Indonesia: Visiting Ubud, Bali's most iconic town

Where To Go Next By I&P
Dec 3, 2022
4 min read

You cannot be in a hurry when you travel in Indonesia. You need a lot of time just to move around, even if it's just to the other side of the same island.

For once, we did not have any issues flying here - we departed from Ende, had a layover in Labuan Bajo before heading back to Bali and no flight was diverted to a different island! 🥳

But the drive from the airport to our hotel in Ubud took 2h because of the rain and heavy traffic, 30mins more than expected.

But it was like we had a quick sightseeing tour of Ubud. Ubud is a town for tourists who want to enjoy the mountains of Bali, the rice fields and the numerous temples (there's one every 10 meters), instead of the beaches and night parties.

The town has a few long but narrow streets, all overcrowded with motorbikes and cars. And because those roads are not adapted and not maintained enough to sustain such heavy traffic, there are huge traffic jams all around town, especially when it rains.

The town itself is full of Homestays (local bed and breakfast), shops and restaurants from the most basic (for example, warungs, which are small family restaurants) to the fancier western ones. Ubud is definitively a small countryside town submerged by mass tourism.

We saw a lot of tourists but it must have been nothing compared to a few months earlier, during summer and dry season, even though there are still some entry requirements in Indonesia, such as, you need at least 3 covid shots. The number of mosquitoes is also impressive and they probably stung so many tourists by now that even they are protected against covid. 🦟🦟🦟

We also noticed a behavior by both tourists and Indonesians that is, unfortunately, more common in cities overcrowded with tourists. Even if most of the Indonesians were still respectful and extremely nice.

We had the chance to stay at the Suntari Homestay for a few days with an amazing family, in a quiet room in front of an Indonesian temple and a courtyard full of plants.

Although we didn't feel like we were in the heart of the town (you even had annoying roosters!), the homestay was a 5 to 20 mins walk to major Ubud attractions, such as, the Saraswati temple (water palace), with its pond full of water lilies, and the Ubud palace.

We also wanted to see the famous Monkey Forest where thousands of monkeys live and try to steal tourists' things. But a heavy afternoon rain came and we decided to skip it. We had already seen plenty of monkeys before anyway.

The following day, we went for a day tour around Ubud.

The elephant temple was our first stop. The only reference to an elephant is the statue at the entrance, otherwise it is more a temple complex that has the particularity to have Hindu and Buddhist temples lost in the jungle, below immensely tall trees.

We then went to the Holy Spring Temple or Pura Tirta Empul, close to the town of Tempaksiring. This famous temple complex features a natural source of water that is said to purify the people that bathe in it. The water pours out from 13 fountains and you need to submerge your head under each of them to undergo ritual purification. Luckily, we didn't need purification (and did not have bathing suits) so we just visited the temple. 😆

We continued our journey towards a viewpoint of Mount Batur, a volcano close to Ubud surrounded by a lake, Batur Lake.

Indonesia, Bali, Ubud, Mount Batur, Lake Batur

Then we visited Besakih temple, which is a complex of beautiful temples and shrines organised like a city in the mountains with a beautiful view of its surroundings. The main temple can be accessed by a very long staircase and is built over 6 levels but it was not open to tourists due to a religious ceremony.

And that's where we had to end our day, unfortunately. During our visit to Besakih temple there was a heavy downpour that lasted the whole afternoon. Our next stop was a panoramic view of the rice fields but they were impossible to see due to the low clouds, so we decided to go back to Ubud.

It took us 2.5h to go back because of the traffic and also because one of the bridges to go back to town collapsed due to the heavy rain.

The next day we stayed in Ubud and hiked the Campuhan Ridge Walk, a ridge between 2 valleys where locals and expats come to exercise.

And then we went to the Sweet Orange walk trail, which takes you through the local rice fields.

We ended the day with a stroll through the various street markets. Ubud is a very nice town with a lot of art galleries and beautiful temples where you can also see the Kecak fire dance. The locals really reused and maintained the historical and cultural heritage to create an attractive hub for tourists and arts fans.