Sibang: Ubud's Quieter Neighbour, for Now
Most travelers arriving in Ubud brace for traffic, Instagram queues, and the particular exhaustion of a place that has been loved too loudly for too long. Sibang, a pair of adjacent villages called Sibang Kaja and Sibang Gede located close to Ubud, offers something that has become genuinely rare in southern Bali: the sensation of arriving somewhere that does not yet know it is a destination.
Travel writer Nina Karnikowski, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, first reported on the village and the forces shaping its future.
Why Sibang Stayed Quiet
Local lore credits the village's obscurity to a curse. According to residents, an angry giant once threatened that Sibang would be swallowed by ants, prompting villagers to leave and the jungle to reclaim the land. Whether or not the story holds any historical weight, its effect was real: Sibang remained largely undisturbed for decades.
The village began attracting outside attention in 2008, when Canadian John Hardy opened Green School Bali on its outskirts. The bamboo campus now educates around 500 local and international students from kindergarten through year 12, with a curriculum oriented around sustainability. Families relocating so their children can attend the school have quietly seeded a small community of long-stay residents alongside the original Balinese population.
What to Do in Sibang
Kul Kul Farm is the most developed visitor experience in the village. Founded by Orin Hardy and Maria Farrugia, whose family is connected to Green School, the farm operates as a permaculture site, a bamboo-building school, and a guest stay. Five cottages built by students during the farm's annual 10-day bamboo construction course are available to overnight guests, starting from around US$72 per night. The on-site restaurant, Taani, serves produce grown on the property, including a soto that Karnikowski describes as the best she has encountered in Indonesia.
Astungkara Way, roughly a 20-minute walk from Kul Kul Farm, is a regenerative rice-farming collective. Visitors can join hands-on farming sessions that demonstrate natural cultivation methods: ducks manage pests instead of pesticides, compost replaces synthetic fertilizers, and the ancient Subak cooperative irrigation system still governs water use across the paddies. The collective also runs multi-day walking journeys that trace a path from Bali's most developed corridors back toward its agricultural heart. Manager Oka Dewanti frames the work plainly: supporting places like Astungkara Way is one concrete way travelers can influence what kind of Bali survives.
The Pressure Building at the Edges
Sibang's calm is not guaranteed. A padel court complex has broken ground opposite Green School, with plans that include a bar, co-working space, gym, and lap pool. Both local Balinese residents and foreign long-termers in the community have expressed concern that this kind of development signals the beginning of a familiar cycle: rising land values, traffic, and the gradual erasure of the agricultural landscape that made the village worth visiting in the first place.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent operators considering Sibang or the broader Ubud hinterland should move sooner rather than later. The village currently has minimal accommodation infrastructure, which means early entrants face little direct competition. More importantly, the existing businesses setting the tone, Kul Kul Farm and Astungkara Way, have built their offerings around regenerative and educational experiences rather than amenity-led luxury. Guests drawn to Sibang are specifically seeking that contrast. Hosts who anchor their proposition in land stewardship, local food systems, or cultural learning will find a ready audience among travelers who are actively trying to avoid the Bali they have already seen.
Details in this post were first reported by Nina Karnikowski for the Sydney Morning Herald. The writer stayed as a guest of Kul Kul Farm.
First reported by Bali Travel.