Where Ubud is ?

The main street is Jalan Raya Ubud, which runs east-west through the center of town. Two long roads, Jalan Monkey Forest and Jalan Hanoman, extend south from Raya Ubud. Puri Saren Agung is a large palace located at the intersection of Monkey Forest and Raya Ubud roads. The home of Tjokorde Gede Agung Sukawati (1910-1978), the last "king" of Ubud, his descendants currently live there and dance performances are held in its courtyard. It was also one of Ubud's first hotels, dating back to the 1930s.

The Ubud Monkey Forest is a small nature reserve located near the southern intersection of Jalan Monkey Forest and Jalan Hanoman. It houses a temple and over 200 long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) monkeys. About 5km to the west Ubud is the Ayung River and the village of Sayan, home to many upmarket hotels like the Four Seasons.

Tourism to Ubud has a focus on culture and nature. In contrast to main tourist area in southern Bali, Ubud has forests, a river, and cooler temperatures. A number of smaller "boutique" style hotels are located in and around Ubud, which commonly offer spa treatments by the foothills or treks up Ubud's mountains.

Please go to Ubud, buy the souvenier from there. There many of very wonderful crafts & Gift.

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It is guaranteed.

Wonderful Kechak Dance at Ubud

There are traditional dances in Ubud every night of the week. We were lucky to attend one near our guesthouse along Jalan Raya. You can check at tourist information for the dance times and venues.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the 7:30pm performance and got good front-row seats in the open-air performance area in front of some temple-looking grounds. There was a cool breeze going, and it was magical watching the lighting of a fire in the dark starry night. Local ladies were on hand to sell drinks, bananas, and mangosteen.

The performance began with the Kechak, one of the best-known traditional Balinese dances that features a male choir instead of instruments. The male choir was mesmerising, with their unique voice movements imitating various characters and animals. Amidst this audio-visual backdrop, costumed dancers enacted a story from the Ramayana. The dancers’ movements were delicate and expressions so well emoted that I was really absorbed in the tale, although I didn’t understand a word. At a certain point, the Monkey King dancer would even mingle with the audience. Many people found it fun, but I felt it was creepy and just wanted him to go away.

After that wonderful performance, a huge bonfire made of burning coconut husks was built in the middle of the performance area. A young man emerged on a wooden horse, and he seemed to be in a trance. All of a sudden, he leapt into the fire and on the burning husks. He did it many times until the fire burned out. It was scary. Towards the end, two men came to hold down the man, and a priest came to sprinkle holy water on him. The trance was then broken, and then the man sat on the ground and nursed his head like he had a major migraine, his feet black with charcoal.

The whole performance took about an hour, but was one of the most intriguing performances I have ever seen. It is definitely something worth experiencing.

The Old Legend of Ubud

8th century legend tells of a Javanese priest, Rsi Markendya, meditated at the confluence of two rivers (an auspicious site for Hindus) at the Ubud locality of Campuan. Here he founded the Gunung Lebah Temple on the valley floor, the site of which remains a pilgrim destination.

The town was originally important as a source of medicinal herbs and plants; Ubud gets it name from the Balinese word ubad (medicine).

In the late nineteenth century, Ubud became the seat of feudal lords who owed their allegiance to the king of Gianyar, at one time the most powerful of Bali's southern states. The lords were members of the satriya family of Sukawati, and were significant supporters of the village's increasingly renowned arts scene.

Tourism on the island developed when Walter Spies came to Ubud, an ethnic German born in Russia who taught painting and music, and dabbled in dance. Spies and foreign painters Willem Hofker and Rudolf Bonnet entertained celibrities including Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Barbara Hutton, H.G. Wells and Vicki Baum. They brought in some of the greatest artists from all over Bali to teach and train the Balinese in arts, helping Ubud become the cultural centre of Bali. A new burst of creative energy came in the 1960's in the form of Dutch painter Arie Smit (1916-), developing The Young Artists Movement. There are many museums spread all over Ubud, including Museum Rudana.

The Bali tourist boom since the late 1960s as seen much development in the town, however, it remains a centre of artistic pursuit.