This Bamboo Forest in Bali Doesn’t Exist on Any Map

This Bamboo Forest in Bali Doesn’t Exist on Any Map

Hello from Pangi Puran, the cleanest village in all of Bali. We’re going to see what happens today. But what I do know is that this is a fantastic little village to go and have a bit of a look around, a bit of a squeeze. It’s a tourist village if you like. And the reason it’s a tourist village is because it’s has this reputation as being one of the cleanest in all of Bali, one of the most beautiful. The main street is like that. It’s very busy. But interestingly, there are opening and closing times except if you stay here. So, what we’ve decided to do is we’ve decided to actually stay here the night to see if you get a different sort of feel to the place once all the crowds, you know, go away. We’re actually going to stay here number 59. Little homeay. That’s what this um village is famous for, these little home stays so you can experience the place outside tourist times. Oh, look at this. Cool. Hello. Hello. Look at that old house there. Isn’t that beautiful? Old old house. Look at the the bamboo tiles are incredible. And the bamboo walls and everything are fantastic as well. Absolutely lovely. Let’s check the room out. Oh, nice little homeay. Ah, it’s clean. Very clean. Big old TV there. Well, not too old. Have a nice bed. There’s AC, but to be honest, it’s quite it’s quite cool at the moment. I’m not sure how much we’re going to need the AC. Probably not. Like, I’m not going to put it on now cuz it’s not really hot enough. Oh, yeah. A very simple bathroom. I don’t think there’s going to be hot water. So, we’re just going to have a quick look around the village. Maybe get a coffee cuz they got a waddle down the road apparently and like a a cafe. Um, we’re paying 375 a night, which is apparently the same for all the little home stays in this village. They’ve made all the the prices the same. Sometimes it’s hard to find the contact details of these places, but I’ll put the contact details of our particular place on the screen right now. Uh, so if you’re interested in coming here, you can make a booking. As you can see behind me, there’s a lot of people sort of coming here to take photos because it’s such a a picturesque village. um what’s happening tomorrow. And the main reason we’ve come here is because there’s a big festival tomorrow that happens on an annual basis. We actually wanted to come here the day before to see the preparation. So, we’re going to see if we can see a bit of that as well. Yeah. Get photos with all those people. Yeah. from Australia. Hello. Hello. Australia. Yeah. Yeah. [Applause] Mixing up with the locals here. Always always um get get these real. I don’t know why I’m getting these people attracted to me. They always come up with these dirty jokes. Anyway, apparently this little uh cafe/wong thing is uh just outside the village within walking distance. So like say for example you came up here for a night and someone dropped you off here in a car. Well, you’ve got access to food like within walking distance. It’s not a big deal. My uh little um guest house is also providing breakfast in that price. All right, we’re turning around. Susan’s led us the wrong way here. We um we don’t know about this wong too much except that there is one. We don’t exactly know where it is. There’s a wong across the road if you get a few snacks. They got drinks and little chips and that. Oh, this is nice. It’s almost like someone’s front yard, but no one’s coming down here. Well, that’s a good sign, isn’t it? Sort of like this anti- mainstream thing. Now, I’ve come across this little structure and I’ve got no idea what it is or where it like it just leads to there. like it’s busted up. But what would that have been originally? Look at this big sort of um bamboo grove there and the Wong copy entrance is there. A bit of local music on. Beautiful, beautiful garden area. And there’s no one here. I think this is amazing. [Music] One thing about this area is that it’s quite quite cool. like it’s probably I don’t know 3° cooler than Sunort. I suppose this little place sort of um fits right into the theme of this village as being ry, neat and tidy, clean, picturesque, beautiful and you know quite relaxing and and peaceful. I feel like I just feel so stressree here honestly. It’s beautiful. Has a very nice feel about it. Even though it’s a bit of a tourist village, just getting off off the side of that main road, it’s it’s quite beautiful, quite nice. I’m not really sure what it is, but there’s a a bit of a thing where in Indonesia, if it’s a little bit cooler, you drink coffee and eat gorangan. Yeah. So, what we’ve got is some