Rice paddies

Todd had left, but Renee and I were still relaxing in Ubud.  I really liked the place.  The mix of things to do and restaurants was ideal.  We walked around the shops, sat in cafes and went to some great restaurants.  There was a range of places to go, from the little side street food stands all the way to some very fancy and upscale restaurants.  It did feel like a small slice of the best parts of Australia had been transplanted into this tropical paradise.  We weren't doing too much either which was quite nice.  My normal holidays consist of rushing from one place to another as I try to see and do as much as possible.  It was a nice change to just slow down and to be calm.

In the middle of this relaxing time, we decided to break things up a little bit and to go out to have a look at some of the famous rice paddy terraces. 

It was the wrong time of year and so the rice had already been harvested, but the terraces remained exceptionally beautiful.  Since we were here, we were able to time everything so that Renee could do a photo shoot.

With photographers and support staff following her around, Renee posed for photo after photo in the midst of the farmers and other tourists.   I wasn't so interested in what was happening, and so I played with my phone and took in the view.  More tourists started to gather to take photos of Renee and she stood there posing.  She smiled at the tourists and gave them a twirl.

It was a scenic place to be standing.  They were all clearly still working rice paddies, but I wondered how much of the income was still being derived from that agricultural work as opposed to the tourist income.  That being said, there were plenty of rice paddies we had seen all through the island when we had driven around, so people were clearly still farming.

As I stood there and looked out, I realised that I hadn't been bitten by any mosquitoes.  We were surrounded by the standing water in all the terraces, yet I remained un-harrassed.  The harmony that our natural surroundings were in was such that there were more than enough predators to keep those biting mosquito numbers down.