The Secrets of Ubud – Eat, Paint, Laugh

Peter Stephenson

Hello Bali, February 2011

“It’s hard to imagine that present-day Ubud holds any secrets, given how well trodden it’s become. But like everywhere, the hidden is often right under your nose.

The tiny cocktail bar downstairs at Murni’s Warung is like a lost world, an artefact from another era, haunted by the strains of crooners and the crackle of torch songs; a hint of the 1930s all cast against the dark green ferny precipice of the primordial Wos river ravine. When I approach the bar, I feel like Jack Nicholson in “The Shining”; patrons like spectres, nothing outside but the wildness.”

The Secrets of Ubud – Eat, Paint, Laugh