Winter 2019 - 21. Rice Field

21.  Rice Field

On our search for a short stay Hotel for the last few days on Bali we wandered around the neighborhood. 

We Did This When We Heard the Room Rates

One of the hotels we inspected was the Goya Boutique Resort about 4 houses deeper into the rice fields. This is not a hotel, it’s a resort. This place was in very close proximity to Uma Sari but the difference in price was tremendous.

Lobby Decoration

We received a ‘tour’ by the manager, we were served fruit snacks and I felt I was being interviewed as to whether we were worthy of staying in this place. Hidden questions or blatant ‘can you afford us’ made me a bit leery.  We were shown a room, we took pictures. 

More Lobby Decoration

Then near the end of the ‘interview’ we received the price quote per night. A normal room, albeit large and beautiful, depending on the location within the resort was quoted as US$ 250 or 350 per night. Not including breakfast. 

Infinity Pool and Cabana Where We Had Fancy Snacks

We were also shown a small walled off ‘house’ with a private pool accessible from the bedroom, bathroom or veranda for the bargain price of US $1300 per night. Again, breakfast, lunches, drinks and dinner were separate charges.

Large Room, Huge Bathroom, Private Balcony

Hmm, a nice place, elegant, very, very friendly but….  I just could not get myself to spend this kind of money on Bali. Do you think I made a mistake? The place is nice!

We agreed to keep on looking.

On the way back to Uma Sari, about 4 houses away from this Boutique Place, where we were at the moment spending US $22 per night incl. breakfast, we passed a rice field.

Workers In the Rice Field Near Uma Sari

I saw people working the rice field and stopped to take some pictures. When do I get a chance to see the harvesting of rice?  I could not talk to the people working in the fields but could see the hard labor they performed cutting, stacking and reaping the rice. The ground within the rice paddy was mud, the temperatures hot to muggy and I felt kind of sorry for those workers. Yet that was the basic work schedule for most people on Bali, before the tourist industry took over. Harvest time occurs 3 times a year…if you were lucky and everything grew well. A lot of labor goes into a rice field, into rice. 

Rice Fields

While we were driving across the island with Agung a few days ago, we saw many rice fields on the side of the roads. I saw people wandering the small path between each paddy. How lucky am I?  How lucky we all are who don’t have to do this intensive, back breaking labor.  I sometimes forget how good life is!  US $1300 for a one night stay at the Goya Boutique Hotel?  Tell that to these rice pickers; see what they will think about your price structure, Goya!