Badung Regency Tourist Destination

Museum Bali

On the eastern side of Puputan Square is the Museum Bali. Erected in 1932 by the Dutch, and with the subsequent assistance of Walter Spies, it attempts to present a historical account of Balinese culture within an architectural framework.
Housed in Tabanan, Karangasem and Buleleng styles of architecture, the museum illustrates the two types of construction in Bali: temples and palaces. The split gate, outer and inner courtyards, and kul kul drum typify the temple; while the thatched roofs, ornate windows and verandahs characterize the palace.

The main two storey building located at the back of the entrance courtyard, houses traditional artifacts from Bali’s prehistory, including a massive stone sarcophagus. There are also two black and white photographs documenting the 1906 puputan at Badung.
The first pavilion was designed in the Singaraja style of architecture and contains textiles including endek (ikat), geringsing (double ikat) and silk songket. The second pavilion, built in the style of an 18th century Karangasem palace, houses religious and ceremonial artifacts. The third pavilion is reminiscent of Tabanan palaces and displays the masks, costumes and puppets associated with music and dance.
The museum's contents are a little disappointing, as some items are poorly labeled and rather haphazardly arranged. Nonetheless, the museum is worth visiting for the examples of architecture, and it does give the visitor an idea of the history and culture of the island.
The museum is open: Tuesday to Thursday 7.30am 1.30pm. Friday 7.30am 11.30am. Saturday to Sunday 8arn 12pm. Closed Monday.
Kumbasari Traditional Market
A traditional market that most balinese bought all the necessary material needed to make offerings. Start early in the morning. The seller mostly from north part of Bali. If near Hindu holy day like Galungan the market packed onto the street causing traffic jam.

Pura Maospahit

Of the temples, the most ancient is Pura Maospahit, right in the middle of the city on the road to Tabanan. It dates back to the Javanization of Bali in the 14th century. No less interesting, although more recent, are the temples of the royal families: Pura Kesiman with its beautiful split gate, Pura Satria and its lively bird market, and Pura Nambang Badung near the princely compounds of Pemecutan and Pemedilan.
Werdhi Budaya Art Center

For modern Balinese architecture, do not miss the Werdhi Budaya Art Center. New shrine of the island’s culture, hosts a museum of the Balinese arts as well as stages for dance and theater. On its monumental Ksira Arnawa stage are held equally monumental displays of modern Balinese choreography.
Le Mayeur Museum

The former home of the Belgian painter, Le Mayeur (1880 1958), who arrived in Bali in 1932 at the age of 52. He lived on the outskirts of Denpasar until captivated by the young Legong dancer, Ni Polok. Said to be stunningly beautiful, she regularly posed for the artist and they later married and moved to the residence in Sanur. The house has been maintained as a museum by the Indonesian Government since Ni Polok's death in 1985.
Built on the beachfront, much of the original 1935 dwelling remains. The low roofed wooden house is quite impressively decorated with ornate carvings, gold and red doors, and window shutters displaying carved scenes from the Ramayana. Most of Le Mayeur's work was undertaken in the tiny garden courtyard which is littered with statuary and shrines. Many of his works are displayed inside, but there's a surprising dearth of
his Balinese paintings. Le Mayeur often worked in offs but there are also charcoal and photographic portraits. Two of the most outstanding portraits are of Ni Polok, but from the displays, it's obvious she was not his sole inspiration.
Located behind the Grand Bali Beach Hotel. Open Tuesday to Thursday from 8am 4pm; Friday 8am 1.30pm; Sunday 8am 4pm Closed on Monday and Saturday.
Prasasti Blanjong

The Sanur area, with traditional Intaran at its heart, has evidently been settled since ancient times. The Prasasti Belanjong, an inscribed pillar here dated AD. 913, is Bali’s earliest dated artifact now kept in a temple in Belanjong village in the south of Sanur. It tells of King Sri Kesari Warmadewa of the Sailendra Dynasty in Java, who came to Bali to teach Mahayana Buddhism and then founded a monastery here. One may tiresume that a fairly civilized community then existed the Sailendra kings having built Borobudur in Central Java at about this time.
It is interesting that the village square of Intaran is almost identical to that of Songan village on the crater lake of Mt. Batur particularly the location and size of the bale agung, the wantilan community hall and associated buildings. The priests of Sanur-Intaran are often mentioned in historical chronicles dating from Bali’s “Golden Age” the 13th to the 16th centuries. It was not until the arly 19th century, however, that the king of the pemecutan court in Denpasar saw fit to lace his satriya princelings outside the village’s medieval core.
Before that, Sanur consisted of Brahman griya (mansions) in Inataran and several attediant communities the brahman banjar of Anggarkasih, the fishing village of Belong (which still holds a yearly baris gede warrior dance at the Pura Dalem Kedewatan temple near the Grand Bali Beach Hotel), and the village of Taman, whose Brahmans have traitionafly served as the region’s chief administrator or perbekel. Taman is also home to an electric barong troupe complete with an impish telek escort, a pas de deux by the freaky jauk brothers and a spine tingling last act featuring the evil witch Rangda all amidst fluttering poleng checkered banners.
Sanur Village

