Travel and Photography | Once Upon a Time in Ubud Bali | Indonesia

© 2014 Wazari Wazir | Penestanan Rice Field | Ubud Bali | Indonesia

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” 

– Elizabeth Gilbert –

Some people may ask me, why I chose to stay in Ubud instead of in Kuta Bali, because Bali is popular for it beaches like in Sanur, Nusa Dua, Kuta, Legian and some other places. To begin with, I’m not beach kind of guy, even back home in Malaysia we have quite a lot of beautiful beaches but I choose Mount Kinabalu anytime than beach. Anyway I just wanted to get away from the crowded area of Kuta, I want a little bit of peace, quite far away from busy road of Kuta and Denpasar, so I choose to stay in Ubud for the whole week.

Penestanan is a a traditional and pretty village of artists and bead-workers on the western outskirts of Ubud. It has a population of about 2000, which is quite large for a Balinese village. It’s hard to believe that the quaint village of Penestanan is only one kilometre from bustling colorful Ubud, the cultural and artistic center of Bali. Historic Penestanan is nestled between the famous villages of Campuhan and Sayan where some of the earliest foreign visitors to Bali chose to make their homes in the 1930‘s.

© 2014 Google Map | Ubud Map

Surrounded by beautiful rice-fields, this charming village is the home of hundreds of painters and bead-workers who live and work in their traditional walled family compounds. The name Penestanan comes from penastan which means bowl for holy water. The river Bhangsuh begins from a spring in the north of Penestanan village and joins with the Campuhan River in the south of the village.

Penestanan ladies are famous for their beautiful skin, which is attributed to the properties of this special river. According to history, Ubud once had a king who donated land to people who gifted unique works of art to him. People with artistic trades as painters, stone and wood carvers, jewelers, basket and textile makers, etc. were all given land and gradually villages grew that each specialized in their own particular type of art.

 It just took us just less than five minutes walk from our hotel to get into the middle of the rice field, you can see the map there. It’s all about choice and I never regret choosing this place, it is very quite at night, you can only hear the sound of nature instead of the man made vehicle. But if you like something happening, like to partying all night long, then, this place will definitely bore you down. It will took us another maybe twenty minutes walk to get to the heart of Ubud Centre around Monkey Forest Road (Wenara Wana Road). Monkey Forest Road is the most happening place in Ubud.

Most of the people who came to Ubud for a day trip rarely see the beautiful side of Ubud, I mean the rice field and village. It is quite hidden behind the rows of hotel, restaurant and shops along Monkey Forest Road, most of the tourist operator will took the tourist and straight away take them to Ubud Palace at the beginning of the Monkey Forest Road and then let them buy souvenir along Monkey Forest Road. There are plenty of hotels and villas to choose from at Monkey Forest Road, from budget hotel to quite expensive one.

Not very far from our hotel, (less than five minute walk) also is where Don Antonio Blanco Museum is located. Blanco is arguably the most famous and successful artist to ever live in Bali, built his magnificent studio on top of a mountain overlooking the Campuan River. The flamboyant building, a unique blend of Balinese architecture imbued with the spirit of his native Spain, houses an interesting collection of works drawn from different periods of his long career. During his life it was visited daily by hundreds of people from all over the world. The artist, full of “Catalan charisma,” earned himself the sobriquet “The Fabulous Blanco,” an expression that mirrored his talent for creativity.

Anyway, if you like art and planning to visit Bali, don’t give Ubud just for a day trip, stay a whole week here or more and you won’t be disappointed but I like to let you know also that Ubud is quite far from Kuta and Ngurah Rai, from Ngurah Rai Airport will take around one hour and half to get here and so do to Kuta, it will take more than an hour also from Ubud, If you wanted to see Kecak Dance, you don’t necessarily have to travel to Uluwatu, Ubud has three place for Kecak Dance and also Barong Dance. Most people wanted to see Kecak Dance in Uluwatu because it is located on a Cliff overlooking Indian Ocean with the beautiful sunset behind. We do enjoy watching Kecak Dance here in Ubud at Pura Dalem Temple.

*Before I forget, we stay at D’Omah Bali  Created by Warwick Purser one of Bali’s tourism pioneers who later became famous for creating the new look in Indonesian handicrafts.