The market hasn't changed at all, whatever is on sale in Kuta is on sale here about 5-10% cheaper. I did however manage to find some scarves here which I had despaired of every seeing again and there was possibly a better range of table linen. I succumbed and bought one the thousands of cat carvings for my feline-friendly mother. We had an OK lunch at one of the restaurants heading out of Ubud into the hills-but personally I would recommend going to one of the bigger hotel/resorts if you want a truly glorious view/meal experience of the sort shown in brochures.
We also stopped at one of the many batik factory showrooms, more for a look than anything else, although I managed to buy another few scarves and some table thingies for my mother. Batik is possibly one the most expensive things to buy and, whilst interesting to look at, quite unattractive in my opinion as a clothing option.
In the search for a painting to match one purchased years earlier (not by me I hasten to add) we went to at least five different art gallery/studios. If you are a fan of the 'naïve' style of painting there are some amazing things to be had. Personally I was more drawn to the expressionist styles on show, but I quickly came to realise that these were replicated in each studio we visited, which tends to relegate them to the status of graphic art rather than true painting-still nice though.
We hired a driver for this epic for the grand total of Rp 250,000 (plus a huge tip for a great day) whose number I have since lost. However if you can find Jackie who works on-call from the Jayakarta, I highly recommend him.
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Sharyn,
I can’t understand wwhy you would say that Batik is unattractive as a clothing option. Batik is one of the most versatile pieces of clothing in the tropics - whether it be machine printed or otherwise.
Barrie my dear — you don’t need to understand why I don’t like batik as a clothing option — my comment was that “personally” I don’t like it — feel free to wear as much of it as you want — I promise not to care
Jeff — the Batik workshops we visited we situated just on the edges of Ubud — typically I can’t remember the names — but just ask your driver to take you to one which maunfactures on the premises — another option is to go over to Lombok for the day and visit a workshop there — a guaranteed great day out
Where can I find on of these batik factory showrooms? I’m looking for some hand made batik for my grandma. I hit up the market in Ubud, and after stopping in about four shops/tents to talk and gauge pricing I bought a bunch of batik. All of the sellers there in the market told me what I was looking at was done by hand, but I found out later I purchased machine printed batik. I guess all of the shop keepers are desperate enough for a sale to tell me what I want to hear.