Rice Fields Around Ubud

Ubud is the artistic center of Bali. Painters have been inspired by the place and its beautiful setting surrounded by rice fields. In the streets there are many galleries, small shops with crafts, Boutiques, lots of nice cafes and cozy restaurants. During the day you can see many tourists everywhere in Ubud, But when the late afternoon for buses with tourists and locals alike, returns to the small town of a peace.
We stayed 5 nights at Gusti Kaler Guesthouse. From the outside it looks like a small temple. The family rented a few bungalows, that are directly next to their family temple. Every morning at breakfast on our terrace we could see the grandmother in their traditional clothes like, as she distributed the offerings in the family temple bowls and throughout the property. Also, our bungalow was blessed every day. They prepare a day before a total of 300 offerings. The palm leaves to fold it alone takes 2 hours. There is very little offerings, consisting of only a dollop of rice on a piece of palm leaf and also larger and more sophisticated offerings bowl with flowers, Browse, Rice and sweets. They are portrayed everywhere and then a flower, which is immersed in holy water, sprayed three times. Then a short prayer is said. Incense sticks are also often draufgelegt, so it actually smells of incense almost everywhere in Bali.

Around Ubud there are beautiful rice terraces we wanted to go naturally. We went on a hike along the Ayung river and it had a beautiful view of the rice fields. Since it was not quite so simple, to find the right way to the river, we asked someone in between, then suddenly the later stood before us and turned out to be guide. We wanted to actually make the trek on your own, however, was a rice field before the first barrier and the farmer demanded money from us. The guide said, that we have to pay on each rice field on the track along the river. If we had him here, but it would be cheaper and he could also tell us a lot about the environment. Another German couple in front of the same decision as us and together we negotiated a good price with the guide. He then took us through the countryside and we saw strangely (and almost as expected) No other rice farmers, demanded the money for entering the fields.

Ubud is also known for traditional Balinese dance performance. We have a temple in a “Being attractive Tanz” viewed. Although we knew this already from our Bali holiday 3 years ago, but it's still something special. In the performance, the story of a prince and a princess is told through dance. Is so special about the Kecak, that many men are the backdrop and give very specific noises. It almost looks as if they are put through their singing and movement into a kind of trance. Led to conclude with one of the men on the fire dance. He ran barefoot over burning coconut shells.

We stayed a little longer than originally planned in Ubud, because we wanted to extend our visa for Indonesia. One must remain with the tourist visa 30 days in Indonesia. As we have planned further goals in this great country, we wanted to extend the visa for another 30 days. It was not so easy, but we have a small travel agency found, that we could get a visa extension within 3 days. Usually it takes a week. While it is only a punch, but the Balinese know how to deal with the help of “Express award” nor can to earn a little extra money ...