Denpasar

Introduction

Fruit for Sale in Market in Denpasar - Bali, Indonesia

© phileas

Denpasar is the capital of Bali. The city is located in the central south of the island and has over 800,000 inhabitants in the city itself and over 2 million in the metropolitan area.

Neighbourhoods

Greater Denpasar spills out into the tourist regions, including Kuta and Ubud. Virtually all of Bali can be accessed easily from Denpasar.
In Ubud you can find clean air and spiritual refreshment just 45 minutes north of Denpasar. The golden beaches of Sanur are just 15 minutes drive east.

Sights and Activities

Bali Museum

The Bali Museum offers an informative introduction to all things Balinese, both historical and modern-day. Originally opened in 1910, the building was brought down in the 1917 earthquake and languished until 1932 when resident German artist Walter Spies sparked a major revival. The grounds and architecture are quite charming, and the museum is housed in four separate pavilions. The main pavilion has a great collection including anicent stone, bronze and wooden artifact. The southern pavilion houses many textiles, the northern pavilion concetrates on the history of Baliense performance art, and the central pavilion is devoted to Balinese Hinduism and ritual. If this place was in Kuta or Nusa Dua it would be swamped with tourists. Rp 11,000.

Weather

Denpasar has a tropical climate with hot, humid conditions. Temperatures are mostly between 30 and 32 °C during the day and nights are still well above 20 °C. The April-October period is the dry season and November-March is the rainy season, though showers are still possible during the dry season and periods of dry weather occur during the monsoon season.

Getting There

By Plane

Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) is located in the southern part of the island, just 13 kilometres south of Denpasar. It is the third busiest airport in the country and now meets international aviation security standards. The airport has extensive international service and good domestic service, including flights to Jakarta, Surabaya, West Papua, Borneo, Sulawesi and Sumatra. Pretty much every country in the Asian and pacific region can be reached directly by flights from this airport.
Garuda Indonesia flies to/from Hong Kong, Melbourne, Nagoya, Osaka, Perth, Seoul, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo and lowcost airlines Air Asia serves Kuala Lumpur.
Several other airlines have some more destinations, including Taipei, Amsterdam, Dili, Darwin, Brisbane, Doha, Bandar Seri Begawan, Guangzhou, Broome, Bangkok, Moscow and Adelaide.

By Bus

Larger minibuses and full-size buses link Denpasar with Singaraja and Gilimanuk.

Sleep

Upscale

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is becoming more widely used in Indonesia, and warung Internet (warnet) - Internet cafés - are emerging everywhere. A lot of restaurants and cafés in big cities normally have wireless internet available for free. Internet connection speed in Indonesia varies between ISP and location. Prices vary considerably, and as usual you tend to get what you pay for, but you'll usually be looking at around Rp3,000 to Rp5,000 per hour with faster access than from your own mobile phone. In large cities, there are free WiFi hotspots in many shopping malls, McDonald restaurants, Starbucks cafes, 7 Eleven convenience stores, and in some restaurants and bars. Some hotels provide free hotspots in the lobby and/or in their restaurants and even in your rooms.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

You can use 112 as an emergency number through mobile phones. Other numbers include 110 (police), 113 (fire) and 118 (ambulance).
The international phone code is 62.

If you have GSM cellular phone, ask your local provider about "roaming agreement/facility" with local GSM operators in Indonesia (i.e.: PT Indosat, PT Telkomsel, PT XL Axiata). The cheapest way is buying a local SIM card, which would be much cheaper to call and especially use internet compared to your own cell phone's sim card.

The Indonesian mobile phone market is heavily competitive and prices are low: you can pick up a prepaid SIM card for less than Rp 10,000 and calls may cost as little as Rp 300 a minute to some other countries using certain carriers (subject to the usual host of restrictions). SMS (text message) service is generally very cheap, with local SMS as low as Rp129-165, and international SMS for Rp400-600. Indonesia is also the world's largest market for used phones, and basic models start from Rp 150,000, with used ones being even cheaper.

Post

Pos Indonesia provides the postal service in Indonesia. Pos Indonesia is government-owned and offers services ranging from sending letters and packages to money transfers (usually to remote areas which have no bank branch/ATM nearby) and selling postcards and stamps. Sending a postcards, letter or parcel is relatively expensive, but fairly reliable. It takes several days at least to send it within Indonesia, at least a week internationally. It is recommended to send letters from a Pos Indonesia branch, not by putting it inside orange mailbox (called Bis Surat) in the roadside, because some of the mailboxes are in very bad condition and aren't checked regularly by Pos Indonesia. Opening times of post offices usually tend to follow general business hours: Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 4:00pm (sometimes shorter hours on Fridays), Saturdays from 8:00am to 1:00pm, closed on Sundays. Bigger cities, tourist areas and central post offices tend to keep longer hours, into the evenings.

Private postal services based in Indonesia include CV Titipan Kilat (CV TIKI), Jalur Nugraha Ekaputra (JNE), Caraka, and RPX. There are also foreign postal services that have branches in Indonesia, including DHL, TNT, UPS, and FedEx.

External Links

• Official Website