The black and white checkered cloth standard of Bali’s netherworld is nowhere more aptly hung than on the ancient coral statues and shrines of Bali’s largest traditional village: Sanur. This was Bali’s first beach resort a place of remarkable contrasts.
Sanur today is a golden mile of Baliesque hotels that has attracted millions of paradise seeking globetrotters. And yet, within the very grounds of the 11story The Grand Bali Beach Hotel, a war-reparation gift from the Japanese, nestles the sacred and spikey temple of Ratu Ayu of Singgi, the much feared spirit consort of Sanur’s fabled Black Barong.
Sanur is famous throughout Bali for its sorcery. Black and white magic pervades the coconut groves of the resort hotels like an invisible chess game. And yet the community is modern and prosperous.
Sanur is one of the few remaining brahman kuasa villages in Bali controlled by members of the priestly caste and boasts among its charms some of the handsomest processions on the island, Bali’s only all female keris dance, the island’s oldest stone inscription, and the hotel world’s most beautiful tropical garden. Even the souvenirs sold on the beach beautifully crafted kites and toy ontriggers are a cut above those found on the rest of the island.
Serangan Island

Serangan is a small island lying just off Bali’s southern coast near Sanur. It has an area of only 180 acres and a population of about 2500, and is known principally for its turtles and its important Sakenan Temple.
Kuta & Legian Village

Kuta/Legian beach is living proof that one man’s hell is another man’s paradise. This bustling beach resort has in the short space of just two decades spontaneously burst onto center stage in the local tourist scene. It is here that many visitors form their first (if not only) impressions of what Bali is all about. Many are shocked and immediately flee in search of the “real Bali” (a mythological destination somewhere near Ubud).
The truth is, nevertheless, that certain souls positively thrive in this labyrinth of boogie bars, beach bungalows, cassette shops and honky tonks all part of the Kuta lifestyle. What then is the magic that has transformed this sleepy fishing village overnight into an overcrowded tourist Mecca with no end in sight to its haphazard expansion?
Before tourism came to the area, Kuta was one of the poorest places on Bali — plagued by poor soils, endemic malaria and a surf-wracked beach that provides little protection for shipping. In the early days, it nevertheless served as a port for the powerful southern Balinese kingdom of Bathing whose capital lay in what is now Denpasar.
Nusa Dua Village

Nusa Dua and Tanjung Benoa are Bali’s modern tourist resorts a government-run dreamland of coconut palms, white sand beaches and pristine waters located near the island’s southernmost tip. Geologically, the area is quite different from the rest of Bali, and even from the rest of the Bukit peninsula upon which it rests.
Instead of rice fields or limestone cliffs, there is sandy soil reaching down to a long, sandy beach protected by a reef. Coconut trees are everywhere. Nusa Dua was once a huge coconut plantation. The climate here is also drier than the rest of Bali, freshened by a mild ocean breeze.
Jimbaran Village

Jimbaran as an administrative entity part of Kuta. and encompasses the area just of Bali’s international airport. Most of jimbaran’s 12,000 inhabitants live in a cluster of traditional battier neighborhoods at the narrowest part of the isthmus, but the Jimbaran area also includes the sparsely populated nort est corner of the Bukit plateau. Click here for more informations.
Uluwatu Temple

