Shopping in Bali
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Pasar Burung
Elsewhere in Denpasar, a short distance north on Jl Veteran, Pasar Burung is a bird market with hundreds of caged birds and small animals for sale, including guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys. There are also gaudy birdcages. An impromptu dog market also operates directly opposite the bird market. While you're here, have a look at the elaborate Pura Sutriya, just east of the market.
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Zen
Offers a 90-minute mandi lulur (Javanese body scrub) and a spice bath (160,000Rp).
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Kou
Luxurious handmade organic soaps produced locally. Put one in your undies drawer and smell fine for weeks.
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Kube Dharma Bakti Massage Centre
Many Balinese wouldn't think of having a massage from anyone but a blind person. Government-sponsored schools offer lengthy courses to certify blind people in reflexology, shiatsu massage, anatomy and much more. Usually graduates work together in group-locations such as Kube Dharma Bakti Massage Centre. In this airy building redolent with liniments, you can choose from a range of therapies and contribute to a very good cause at the same time.
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Markets
For souvenirs, try the numerous shops on the main street, or one of the various 'art markets'. Sanur Beach Market (off Jl Segara Ayu) has a wide selection. Pasar Sindhu Art Market (off Jl Danau Tamblingan), the maze-like Shindu Beach Market (south of Jl Pantai Sindhu) and Jaya Kesuma Art Market (Jl Mertasani) have numerous stalls selling T-shirts, sarongs, woodcarvings and other dubious items.
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CV Keramik Pejaten
About 10km south of Tabanan is Pejaten, a centre for the production of traditional pottery, including elaborate ornamental roof tiles and porcelain clay objects made purely for decorative use. Check out this small showroom with its trademark pale-green pieces, which are lovely, and when you see the prices, you’ll at least buy a toad.
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Cendana Resort & Spa
Cendana Resort & Spa has a nice set up, including an open-air Jacuzzi. The couples' massage room is particularly pleasant. One-day use of the hotel's pool, sauna and steam room is available for US$5. You can have a bath of mud or milk with your massage or try one Hawaiian-style, which involves lots of aromatic oils.
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Pelangi Weaving
The village of Sidemen has a spectacular location and is a centre for culture and arts, particularly endek cloth and songket. Pelangi Weaving has a couple of dozen employees busily creating downstairs, while upstairs you can relax with the Sidemen views from comfy chairs outside the showroom.
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Batavia 1885
It's not a shop it's an adventure. Who knows what you'll find in this musty, dusty lit by just a couple lights. Urns, bowls, forlorn puppets, statues and a lot more. You'll be asking 'is this a Ming original of a Balinese knock-off. Look for the plates embedded in the wall outside.
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Pasar Badung
A must-see destination: shoppers browse and bargain from 5am to night. It's a retail adventure and you'll find produce and food from all over the island as well as easy-to-assemble temple offerings that are popular with working women. Deals include a half-kilo of saffron for 250,000Rp. Ignore guides who may offer their services. This is one of the better places to see Bali's myriad types of fruit.
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Pasar Seni
The euphemistically named Pasar Seni is a busy two-storey place that sells a wide range of clothing, sarongs, footwear and souvenirs of variable quality at negotiable prices. Decent souvenirs include leather goods, batiks, baskets and silverware.
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Pusaka
'Modern ethnic clothing' is the motto here, which translates into cool, comfy yet stylish cottons. Need a gift for somebody small (or not so small)? Adorable house-made plush toys are 50,000Rp.
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Ganesha Bookshop
Bali's best bookshop has an amazing amount of stock jammed into a small space, with an excellent selection of titles on Indonesian studies, travel, arts, music and fiction (including used titles). Good recommendations and mail-order service.
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Pasar Kumbasari
Across the river from Pasar Badung, this huge market has a profusion of handicrafts, a plethora of vibrant fabrics, and costumes decorated with gold. It's a modern, multilevel building of shops and stalls and you should just plunge at random into the canyons of colour.
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Nur Salon
Nur Salon is in a traditional Balinese compound. It offers a long menu of spa and salon services including a traditional Javanese massage that takes two hours and starts with a body scrub (Rp245000).
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Ardana
Beautiful custom-made wicker furniture fills a shady pavilion open to the road. Obviously you'll want to try the merchandise out for an extended period. If only they served gin and tonics…
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Bali Cares
This inspired shop sells goods to benefit several local charities. Items range from woodcarvings made from sustainable woods to paintings, handicrafts and other items produced by local people.
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Body Talk
Ultracomfortable women’s wear in cotton and other relaxing fibres. Everything stretches right with you. The custom tailoring has fans not just in Bali but among expats across the archipelago.
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Zakia's
Wood from the hills behind town is carved into all sorts of fascinating items and furniture. It's artful in a primitive way and much better than the typical tourist trash everywhere.
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Hotel Tjampuhan Spa
Hotel Tjampuhan Spa which is in a unique grotto setting, overlooking the river, and features organic carved stone reliefs. Use of all the facilities for a day for non-guests is US$50.
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Ibah Spa
Ibah Spa looks to nature for calming inspiration. It has a very calm wooden interior and a Jacuzzi; treatments come with evocative names such as Mountain Ritual and Ibah Foot Fetish.
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Ashitaba
Tenganan, the Aga village of East Bali, produces the intricate and beautiful rattan items sold here. Containers, bowls, purses and more (from US$5) display the very fine weaving.
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Produce Market
Ubud's colourful produce market operates to a greater or lesser extent every day and is buried within Pasar Seni. It starts early in the morning and winds up by lunch time.
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Nogo
Look for the wooden loom out front of this classy store, which bills itself as the 'Bali Ikat Centre'. The goods are gorgeous and easy to enjoy in the air-con comfort.
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