Ubud Market?

[ibulace]

Does anyone have recent information about what's going on at/with Pasar Ubud? We haven't been back to Bali since 2008 and are planning to return in late July. We stay just outside Ubud in Penestanan. The market is one of my favorite places, with so much going on and so much to see. I have read reports that the market was being closed down for construction, to make it into a new, clean, modern shopping area. Also that in the mean time, during construction, the vendors were relocated to a new market in another village outside Ubud, (I think somewhere out beyond Sayan). We've been going there since 1995 and I can't imagine any of this.

If anyone can bring me up to date about this, and/or post photos, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[Mark]

I was there in January and the new market was still under construction. Will be there again in two weeks and can let you know, but no doubt someone on the forum will be able to answer much sooner.

 

[ferdie]

It is still under construction, but I think it would be finish on July
Will take picture next time I went there

 

[Markit]

The old market is still there I believe but a stretch of the shops/market going on towards the Palace either burnt down or is being replaced - or both.

 

[SHoggard]

You might be dissapointed - last time I was there in July it was full of Chinese tourists

 

[Trish]

The new part of the market has been completed and open for business for about three weeks. This is just stage one while stage 2 and 3 are well down the line and so the old colourful chaotic section is still operating as usual.

 

[rossr]

It looks like it is another master of concrete, hot box architecture that has slowly strangled and destroyed Ubud - do yourself a favour and go to a genuine market still vibrant and free of tourists in Gianya or Klungkung.

 

[Markit]

If we do, it won't be.:eagerness:

 

[rossr]

good point Markit - I take it back - they wouldn't like Klungkung market at all ....

 

[Trish]

that's a bit harsh Rossr - two thirds of the old market in Ubud is untouched in all its colourful, smelly splendour. At least in the new fan cooled. . buildings you are not tripping over uneven broken patched up pathways. gianyar markets are open in three stages during the day so if you want to buy aquarium fish you have to go in the afternoon And so on and anyone visitibg Ubud for a short stay cannot do the Gianyar or Klung Klung run

 

[tintin]

What I would call the "real" Ubud market disappeared long time ago. It was a REAL market in so far as it served the purpose and needs of the Balinese people of the area, not those of the tourists and their hunger for cheap souvenirs and other types of junk (for that, we had the Sukawati "Art Market"). And then, there was the Ubud "night market." But the latter was too much competition for the warungs and restaurants owners, on and around Monkey Forest, which got together in the middle 1990's and had it shut down. I will grant you that hygiene at that market was somewhat lacking, but the beer, brem and arak flew freely (and cheaply) into the wee hours of the nights, and the atmosphere and conversations across the many long tables set up under the large tents was something else.:icon_cry::icon_cry:

 

[SHoggard]

What I would call the "real" Ubud market disappeared long time ago. .:icon_cry::icon_cry:

I'd agree with that - I spent a couple of weeks in Ubud in 1996 and - unlike today the clothing section in the market had quite good quality stuff, I still have a couple of batik shirts - a bit faded and threadbare these days ( back then, batik was almost compulsory office wear on Saturdays in Sg... yes Saturday morning working was still widespread in most offices in SE Asia then)
I do remember there was a 'tourist pap&tat' area, but it hadn't fully absorbed the main building forcing the fresh fruit & veg off to a grubby section at the back.

The whole thing had a certain charm, and function in servicing the local people. Heaven knows where they do their marketing these days.

The March of Progress I guess...

 

[JohnnyCool]

I've been avoiding the Ubud market for many years. Unless it's changed drastically lately, I found many of the sellers there to be amongst the rudest I've encountered anywhere on the island.
Not all of them, of course - but too many for my liking in the clothing/sarong sections.
Worse even than the disaster-zone called the Sukawati market.

Ubud market was fine back in 1973, when it, like the majority of traditional markets, catered for the day-to-day needs of the local people.
That gradually changed over the years in certain areas with the hunger for more money from tourists.

Anybody looking for a traditional market these days should go to one that is not geared to tourists (domestic or foreign).
Hard to find on the main tourist routes.
But there are many off the beaten track...

 

[Lovegrove]

I have been going to Ubud market for 30 years, even before the paved road, am a bit gutted by what I experienced a few weeks ago - not the same at all, but " times are a changing" - still some local haggling to be done up the back, still a bit sad though :icon_rolleyes:

 

[joji gulapetis]

Are we all trying to relive our youthful years by trying to keep the hands of the clock from turning? "Remember the good ol' days?" Whose good ol' days? Ours have gone. These days are your children's "good ol' days". Face up to id people... we are all jurassic park inmates.... dinosaurs. If we all keep looking backwards we will trip over today, and not even see tomorrow.

 

[ferdie]

The good old days? In that theme, there's a lot of things can go with it, Ubud also change from a cool and simple village into an overcrowded city with more concrete and less rice fields

 

[Rangi]

Memories are bitter sweet. Good times we can't repeat. Those days are gone and we can never have them back.

 

[JohnnyCool]

...Those days are gone and we can never have them back.

And neither can the Balinese, especially the young ones today who weren't even born then, and the ones who are now living "urban lifestyles".
Crammed into Bali's "cities" and big towns. Chaos in progress.

 

[tintin]

Memories are bitter sweet. Good times we can't repeat. Those days are gone and we can never have them back.

...and so is your poor rabbit.:icon_cry::icon_cry:

 

[begonia]

In my opinion Ubud has lost all its charming. I fallen in love with Ubud in 1998 because it was a traditional village and has been changing day by day little by little since them. These days is more a commercial "village" with shops all over, especially now selling clothes and dresses!!!!.

The other day I went with a woman who wanted to do shopping and I was shock to see all these fashion shops selling dresses and clothes, sooooooooooo many around!!! I wonder if the handicrafts business will survive the next generations..........

I met a couple from New York who wanted to buy a traditional painting from Batuan, they went to Batuan village and people told them that the young generation is working on building villas and hotels and not painting any more..............

The traditional market is not any more a traditional market, is a modern building and has lost as well its charming, it seems the handicrafts are the same but I was feeling like to be in a shopping center, it is so impersonal now, doesn´t have "life" any more, I don´t know how to explain it...............

The homestay I used to live on the center of Ubud, now has two floors and the opposite homestay has even 3 floors........................

The rice fields around Ubud are disappearing day by day, the places I used to go for a walk trough the rice fields are full of villas, houses, warung, restaurants...........
Ubud is been taken day by day by foreigners or people from Jakarta or outside of Bali, not only the rice fields but the shops, the restaurants....