Ubud & Centre
Why go?
Ubud is Bali's thriving cultural heart. It is here that you will
find art galleries, museums, Balinese dancing, puppet shows and
theatrical Legong performances, as well as authentic gamelan
(sounds like plink plonk) music. But this is only part of the
story.
There are deep forested gorges with gushing rivers below. You can
find yourself following lines of herding ducks through rice
paddies, watching kingfishers darting through the mist or see a
thousand sacred herons arriving home to roost in Petulu.
You’ll easily find yoga teachers, mystics and savants without
difficulty. Ubud takes its name from Ubad meaning medicine and you
are never far from rural ceremonies and temple offerings.
If shopping’s your thing, you can bargain in the market to
your heart’s content or drop in to some of the designer shops
midway down Monkey Forest Road. There's even a Prada store here
now.Ubud's not short of restaurants but try taking a table in one
of the bustling warungs (local restaurant). As you’d expect,
it’s cooler in this area, so you may need to wrap up on
cloudy days and in the evenings.
Heading towards the centre of the island, on the southwest slopes
of daunting Gunung Agung, is the 8th-century Mother Temple: Pura
Besakih. When you reach the Pura, you’ll be rewarded with
incomparable vistas of sky-reflecting crater lakes, distant water
temples and smoking caldera. If you’re super-fit,
there’s a gruelling climb to the summit, but, to get there
for sunrise, you’ll need to start climbing at midnight. And
you’ll most definitely need a guide.
If you’re staying at Sanda, take the opportunity to trek to
Blemantung Waterfall through farmland and coffee and vanilla
plantations, or drive out to Medewi on the west coast. On the way,
you’ll drive straight through the middle of the ‘Drive
Thru Tree’.