Baskets on Heads and Hillside Rice Terraces

One can quickly understand the perfect posture of the Balinese.  If you were to carry all that you were selling on the top of your head, you too would have this perfection.  I was completely fascinated with how they managed to walk in the crowds and drive scooters as well, all the time balancing these baskets on their heads.

Here are a couple of women doing just that.

Not a good picture, but when I tried to take a close up picture of a woman with a basket on her head, she waved me away and scowled at me. Clearly it was not something they find appropriate to photograph. So, I had to wait until they passed in order to take a picture.

If you look at the woman in front of the white van, you can see her balancing a heavy basket on her head.  Wish I could have a smiling face and a head topped wicker basket, but I guess those two are not something one will find together. 

Again, I have not done justice to this view. Before me was a kind of canyon of terraced rice paddies. Deep into the valley there were narrow rows of rice growing and fed water from an irrigation system that had been created for this field.  Here is where I picked up the stem of rice to post on the blog to show everyone what a ripe rice stalk looks like.  I think you would have to be part mountain goat in order to navigate this system of farming.  Can you imagine having to plough under the ripened stalks after the harvest?

I think this completes my Bali adventure.  What I do know, is that I will travel there again.  Maybe I will even take in a beach or two. But probably not.  When there is so much to see inland in such a small space, it takes days to feel and experience all there is to offer. A beach can be found anywhere. But Balinese culture is unique.

Bali Hai