Slow mornings, rice fields
“Ten slow mornings: rice fields, yoga, and great coffee.”
Ten mornings that all start the same gentle way and never quite fill up. Rice fields at first light, coffee that takes an hour, a temple or a waterfall if you feel like moving, and long green afternoons you leave completely empty. Nothing here is over-planned, on purpose.
Good to know
- Best season
- April to October, the dry months
- Pace
- Slow mornings, empty afternoons
- Where you sleep
- A jungle villa outside town
- Getting around
- Scooter, walking, the odd driver
- Length
- 10 days
- Budget
- €2,600
Sunrise on the terraces
You get up in the dark once, for the Tegallalang terraces at first light, when the rice steps are still wet and the tour crowds are an hour away. Mist sits in the valley, a farmer is already working the top row, and the whole staircase of green turns gold as the sun clears the palms.
Yoga, then a very long coffee
Most mornings are gentler: an hour of yoga, then the Campuhan ridge walk before it gets hot, then a cafe-hop that turns into a two-hour sit with a flat white and a book. Ubud takes its coffee seriously, and by day three so will you.
Holy water, then home
When you feel like moving, it is temples and water. At Tirta Empul you queue with Balinese families to step under the holy spouts; the stone is cool and the whole thing is unexpectedly moving. You are back at the villa, hair still wet, before the afternoon heat really lands.
A waterfall to yourself
On a slow afternoon you follow a jungle path down to Tegenungan and swim in the pool at the bottom while the water comes down in a wall beside you. Go early and it is almost empty. Then it is back up the steps, a coconut at the top, and a long green evening with nothing in it at all.
Make this trip yours
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