I feel lazy looking at those people working in rice field…

My young friend told us when we walked on narrow rice field path in Bongkasa – 15 minutes north of Ubud. She was the one who had the idea to join the tour so I asked my Ubud friend to also join. The more the merrier. And not just that but we might never organize such trip ourselves. We need a tourist to make us explore more of our town!

We had nice time although we all sacrificed a bit of our morning. I skipped some household chores, my friend had quick breakfast, and my young friend must have cut her sleep shorter to be able to get together at 8. There’s another lady, a real tourist from New York, joined. It’s a nice combination. We came from three generations since we are about 17-20 years apart. We didn’t have idea about the lady from New York but she might come from my generation. And four is a good number. We are ‘even’.

The trip reminded me of my childhood when my sport teacher often had walk on rice field as sport of the week. And I… didn’t like! I just didn’t enjoy dirt (who does?). It’s good that as I grow old I don’t mind being dirty. The New York lady fell into the rice field that she got her backpack and camera wet. I was really careful with my steps. Sometimes my Crocs got stuck in the sticky mud but I could manage to disentangle and easily dip the shoes in clean water. The funny thing about the tour is… we could not enjoy the view so much as we had to mind our steps! We had to stop to realize what before our eyes and take pictures. It was fun anyway!

We completed the walk in about two hours with breakfast stop in the beginning when the guide told us about Balinese snack we had and one short stop before went into the main road to reach the car. I was all wet of sweat so my friends. We had quick shower before got our treat – an hour massage to end the tour. It’s a nice combination – torture and treatment. Actually, the real last treat was a simple lunch but nice presentation. It was great!

We had nice coffee and tea at my young friend’s house, I mean her parents’, that was not far from our meeting point. It’s always nice to mingle with not our usual crowd. I often got new insights from such meetings. Like in many occasions…

By the way, my thighs have started to shout this evening. I must have had a real exercise! My friend liked to see me in my outdoor gear. She was almost sure that she could take me to Sikkim to do Himalaya trekking with her in October. Auch! My look is so deceiving. Don't you know that?

The narrow path trekking in Bongkasa today.