As someone who loves reading and writing so much I can’t
live without my books and notebooks. I can stay home for the whole week just
for reading some moving self-help books or nerve-wrecking novels. I don’t need
cozy coffee shops for writing new blog posts because my bedroom is a perfect place
to put my ideas into words. Yup, my home is my heaven because I have everything
I need. However, 2 weeks ago I decided to leave my sanctuary for almost a week.
If you read my previous post, you must have known that I went to Ubud-Bali for
a retreat. If you haven’t read it you can check it on A Retreat to Ubud : A Reflection. It didn’t really turn out well but for some reasons I was glad to
be there on that week. One of the reasons is I got to enjoy one of the biggest
literary festival in the world, Ubud
Writers and Readers Festival 2019. So guys, please stay with me until the
end of this post because I’m gonna tell you everything you need to know about
this awesome event that you can’t miss next year. Check this out!
*What
is Ubud Writers and Readers Festival?
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival or #uwrf is a world scale literary festival located in Ubud-Bali. It
is said that it has been included in The
Telegraph’s list of 5 best literary festivals around the world in 2019.
This amazing event is possible thanks to Janet DeNeefe. She founded this event
in 2004 in order to help Bali recover from the terrorist attacks. Since then
UWRF is consistently held annually. Every year UWRF has a different theme. For
2019 the theme is Karma, which is
drawn from a Hindu philosophy yet known universally.
This festival was held for 4 days from 23-27 October 2019
in Ubud. For 4 days you will be enjoying a lot of main programs, special
events, workshops, free events, and book launches, in 3 main venues that are
Festival Hub @Taman Baca, Indus Restaurant, and Neka Museum. The main programs
are thought-provoking discussions with famous writers and change makers around
the world. Special events are more intimate conversations, lunches, dinners
with special people who can be your favorite writers or speakers. You can also
join a lot of interesting workshops. Free events are my favorite one. I could
watch a lot of movies which I can’t find on theaters because some of them are
banned by Indonesian government. I was also able to watch some great poets
reading their moving poems on Poetry Slams which were held for free. On book
launches, I found some new interesting books which were launched and discussed.
As I said before this festival was mainly held at 3 main venues but sometimes
the locations can be at some fancy places around Ubud such as Betelnut Cafe,
Paradiso, and Blanco Reinassance Museum.
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| Taman Baca |
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| Indus Restaurant |
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| Neka Museum |
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| Food Court |
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| I love this installation so much. It sounds so calming when the wind blows. |
If you are a solo traveler like me, you don’t need to
worry about being lonely during the festival. Why? Because I’m sure you will
meet a lot of new people that will be your company and friends. I met Nina, my
new friend from Pasuruan, on the first day of the festival. She is the one who
faithfully accompanied me having fun for 4 days. Thank you Nina. Besides Nina,
I also had fun conversations with some foreigners. FYI, most of the festival
participants are foreigners from Australia, Europe, and America. Based on my
observations, they are mostly middle age women. I rarely found youngsters here.
Even I only found a few Indonesians as the audiences. If you see a lot of
Indonesians mostly they are the volunteers or staff of the event.
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| Meet Nina my best company during the event. Thank you Nin.. |
You need to remember that this festival is not for free.
Well there are some free events held but if you want to join the main programs
you need to buy the ticket. Also if you are interested in joining the workshops
or having fun at the special events, there will be additional payment. The
ticket price is varied. It depends on some categories. If you want to know more
about it you can check it on uwrf website. After buying the ticket, you will
get a wrist band for 1-day pass and a lanyard for 4-day pass. Remember to
always bring and wear your wrist band or lanyard on the festival venue because
it will be checked by the staff. You will also be given a program book that
provides all information about the programs offered and a daily schedule that
will help you a lot to choose programs you want to enjoy. On the festival it’s
better to always bring your reusable tumbler. The committes provide some
donation based water refill stations on the venues. So you can just refill you
water bottle there and stay hydrated.
UWRF committees provide a free shuttle that runs between 8
am-6 pm every 30 minutes from festival venues to Museum Puri Lukisan on Jl.
