The Tegallalang Rice Terraces are a network of small rice paddies that are meticulously carved into the hillsides creating a stunning landscape.
The Tegallalang Rice Terraces are located in the small town of Tegallalang about 25 minutes away from Ubud, Indonesia on the island of Bali. The rice terraces are famous for their beautiful scenes of rice paddies cascading down the slopes of the valley with palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze. While the beautiful scenery is captivating these ancient rice terraces also allow visitors a historical glimpse into rural Bali that still exists.
Entrance trail to the terraces
A short trail leads to the entrance of the rice terraces. The trail passes through tropical plants and flowers with the trail ending at an “I love Bali” sign as the terraces come into view. Walking along the trail is a nice prelude to seeing the terraces and helps to build a little anticipation before the seeing the terraces.
Terraces over the valley
The Tegallalang rice terraces covers the slopes before you and spreads across to the far side of the valley. When looking down the valley they go on as far as the eye can see. It is truly a mesmerizing panorama of lush green rice paddies covering the entire valley.
Paddies contoured to the landscape
Part of the beauty of the rice terraces is that they are all different shapes and sizes because the paddies are contoured to the shape of the landscape.
Small rice paddies
The valley is an expansive scene of large rice terraces but there are places where it is not possible to have large paddies. In these areas, small and even tiny rice paddies are created. No space is wasted!
Irrigation system
The Tegallalang Rice Terraces are irrigated by a centuries old traditional Balinese system call “Subak”. The Subak system distributes water from a spring, river or lake equally to all rice fields through a network of canals and weirs. Any water not used flows back to the main water source.
Local farmers
Several places along the valley, I noticed the houses of the local farmer tucked into the trees at the top of the valley. In another place it looks like a temple is also recessed into the trees at the top of the valley. This is not surprising because there are lots of temples in Bali. A couple of these are shown in the photos below.
Creative and natural photo locations
The local residence have taken advantage of the rice terraces popularity and have made creative props to be used for unique photography. There are several of these styles of props scattered around the terraces but we chose to only use the two shown below and spend more time exploring the terraces.
Even without the photo props, the terraces themselves offer many locations for taking unique photos. I prefer taking photos in the beauty of nature but it is hard to pass up taking a few photos using the unique props with the terraces in the background.
The Dust on My Shoes
Visiting the Tegallalang Rice Terraces gave me the feeling of seeing an ancient site because the terraces were created by people that lived hundreds of years ago but the terraces are still functioning very similar to how they did when they were created. To some extent it gave me the feeling of seeing a living historical site.
The Tegallalang Rice Terraces are an alluring sight to see. The layered terraces conform to the natural contour of the landscape creating a stunning pattern on the side of the valley. These layers of lush green rice paddies are etched into the entire valley producing a scenic wonder that has to be seen to believe.
I am a big fan of spending time in nature and that normally means being in places that are mostly untouched by humans however the Tegallalang Rice Terraces still made me feel like I was in nature even though the complete valley had been transformed by humans.
The Tegallalang Rice Terraces is a place where nature and culture have been joined together to make a truly unique experience.
Places like the Tegallalang Rice Terraces are famous for having places to take stunning Instagram photos. Some tourists come just for the photo ops and then quickly leave. Make sure to spend enough time at these special place to actually appreciate their history, culture and beauty.
Related Posts
