Approximately 25 km north of Denpasar lies Ubud, the cultural and artistic center of Bali. Ubud contains a large variety of artists ranging from painters and woodcarvers to basketweavers and batik makers. Along with these artists, Ubud has a large amount of galleries and museums showcasing the finest examples of Balinese artwork. We visited the Neka Art Museum founded by Suteja Neka whose goal it was to document and preserve Balinese paintings. An artist himself, Neka amassed a large variety of Balinese paintings through generous donations from wealthy collectors and the artists themselves. Wandering through this well organized museum, we were able to see the progression and evolution of Balinese painting. We came away from the museum with a greater appreciation and understanding of not only Balinese art but also Balinese culture in general.
Although Ubud is a modern city, a ten minute walk from the city center provided us with many good walking opportunities. One of our walks followed alongside a river through small villages, rice paddies and up hills offering great views of the countryside. Many of the villages surrounding Ubud specialize in various Balinese arts and crafts. For example, one village specialized in stonecaving, the next village specialized in painting and still another specialized in carving wooden dragons. We chose to trek to a village that focused on carving wooden masks for a little shopping. The first part of this walk took us through a monkey sanctuary where hundreds of anxious monkeys waited to be fed bananas and peanuts by the visiting tourists. After the monkey forest, we finally made it to our destination where we set out for some serious shopping. After visiting numerous shops, we finally found a Balinese mask with a price to our liking. Throughout our travels in Indonesia, we have had our eye on a traditional medicine container made of carved bone and wood. While searching through the inventory of a shop we were pleased and surprised to find exactly what we were looking for. The shopkeeper quoted us the outrageous sum of 150,000.00 rupiah (approx. $20.00 USD) where upon we laughed and began walking out the door. Following us, he then asked how much we would like to pay. Almost as a joke we told him 20,000.00 rupiah (approx. $2.50 USD) and again walked for the door. He then held up a smaller, less decorative container which he said we could have for 20,000.00 rupiah. Again we headed for the door when he finally agreed to our original request. Most bargaining transactions do not turn out so advantageous for the buyer, however being away from the city and the tourists, we were able to get such a great deal.
On our initial itinerary, we did not plan to visit the island of Bali. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here but Bali is not a place where hard core budget travelers can get by easily. Bali caters to higher end tourists who have a greater vacation budget and shorter amount of time. For example, the transportaton between cities in Bali must be done on expensive tourist buses or private transportation. Usually, we try to take cheaper public transportation like the locals but found this almost impossible in Bali. Bali would be an ideal destination for a two to three week vacation of shopping, staying in nice hotels and eating in fancy restaurants. We plan to return when we are able to do just that but, for now, we are back to the budget travellers' haven of Java.
