Ubud. Attractions Bali
Between rice fields, river valleys and hilly crests located Ubud – Bali Art Heart. There are no beaches, but such dance and musical ideas, such workshops of folk crafts, such cozy hotels and resorts, such excellent restaurants you will not find in any other city of Bali. Despite the inevitable commercialization, Ubud still looks more "reliable" than tourist centers in the south of the island. Many tourists prefer to stop here – after all, the central location of the city allows you to easily perform one-day trips on the island.
The Kingdom of Gianyar appeared at the beginning of the XVIII in. The rulers were members of the enlightened family of Suquati. At the court of Sukavati always supported artists and masters. At the end of the XIX in. Ubud was under the Board of Prince Sukavati, but when in 1900 g. Gianyar became a Dutch protectorate, the prince was forced to obey. The coming world contributed to a greater flow of culture. In the 30s, real intellectuals were settled here – artists Walter Shpis, Rudolf Bonn and Teo Meyer, musicologist Colin Mcough, anthropologist Margaret Foreign Ministry. The connections of these people contributed to increasing the status of Ubud and turning it into a real cultural center.
Main Ubud street, Jalan Raya Ubud, goes through the whole city from the east to the west. It is crossed by streets walking from north to south. The city center where the palace is located, the main temple, the market and travel bureau, located at the intersection of Jalan Raya Ubud and Jalan Monkey Forest. Over the centuries, Ubud actively expanded and absorbed the neighboring villages – Champukhan, Padang-Tegal, Peliatan, Pengosecan and Penatenan. If you go south by Jalan Hanoman, you will come first in Padang-Tegal, and then in the Pengosekan. Those who go to the west of Jalan Raya Ubud and passes through the bridge across the River River, fall into Pienenean, Champukhan and Sanggingan. In Peliatan, you can get, moving to the east of Jalan Raya Ubud and turns right on the main T-shaped intersection.
Sights Ubud
Art Museum Agung Paradise (ARMA). This museum contains an extensive and very representative collection of works of Balinese art performed in a variety of styles. Many also works of Indonesian and foreign artists. Here is the only work of the Walter Shpiska "Kalonarang" 1930. In addition to the gallery and the cultural center, the museum has an open stage where dance performances, a library, a research center and a lot of workshops, in which can be studied by Balinese visual and theatrical arts, folk crafts, history and cooking.
Antonio Museum Blanco. Entrance to the former house of an eccentric, feminine Spanish artist, settled in Bali in the early 1950s, immediately rush to your eyes. Blanco was not found in "Dali from Bali". He wrote a lot of portraits of beautiful, young Balinese women of varying degrees of nude. He loved to draw her wife, legong dancer. In an unusual and very interesting museum, the artist’s works are kept (including a closed exhibition of erotic paintings). On the territory of the museum there are other works of the artist, as well as the aviary with birds. You can visit Studio Blanco.
Reserve "Monkey Forest" and the temple of Pura Dalem Agung. One of the most popular seats in Ubud – a small forest located in the southern part of the city. Here are three temples around which about hundreds of long-tailed gray macaques live. They are pretty photogenic, but absolutely not tamed. Monkeys learned to steal hats and dark glasses from tourists passing past and return stolen agree only for delicacy. Temperamental animals can bite if they provoke them. We advise you to keep on a decent distance, do not try to stroke or feed monkeys from hand. In the forest there is a great temple of the dead, decorated with carved images of a brutal goddess Rangde, devouring children.
Museum of Puri Lukisan. The first major Museum of Ubud, Puri Lukisan (Palace of Painting), was opened in 1956. Agunga Sukavati and Rudolph Bonn. They tried to preserve Balinese art, whose items in those years were actively exported abroad. The collection contains many works of the Union of Artists "Pita Mach".
Museum consists of several pavilions surrounded by a wonderful garden. However, for a full view of Balinese art, it is better to visit a larger Nek Museum. But this museum is very interesting, especially for true connoisseurs of Balinese art.
Art Museum of Neka. In the exposition of this museum more than 400 works of traditional and modern Balinese painting. This is the largest and most representative art museum on the island. Six separate pavilions are dedicated to all styles of Balinese painting. You will see paintings and gasta of Newman Lempad, modern Indonesian artists and immigrants from Europe – Rudolph Bonn (Holland) and Donald Franc (Australia), as well as a collection of photographs of the 1930s made on Bali Americans who opened the first hotel in Kuta. In the Gallery of the Museum, located on the main street Ubud, you can buy paintings and other works of Balinese art.