The Bukit’s most famous landmark in Jimbaran is Pura Luhur Uluwatu, an exquisite monument situated on a headland at the westernmost tip of the Peninsula. The carvings which decorate the temple are very well preserved in comparison to many of Bali’s temples, due to the extremely hard, dark gray coral stone used in its construction.
Uluwatu was reputedly built by the architect-priest Mpu Kuturan around the 11th century as one of the six major sad kahyangan territorial temples of the island. The reformer priest Pedanda Wawu Rauh, rebuilt it in its present state in the 16th century. He is said to have attained his moksa (release from earthly desires) here. The temple is home to a small colony of monkeys who have caused some damage to the temple over the years, but still retain their status as sitting tenants.
The temple’s structure follows the tripartite pattern of godly, human and demonic courtyards. The outermost entrance is a candi bentar split gate shaped as a set of curved Garuda wings, an unusual feature as they are usually left smooth. Inside the temple, a second gate is capped by a monstruous Kala head guardian figure. At the foot of the gate, right and left, are two Ganesha “elephant god” statues.
The temple underwent renovations in the late 19th century, in 1949, and more recently in the 1980s, and some parts are actually as new as they look. Despite the temple’s mixture of old and new it is a breathtakingly beautiful spot, especially when the sun begins to set.
Ulun Siwi Temple

Pura Ulun Siwi (or Ulun Swi) is Jimbaran’s best-known “sight” for the Balinese as well as for tourists. This large temple lies at the northwestern corner of the principal crossroads, across the street from the market. It is unusual for several reasons. Firstly it faces east, rather than south. During prayers. the worshippers face west, rather than to the north, to Gunung Agung, as is the usual practice. This is attributed to the fact that the temple once a primitive shrine, became a Hindu- Balinese temple fairly early, in the 11th century- At this toe the Javanese holy man who founded the temple, Mpu Kuturan, still followed the custom of his native Java in orienting his temples toward holy Mt. Semeru, in East Java. It was only much later that Gunung Agung became the focus of Balinese Hinduism.
The temple has only two courtyards, instead of the usual three. The spacious intedor courtyard measures 66 x 30 meters and is dominated by an enormous eleven-tiered meru tower that is more massive than artistic. The temple has been periodically renovated, but remains simple and rustic, lacking the ornate paras stone carvings that characterize the temples of Gianyar.
The principal gate, a kori agung with wings, is very similar in construction to that of Pura Uluwatu on the Bukit, except that it is made of brick instead of coral stone. There is a close connection between these two temples, and it is said that one should pray at Pura Ulun Siwi before proceeding to Pura Uluwatu.
Ulun Siwi is unusual in yet another way. It is the principal temple in Bali dedicated to the welfare of both wet and dry rice fields, and the spirits which live in the temple are thought to control the mice and insects such as grasshoppers that periodically infest the fields. Farmers and farming groups regularly come to Pura Uluwatu to get water, which they then take back home and sprinkle on their fields either to protect them from these pests or to rid them of those already present.
Sangeh Mongkey Forest

In Sangeh, 15 km beyond Mengwi, lies the famous Monkey Forest and Pura Bukit Sari temple. This small temple may date from the founding of Mengwi, although it is also said that it existed in the 17th century. There is an old statue here of Garuda, the mount of Wisnu, who is also associated with the search for the magic elixer (amreta) to release his parents from their torments in hell.
The temple is surrounded by tall nutmeg trees with greyish-white trunks. These are very rare in Bali, and it is clear that they have been planted deliberately. Many monkeys roam about in the forest. They are quite a nuisance, for they attack visitors and steal their spectacles, jewellery, watches and handbags, and make life impossible for souvenir vendors in little shops closeby. It is said that some of Hanoman’s monkey troops fell down with the top of Mt Mahameru on Sangeh when he tried to crush the evil demon king Rawana with it.
Mengwi Village

The village of Mengwi, the former political center of the region, is reached via a turnoff to the right just past Bringkit. Traveling north for 3 km, one soon enters the town, and just west of the main crossroads, the palace of the present Cokorda is to be found. It is surrounded by grey walls and in the northern corner stands a large, square bell tower with lovely carvings.

Pura Taman Ayun

A hundred meters east of the crossroads lies the fabulous state temple of Mengwi, Pura Taman Avun. Taman Ayu refers to a huge open space (ayun) representing a garden (taman). It was constructed under Cokorda Munggu around 1740, and was restored and enlarged in 1937. It “floats,” as it were, surrounded by a moat with lotuses. This represents the heavens, where divine nymphs and ancestors relax in floating pavilions and enjoy themselves. At present, one may row round the sanctuary in a little rented boat.
Pura Sada

The rulers of Mengwi were famous for the temples they built. The oldest of these is Pun Sada, a few hundred meters south of the main road in Kapal, about 15 km to the northwest of Denpasar. The name sada may derive from the Old Javanese and Sanskrit term prasada, meaning a tower temple. There is indeed a huge shrine in the shape of a tiered tower in the inner conrt. The local inhabitants call this temple a candi, meaning a funerary monument for a deceased king.

source : balitourguides