Other shops & markets
Pondok Pecak Library
This privately run community library often has decent fiction and other books for sale. By buying here you are supporting their mission to make free books available to Balinese schoolkids. When you visit, check to see if they have any cultural performances coming up. Also has a small cafe serving home-made snacks.
Sukawati Art Market
This huge market is like a one-stop centre for all the craft villages between Sanur and Ubud. Many souvenir shop owners from around Bali wholesale purchase their items here, and prices are considerably lower than in the tourist centers like Kuta, Sanur, and Ubud town centre. For a taste of everyday, go to the food and produce market opposite the art market.
Threads of Life
A fair trade store that stocks commercially made, traditional hand-woven textiles from Bali and all points east in Indonesia. Or better yet, go to the shops that are actually from the villages and outer islands like Timor and Flores, and specialize in traditional weavings.
Ganesha Bookstore
Second hand bookstore. Also has great range of new books about Bali and Indonesia. Been around since 1986 and now has a second branch in Seminyak.
Ubud has a vast assortment of art and jewelry shops. Head for the boutique type stores on Jl Monkey Forest and Jl Raya Ubud for higher quality goods with appropriately higher prices, or down to the market for bulk-produced cheapies.
ubud market
Located at the corner of Jl Monkey Forest and Jl Raya Ubud, this is a double storey warren of stalls bursting at the seams with wood carvings, batik shirts, sarongs, and all manner of other souvenirs aimed specifically at tourists. The merchants here haggle with tourists for a living, and think nothing of asking for ten times the going price, so try to establish a baseline before you go in to buy. Most of the merchants downstairs will lose interest if you try to get a reasonable price. It is better to try the shops upstairs where you will find the same products often for sell at lower prices. You will still need to use your best bargaining skills of course. Try to avoid the period from 11AM-2PM when tour buses from further afield tend to arrive en-masse.
If hiring a car for a day, it might be worth it to make a stop in Tegallalang, where they are geared more towards wholesale buyers. The Sukawati Market is crowded and sells trinkets in bulk as well, but quality is dubious.
craft villages between ubud and sanur
The road to Ubud from Sanur in the south passes through a series of small towns and villages which specialize in the production of particular arts and crafts. The towns are Batubulan/Singakerta for stone carvings, Celuk for silver jewellery, Batuan for paintings, and Mas for wood carvings. The whole area is sometimes referred to as the "craft villages" of Bali, although it is all a bit more built-up and congested than one might infer from the term "village."
This is the best area to see and buy a wide variety of Balinese craftwork in a short period of time. There are many large showrooms where arts and crafts in the Balinese style are offered for sale. Nearly all organised day-tours of central Bali stop at one or more of these showrooms and the tour operators usually have a financial tie-up with the places where they stop, collecting a commission on purchases. Be careful, many of these shops specialise in pricing based on huge commissions to the drivers and tour busses.