Ubud, Bali Beggars Bush 1979
A former restaurant and pub mentioned on numerous tourist websites. It was founded by an Englishman, Victor Mason, and opened on 5th November 1979 with a run from the premises by the Bali Hash House Harriers, also founded by him in 1977. This site is unique as we can be sure why the name was given, as I was able to ask Victor Mason.
He says that he intended to name the pub The Hare & Hounds, as an allusion to the school-boy sport and the Hash House Harriers. The name Beggars Bush came from Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford’s Old and New London (1893) in which their account of the disreputable London pub called The Hare & Hounds at St Giles, London mentions Beggars Bush as an earlier name which he liked.
Victor Mason is also the author of a book called Bali Bird Walks and leads bird watching walks in the area, as well as being known for his occasional recitals of Shakepeare and Burns to exhausted Hash House Harriers.
Even with this modern site the location is variable. Some travel sites give at jln. Hanoman Padangtegal Kelod, at the west end of the town, towards Campuan, but Victor Mason says it was at the other end of town on J1 Raya Ubud, next to Tjampuhan bridge, where the sign can still be seen (as at 2011).
See also Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, where a new restaurant and the most recent Beggars Bush is reported named after this pub, returning the name to England (although Victor Mason says he knows nothing of this).
Location
8’30’S 115’15’E
Thanks
Personal communication Victor Mason, and certain Hash House Harriers
See also
Posted: March 19th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Bali, Manchester, St Giles, Ubud, naming story, pubs | 6 Comments »
Victor Mason was correct on the location of “The Beggar’s Bush Pub”. My husband and I loved it there…..we had dinner there twice….once we were the only people dining. The owners were gracious and eager to help us try Indonesian dishes, when we said, “No ‘English-style’ food please.” We sat on plush cushions and noshed all night. I discovered ‘Bali Hai’ coolers which became my ‘go to’ quaff. When they heard we had travelled from Canada, they were so excited and wanted to know about snow and bears and moose…lol The family all came out and ate with us and let the family pets come out when they saw we loved cats and dogs. So there we sat, late into the evening…eating, laughing, watching the moon over the trees and rice patties….It was, perhaps, not the most polished or gourmet restaurant in which we dined while in Bali….but certainly the most convivial.
Memories are made of this .. Uncle Victor! Uncle of James Wareham, my school mate. We visited Ubud in 1988. I have just skyped with a friend who is on one of the islands close to Bali and checked the internet and here we are! Are you still in Bali Uncle Victor? After Bali, we flew to Sydney where I went on to work for the BBC. You were the focus of one of the Stringer’s pieces – your created the first cricket ground / team if I recall.
Get in touch – happy days ..
Sadly Victor has died since I posted this. He was, from my communications with him, and with people who knew him, a character who many people remember with fondness.
Enjoyed Lunch and Drinks at Beggars Bush ‘ in 1986 .
Beautiful ambience .
Played the skill game by putting ring in horn .
It was indeed by the ravine and Victor had a marvelous old jaz collection which he played on a wind up gramaphone.
Victor would always run in bare feet wherever he was. He sadly passed away last year.
Victor Mason was a fantastic host, in his Beggars’ Bush restaurant and bar, the most wonderful man one can imagine. He had brought with him his collection of old jazz and blues LPs, and was playing them constantly in the evenings. I spent the whole 1985 summer in Sebatu village, some 10 km North of Ubud, doing some recordings of the local gamelan, but I would jump on my bike around 9pm to go to the Bush and get drunk over there, with Victor serving wonderful local cocktails made out of rice wine (brem). Ubud was getting touristic by then, but still wonderful, not crowdy as what is has become since. The Bush was THE place to be, and almost the only place open late at night. Mick Jagger user to visit, and it was there that I got to meet Andy Summer’s from the Police.
Victor was found of France, he had written book about a rolling papers’ factory in South France during the middle age. I was impressed by his erudition and intelligence.
He was always wearing shorts, or a sarung, I never saw him wearing pants.
I have found memories of this man, and this place.
Unfortunately at some point he lost the bar, his Balinese wife having messed up with the money and the bank. He spent the last years of his life hanging at another bar, a few hundred meters more North, but it wasn’t the same, as he wasn’t the owner anymore.
He has arrived in Bali in the 50s, and wrote in one of his books that by then there were no tourists, only a few western artists and government-sponsored development experts.
I profoundly miss this man and this time, I was 21 years old and Ubud was still a paradise by then, although mass-tourism was starting to bring too many people.
I have read about what Ubud has become these days, and will never return there, preferring to keep my memories as they were, including this fantastic bar just after the (old) Campuran bridge, on the right side, in the middle of the road curve.
I still have Victor’s book about the Bali birds, which I cherish.
Rest in peace my old friend I miss you and your sense of humor.