Ubud Food Festival 2018

Ubud Food Festival returns this year on April 13-15, 2018, as a celebration of diverse Indonesian cuisine and local produce, while also serving as a gathering of the island’s most prominent chefs through a variety of presentations, live cooking demonstrations and culinary tours. This year’s festival once again brings together a host of restaurateurs, food producers, professionals and celebrated figures in the Indonesian food and beverage industry. The annual event is held over the three days, besides offering you the opportunity to discover the wealth and variety of Indonesian cuisine, the Ubud Food Festival also features special events such as organic and culinary markets that allow you to discover and purchase the freshest farm items from the island’s best producers. Side events also include live music concerts highlighting local bands, as well as yoga, film screenings and food photography workshops.

Figures headlining this year’s talks include Bridges Bali’s head sommelier Antoine Olivain, Indonesian celebrity chefs Bara Pattiradjawane and Farah Quinn, chef-owner of the pioneering Bumbu Bali cooking class Heinz von Holzen, MoVida chef Frank Camorra, Cuca chef Kevin Cherkas, CasCades chef Nic Vanderbeeken, Locavore’s Ray Adriansyah, Seniman Coffee’s Rodney Glick, Hujan Locale’s Will Meyrick and Tim Bartholomew and The Sayan House’s Yuki Tagami. There are different ticket prices for each event throughout the festival. For example, the special opening night party is at IDR 500,000 (USD 37.65) and includes cocktails, canapes, the whole live entertainment and the chance to meet up with the chefs and restaurateurs in person. Special events, workshops and tours start from IDR 250,000 (USD 18). Tickets are available at the festival’s box office at Taman Kuliner on Ubud’s Jalan Raya Sanggingan, or directly at the special event venues throughout Ubud. This festival hub will also be open as the main venue where free events and hosted talks are held, and where public visitors can enjoy food and drinks, as well as the live music highlights and fresh market bazaars.

source : www.bali-indonesia.com

Rafting at Ayung River

Ayung River is the largest river in Bali that can considered as the best Whitewater rafting in Bali since very suitable for beginner and family activity. Not only easily access from Ubud but also it only 1.5 hour driving from Kuta, is still the best option to spend your day in Bali after enough with sunbathing and beaches.

Ayung River is categorized as Class II – III grade therefore is considered as family friendly Whitewater rafting and for those who never try rafting activity before. The length of rafting in the river Ayung is about 9 km and takes approximately 2.5 hours. This kind of activity will offer you scenery that you will never find in other places such as a wonderful hidden waterfall, the jungle scenery and also the wildlife like the infamous Blue Java Kingfisher bird.

Furthermore, there are plenty Whitewater rafting operators at Ayung River Ubud; however we, KUBU UBUD only cooperate with the best rafting operator simply since they are only companies that are able to focus on customer’s satisfaction experience

Blanco Renaissance Museum

Blanco Renaissance Museum is an unofficial landmark in Ubud, the house and studio of the late flamboyant Philippine-born maestro, Don Antonio Blanco. Located on a hilltop overlooking the lush valley of Campuhan, it houses paintings, collages and illustrated poetry, together with lithographic artworks of his favourite subject: nude Balinese women. The private residence and lavish studio has guided tours of the facility, with the artist’s family members hosting you if you’re lucky. The thought-provoking collections, lush garden surroundings and a fine restaurant established in the name of the artist’s late wife and muse all provide a great stopover on your trips to Ubud.

A five-minute drive westward from the Puri Saren royal palace and the main Ubud hub, the museum is hard to miss, on a hilltop above the Campuhan valley. A sharp turn and steep driveway leads you right up to the arched entrance gates. Inside is a large garden lawn and courtyard before the main palatial building that blends Balinese and Spanish architecture, homage to Blanco’s heritage. Admission is 50,000 rupiahs, which gets you a fresh welcome drink and access to the galleries, studios and grounds. Enter the main building, and a massive marble hall lined with Blanco’s artworks in lavish and unusual frames soon surrounds you. Many colourful nude portraits hang in this room, while out towards the studio you will see various collages with 60s-era paintings and paintbrushes and dried paint in front of an artwork in progress, most probably that of his son Mario, who follows his father’s passion in arts.

Here you will find only Blanco and his son’s works, there are no other artists’ collections. We recommend this museum strictly for adults and art lovers – not for children, apart from the palatial gardens and a collection of gorgeous parrots and other exotic birds in the courtyard. Some of the art pieces occasionally bring a smile to your face; others a slight cringe. There are even some shady pieces with snippets of porn magazines overlaid with soapboxes, sand and seashells. Moreover, knowing that one of Blanco’s paintings was once sold for 5 billion rupiahs in Singapore in 2012 really makes you want to explore more of the displays. After the main gallery, you are guided through other studios, before exiting into a private parking shed.