Pura Sarasvati. This water palace was built by a local genius and gasta by Newman Lempad. In the luxurious gardens, on the shore of the pond with the lotus architect elevated the temple of the Hindu goddess of Enlightenment. In the southern part of the park there is a restaurant "Cafe Lotus". From here a beautiful view. Here you can see a dance performance.
Puri Saren Agung (Ubud Palace). Palace of the Sukawati family – a great place to watch the traditional dance performance. Here there are special guest rooms for guests to visitors. Tourists can walk through the park in the park.
Gallery of Female Art Senivati. Balinese artists have been depicted on their paintings of local women on their paintings, but in museums, the works of women artists are rare. Seenivati gallery was opened in 1991. Solded here by the Englishman. She decided to exhibit and sell paintings by Balinese artists. The gallery also has a non-profit school for girls (the only one in the region), where painting and other arts teach.
Neighborhood Ubud
Elephant Cave – Goa Gajah (Goa Gajah). This place is known from the XI in. It serves both the temple and the place of spiritual development of Hindu priests. Near the cave are pools for ablutions – one for men, the second for women. Pools are designed for ritual cleansing before prayer. The facade of the cave is decorated with strange, almost abstract carvings. The entrance resembles the deployment of Boma. From all sides, he is framed by images of good spirits, which should scare spirits of evil. Niches in the walls of the cave are intended for meditation. Near the cave installed the statue of the Goddess men take with its numerous children. Local guides may seem overly annoying. If you want to use their services, make a fee in advance.
Yeh Pula (Yeh Pulu). A few hundred meters east of the elephant cave, below the hill, is a small town of Yeh Pula. His main attraction – carved panels related to XIV in. and cut on the rocky wall with a length of 25 m. They depict scenes from the life of the Balinese people. You will see princesses, clergy, hunters for boars, and next to them – Hindu deities, such as Ganesh, God with an elephant head. Unlike the elephant cave, the yakh pool of tourists is a bit. Most likely, here you will find a chapeller of the temple, a pretty elderly woman who blesses you with water from the sacred source (but you need to make a donation). In the yeh-punch you can get with the excursion, the route of which runs on rice fields from the elephant cave.
Elephant Safari Park. Elephants saved on Sumatra, where they are used on a forestry, now calmly live in this park, where they can be fed from the hands, iron, and for an additional fee ride them. In the park there is a museum of elephants, a large restaurant and, of course, a souvenir shop.
Gunung Kawi (Gunung Kawi). In the Valley of the Packerisan River, amazing shrines XI are preserved., carved. Sanctures are developed into two groups. It is believed that one of them is the Memorial of King Anak Würings and his wives and concubines. Nearby are carved monastic cells. With a guide, you can walk along rice fields to the tenth sanctuate, apparently built for the court minister who occupied the high position.
White Herkel Petulu Reserve (Petulu). Thousands of white Herlin embody the souls of 100,000 Balinese who died during political cleansing held in Indonesia in 1965. Many victims of repression were buried nearby, and birds mysteriously appeared shortly after the burial. Every morning at dawn, they go for food and returned at sunset (about 18.00), covering trees with snow cover.
Park Birds and Park Reptile. Picturesque landscape gardens have become a residence place 250 species of exotic birds. Here you can see even extinct Balinese star. And the reptiles are located nearby – crocodiles, snakes and commodose Varana. In this park lives 8-meter net python. You can buy tickets to each Park individually or a combined ticket for visiting both parks.
Villages of folk fishers. The 13-kilometer portion of the road between Denpasar and Zobood is famous for villages where folk crafts flourish. Workshops are located right along the road. In Batubulana (Batubulan) engaged in carving on stone. Here you will see the figures of gods and demons, people and animals and even abstract compositions of all sizes. Cheluk (Celuk) – Silver Masters Village. In the workshops you can buy finished products or order on a specific pattern. In Sukawati), there is an artistic race, where local goods are sold. Here you can visit the workshops where dolls for the Teen Theater Kulit. Batuan (Batuan) – the Motherland of the Amazing School of Painting, but in local artistic galleries and studios presented a variety of styles. In the mass (MAS) you live carvers on a tree. They work with hibiscus, red wood, coconut palm and other types of wood. These masters can do absolutely everything – from the Barong mask and the Little Buddha Figures to the figures of animals, people and demons in a meter height.
