Butterflies and Waterfalls
More Ubud Adventures
There’s a Butterfly Park a little south of Ubud that is definitely worth a visit. But can a park with JUST butterflies compare with zoos where you hold tarantulas and bats? Why, yes. Yes it can.
The Kemenuh Butterfly Park has beautiful gardens full of orchids and bonsai, a few cute animals like the sugar glider, and yes, lots and lots of butterflies. Unlike many butterfly gardens, there are no feeders full of fruit here, just lots of natural live flowers. The butterflies are everywhere, and it is quite easy to approach them and have them land on you.
There are beautiful blue velvet butterflies, that flit around energetically. There are delicate sheer butterflies that drift along like wisps in the wind. It’s amazing how overwhelming such little creatures can be.
They have a little hatchery. Every day they collect chrysalis from the leaves outside and hang them up in a protected environment. And every day, they release a thousand new butterflies into the environment.
They keep a few Atlas Moths as well. These are huge moths with furry bodies that look straight out of a cartoon. They let you hold them, and though you may not think of moths as cuddly, these are!
A couple of minutes walk from the butterfly park is one of the more popular waterfalls called Tegenungan Waterfall. As we went late on a weekday, it was only mildly crowded, but tons of fun. It’s a beautiful hike out to the waterfall with lots of photo spots.
There’s a clubby beach club along the way, but when you get to the waterfall itself, you only hear the roar of the water cascading down. It’s amazing all the tourist infrastructure that’s built around the falls. There is a swing of course, the beach club with a pool, and nearby there’s a glass bridge you can pay lots of money to walk on, though the glass bridge doesn’t actually have a view of the waterfalls. But when you get to the falls, you can still have some old fashioned fun and play in the water. It’s safe even for kids!
On the way out we grabbed dinner at a restaurant overlooking the falls. It was completely quiet as night fell. Colored lights lit up the falls making for a beautiful view.
