Vikingess Voyages: Sightseeing in Bali: Daytrip to Ubud & Don Antonio Blanco's Museum

Typical Balinese style entrance

After some nice days in Yogyakarta it was time to leave for a new destination again, and this time we were heading towards the famous tourist-island Bali. We had decided to go there by bus, and left Yogyakarta the same afternoon as we had gone sightseeing to Borobudur and Prambanan temple. The trip was rather long though: it took us over 20 hours until we could finally leave the bus in Denpasar, Bali. And from there we took the taxi for about half an hour to get to Kuta beach, where we had decided to stay while in Bali.

The day we arrived we didn't do that much, I tried to surf for the first time and beside that we just relaxed and checked out the area we lived in. We did however meet an Australian/English couple who had rented a car for 400.000 Rp for the following day, and they asked us if we wanted to join them, split the bill and go to Ubud in the morning. We decided to come along, and the following day we got up early and left for Ubud with our new friends. They are both retired, and had been to Bali on holiday many times already. John, who was Australian, wanted to visit the museum of a painter he had got to know in Bali many years ago. The painter, Don Antonio Blanco, is probably the most famous artist that has ever lived in Bali. Although Blanco lived in Bali most of his grown-up life he was actually born in the Philippines, and his parents were both Spanish. In the end he settled down in Campuan in Ubud, and he lived there with his wife, a famous Balinese dancer. Their home has been made into a museum by their son Mario, and we went there to take a look at his gallery and paintings.

A Shiva-statue in the garden

A group picture with John's wife, our driver, me and Yuma.

Blanco's property also had a big garden where we spent some time. Seems Blanco must have really liked birds, because there are still a lot of birds being kept in cages here, along with some parrots who are tamed. We got to hold them too, they were soo cute:)

Nice parrots!

Yuma + parrots

After a trip around the garden we went to see the main museum where Blanco's paintings were. The entrance to the museum had a very special gate: a big statue of Blanco's logo, which he apparently made based upon his own autograph.

The entrance to Blanco's art gallery

A dragon statue at the entrance to the gallery

Unfortunately it's not alowed to take any photos inside the main gallery, but for those interested in Blanco's paintings I suggest that you check out the homepage of the gallery.

A statue on the roof of the main gallery

A painting surrounded by tools in one of the rooms in the galleri

Blanco's family shrine

In addition to the garden and the art galleries the Blanco family also had their own shrine. We stopped by and left the flowers we got when we entered there.

We left the flowers we had gotten in the family shrine

After the visit to the museum we went to see Ubud's characteristic rice paddies. The view there was very pretty, with the houses clinging to the hills. Even though this place is popular among tourists it still feels somewhat like being in an authentic Balinese village.

Ubud's famous rice paddies

They sell beautiful items made of wood here too.

Ubud is known as a place for original and beautiful art, and you can also find cheap handicrafts here. The locals will probably be all over you trying to sell you stuff, and they try to catch your attention by telling you that the price on their items is as low as one dollar. However, if you show your interest you will soon discover that they do not intend to let you get the items that cheap.. In the rice fields you can also see workers in action, and if you give them some money you can take photos with them or with their rice baskets.

Tourists almost gets run over by locals who are trying to sell their products.

Yuma & me, local style^^

Souvenirs and rice fields

The trip to Ubud was a good one, and we went back to Kuta with both a lot of nice photos and good memories too. The only part that didn't turn out as planned, was that originally we had planned to try out yoga in Ubud too, but unfortunately we missed our chance this time. Oh well, just another reason to come back in the future;)