Source: http://www.bali-indonesia.com/magazine/blanco-renaissance-museum.htm

Ubud Art Market

A holiday in Bali always calls for some sort of shopping for souvenirs or memorabilia of the trip, and the best place to make the search would be in the artistic central region of the island, namely Ubud and its Ubud Art Market. The Ubud Art Market, locally referred to as 'Pasar Seni Ubud' is located opposite the the Puri Saren Royal Ubud Palace and is open daily. Here you can find beautiful silk scarves, lightweight shirts, handmade woven bags, baskets or hats; statues, kites and many other hand-crafted goods. Most of the goods found at the Ubud Market are made in the neighbouring villages of Pengosekan, Tegallalang, Payangan and Peliatan. 

The location of the Ubud Art Market which is centred among the art producing villages, and being just opposite the royal palace which is a centre point to Ubud itself, make it a strategic shopping place for Balinese handicrafts and souvenirs. The Ubud market also serves as a setting for the Hollywood movie Eat Pray Love, which shows a scene where actress Julia Roberts opposite a male character strolling through the stalls which are frequently visited by foreign and domestic visitors in real life. Naturally, bargaining is essential. Ubud Art Market is one among the laid-back strolls, reachable from the Wanara Wana Monkey Forest Sanctuary just down south, an approximate kilometre from the market. 

Compared to art markets in Bali’s other main tourism destinations such as Kuta, the Ubud Art Market can be considered to feature higher quality items and a larger mixture. Although beach cloths and shirts printer with “Bali” on them, and ikat woven skirts, Balinese style paintings, woodcarvings and woven baskets can be found almost everywhere on the island, items ranging from quadruple-coloured bohemian skirts of satin, Moroccan-style oil lamps, quilt-stitched batik camisoles and brass Buddha statuettes, are somewhat the staple, typical Ubud Art Market curios. 

The market is open daily from 08:00 to 18:00, and some of the stalls are even open until late at night. The market is divided into two main allotments. The western block is the main art market, and an eastern block is a traditional market serving daily groceries and necessities. ubud market its just only 10mnt from from our Kubu Ubud hotel therefore it will be so easy to shop for your unforgetable memorabillia of your trip in Ubud.

Tirta Empul

Tirta Empul is an important temple complex and holy mountain spring, located in the village of Manukaya in central Bali. The site serves as a legendary setting of a traditional tale about good versus evil. It is also a national cultural heritage site. The complex, built circa 960 AD, is also a silent witness to the old Balinese kingdom years, particularly at the time of the Warmadewa Dynasty. Another nearby and prominent site on top of a hill is the presidential palace, Istana Tampaksiring, built during the years of the nation’s first president, Soekarno. Tirta Empul, meaning ‘holy water spring’ is actually the name of a water source located within the temple. The spring feeds various purification baths, pools and fish ponds surrounding the outer perimeter, which all flow to the Tukad Pakerisan River. Various sites throughout the region and many other archaeological relics relate to local myths and legends.

As is common with Balinese temples, the Tirta Empul Temple complex has three key divisions, namely a front, secondary and inner courtyard. Visitors to Tirta Empul first come upon the lush gardens and pathways adorned with statues and tropical plants that lead to its entrance.  After stepping through this typical 'candi bentar' (temple gate), a vast walled courtyard welcomes visitors to the bathing pools where a large 'wantilan' meeting hall stands at the right. Inside the central courtyard, referred to as ‘madya mandala’ or ‘jaba tengah’, pilgrims first approach a rectangular purification bath where a total of 13 elaborately sculpted spouts that line the edge from west to east. After solemn prayers at an altar-like shrine, they proceed to enter the crystal-clear, cold mountain water. With hands pressed together, they bow under the gushing water of the first spout, carrying on to the eleventh. The water from the last two of the 13 spouts is meant for purification purposes in funerary rites. The myth behind the curative and purifying spring tells of a Balinese ruler, known by the title Mayadenawa, who is depicted to have defied the influence of Hinduism and denied his subjects religious prayers and practices. The legend goes that this eventually angered the gods, and in a campaign, god Indra sought Mayadenawa’s subdual.

Source: http://www.bali-indonesia.com/attractions/tirta-empul-temple.htm

Tegenungan Waterfall

Tegenungan Waterfall is one for nature lovers who happen to be staying in Ubud or have neighbouring Sukawati among their tour itineraries. The falls are conveniently located halfway between Ubud and Bali’s provincial capital of Denpasar, and is considered the closest natural attraction of its kind that you can reach within only a half-hour transfer southeast from Ubud town. Getting to the falls is a pleasant drive down paved village roads lined with stretches of green rice fields on both sides.

Upon reaching the end of the road, you are welcomed into a newly built parking and welcoming area, with ticket booths up front (tickets are IDR 10,000 or just under a dollar per person). This area is lined with art and souvenir shops, together with small local ‘warung’ stalls selling snacks and cold drinks. The largest restaurant here, Bebek Tamarind, serves great local dishes such as its signature Balinese style crispy fried duck, and is a good spot to hangout before or after going down to Tegenungan Waterfall. The falls are only several minutes’ walk down the trail beyond the shops, where you’ll enjoy the impressively green valley panorama with cascading water as a centrepiece. Dense foliage frames the falls, and the water volume is impressive at almost any time of year, but normally at its strongest during the wet season (October to April). You can go down to the vast pebbly base and enjoy a dip in the plunge pool, but this is not advised after heavy downpours, due to the risk of flash floods.