Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 257

main street. Turn left for the 1500m
walk through the village and back to
Museum Blanco.

The Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA)
Ubud's other major art museum is the
Agung Rai Museum of Art , or ARMA (daily
9am-6pm; Rp40,000; W armabali.com), in
Pengosekan, on the southern fringes of
Ubud. he upstairs gallery of the large
Bale Daja pavilion offers a brief survey of
the development of Balinese art, while
across the garden, the middle gallery of the
Bale Dauh displays works by Bali's most
famous expats, including Rudolf Bonnet,
Arie Smit and, the highlight, Calonnarang
by the German artist Walter Spies.

The Neka Art Museum
The Neka Art Museum (daily 9am-5pm;
Rp40,000; W museumneka.com) boasts
the island's most comprehensive
collection of traditional and modern
Balinese paintings. It's housed in a series
of pavilions set high on a hill in
Sanggingan, about 2.5km northwest of
Ubud central market; all westbound
bemos from the market pass the
entrance. he pavilions include exhibits
of Balinese painting from the seventeenth
century to the present day, an archive
of black-and-white photographs from
Bali in the 1930s and 1940s and
contemporary works by artists from other
parts of Indonesia.

Ubud Botanic Garden
Lush, tranquil Ubud Botanic Garden
(daily 8am-6pm; Rp50,000;
W botanicgardenbali.com) occupies a
steep-sided river valley in the banjar of
Kutuh Kaja, 1.7km north of Jalan Raya
Ubud (30min walk), and includes fine
heliconia and bromeliad collections, an
orchid nursery, an Islamic garden and a
meditation court.

The Monkey Forest Sanctuary
and Nyuhkuning
Ubud's best-known tourist attraction is
the Monkey Forest Sanctuary (daily
8am-6pm; Rp20,000), which occupies
the land between the southern end of
Jalan Monkey Forest (a 15min walk
south from Ubud's central market) and
the northern edge of Nyuhkuning.
Although the forest itself is nothing
special, the resident monkeys are playful
and almost alarmingly tame (they'll
snatch any items of food or drink you've
got with you, so beware). Five minutes
into the forest, you reach Pura Dalem
Agung Padang Tegal (same hours as the
sanctuary; free with sanctuary entry fee),
the temple of the dead for the Padang
Tegal neighbourhood. Pura dalem are
traditionally places of strong magical
power and the preserve of evil spirits;
in this temple you'll find half a dozen
stone-carved images of the witch-widow
Rangda sporting a hideous fanged face,
unkempt hair, a metre-long tongue and
pendulous breasts.
South from the temple, the track
enters the village of Nyuhkuning , a
respected centre for woodcarving - you
can buy carvings and take lessons at
several workshops - with a few cafés and
small hotels.

4

Yeh Pulu
Chipped away from a cliff face amid the
rice fields, the 25m-long series of
fourteenth-century rock-cut carvings at
Yeh Pulu (daily 7am-6pm; Rp15,000) is
a bit of a hidden treasure, without the
hordes of visitors one might expect and
all the more pleasant for it.
he story of the carvings is uncertain,
but scenes include a man carrying two jars
of water, and three stages of a boar hunt.
To reach Yeh Pulu, get off the Ubud-
Gianyar bemo at the signs just east of Goa
Gajah or west of the Bedulu crossroads,
and then walk 1km south through the
hamlet of Batulumbang. You can also
walk (with one of the ever-present guides)
through the rice fields from Goa Gajah;
guides also lead four-hour treks from Yeh
Pulu through nearby countryside (prices
for both routes are about Rp250,000 per
person including lunch).

Pejeng
Inhabited since the Bronze Age, the
village of PEJENG harbours many
religious antiquities and three interesting
old temples (no fixed opening times;
donation required). Pura Penataran Sasih