Rice Terrace Trek – Bali

Stacey and I decided that taking a rice terrace trek was something we needed to do, so we asked the owners of the homestay we were at to help us out with some recommendations and we chose Floral Bali Treks. For an extremely low price (around $10) we trekked through rice terraces, met local farmers, learned more about Balinese Hinduism, trekked through a snippet of the jungle, had a Balinese meal at the tour guide’s home, learned more about home life and went to a coffee plantation [check back tomorrow to read more about that]. Not a bad price for a whole day’s worth of activities, huh? Take a closer to look and you’ll really see the value!

⋙ T H E   R I C E   T E R R A C E S ⋙

We walked along the edge of the rice fields. We were the only foreigners out there which made this experience even sweeter.

While out there we learned more about Balinese Hinduism when we passed this temple. Our female guide left offerings and told us more about the representation of Brahma, Visnu & Shiva in every temple as one and this “trinity” of sorts is called Linge. We learned about the different rules of women visiting temples and more!

While passing through a farm a man was plowing a portion of his field, so Stacey and I each took a go at it. The farmer got a huge kick out of it and rested against a wall of one of the terraces while we worked… Well, played around and called it work.

We just had to get a photo with him. He was so cute and sweet. He was FULL of smiles and jokes. What a moment….

This is what a banana comes from! It grows from within a flower and from this white part in the center. Crazy, right?

Ducks roamed everywhere in the terraces!

Harvesting the rice

A family temple on someone’s property

After the rice is harvested and removed from the stalk, they’re put into these screens and are shaken until all that remains is the rice.

The process of removing the rice is done by picking up the stalks of rice and shaking them into this basket until the rice falls off. Simple as that.

We followed the canals up to this little shrine where our guide left another offering. This is where the water divides into the aqueducts for each individual farmer’s crop in the area. 

⋙ W E L C O M E   T O   T H E   J U N G L E ⋙

We went down from the terraces down into the jungle. We crossed bamboo bridges, watched as our guides drank holy water from the river and marveled at massive trees until we came back out into even more terraces.

These massive spiders were EVERYWHERE. Talk about nightmare-enducing.

⋙ B A L I N E S E   H O M E  &  L I F E ⋙

Ganesh is my favorite Hindu god. I was always aesthetically drawn to him because of my love for Asian elephants. After studying and finding out that Ganesh is the god of wisdom & knowledge and is the remover of obstacles I became obsessed with finding figures of him. I just think he represents something really beautiful, and this figure, standing in front of their home, was one of my favorites that I found in the time I was backpacking.

I loved that there is a big natural area in most typical Balinese homes, as our guide informed us. There is a walled room for the honeymooners of the family, then open sleeping areas, a place for worshipping and communal family areas.

I took no time to dig into our Balinese feast. This was probably my favorite meals of the entire trip.

We had veggie noodles, these amazing corn fritters, tempeh & tofu with veggies. Truly delicious stuff.

These little boys had caught this fish and were cooking it over a fire & having their own personal little parties.

We learned more about a local art school and were shown how these beautiful words of art are created.

Our truly amazing tour guides! Thanks for the amazing experience! 

If you’re in the Ubud area and you’re looking for an experience out in the rice terraces that isn’t along the tourist path I would highly recommend using Floral Bali Treks.

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