The serene, slow Bali you’re seeking is hidden in this ancient village

What happened to Ubud? This tranquil hill town has been invaded by concrete and the angry buzz of motorbikes. Little warung restaurants run by cheerful families are being replaced by plasticky fast-food joints fronted by sulky teenagers. Traffic clogs the too-narrow main street, and everywhere yoga studios promise bendy renewal.

If you think sweating in Lululemon and eating cheeseburgers is the way to holiday in Ubud, you aren’t alone. If you’re after emerald countryside, village life and an eat-pray sensibility, however, you’ll have to look beyond the urban commotion.

Overtourism is as real as anything else in Bali, but to encounter the “real” traditional, more eco-sensitive Bali, pick your hotel location and activities wisely. A half-hour’s drive north of Ubud delivers you to the Ubud experience as it was 30 years ago: slow, local and serene.

My wise choice is Anantara Ubud Bali Resort, past the village of Banjar Puhu and down a narrowing road that my transfer car shares with children and chickens. The resort is slotted into a ruck of jungle and rice paddies, the only traffic a swoop of swallows over its rooftops.

The bong of a gamelan orchestra welcomes me at check-in. Not an actual orchestra, but a kinetic sculpture whose automated mallets hit 19 gongs in the centre of the lobby. An appropriate welcome to this chic resort: traditional, but a contemporary version of it.

The hotel is keen to have guests immerse themselves in Balinese life. It runs workshops in batik and Balinese cooking, and Kirana restaurant dishes up Balinese suckling pig with jackfruit, crispy duck with sambal and spicy Lombok chicken.

Immersive local tours take you into the old Bali that has vanished in Kuta and is fraying in Ubud. I’ve taken a temple tour to learn about Hindu water and fire rituals, and now I’m off to learn about village and farming life.

We start off in a jeep, lurching along seesaw roads, past coconut plantations and rice fields and villages resounding to the rasp and tap of woodcarving ateliers.

The village we’re heading for is Taro, home to 2500 people and one of the island’s ancient villages, associated with the introduction of Hinduism and farming techniques from India before the first Balinese kingdom was established.

It has an important main temple, embraced in banyan trees and green with moss, and 17 others, thick with the smell of incense and marigolds the same colour as the gold caps on the teeth of the village women.

Local guide Wayan Wardika takes us into his family compound, through a gateway guarded by scowling sculptures that he likens to an airport metal detector. It screens out the bad energy, he says.

Beyond that are two elevated rice storage huts, and an elaborately carved wooden pavilion for family ceremonies. The family temple faces north-east towards a volcano.

Wayan worked in a hotel once, but in his 40s turned to organic farming and firefly conservation; light pollution and fertilisers are killing Bali’s fireflies off. His wife works in a bank. His granny is pounding grain in the courtyard as if she’s never heard of international tourism.

Behind the village is a sacred forest and, beyond that, hidden pockets of farmland where pigs grumble. The villagers grow rice and robusta coffee and improbable-looking fruits. Wayan’s uncle is back-bent in a flooded field, sarong hitched around skinny mud-splattered thighs.

It has been a happy day in this Bali of temple gods and friendly people and cackling ducks. I could have spent the day in Ubud, learning about the downward dog from an ersatz guru, and talking to hippies in French cafes. But why come this far, and not look for something better?

THE DETAILS

STAY
Anantara Ubud Bali Resort sits in a tranquil scenic setting near Ubud and has a spa and several dining venues. The resort runs various local immersion experiences such as the Alas Taro Exploration, which costs $350 a couple. Rooms from $630 a night. See anantara.com

FLY
Jetstar operates daily flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and Bali. See jetstar.com.au

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The writer was a guest of Anantara Ubud Bali Resort.

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