Ubud is a peaceful place and the hotel in the middle of the rice paddies very quiet. So it was a surprise when a gaggle of the staff where banging big sticks all of a sudden by the pool and laughing loudly. I went to investigate and realised they were trying to catch a rather large snake...... Luckily they did.
Nothing to worry about they tell me, it is a rice paddy snake, it’s not very poisonous. When they catch them they just put them back in the paddies as they keep the balance of nature.... Now if it was a tree snake they tell me, they are a different story – very poisonous so when they are caught they are either killed or taken a long way away. I think that was meant to reassure me, so as you can imagine I am now on permanent snake watch!
But apart from that I am relaxing in the small town. Being the cultural centre there are loads of galleries, I have visited quite a few but so far I haven’t been taken over by an artistic urge to paint. But I have been tempted to make over my garden in the Bali style – lots of green, pebbles, little paths, temples. I even have a little temple in my little garden here. Am often found sitting outside reading at about 9pm after dinner and listening to the sound of the water trickling through the irrigation channels and along comes a man bearing a tray of offerings. He pops one in my little temple, using a flower to drop water on it, and then stands in front for a minute or so offering a little prayer as the fragrant incense fills the air. Then off he goes on his rounds to do the same at all the other little temples around and about. But the offerings are obviously not placating the rain gods. Every day so far the clear sunny morning is followed by heavy rain and thunder for most of the afternoon and into the evening. The rainy season is apparently going on longer than it should and is a bit of a problem – the rice is lovely and green, but now it’s dry weather that is needed so it can ripen in time for the harvest. And from my terrace I can see first hand what a labour intensive crop rice is. Whilst I sit under cover cowering from the flashes of lightning and in fear of rice paddy snakes, they are all out there in the open up to their knees in the mud carrying on weeding, spraying and whatever else it takes. I realise I would not make a good rice farmer.....
