Visiting Museum RUNA in Ubud Bali

Sunday morning after the Palu bbq I woke rather slowly and decided to get out of town for a couple of hours.

Ubud has a wealth of museums and galleries so without any planning I grabbed my camera and headed there.

On the outskirts of Ubud in the village of Lod Tunduh I saw a sign that said there was a jewelry museum just 500 meters away. I know there are a ton of places calling themselves galleries and are just shops with flashy display cases. I wondered what I would find.

Down a small lane that definitely does not see much traffic I saw the driveway to Museum RUNA, which I rode down. The quiet elegant buildings were a pleasant surprise and on arrival I didn’t see any staff on duty. Heading past the reception desk ( it costs 10,000rp to visit the museum) I walked upstairs to find one of the staff taking a nap and the other taking it easy. They laughed and told me they were sorry. I said no worries its Sunday morning. The first place I checked out was the upstairs gift shop featuring assorted silver jewelry and fine batiks and sarongs. I picked up one sarong to find it cost $250, the batiks were $25. Nice stuff but I’ll wait till my pay rise to shop here.

The RUNA House of Design and Museum is a celebration of the 25 years of jewelry making by Palar Runi from Bandung Java. The museum was opened in December 29th 2001 and named RUNA to include her husband Adrian’s first name.

Downstairs are the 2 museum rooms which featured glass cases containing elaborate silver jewelry by Runi. I find taking photos of things in glass cases difficult because of the reflection so I gently opened the cases to get an uninterrupted shot. The staff the were standing there and didn’t mind at all. They asked me why I wanted to take ‘banyak photos’ of jewelry and I told them I like looking at photos. I didn’t tell them it was for a website fearing the ’sorry you must ask boss for permission’.

I asked the staff if the items on show were there only for show or was this really a shop. They said the items were not for salebut if you were interested you could enquire.

It seemed to me that most of the jewelry was elaborate and large, with a selection of pendants, broaches and necklaces. According to the free brochure Palar does brisk business overseas, not that she’s the one banging these things out.

Adjacent to the museum is a 2 storey set of rooms which are available for rent. This area really is tranquil and without traffic, unlike downtown Ubud. I was given the tour and the comfortable rooms with porch or balcony will run you $100 per night ( though I was told you can bargain). Across from the museum and the available rooms is the family house which I also got a tour of. This isn’t for rent but the whole place seemed to gel together in some weird way. I think the house was the original structure followed by the museum and the family still live here. I sat out in one of the bale’s sipping a hot tea with a staff member who told me about the place and about her family.

I think if a visitor came here they might be the only guests as prices promise to be high for this exclusive jewelry. This isn’t the back street Celuk deal where a local will knock out 500 pieces of surfer jewelry for you.

It is though another little part of Bali that seems unique, I’d probably never come here if I weren’t writing for a website and this place would be great to stay at if I didn’t mind the price.

I said goodbye to the staff and set off back to Kuta. I didn’t buy that diamond encrusted broach that I set my heart on but promises to wait till my shirts are up the level.

You can make it from Kuta to the RUNA is an hour my car or motorbike.

Museum RUNA iso pen daily from 9am - 5pm