fried bananas, which are Oh, they’re too hot to touch right at the moment. We’ve got some fried bananas. I’ve got my coffee. Susan’s actually got an iced tea, which is um not ideal in the cooler clims that we’ve got right at the moment, but the uh the hot hot drinks certainly are. So, I’m going to get stuck into that. It’s got a bit of a feel about it, this place. It’s quite nice. I could imagine more places in Bali opening up this sort of sector of tourism which is totally different to what Bali’s focused on in the past which is either culture beach cuda sanur um and maybe focusing on some of these inland areas which are not cultural heartlands like Ubud but they are local style. So this is the view from the bottom of the V village sort of looking up the road. The road is not open to vehicles. So you get basically it’s just a walking street which makes it quite pleasant. So this is the start of the preparations for the festival which opens tomorrow. You can see they’ve started putting a lot of these decorations out. They got the flowers going. They got the gumlan out. Not sure if it’s a thing of this village only or or what it is. But these roofs here, they’re layered bamboo. I see them all around the place in people’s houses, in the temples, and it’s like a um like a quarter cut of a piece of bamboo that’s then layered layered and layered and layered maybe five to 10 times almost like roof tiles. There’s a lot of work involved in probably making that. I’ll show you up here. It’s another one. You see that? I mean, the amount of work involved, it’s absolutely incredible. And it looks good, too. I’m sure it’s pretty functional. The guy that looks after the guest house said that this village started to become a tourist village in about 1993. And the people here have always been taught from their grandparents and their grandparents grandparents to keep this place neat and tidy. It’s just something that that’s part of their their culture here. It was only from about 2012 that it became quite viral. people started flooding into the place. Before that, it was a tourist village and you could stay here, but then it got really busy, 2012. That sort of coincides with how social media really blew up as well, which is, you know, makes sense, doesn’t it? Social media has blown up everything. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad ways. Um, for the people of this village, I’m sure they benefit greatly because of social media, but of course, it comes with its own negatives as well and the way that life changes. up here. We’re walking into another bamboo forest. It’s so dark in here. There are no other tourists here. That’s a little bit strange. Well, I’m going to have a look anyway. It’s pitch black. I have to take my sunglasses off. There seems to be some sort of construction going on here. This This is a sort of a new wall going on. It’s quite beautiful though. Really dark. Dark and moody. Okay, here we go. Hutty, watch your steps. Watch your steps. Wow. And we have a little boardwalk. I wonder where it goes. Is it just a a boardwalk through the bamboo forest? It looks like it is, actually. It’s a bit strange. I just find it strange there’s no one else here. It’s a bit sad for me cuz I think this is this is a beautiful place. It’s got a real feel about it, a real coolness to it, a real quietness to it, except for the guys on the motorbike coming past and beeping at the temple down on the corner there. But apart from that, it’s just very peaceful. I mean, even with the beeping, it’s very peaceful. I could just sit here for an hour and just really relax. It’s funny in life, we sometimes don’t know what people want. We come up with these great ideas and you think, “Oh, this is going to be so popular.” And then you realize that it’s not. Like, someone came up with this idea for this boardwalk and thought, “This is a great idea.” And I would think it’s a great idea, too, but it’s proven to be not that popular. And it sort of reminds me of YouTube in a way. I come up with some good ideas for YouTube and go, “Oh, people are going to love this.” And they don’t. And then I come up with some stupid idea and it goes viral. I mean, that’s just the way of the world, isn’t it? Oh, this explains a few things. Passipur open Saturday and Sunday. So, this is where there’s some sort of pasar on the weekend, but still. So, there’s a cafe to my right, and then there’s that road down there to the left. I might go left. I was talking yesterday about how sometimes it makes me feel uneasy to go to tourist attractions here in Bali, which is a bit silly given that this is a tourist island. Um, I don’t know why, but I guess the the problem is that if you