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The Bali Museum in Denpasar Bali

The Bali Museum in Denpasar is rated as one of the ‘must sees’ by Rough Guide and for a visitor to Bali is a good attempt at gathering artifacts of the Balinese culture and give a picture of how things developed through time.

Getting there isn’t too difficult if you don’t mind dealing the one way system and heavy traffic in Denpasar. The museum is located on Jalan Mayor Wisnu on the eastern edge of the large Puputan Square. Heading into Denpasar from the Kuta area just follow the signs saying ”museum”

Opening hours are Sun-Thurs 7.30am-3pm, Fri 7.30am-1pm, children 250rp, adults 750rp.

The museum is divided into 4 buildings that each represents different historical and regional style.

The buildings were not labeled as far as I could see so I simply wandered around checking out the artifacts.

The main building is the one you first come to after passing through the entrance and contains items from daily life including bronze jewelry and also paintings from the 1930’s of traditional life.

I arrived at 2.30pm and had only 30 minutes to quickly look around. The staff seem like they are on guard more than to show visitors anything and I spent my time viewing items that seemed interesting.

One part of the exhibit showed pottery and stone axes from the earliest days of settlement in Bali together with a king’s chair made of stone.

Upstairs in the main building are 4 photographs of the traditional Puputan, which I actually missed. The display shows weapons used to resist the Dutch occupation. The word Puputan means ‘The End’ and on a number of documented cases a whole royal court marched down the street, faced off against the Dutch soldiers and committed group suicide with family members of all ages taking up the parang to finish off relatives. Its pretty gruesome but you’ve got to love their unbending spirit.

I didn’t get a chance to view the other 3 pavilions, the Buleleng, the Karangasem and the Tabanan but will come back soon to cover those.

Across the street I got a Bali kopi and a chocolate wafer from a street vendor for 4,000rp. They were all hoping for visitors and while I was there I saw tourists from Italy and Australia showed up. There are characters hanging around the entrance hoping to act as a guide but I reckon as long as you can read you’ll be okay by yourself.

The courtyards are quite elegant and are decorated with Balinese stonework and statues. Photography is supposedly banned (I found out afterwards ) but nobody stopped me and I was snapping away like a mad lobster.

For a quick intro to Balinese pre history and culture as well as a way to spend part of a rainy afternoon the Bali Museum is an interesting and affordable option.

Heading down the Bypass Rd tonight from Seminyak to Kuta at around 8.20pm I saw a huge mess of people all over one part of the road. Cops, locals, bikes at the side of the road and also a scattering of car parts, flip flops and other debris. There had been a recent crash and as usual everyone stops to get a look at the gore. I slowed and carefully rolled through the mess and ended up behind a little white Toyota pickup with a 40 year old Balinese guy rolling around in the back of it by himself…obviously one of the participants on his way to better times. I don’t suppose this will make anyone present think about driving any more safely but at least it slowed traffic down for a short time on a dark damp night.