Visiting the beautiful Yeh Pulu carving near Ubud, Bali

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Bali can touristy and busy and hectic with endless shops, bars and massage parlours. But if you step away from the main tourist centres you will find a different Bali. A Bali steeped in tradition, history and beautiful ancient sites.

One of these sites is Yeh Pulu.

Yeh Pulu is a 25m long carved cliff face surrounded by rice fields and is an easy 300m walk from the car-park.

Never heard of it? Well, Yeh Pulu is only 5 minutes drive from the more famous Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) so add it to your itinerary!

Best of all, this attraction is small which means it isn’t high on the tourist radar so you should have the place mostly to yourself.

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What to expect at Yeh Pulu

The Yeh Pulu site is believed to be from the late 14th Century and the 25 meter long carvings mostly depict village life.

The landscape surrounding Yeh Pulu is lush and green with rice fields and gardens. Combine this with the lack of tourists and it makes for a really enjoyable location to visit. The carving might not rock-your-world, but it is cheap, easy to find and a lovely walk.

Possibly the best bit – you may also be greeted by an eccentric older women who will flick water in your face as a blessing! This may sound weird and intrusive, but she is really cute and just wants a donation made for the site. We didn’t find her pushy and only left around 5,000 Rp (AUD $0.50) since we weren’t sure if it was a legitimate donation tin or not.

Yeh Pulu Rice Field — *Rice Fields along the walking path to Yeh Pulu*

Cost

When we visited the costs for Yeh Pulu were:

Adult 15,000 Rp (~AUD $1.50)
Child 7,500 Rp (~AUD $0.75)

Plus a donation to the infectiously happy older women who flicks water in you face (see above).

Yeh Pulu Carving — *Yeh Pulu carving details*

Getting there

Yeh Pulu is around 15 minutes drive Ubud, or 90 minutes from Kuta area.

Yeh Pulu was not on the standard tours offered at the hotel, but was easily arranged since it is close to other attractions. Cost for a half day trip from Ubud with driver was 350,000 Rp (~AUD$35) and visited:

Otherwise, check out an organised tour such as this Archaeology one through GetYourGuide.

Travel Tip | If you organise a private driver you are charged by vehicle, not person. So if you are travelling with several people it will be cheaper to hirer a driver than go on a tour that charges per person.

Where to stay

Yeh Pulu is a 15 minute drive from Ubud, making Ubud the easiest accommodation option. We fell in love with Nyuh Kuning Village in Ubud which is close to the Sacred Monkey Forest and a short walk into the main Ubud centre.

We stayed at Chili Ubud Cottages and enjoyed a spacious villa with gorgeous gardens and swimming pool. The staff were prefect too!

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Is Yeh Pulu good to visit with children?

Yeh Pulu was great for taking a child since the path was flat, and the walk wasn’t too long. In sections the path follows a small freshwater spring which was a great location for lizard and butterfly spotting.

As a general tip, the heat and humidity of Bali were too much for our 7.5 year old so we did multiple half day trips instead of full-day trips.

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Is Yeh Pulu worth visiting?

If you are only going to Bali to check-off the big ticket items, or find the best Instagram spots then Yeh Pulu might not be for you. But if you want to experience a quieter, calmer Bali and learn more about local art and history, then definitely add Yeh Pulu to your itinerary.

Personally, I really enjoyed our trip to Yeh Pulu carving. The drive from Ubud was lovely and the walk to the carving was very peaceful.

As mentioned above, Yeh Pulu is very close to Goa Gajah which makes it super easy to combine the two locations as part of a half-day or full-day trip.