want to live in a place that’s not touristy, which I have done in Java for 12 years, you do miss out on a lot as well. or you miss out on some of those comforts that you get with tourism as well. Some of the food in Bali is phenomenal and I think the quality you get in Bali or the possibility of quality in Bali is much more than where what it was where I lived in the past. So there are part the other thing is that in terms of infrastructure a lot of people criticize Bali for infrastructure but it’s actually better than most parts of Indonesia and coming here and living here is phenomenal in terms of infrastructure for me. For me, it may not match Australia’s standards, but it’s still very good. These are some of the pluses and the minuses of tourism. Tourism is great for locals, but if you live here and you have to deal with tourism, sometimes you get this strange feeling. I don’t actually get that strange feeling in Sona. I really only get it mainly in the places where the to the tour buses roll up, to be honest. when the tour tour buses roll in. I get a strange little feeling that’s um a little bit not good. That said, Pungli Puran is actually not bad. Yeah, it’s got the tourist bus, the tour buses rolling in, but it doesn’t feel that bad. Maybe because it’s mainly locals that are coming here and that sort of m I don’t know maybe I’m more familiar with that style of mass tourism, the local style of mass tourism rather than the foreigner mass tourism which I’ve never really been drawn to before. Like if I go to Europe and I end up in Rome, I sometimes feel a little bit overwhelmed as well to be honest. Even though there are things that are great to see there, which is the same as in Bali, I think there’s a sort of a battle, an internal battle that you have um when you live in a place like Bali. If you plan on living in Bali one day, it’s something that you probably need to consider. I know you probably won’t, but I think there’s a lot of things to consider when you move to Bali that perhaps you didn’t think about. You know, things like government bureaucracy, how other tourists interact with you, how the local expat community is. I love this path. It’s really long and I’ve got no idea where it goes to and it’s not used very often, but if I lived around here, I’d use this as my running path. Beautiful path through the bamboo forest that other people are not using. I haven’t passed one other person yet. Yet, that main street is so busy. You know those horror movies where there’s a group of kids walking around the forest, they’ve been walking for a day and they end up right back at the same place they’ve already been. Well, that’s what this place feels like to be honest. This is the neverending bamboo forest. No idea where it goes. Now, if it does end up back where I started, well, okay. It’s a bit of a horror movie, but it’s okay because then at least I can get back to the village or there’s actually a bamboo cafe around here that I want to check out as well, which shuts at 7:00 p.m. And that’s what I’m eyeing off for my dinner tonight. Um, if that shuts and I haven’t had my dinner, I might go hungry. Looks like that’s going to be a roof soon, doesn’t it? Let’s have a look. Bamboo is an unreal material, isn’t it? Not sure why we don’t use more of that around the place, especially in Barley where it can grow so easily. Well, the path continues on and then we get to this sign, Cafe Kabun, and apparently this is the one that shuts at 7:00. So, we’ll have a look in here. I mean, we’ve been walking along that path nearly 2 km to get here. And I’ve got a funny feeling because there was a sign back there that said Bamboo Cafe to the right and I took the left that that would have been the shortcut. So maybe that 2 km walk is just for a bit of entertainment. So if you do come here, I think actually going along that path that I’ve just done there, 2 km is fantastic. It’s a really beautiful walk. I know that it’s there’s not really much there, but I kind of like it. It’s just very peaceful. Not even one other person, not one did I see on that path. And yet in town there’s thousands of people, which is a little bit I was going to say disappointing, but I won’t say that cuz it’s not really disappointing. It’s just sad because I reckon I’ve had a good experience there that other people may not have had. Can’t imagine this cafe being very popular. If I’ve just come along that path and there’s been not even one other person, I can’t imagine there’s going to be another person coming to this cafe in the middle of the bamboo forest. At nighttime, it should be even quieter, unless there are a lot of people staying in that village and they’re all