow the visitor to experience the village life in its entirety. Visitors are often invited to participate in intimate ceremonies such as a wedding or a temple celebration- which makes for an extremely rewarding travel experience. To escape to Ubud means leisurely meanderings in the verdant rice fields and warm conversations with sun – baked farmers as they till over their arduous tasks. Ubud‘s myriad cultural performances transports the visitor to a world where brave kings battle evil spirits in ancient tales narrated reverently for generations. To watch whole villages come together to spend their meager income and precious time on religious ceremonies and festivities for the gods is especially poignant in our increasingly faceless and hurried world. Ubud is and remains the real heart of Bali.

Quick Tips:

Ubud is not totally exempt from touts, even exceedingly polite ones, who waylay you on the streets – offering everything from motorbike rides to spa massages, concert tickets and everything else in between. A firm ‘No, thanks you!’ and a smile should let you off the hook. Also beware of really friendly young men who try to accost you and offer to show you around the place for free. Some of them may ask for money later for their time and effort and may kick up a fuss if you refuse to pay. If you do not need a ‘guide’, do not take up too much of their time. Of course, there are honest locals who just want to help you out without expecting any form of payment. Being polite and gracious is always good advice as the Balinese are a gentle folk and do not take kindly to rudeness or impatience. Be careful with too aggressive touts who will insist that you are trespassing on farmland when you are following the Lonely Planet suggested trails down to the Ayung River. It is a ploy to get you to hire them as guides.

Best Way To Get Around:

Ubud is basically a small town with one main road (Monkey Forest Road) and it is a 15-20 minute walk to get from one end of the town to another. Most hotels, spas and restaurants are located in this main strip so this walk is down to the main center is extremely enjoyable. If you intend to explore the neighboring towns, you may opt for a motorbike rental. Rates run from to per day and depend greatly on your bargaining skills. You must check your bikes for faulty brakes and all: our tiny bike had a faulty clutch and no rearview mirror - not much fun when you can only hear a huge tour bus filled with 200 holiday - makers bearing down on you on a small and dusty road. Helmets are a must in the town area and road rules must be strictly adhered to as Caucasians are primary targets of local policemen looking for a bit of spare cash, a common occurrence in Asia. The sweltering midday heat might make it a better idea to rent an air-conditioned car for a day. Rates, which fluctuate with the number of tourists in Ubud, are about per day with a driver. Be careful of 'bemo' or local shuttle buses who may extort tourists for a quick ride around town. You must know the fare beforehand, pay the driver and ignore the screams of protest for more money which would normally ensue. We made the mistake of asking the driver for the fare and were promptly and deservedly ripped off. A note about the popular tourist shuttle bus Perama . At about per person, it is a cheap way to get to the airport from Ubud but unless you fancy a bone-shaking and non-air conditioned 2 hour ride, you might be better of splurging on a cab (about ).

Ubud’s ‘Pasar Seni’ or Art Market is a must stop on the tourist route and tours to the market are offered by most travel agencies in Bali. All of Bali’s finest arts and crafts can be found in this two-storey brick building. A good time to poke around would be in the early morning when the vendors are just setting up their stalls. Not only will you be buffered from the harsh midday sun but you will also be offered lower prices (‘harga pelangsir’) as the Balinese believe that the first sale of the day must be secured even at rock-bottom prices as this brings good luck and more sales throughout the day. Shopping in the evenings before closing time also increases your bargaining power. The wet market is open from 7am; the other tourist shops open at about 9am. The entire market closes at 6pm.

As most tour groups often only have time to mill around the shops on the ground level, shops on the upper level are more usually accommodating when it comes to bargaining. There is a bigger selection of clothing upstairs while the lower level sells mostly wood carvings and other handicraft items. You should be able to get souvenirs for around $1-2 USD; sarongs are normally from $4 onwards depending on the quality.

Sellers at the Pasar Seni are pretty much battle-hardened due to the mass onslaught of tourists and you have be very patient if you want to achieve your desired price. It is normally better to ask the seller for a starting price and then aim for about a third, even a quarter of the asking price. Of course, one should remember that the local Balinese do not earn much and keep things in perspective when bargaining.

One of the great joys of Ubud is the nightly array of cultural entertainment available for the traveler. Most dance performances depict scenes from the ancient Hindi script Ramayana and Mahabharata; and involve tales of good triumphing over evil. Dances performed for tourists are often abbreviated and a typical performance will consist of two different dances held normally from 7.30pm-9.00pm. Tickets are normally about $5 per person and can be purchased from Ubud Tourist Information hut on the main street. You can also buy tickets from street vendors gaily clad in traditional finery at no extra cost. Venues for the performances vary according to the season or the performing troupe so remember to ask your concierge to double check with the Ubud Tourist Information for the most current performance schedule. We almost missed a performance due to some last minute changes and if you are staying in Bali for a short time, you would not be able to make the next one! Most hotels offer a free 2-way shuttle service to the performances.

The best known of all the dances, the Kecak is a special dance that is accompanied by ‘gamelan suara’; basically no instruments are played and the music is instead provided by a choir of a hundred men who sit and sing in a concentric circle with the center of the circle as a stage. The ‘stage’ is only lit with a single torch so taking good photographs will be a little difficult here even with fancy gadgetry. If you are lucky enough to be in Ubud during a full moon, there will be a special Kecak performance only held at the Agung Rai Museum of Art or ARMA. Tickets cost about $10-$15, about twice as much as the other nightly performance. There is also a dinner and show package for this special event but it is not cheap (about $30 per person). You will need to book early as places are very limited.

