We’ve always seen photos
of rice terraces or ate at restaurants overlooking them but never did we really
think to explore them properly until we were staying in Ubud and had a quiet
day.
From our hotel in Ubud
it took around 25mins in very good traffic to get to the terraces, well the
road they were on. It took about 200 steps to get down to them after you enter
the entrance.
The moment you start
heading down those steps you can just see rice growing for as far as the eye
can see in every direction. When you’re down the bottom of the steps it really
gets those legs like jelly but the view makes you forget about any worries you
had.
All the way along the
rice terrace walk track there are different locals with their “famous Bali
swing”, like those you see on all the insta and social posts. Where a person or
couple swing over the rice terraces in Bali.
The first place (as pictured above) wanted to charge us 50,000rp ($5) for 5 swings or 100,000
($10aud) for 10 swings. We thought this was very pricey so kept walking.
There are a couple of
locals asking for donations to enter, but they can be as small or as large as
you like- so come with small change. Generally where these locals are though,
they have things you can take photos with.
Our favourite was Bali
Corner, where there was a rice carrier you could pick up and pretend with.
There was also a little bamboo deck with Bamboo Corner and a Love heart was and
there was shaded seats, where we rested our legs and Erin’s racing heartbeat.
After we walked for
around and hour and a half up this cliff face beside the rice terraces we came
to a guy who had a swing and two macramé hammocks on coconut trees to lay in.
We asked him how much and he say 50,000 each ($5) and the girls no joke got at
least 5 mins each on the swing, while we had a rest in the hammock- so
relaxing.
You can also purchase ice-cold drinks and drinking coconuts all along the terraces so you don’t need to bring any with you.
Us big kids wore thongs, but next
time we will be taking our chucks with us as it is hard work doing so many
steps in thongs. The whole track took us around 4 hours and by 2:30pm we were
out of there to watch the Kanga’s in a pub on TV.
It is very easy to get
lost or take the wrong track here, so be willing to ask the locals the way
back. Luckily our swing man told us where to go or else we would have been
going in the opposite direction to the finish line.
LOCATION
Jalan Tegallalang, Tegallalang, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80561,
Indonesia