Bali Tour Guide

I need to pick up my regular customers in Amed, East Bali, at noon. I didn’t want to have a boring drive on this 2 hours drive from Ubud. I bring my camera along and decided to start early so get a better light. It was indeed a good day to take pictures. I captured almost every part of rice farming activities with Mount Agung as a background.

I start at 5.30 AM from Ubud and a scene of a farmer planting rice, located just north of Semarapura town, force me to stop. The farmer starts his work as early as me. He already had many bundles of young rice ready to plant. As usual he plant it one by one by moving backward. He plants two on the left, two in between two legs, and two on the right. After 5 minutes, he covered almost 10 meters of land. I want to help but I need to continue my drive. I thank him for letting me taking picture.

Instead of driving on the ‘common’ road of Rendang, I took a small road that passing through Sideman and then connecting to Sibetan. Just before my favorite wooden bridge, an old man working alone on his land. He was wearing a red colored T-shirt. I know I have to stop. When I excuse my self to take picture, he was posing. I told him I do not him to pose, just do what he was doing. While I took his picture I has a nice conversation with him about how difficult it is now to get water for irrigation. I understand, on the previous crop he was not planting rice. He plant corn instead due to the renovation of the water canal by the Subak where he joint in.

Few minutes’ drive afterward, there was two farmers on the field. One of them was on his cow plough. I stop again and get closer. The cows seem not to like me. They stop walking when I get closer. I keep my self in distance. I managed to get few shots however. From the other farmer, I knew that one of the cows has just recently passed the training to plough. No wonder the cow didn’t want me there.

After Sidemen and Iseh, I reached Sibetan then make a left turn before Bebandem. Passed Budakeling market, there was rice field again. This time the colors of the rice are yellow. It is harvesting time. I saw several groups of ladies farmer at their work harvesting the rice. The ladies were joking with me when I took their pictures. It is hard to get their face in the picture as they mostly covered with clothes to prevent their face and skin get dark from the sun. Across the street, there was fire and smoke. An old man was burning the rice straw after it has been harvested. The old man asked me in which magazine the picture would be placed. I told him perhaps will be placed on the Internet. He didn’t seem to know Internet at all but I didn’t have time to explain. I then drive rather fast to get in Amed in time.