Raya Ubud. So you can just take it to get to the festival venues. Just wait at
the Shuttle Point sign and enjoy the ride. If you like walking like me, you can
just walk to the venues because they are close by. Ubud is a visually pleasing
region so I think you will enjoy your walk very much. Beware of the heat okay?
Ubud is really hot.
If your destination is a bit far you can always take the
motorbike taxi or in Indonesian ojek.
Online taxis like Gojek or Grab are very few in Ubud since they’re not allowed
to operate at the city center. So the more available option is the local
motorbike taxis. You need to bargain for the price for this. I actually never
took local motorbike taxis during my stay in Ubud. Why? It’s not affordable for
me. I chose to use the online ones because it’s way cheaper and safer. But yeah
I needed to be more patient to get one. Fyi, Gojek is way cheaper than Grab in
Ubud. I think you need to take that into account.
*My Accomodation
Now let’s talk about my first experience joining this
festival! So, I went to Ubud on Wednesday, 23 October 2019 early in the
morning. I departed from my home in Jembrana, it’s located in west part of
Bali, by car with my family. It took about 3 until 4 hours to get to Ubud. I
stayed in Ubud for 5 days and I chose to spend my nights at Ojek’s Homestay which is perfectly
located in the city center, Gang Soka Jl. Raya Ubud. I actually knew this
homestay from a blog post of someone who also joined UWRF years ago. She
recommends it so that’s why I chose Ojek’s Homestay. I booked a room for myself
via Booking.com. It costed me Rp
500k for 5 nights and I paid it cash when I checked in. For me it’s very affordable.
I chose a room with a single bed for 2 people and a
private bathroom. I don’t want to have a shared bathroom because I’m a hijabi
moslem girl. You know...my privacy is priceless. Ojek’s Homestay is very convenient
and cozy. It’s a typical Balinese house with its cultural Hinduism touch. The
owners and staff are very friendly and helpful. There is also a cute dog!
Really, I recommend this homestay for you guys. I could sleep well at nights
eventhough a lot of times I could hear people next door talking so loudly. But
so far, I have nothing to complain.
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| Ojek's Homestay |
To get to the festival venues, I chose to take online
motorbike taxis like Gojek or Grab. I mostly used Gojek because it’s cheaper.
Sometimes I walked to the venues and it took about 15 minutes. You need to know
that you can always rent a motorbike in Ubud. There are a lot of places to rent
it. Make sure you can ride a motorbike and have a license. Since I can’t ride a
motorbike so I chose to take the taxis or going on foot. Ubud is very hot.
Even it’s hotter than Jembrana because of
its numbers of cars and motorbikes on the street. So, always bring a woter
bottle when you go out and apply some sun screen to your skin. My hands got
sunburned because I mostly forgot to wear my sunblock.
*D-days
I purchased a 4-day pass for myself. It costed me Rp 750k.
Thank God I’m an Indonesian so I got a cheaper price compared to foreigner one.
I joined a lot of main programs. Each main program is lasted for about 1 hour
until 1 hour and a half. I could freely choose what programs to attend based on
my interest. I mostly chose programs which were about Balinese culture,
Indonesian writers, Movies, Poems, Women, Religions, and Hijab. There are a lot
more varied topics and themes provided. You can take a look at the program book
and choose what you want to join.
During the main programs I listened to the panellists
discussions. I still remembered very well when Indonesian movie makers and
writers such as Garin Nugroho, Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Richard Oh, Rayya Makarim,
and Leila S. Chudori had a very intense discussion about Indonesian Cinema as Soft Power. They very well presented their
opinions and arguments about the quality of Indonesian movies compared to South
Korea and Thailand films. 1 hour discussion wasn’t enough. The audiences including me felt the heat. So far, this is
my most favorite panel of UWRF 19.
My other favorite panels are Enlightenment for All and Bali’s
Art Activists. From those panels I learned about “fake” spirituality of
Bali and the sad truth of people with mental problem in Bali. I couldn’t stop
crying when a Balinese photographer, Rudi Waisnawa, showed his photographs of
people who are confined inside a small room for their mental health problem (pasung). When it was time for QnA I
asked him a question and the answer broke my heart. This also happens in
Jembrana, a place where I come from. Thank God the person with the mental
problem has overcome his sickness and he’s been released. These main programs
have opened my horizon and let me see the world I’ve never known before. I
indeed learned a lot.