looking for food and they end up here, which is possible as well. Well, it certainly looks nice. It’s called Cafe Kabun. There is one other uh table occupied here. Kabun is the Indonesian word for garden. It’s like Well, they’ve got a nursery, haven’t they? Well, that’s cool. That is cool. Really nice. Really nice. And they’ve got some sort of greenhouse sort of thing here. Well, not really greenhouse, is it? If that they’re in barley, they don’t really need a greenhouse, but they’ve got some sort of nursery. That’s cool. That is cool. I wonder what the purpose of all these small plants is. Do they sell them to the public or is it a commercial venture where they maybe fogg them off to the hotels? Irrespective, it’s very nice. Very nice. Yeah. Well, this looks like a nice little spot for dinner. We just confirmed with them that it is open until 7:00. Just standing here, that outlook is quite nice as well. Again, quite peaceful because it’s in the middle of that bamboo forest and you have to come up that dirt road to get here. It’s a it’s an odd location to be honest. And yeah, maybe on weekends. Look, I can imagine this is a weekday, right? So maybe on weekends this place gets really busy. I could imagine that for sure. I could imagine this being a lot busier on weekends. Probably maybe that’s what I’m missing a little bit. I’ve just gone into a hole there. Oh god. All right, we’re still going through this bamboo forest and we’ve got to a place called Bamboo Cafe, which is very difficult to show because it’s so dark in here, but needless to say, it shuts at 5 and it looks beautiful. It’s just shut, so it’s just gone past 5 here. Uh it’s actually a bit bit past 5. Uh sun still hasn’t set, but that is a beautiful beautiful setting. And what it reminds me of in this particular area, if you know Arashyama in Japan, it’s that famous walk through that bamboo forest that everyone goes and gets a photo at. Um, this feels like that. Like honestly, it feels like it. It’s what is it as good as? Well, well, I can’t I can’t really say it’s as good as, but it’s certainly brilliant. And Indonesians love Arashyama. They love it. They go, they get photos, but there’s no one here. Where’s all the people trying to get photos here? This is good. Look at this. I mean, it’s beautiful. They’ve got these bamboo sort of structures covering the path. They’ve got a bamboo forest. You got a bamboo cafe. Everything’s here. Everything’s set up to have a beautiful time outside of the main area of Burnley Ban, but it’s not being used. I hope and hope that this is getting busy on weekends, otherwise this will be a failure. But for me, the concept’s not a failure. It’s actually very nice. So, what I would say is that maybe you should take advantage of it if you’re deciding to come to Bunglipuran. I really like this place so far. The home stay is really nice. It’s clean. You know, it’s it’s basic, but for 375, you can’t go wrong with breakfast included. You’ve got a nice walk around the place. The village itself is very pleasant. Very pleasant. All right, we’re back into sunshine now or bright light. And I think it’s worth coming here for a day. You too may get lost in the bamboo forest like me and be walking for many kilometers trying to find your way back to the village. But it’s part of the journey. It’s part of the fun. I love it. I love Pungli Puran. I love the bamboo forest. I think the main street is interesting in that it’s quite roughy. Um, I actually I actually enjoy speaking to the locals that going up and down there. You know, a lot of interaction with locals and they’re very friendly and that’s part of the joy about some of these more local tourist attractions. So, if you’re in the area or are looking for something just a little bit different, maybe a night here, I think spending a night here is actually worth it. Check out Penley Pan. Thanks once again to all the members that have subscribed over the past few weeks and thank you for watching. Make sure you hit that subscribe button to keep up to date with all things Senua and the rest of Indonesia. I’ll catch you next time.

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Penglipuran Village in Bangli is all over Instagram, but most people day trip, dress up for photos on the main street and leave. We slept there to see what happens after the buses go and slipped off the selfie street into the stillness. We found a tiny coffee stall where we were the only customers, chatted with locals and walked a 2 km bamboo forest path without meeting another soul, plus checked out a little forest cafe. It is not a must do in Bali, yet if you like clean, easy and peaceful, an overnight here might be your thing.