On me and Jake’s second morning in Bali, we got up at the butt crack of dawn to take a taxi to the Tegalaling Rice Terraces. The rice terraces are located north of Ubud near the tegalaling village. The rice terraces are different from others because they are planted into a canyon! So the rice planters are growing out of the cliffs, and makes a freaking stunning view. I’d totally recommend going at sunrise, A. because its sooooo much cooler and hiking in the blazing 90 degree weather does NOT sound fun, and B. because its just way less crowded. The farmer who owns the terrace was telling us how crowded it gets during the day, and how sunrise is really the best time to visit. There were a few other people in the rice terrace at 6 am, but they were all there with photographers and were really conscious of the other photographers in the surrounding area.

So whenever I’m in a new place, I always make a point to get pictures of me and Jake taken together. I know that we could get a few taken throughout the trip either with my tripod or by asking other tourists to take our pic, but booking a session with a local photographer is so great to intentionally take the time to make some great memories and capture some great images of your adventure. Plus I’m all for supporting artists in places that are hard to be artists.

We spent an hour hiking around the canyon and watching the sun come up. There were quite a few bugs and we ended up with quite a few bites all over our legs (and I even wore bug spray!!! ESCUSE ME!). To explore the rice terrace, you have to pay both the owner of the trail AND the farmer of the rice terraces and we paid 2000 rupiah for access to to the trail and the rice patties. (which is like $20 usd). I would totally suggest paying and adventuring in the rice terraces though! This was by far the best rice terrace that we visited, and its such a unique experience as well. If you don’t want to pay to enter the rice terrace, (its not wheelchair accessible also just so you know!) you can view the fields from above by just parking on the side of the road.

It was so much fun getting to explore the rice terraces with Suta our photographer, and all of these photos were taken by him!

Photos by https://www.sutarahady.com/