My parents were only mildly impressed with the rice fields of Bali since rice fields were normal scene in their childhood.
My husband did not care for them at all having spent not one minute of his childhood near any rice fields as there were no rice fields around where he grew up.
My children saw nothing in the rice field and asked only that I promised to instruct the driver to go back straight to the hotel after that last stop!
So it was only me who was tremendously looking forward to all the magnificent rice terraces of Bali – saying names like Jatiluwih and Tegallalang in my dreams long before we even arrived.
When we were there, one of the places we stopped by to view this part of Bali was through a dirt road and up a low hill called Bukit Jati from where one could see the surrounding villages and their rice terraces and a not-so-welcomed sight of a cell signal boosters tower right in the middle the not-so-magnificent rice terraces.
But I did see something intriguing – and common to these parts of Bali. Luxurious villas and compounds with swimming pools in the middle of those rice fields, which our driver told us mostly belong to Japanese.
As for those rice terraces, I was duly impressed and truly believe that Bali would still be a tourist hotspot just by those terraces alone.
*Picture : Rice Terraces At Tegallalang
