Visiting Ubud Again

The student-free week culminating in the public holidays for "Idul Fitri", the celebratory days marking the end of Ramadan, was a quiet time on campus.  Laurel and I decided to go to Ubud. Vivi, a "Tourism Management" student and enthusiastic member of the campus Camera Club, came with us. 

 

Our first stop was in Jalan Suweta, in the heart of Ubud, beside the Puri Salen Palace.  This street is home to the "Ibu Oka" Warung, famous for Bali's signature dish of Babi Guling (spit roasted spiced suckling pig).  The former location of the warung is now a building site but Ibu Oka is still serving her famous offering about 100 meters further along the road.  We admired the fine inner and outer gateways at a temple which is about 100 metres from Jalan Raya Ubud, facing the rear section of Puri Salen Palace.  Unfortunately I can't recall its name!

 

Paul in fashionable travel garb, Vivi and Laurel in Ubud

Inner and outer gateways of temple, Ubud



Gate guardian, Ubud

From that fine gateway we walked west along the main road which was very crowded, both with cars and pedestrians.  Ubud has a much higher car to motorcycle ratio than other places because of the influx of tourists and day-trippers who usually come by car.  After getting used to seeing roads dominated by motorcycle traffic it was strange to see so many cars and vans.

I always enjoy being at Café Lotus from where I can gaze across the lotus pond to the Pura Taman Saraswati.  The pond is a delight even when the lotus flowers are not in bloom (as on this trip when just one good bloom was evident).  The temple is one of the most recently built significant sacred buildings in Ubud.  The "water temple" in honour of Dewi Saraswati (goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts) was commissioned in the 1950's to celebrate the release of the "cokorda" (or royal head of Ubud) from political detention.
 

The lotus pond in front of the Pura Taman Saraswati, Ubud

 

Dressed in saroongs with correctly tied
knots at Pura Taman Saraswati, Ubud

For  small donation we were supplied with "saroongs" (correctly tied) to comply with the temple's dress code for visitors.  At a pavilion just inside the entrance a group of men were making or repairing and repainting ceremonial masks.  One of the men was the current "cokorda" or head of Ubud's extended royal family, Prince Tjokorda Raka Kerthyasa.  I recognised him from the documentary screened on ABC-TV (Australia) about the royal wedding we witnessed in 2010.

Prince Tjokorda Raka Kerthyasa (head of Ubudbranch of the Royal Family) paints a ceremonial mask.

Inner courtyard of Pura Taman Saraswati. 
Gold statue of Dewi Saraswati, regarded as
goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts. 

On the walk back from the Pura and the Café Lotus we stopped in at "Threads of Life", a gallery and exhibition centre founded to preserve traditional Indonesian weaving and textile crafts.  After driving in a large loop around the outskirts of Ubud, which are much more "traditional" and calmer than central Ubud, we returned to the main street for a delicious but simple lunch at Casa Luna and then went to the nearby Museum Puri Lakisan.  This museum of the fine arts displays examples of all the significant styles of Balinese art, from the very traditional to recent works with an element of modern "pop art" about them.

 

The elaborate front wall and entrances at Museum Puri Lakisan

 




Modern carving capturing traditional style.
This work makes fine use of the wood form.

 


The museum wall and doorways from the inside



A recent painting on display - one of the few not to
 fill the canvas with intertwined themes and figures.

The museum admission price included a coffee and this
sampler plate of 3 types of cake.  They were just delicious!

From the museum we moved on to the recently rebuilt Ubud traditional craft market.  The front section of the old market was being demolished at the time of my last visit (Sept 2012) and new buildings are now in use.  Two buildings with roadway and parking between them have replaced the somewhat shambolic rabbit warren of little alleys which existed for years.  Those may have been chaotic, but they had much more character than the new buildings.  The rear section is largely unaltered.


The two new buildings at the Ubud market

In the evening we joined a "full house" at Pura Taman Sari on Jalan Hanoman to experience the Kecak Dance.  This is probably the most popular dance staged for visitors but it isn't really a traditional Balinese dance.  It was created in the 30's by Walter Spies by joining several existing dance elements to tell a traditional story.  It was a great hit and has remained so.  The Kecak (or "monkey" dance) tells one of the many stories of the eternal struggle between good and evil contained in the epic Ramayana.  The word "kecak" comes from the sound made by the chorus of participants who imitate the sound of the monkeys which are central to the story.

The chorus represents a troupe of monkeys

The monkeys shelter the heroine

The story is complex, but I think that the archer is the "bad
 guy" Meganda who is eventually defeated in a great battle.

A lamp shop on Jalan Hanoman

After the dance performance we walked down Jalan Hanoman (Hanoman is the big white Monkey King, one of the heroes of many of the dances) to our car for the late night drive back to campus.  Some of the "night lights" caught my eye.

One of the many small restaurants in Ubud



"Bebit bengil" - one of the famous restaurants which
serve delicious Balinese style spiced crispy duck.

I hope time permits another visit to Ubud.  Although the town is expanding rapidly and is always bursting with visitors, it's still an attractive, interesting and pleasant place to visit. 

Paul in Bali