9/28 Last Day in Bali: ARMA & White Heron Sanctuary

Another delightfully late start to the day before walking to the Arung Rai Museum of Art aka ARMA.

Photos from our walk through Ubud to ARMA:

I mentioned in a previous post how serious a health problem Bali and many areas in the rest of Indonesia have with rabies caused by unvaccinated street dogs.

Rare seeing recycling containers.

We needed to fortify ourselves at the bakery en route to ARMA  – what a great pit stop! We each bought one croissant, something we both love to munch on but only if they’re really, really good as otherwise in my mind it’s a waste of good calories! For instance I have yet to find a croissant ‘worth’ eating in Denver. My gold star standard for croissants has been the French bakery in Ottawa’s market area – are they the best ever! Steven ate his right away and declared it was good but not really good so I put off eating mine til later. 

We really enjoyed ARMA which was comprised of a number of buildings tucked away in a quiet area of Ubud. It includes a hotel, meeting rooms and holds numerous musical and dance performances. Before visiting ARMA, we had only known of its art galleries/museum.

Sure hope the komodo dragons we'll soon see will be in better shape than these ones!

Lots of buildings comprise ARMA's complex.

We'd been hearing the unique sounds of gamelan music playing for a while and finally found the source here in this large open-air building.

The woman was teaching the man - clearly  the budding musician still needed many, many hours still of her coaching.

Since we had come to ARMA to look at its collection of Balinese art, we finally located the galleries thanks to the map AND small book we’d been given at the entrance. ARMA’s art galleries have a fascinating permanent exhibition of paintings by Balinese, Indonesian and foreign artists who spent time in Bali.

Photos from ARMA's immense Bale Daja Wing below:

Art imitating life as you can read from the painting's description below.

When searching for what airlines to fly, we made sure to steer clear of
Lion Air because of their very poor safety record.

Some of the acclaimed and old Lempad's works below.

Titled 'Dance Lesson'

 I was flabbergasted at how old almost all the Balinese artists, showcased on the upper floor of the Bale Dura Gallery, were when they died – in their late 80’s, into their 90’s and one even living to 116! I could only marvel not only at their art but also at their secrets to longevity.

Steven set the camera on the timer mode for this shot so we could remember
 us and the superbly detailed costumes on the wing's main floor.

Balinese painting done on bark; reminded us of Aboriginal art in Australia we'd seen.

Poem written by Noel Coward to artist Walter Spies.

Down on the main floor, one very large room was dedicated to the paintings by Walter Spies, a German artist who lived in Bali.

Titled 'Learning to Swim'
I was thinking of a special someone here.

What incredible amount of detail in so many of the paintings. It made me wonder how long the artists worked each day and how long it took them to complete one painting.

Titled 'Harvesting Rice.'

Look below at the detail involved in the exquisite painting .

Then walked over to the other gallery at ARMA called the Bale Daja. 

Photos from it:

Thought at first glance when I entered the room this was a living artist. Nope!

This painting immediately caught our eyes from the doorway of another room because of its magnitude, wonderful use of color and composition. It wasn't til we saw it up close that we could appreciate it more fully.

Titled 'A Painting of a Javanese Nobleman and His Wife.'
The only painting I recall seeing in either of the two wings roped off.

Titled 'Golden Rice' and painted by Made Kedol in 2013.

You cannot begin to believe how totally surprised we were when we walked up to it and realized that it’s a textured painting. Each stroke looked like it had been applied using a knife.  Steven and I both said that is one painting we would never forget

After a couple of hours of wandering ARMA's beautiful grounds and the massive galleries, we decided to head back to the hotel. As we left the gallery though, we saw these enormous fruits and wondered how the small branches could support the fruit’s weight. 

The fruit looked exactly like a Granny Smith apple on mega steroids.

I could hardly believe that there were only 3 other tourists and absolutely not one guard in the 2 beautiful buildings containing such stunning national treasures especially as ARMA is very highly reviewed on Trip Advisor. What were all the other tourists in Ubud doing that they were missing out on coming here, I wondered?

For all you grandparents reading this!

Saw some of the cutest and also most amusing signs or banners in Ubud.

Wondered how comfy this would be to sit on.

Pretty tired, hot and hungry on the walk back to Ubud Bungalows so finally ate my croissant - it sure tasted pretty yummy to me at that point!

Chilis drying in the noontime sun.

We spent some more time in the market during the afternoon, then hired a taxi on the street (negotiated of course!) to drive us to the small village of Petulu to see its White Heron Sanctuary. We knew it was only located about 15 minutes northeast of Ubud but had been advised to get there early as there are sometimes traffic jams caused by Hindu ceremonial processions on the narrow road.

We got there in plenty of time arriving about 4:45 as there were no processions that day! 

Photos from Petulu's White Heron Sanctuary:

Fiber rolls for temple mewli or roofs.
No chance that roofing material would be approved by the ACC, Al, huh?!

Think she was contemplating the steep climb to her home. I would be too at the end of a long day

Detail photo of the house numbers (?) at the top of the steps.
Wondered what the writing in chalk meant as we'd never seen that before coming to Petulu.

We got to Petulu so early to see the herons that it was quiet enough to wander along the village's only street without having to worry about traffic. How wonderful THAT was.

The village temple.

 Saw so many men carry these farm implements, even while riding their motorbikes. 

A little scary getting too close to them.

Easy to figure we must have been in the right place as there was lots of bird droppings there!

Walked up to the top end and saw the toll collector up there too.

Figured pretty quickly the village must be known as the ‘frame village’ as we saw place after place – and all open to anyone passing by – filled with picture frames in all shapes and sizes.

 A bird cage being used to ward off the evil spirits just as Wi had told us.

Photos from the Sanctuary:

There was a very modern viewing platform where about 20 or so tourists variously sat and stood to enjoy the last moments of sunlight and anticipate the herons’ imminent arrival.

The area is known for its white heron sanctuary where, every night around 6, hundreds of thousands of herons fly in from far and wide to roost in the trees of the village.

Lovely views of the rice terraces as the skies grew darker.

Once again the skies were hazy, due in part from the fires in the distance. But that didn’t diminish our pleasure one iota in coming to Petulu.

 When the first herons appeared from over the rice fields and landed in the trees behind us, i.e. on the village side, it was a magical sight.

Avid birdwatchers might be able to distinguish the four species that frequent the area but the sheer volume of birds was impressive enough for us.

 What a sight seeing the herons streaming over the rice fields in black waves and also from Mt Batur in north Bali. Don’t think we’ll ever forget coming to Petulu.

It isn’t clear why the birds have chosen to make their nightly home in Petulu – they leave around 6 every morning – but the locals claim the birds are the reincarnation of the tens of thousands of men and women who died in the 1965-66 Civil War that raged through Bali. Many of the victims were buried near here and the birds are said to have started coming to Petulu only after an elaborate ceremony was held in the village in memory of the dead.

Men just below the viewing platform preparing for a cock fight by gently massaging the cocks first.

Walked back down the road about 6:45 where our driver was patiently waiting this entire time to take us back to town. No charge to access the town’s heron viewing platform but there were ticket collectors at each end of the road – like a ‘toll road.’

What an absolutely fantastic 9 days we've had in Bali - so many beautiful memories to take with us.