A Trip to Ubud

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This is a special treat for you. Now, I am going to take you to Ubud.

Ubud is located in land, about 20 kilo metres from Denpasar (the capital of


Bali
). It is in the height of 300 metre above sea level that the temperature is cooler here compared to other tourist place like Kuta and Nusa Dua.

There are some interesting places you can visit here in Ubud, like:



  • Puri Saren Ubud

  • Local Market

  • Painting Museum: Puri Lukisan



  • Monkey
    Forest


Puri Saren Or



Ubud
Palace

Puri Saren is located at the centre of Ubud at the main cross road. You can visit this palace during the day because it is open for public. At the evening this palace become a centre of art and dance performance by local people. You can see dances such as Legong dances, or Ramayana dances.


There is thre building in the outer yard of the palace. One building in the west is a place for storing gamelan (balinese musical instrument), there is smaller building on the northern section that function like an reception of information centre, and one in south is for storage. There is an open area in the middle shaded by a banyan tree where dances are performed in the evening at


7.30 to 9 PM
. This is a great show if you like dances, I recommend you to see the ramayana balet.

Local Market of Ubud


Just the opposite of the Puri Saren, you can fnd the local market. The market is divided into two parts, the western part is where souvenirs like sarong, t shirts, sandals, watches, basket, and wooden statues are being sold. The eastern section, which open earlier everyday at


4 AM
is for selling every day needs for the local people of Ubud.

Painting Museum: Puri Lukisan


Many of the Balinese artists, especially painters, lived in Ubud. To name a few of Balinese popular painters are:



  • I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862-1978).

  • Anak Agung Gde Sobrat (1919-1992)

  • I Gusti Made Deblog (1910-1968)

  • And many others


Even European painters come to Ubud and stay there to collaborate with the local artist. In around 1920, Rudolf Bonnet (Netherlands) and (Walter Spies) visited Ubud and brought their painting style and influenced the local Balinese style of painting. Rudolf Bonnet worked with the local great painters (Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati:) to found an association called Pita Maha. An association which served the both the local painters and the European painters to discuss about the improvement of


Bali
painting.

The Museum Puri Lukisan, 200 m west of



Ubud
Palace
, is where you can enjoy master pieces of the
Bali
greatest painters. Built in 1956, the museum has three main buildings with lotus pond in the middle yard. It open everyday at
8 AM to 4 PM
.

The Sacred



Monkey
Forest

One kilometre south of Puri Saren is the Ubud monkey forest. There are around 200 monkeys (macaques or Macaca fascicularis) that is 79 adult female only 23 male and 98 of the monkeys are babies. (I think there more monkeys there since the last time I got the info). These sacred monkeys, believed by the local as temple guardian (ancangan dewa), are divided into three groups. Each group occupies different part of the forest, and may fight if the group encounter each other in the same area.


This monkeys are quite friendly, though. So, it is safe to walk around the forest and feed them banana. You should n't touch them because they are not used to touching.


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