Discovering Ubud in One Day

How Desa Panglipuran is seen from higher point

Even though I went to Bali frequently, I have to admit that parts of Bali other than its southern sides stand as a closed book to me. The closest approach I made to get there was only by seeing its beaut through refined snaps on the screen of these instagram darlings. I have never been to Ubud as I found it was kind of .. overrated. What's so special this place would be compared to other places with rice terrace? We have plenty of greens here in Bandung so why bother to fly across the islands only to see paddy fields? Until a twist happened. On the day I read an article about this pretty village in the deep of Ubud, I did nothing but putting Ubud on the top notch of Bali's go-to list.

1. Warung Nasi Bali Men Weti

Nasi Ayam Men Weti (Men Weti's Chicken Rice)

Before going forth for Ubud, we decided to have a quick breakfast fix at Warung Nasi Bali Men Weti in Segara Ayu, Sanur. Mbak Rina told me it's a sin to skip this one, so there we were trying out this famous nasi ayam. The warung is located not too far from Sanur's coastline. It was only 8 in the morning but the queue was already long and seats were almost full. At first I thought we had to get in the line to get our meal but fortunately some Bli(s) were ready to distribute it right to where we're seated. A plate of nasi ayam consists of steamed white rice, chunks of betutu chicken, half slice of pindang egg with special red sambal, fried peanuts, sambal matah, and crispy chicken skin as a major kick to the dish. That's a plate of festivity, I would say. And then how was it? Just try it by yourself and thank me later. (hint: It was so good I assume this meal was a drop of heaven)

Quick stop at Sanur Beach on Sunday. No time is too early to indulge your vitamin sea

2. The Blanco Renaissance Museum
Within one and half hours, we drove our rented motorbike into what seems to be a more serene and peaceful side of Bali. As someone who is familiar with greens and chilled weather, I expected the trip would be bland and boring for the road we took would be far and endless. Yes it was long and endless but the atmosphere was 180 degrees contradicted to glitz and glam at Seminyak's seasides. It felt more tranquil, relaxed, and comforting here. Along the way, art and craft shops lined up on both sides of the road offering us charming scenery and retail therapy at once. Our first stop at Ubud was an art museum called The Blanco Renaissance Museum.

The museum is located on the top of the hill next to Campuhan River. Uniquely, you wouldn't find any museum-like building from the parking lot but soon as we climbed up the stairs and walked down the alleyway of lush of greens, a vast field with huge building came as a surprise to us. Don't forget to take pictures with its collection of beautiful birds as they'd welcome you at the end of the alleyway.

The big house at the side of the field presented collections of Antonio Blanco's best artworks from a wide span of time. He's famous with his paintings on portraying the beauty of Balinese women and its culture. Some find it erotic as most of his paintings involved the presence of topless Balinese women, some even featured nudity. The museum not only spotlighted his personal paintings but also his son's and couple of local artists'. You could also visit his studio and took a look at the collections as couple of them were available for sale and auctions. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a lot of pictures especially because they didn't allow us to do such thing inside the gallery.

3. Bali Pulina Coffee Plantation

I'm not a coffee drinker myself but whenever someone pointed me a good coffee place, I would visit it certainly. This time is Bali Pulina's turn. Bali Pulina stands prominently as a distinctive coffee heaven for coffee junkies. As Ubud is very famous with its agrotourism, Bali Pulina is one of dozens coffee destinations you could try around. What makes Pulina different to others was because they didn't only offer us coffee drinking experience but also coffee making and event planting experience. To start the journey there, we have to buy ticket  that could be exchanged to 2 large cups of your preferred beverages (you can go for their luwak coffee (real one, of course)), 10 kinds of small cups of coffee and tea plus sweet and savory snacks.

Once we enter the plantation, a local guide greeted us warmly and showed us luwaks in a cage. Inside, I saw they're sleeping next to a basket full of coffee cherries. The guide explained us how coffee cherries fermented by the luwaks. From what I heard, they assured us no harm was done to the luwaks (well I hope so!) but still I refuse to agree with the idea of interrupting luwak's natural digesting process only to produce one cup of coffee. Anyway, we were then being escorted by another guide to get closer to know the next process such as drying, roasting, and brewing the beans. At the end of the journey, we were redirected to a seating area facing a very beautiful rice terraces with cups coffee and tea to complete our laid back moment. This place is both educating and entertaining at the same time. To my personal preference, I would completely recommend this place as a part of your next Ubud's must visit. It's worth every of your penny.

4. Desa Panglipuran

A visit to Bali Pulina successfully recharged our energy bar to a proper level. Never knew that motorbike ride from Seminyak to Sanur then to Ubud would absorb our remaining power *this* much. After making couple of considerations, we decided to continue our journey visiting a beautiful village, a cultural village, in the deep of Ubud. At first I was hesitate to get there considering its long distance, not to mention how much time and energy we should commit to the journey. But we did it anyway.

It was a long, really really long road to get to Desa Panglipuran. Our only compass was google maps attached on my phone which unfortunately didn't quite helpful on showing the correct direction. We got lost in the middle of Ubud's jungle for multiple times lol. I would blame my phone's inability to deliver accurate information about our location but truthfully (confession) I am *also* so poor when it comes to reading maps let alone navigating the street I've never been before. We roamed and roamed the road and relied upon our remaining memory about the village location. It was extremely quiet on the road for the only sound I heard was our conversation, our motorbike's, and the hushes between the trees. I have never been feeling this disturbed by the absence of people nor sound around us. Things were getting a tad creepy. The day was getting older but we were nowhere near the village until we saw a bamboo forest which I completely sure represented the sign of the village. Suddenly we saw a couple sitting on a motorbike that was parked at the corner of the forest (don't ask me what they were doing in this remote place). We were so lucky that they're actually humans not ghosts kind enough to give us the fastest route to reach the entrance gate of the village. I felt like rolling on the ground the time we saw humans and buildings (hahahaha please bear with me!). It was nerve-wrecking to get lost in the middle of nowhere like that).

The village is extremely neat and clean. It has this unique layout that is said following old Bali spatial and architecture rules. From above, you could see similar-shaped traditional houses lined up on the left and right side of stone-made pavements. The people of Desa Panglipuran are so friendly and welcoming. Thus, do not hesitate to walk around and send them your warmest greetings. If you happen to be around of their houses, they would happily greet you with smiles and explain you a bit about the village.

Some of these houses also sell gifts, art stuff, and foods and drinks. On the top of this village stands a remarkable Pura where people pray. I managed to try on Balinese's traditional outfit I rented from local booth at the upper side of the village. Pictures of me wearing the outfit with the Pura standing as the background was one of the best snaps I got during the whole Bali trip. I felt very comfortable inside the pretty outfit as if the outfit was made personally for me. I felt so pretty no wonder one of the booth owner mistaken me for a TV star hahahaha!
As the night came closer, we decided to go back to Seminyak (this time we didn't get lost, yay). Ubud is hell of a ride. It's tremendeously tiring and challenging to go there but it's a perfect place to indulge the authentic experience of Bali. Ubud stands as if it wasn't bothered by modernization and  fabrication. It demands us nothing but paying respect to nature. Suksma, Ubud. I had my zen moment there.