We then walked for about three hours through the rice fields. It was a beautiful day, the first sun we'd seen since we arrived, so timing was perfect. (Doing this walk in the rain would be a total drag.) Like the rest of Asia, rice is king, and the vast majority of the population grows rice for a living. In mountainous areas like Bali, rice growing is impossible, so the mountains are carved with terraces to produce the flat fields needed for rice growing. While the terraces therefore serve a practical purpose, they're also very pretty, and make for a beautiful walk.

At the end of our walk, the hotel car picked us up to take us to a picnic lunch. We were supposed to have our picnic beside a lake, but when we got there there were some locals already eating there. The driver clearly wasn't keen on our mingling with the locals, so he sped off to "a nicer place". This ended up to be a cement slab in the middle of nowhere, I think possibly at the edge of the local junkyard. So not the best end to our exploration of the local countryside, but I guess it's important to see all aspects of the local culture when on holiday-NOT! (haven't done that in about fifteen years, felt good).