When tourism caught on in Bali back in the 1930's most foreign visitors came to the island for its beaches. But a handful of the more discerning came, not for sand and sun, but for the culture and art of the island. Those tourists made Ubud, a small city in the mountainous interior of Bali, home -- and reinforced that city's claim as the seat of Balinese culture.
In the 1930's there was no hotel in Ubud: visitors stayed in cottages provided by Prince Gde Agung Sukawati for use mostly as an art colony of sorts. The colony was begun by Walter Spies, an ethnic German born in Russia who taught painting and music, and dabbled in dance. He came to Bali for a visit in 1927 and stayed there until the outbreak of World War II. But more about Spies later.
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Picture courtesy of
Ross Taylor
Click on the picture for a larger view.
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The Ubud of today is far from undiscovered. Hotels are plentiful; home stays and Indonesian guesthouses (losmen) are easily available to the foreign tourist. Ubud is popular in part today because it is the best place in Bali to break out of the tourist mode and get off the beaten path.
Ubud is attractive to tourists for a variety of reasons. On a relatively small island with a horde of attractions, Ubud is centrally located; many tourists simply base their entire stay in the city and travel to other destinations from Ubud. Accommodations in Ubud are also somewhat more reasonably priced than in the beach towns of Bali. But atmosphere is perhaps the major attractions. One writer sums it up this way: Kuta is madness, Sanur is sterile, and Nusa Dua is culturally isolated; Ubud is the place to go.
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