Denpasar is emphatically not an attractive place. It is Bali’s
capital, but few tourists have any need to go there, or any
good reports of it once they have been and escaped back to
Kuta or Sanur
to tell the tale. There are, for instance, numerous small
hotels and losmen there, but it is rare that anyone other
than Indonesians from outside Bali on business in Denpasar
stays in them.
It
is a crowded, noisy, polluted town, the very antithesis
of everything people come to Bali to find. Like many another
Asian cities, it’s caught between two moments in history;
it was built for an age of horse-dawn or pedestrian traffic
and now endures the full force of modern mechanized transport.
So great is the tourist concentration in Kuta,
Sanur that
even shopping and such services as banks, telecommunication
offices and travel agents are as good there as in Denpasar,
or better. A visit to Immigration Office, or the Denpasar
Police Office to get a license to drive a motorbike on Bali
if you don’t have an international driver’s
license, is the most likely reason for paying a visit to
the town.The center of Denpasar can be said to be a large
grassy square known as Lapangan Puputan Badung. Its only
notable feature is a heroic, three-figure statue standing
in the pools. As a memorial to the four thousand Balinese
how died defending the city against the Dutch on September
20, 1906. It deserves better treatment.
Standing facing the monument from the center of the square,
the building on the right is the Museum Bali, with the Jagatnatha
Temple next to it on the left. The Jagatnatha temple is
a modern temple dedicated to the whole of Bali. Unlike most
Balinese temples, it is closed to the public except at festival
times. Over on the opposite side of the square is the military
headquarters for the island. About 3 km east of Lapangan
Puputan Badung there is Bali
Art Center where Bali Art Festival take place from mid
of June until mid of July.