In the Horse Fire Trance dance, the ‘rider’ is lulled into a trance and runs almost amok on a bed of burning coconut husks. The burning coconuts husks will literally be flying at your feet especially if you are seated in the front rows so avoid putting your back packs or more importantly, your feet! on the floor.

Other performances that are not to be missed are the Legong, an extremely graceful and stylized dance; the Barong , a battle between a huge shaggy dog-lion and an evil witch and the ‘Wayang Kulit’ (Shadow Puppet) which is more a theater than a dance performance. As most of the stages are rather small, the key to getting good photographs or a good video is basically to secure a good seat right in front of all the bobbing heads. It is definitely worth it to get to the venue at least half an hour ahead to get the best seats in the house.

Sometimes the best pleasures of travel are its simpler pursuits. Indeed in Bali, there is no limit to activities for the traveler; be it the myriad tours to must- see destinations on the island, luxurious spa packages, colorful shopping boutiques and gourmet restaurants. Yet one can quickly tire of this surfeit of entertainment and crave a little peace and quiet. A do-it-yourself walking tour is just the remedy! It is good exercise, fun with the possibility of adventure and most importantly, a chance for one to explore delightful little enclaves which has not yet been overrun by tour buses...

A good walking trail which is accessible from Ubud will be a westward walk towards the town of Penestanan and the Ayung River. The walk itself will take you about 3 hours, covering a distance of about 6.5 km. If you have a good tourist map, (pick one up for free at the Ubud Tourist Information before you set off), you can cut through lush rice fields on your way to this wonderful river. I would just suggest informing the obliging farmers of your intentions as a form of courtesy. These terraced rice fields in shades of brown, green and gold offers one of the most spectacular views of Bali. There are many rice field tours available but this walking trail offers you the chance to see them all to yourself!

To get to the Ayung River, make your way to the Sayan Terrace Resort and you can get to the riverside via a trail just north of the hotel. The views overlooking the valley are simply out of this world. It is quite a steep trail down to the river so make sure you are wearing sturdy shoes. Once at the river, you will be greeted by numerous adrenalin-fueled tourists in white-water rafting boats run by Bali Adventure Tours passing by to their finishing point about 1.5 km away.

After another short but arduous trek up to the main road, make your way down the road to the gorgeous Four Seasons Sayan, an architectural masterpiece built to take advantage of this verdant river valley. The price of food here is definitely in a class of its own (lunch entrees are about $15-$20) but you can ‘splurge’ on ice cream (2 scoops for $5 which is the cheapest thing on the menu!) and enjoy the excellent service and million dollar views.

Walks around Ubud and its surrounding villages are extremely rewarding, as they offer many opportunities to marvel at budding artists at work in open verandahs and observe age-old tasks of rice cultivation alongside sophisticated hotels. One such walk which allows us a glimpse of rural life and gorgeous rice fields will be this walking trail south of Ubud: beginning at the delightful Monkey Forest Sanctuary, continuing southwards to the little village of Nyuh Kuning, and circling back up to Penestanan. This walk will take about 2 hours and covers a distance of approximately 8km. As always, you will need a hat, good shoes, and a good tourist map (pick up one for free at the Ubud Tourist Information Center before you set off). Mineral water can be purchased at many stalls for about 50 cents to $1.50.

It is a fact of life that when you walk in Ubud town, you WILL be asked at least 35 times in an hour if you would like transportation, a massage, performance tickets, and souvenirs. If you need to take a break from roadside vendors, the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary offers a cool and dense jungle refuge. Officially called Mandala Wisata Wanara Wana, it houses three beautifully carved holy temples and is sprawling with hundreds of long-tailed Balinese macaques. Tickets are sold at the main gate and cost about $1 for adults and 50 cents for children. You will also get a free map. The sanctuary is open from 8am to 6pm daily. You will find wizened local women selling bananas for about 20 to 30 cents a bunch and urging you to feed the monkeys—a fun and heartwarming activity until you run out of bananas and the monkeys start leaping on you. Indeed the sanctuary’s real entertainment value is watching well-dressed tourists shrieking as they are chased by little furry animals.

Nyuh Kuning is a quiet little village with well-known hotels, such as the Bali Spirit Hotel and Spa and the Hotel Villa Kerti Yasa, situated here to take advantage of the decidedly more tranquil setting and beautifully green rice fields. Hotel staff is generally very friendly and will not mind if you look around the establishment to take pictures. You can also stop for refreshments here as the prices are much cheaper compared to other hotels in town.

Penestanan is famous for being the birthplace of a unique Balinese style of painting, where typical village scenes are painted in vibrant technicolor, which was discovered and encouraged by Dutch painter Arie Smit . Indeed, many thriving artists live in this village and you can stop by their homes and galleries to appreciate and purchase paintings. To learn more about Balinese art, visit the Neka Art Museum on your way back to Ubud. It is open Monday to Saturdays (9am to 5pm). Tickets cost about $2 for adults and are free for children.