Beside joining the main programs, I also joined the Poetry
Slams, Movie Screening, and Book Launches. This was my first time attending
Poetry Slam in English. So I was very excited. I never knew that poems can be
very varied with different styles and spoken words. I thought they are always
rhyming and the meaning is implicit. Poetry Slam opened my eyes that poems are
freedom. You can freely express your feelings and thoughts with whatever words
you have on your mind. They don’t have to be sophisticated it terms of dictions
and no need to follow the rules. I watched a lot of poets’ performances during
UWRF 19 including Theoresia Rumthe. Are you guys familiar with this name?
Before joining UWRF I had no idea who she is. Thanks to UWRF I fall in love
with her poems and her performance. When she read her poem, I couldn’t take my
eyes and ears off her. It was magical. Every word felt like alive. I love it
when she performed “Tempat Paling Liar
di Muka Bumi”. She is incredibly awesome. I actually planned on reading my
own poems. But I changed my mind because I had no experiences on doing it in
public. I hope next time I can do it.
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| One of the participants of Poetry Slam held in Betelnut Cafe.. |
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| Together with Kak Theo and her biggest fan Nina. Image taken from UWRF facebook page. |
Watching some “special” movies was something I looked forward in this festival. The Woven Path| Perempuan Tana Humba and Memories of My Body| Ku Cumbu Tubuh Indahku are movies I got to watch. Those movies are really something especially Memories of My Body. I finally understand why this movie is banned in Indonesia.The story is bringing some sensitive and controversial issues. It also has explicit contents that not everyone can watch. Some of the viewers including me couldn’t hold ourselves not to scream when it got a bit too extreme. I was glad I could watch it together with everyone else. At least I wasn’t the only one who was a bit overwhelmed. The Woven Path is a very aesthetic movie. It tells about women’s roles in Sumba East Nusa Tenggara. This movie is very informative and mind-opening. For feminists this movie is a worth to watch indeed.
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| The great woman from Perempuan Tana Humba. Kak Olin. |
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| Garin Nugroho, the one behind Ku Cumbu Tubuh Indahku |
Book Launches are perfect events to attend in order to
meet your favorite author with his or her new piece. For me this event is great
to get free drinks and snacks hehehe. Book launches that I attended are Rahasia Salinem and Tutur Feminis Meluruhkan yang Biner. I
actually didn’t read those 2 books or buy them. I do know about Rahasia Salinem
because it is very popular on twitter and storial.co. I got to read it a bit
but I haven’t continued reading it. I think it’s quite interesting. I’ll give
it a try next time. Anyway, attending those book launches let me meet the
authors. They shared their story and experiences in writing their new books. It
was nice to know more about their creative process. To write a book even a
fantasy or fictional one you do need to do your research. Yup, copy that.
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| Meet the authors of Rahasia Salinem |
*Takeaway
Wow... this post becomes very long eventhough it’s a
recap. Sorry guys I just want to share my knowledge about this great festival
as complete and as precise as possible so you get clear ideas about it. As a
closing I just want to tell you that #UWRF19 was awesome! I highly recommend it
to you guys. I learned a lot from the main programs and other events the
committes offered. I got new perspectives about so many things that matter in
life. I met a lot of new amazing friends and people. I got to enjoy the movies,
music, poems, art works, great installations, also dance and circus
performances. I finally got to speak English again after resigning from my job. I brought home a new book from Periplus. It’s superb!
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| Gundala art exhibition |
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| This is heaven... Periplus... |
I would love to join this festival again next year.
Hopefully I won’t be one of the audiences anymore. It will be great if I can be
one of the volunteers, staff, or speakers. Amin... I’m very grateful that Ubud
has been a very nice and safe place for a solo traveler like me. On my first day
in Ubud I went back to Ojek’s homestay by walking at 11 pm. It was really late
for me. Thank God the street wasn’t empty. There were still some tourists and
people walking by. Just like my parents said, Bali is safe because the people
still believe in Karma. The ones who commit the crime are usually outsiders who
come to Bali.
So guys after reading this really long post, are you
interested in joining Ubud Writers and
Readers Festival 2020? Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to give your
opinions and comments on the comment box below. See you next week on a
different and new blog post!
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