Bali, Indonesia (day 32 - Feb. 7, 2023)
Ride to the rice terraces
The weather seemed to be holding up this morning, so I listened to Ketut’s advice from yesterday and made my way north towards the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces. I had been a bit on the fence trying to decide to go to the rice terraces or to Ubud, one of the popular places to visit in Bali. At the end of the day, I can say I am really glad I decided to go to the terraces. It was such a beautiful ride up towards the mountains in the center of the island. The green terraces shaped following the terrain was such a nice calm and peaceful area. I feel like I could live up there for a while. There is a small village at the far end of the farmland, which I never arrived at. Small shelters dot the landscape. Some used for storage, some for shelter for the cows, while others were empty.
Along the way I found a Catholic church building, the first one I have seen here in Bali.
After a short ride down a well worn path through the trees starting from the temple, I arrived at a spot overlooking the rice terraces. There was a lady there taking pictures for tourists and asking for donations in return. She had a few props including the ones in the picture below: a bamboo hat and baskets of grass they use to feed the animals, mostly cows she explained. She told me the crops had been planted in June and take about a year to be ready to harvest.
Stopped for lunch at a place along the terraces called the Rustic Bali. It is a great location to sit and admire the nature around, plus the food was delicious.
By the time I finished lunch darker clouds were blowing in (there had been a breeze most of the time I was up there). I wanted to start the 1-1/2 hour trek back before the rains hit. Thankfully there was only one little patch where it was lightly raining, but it was clear the rest of the way. Didn’t stop to take many pictures on the ride up or down, but did have my GoPro recording a timelapse. It was interesting to see how the areas changed the closer I got to the hotel. Seemed like people’s lives were more slow paced the farther from the hotel I was.
Higher quality video will be available once it finishes processing on youtube…
After safely reaching the hotel, I walked back to Livingstone’s (I know, I am a creature of habit :) once I find something I like, I try to hold onto it, probably to a fault sometimes) Ate some grilled salmon for dinner and did a bit more work on my blog. One of my favorite things about this place is the amount of nice fresh fruits you can get. I think I have had at least one smoothie a day in my time here :D
Tomorrow I fly out to Perth to visit family there, cannot wait! Things might slow down a bit on the blog. I’ll be in Perth for two weeks and then it is off to Croatia for a few weeks (hope to meet up with one of my brothers there :) ).
Bali has been a interesting place to explore. Very different from the previous locations. It would be a great place to come with a group of friends or a spouse one day. Scooter is definitely the preferred mode of transportation out here. Cannot recommend the hotel I am staying at enough. It is in a nice location near the beach, the restaurant up on the rooftop is a nice area to chill, and the staff here are the best! They take the time to learn their guests names, which I appreciate. If I came back one day, a few places I would want to see are Ubud and areas more to the center and north of Bali. I’d love to see what this place is like with the sunshine out too!
Total miles walked since leaving home on January 6 is 146.5.
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