What makes the rice fields of Bali famous?

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I’ve seen a postcard in a shop today, it was written there “The famous Balinese rice fields”. Have you ever seen rice fields? I have. In Nepal, Thailand, on other islands of Indonesia. There are also rice fields in China – huge in territory. What is it so special about rice fields of Bali that makes them famous?

I’ll tell you. Just these writings on postcards and tourist brochures. The Balinese rice fields are beautiful – but you must understand that they are really same as anywhere in Asia.

You may not believe it but such words as “famous, world-known, etc” have a great hypnotic influence on our mind. In fact you can take anything, say that it is world-famous, print booklets about it – and you’ll have a tourist site out of nothing.

One of my friends was travelling in Taiwan. She told me that she was so lucky to be there in the famous cherry blossom season =) Then it turned out that there are even no cherry gardens in Taiwan, only separate cherry trees here and there. She could see the same thing every spring home in Europe. But because some local guide said this season was famous she started to believe that it really is!

I’ve experienced this effect myself when I was in Japan. I started to take photos of rather a pathetic cherry tree because I was thinking it was the famous Japanese sakura. Only when my friend asked me what I was doing I understood that I’ve fallen under the same charms of the word “famous”.

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Comments

[Balitravelllife]

Must see, Must do's...
Very insightfull post! You are right, people are triggered to go and see something especially if many guide books rave about it. I have mainly traveled in Indonesia, so I haven't had the chance to see the ricefields in Thailand, Philippines etc. But somehow Bali's ricefield is an amazing sight maybe because of the whole picture around it which is mainly created by the Balinese people who for instance pray to the rice goddess every day and place offerings for a good harvest, the nearby temples where the villagers conduct colorful religious ceremonies and there are many places where you can walk through the ricefields. Unfortunately the tourism has had a negative impact on this famous landscape as hotels and resorts are building on this land. Hopefully the Balinese government will soon realize that rice might be more important than the income for tourism and will stimulate and support farmers more in the near future...

[yuka]

> Hopefully the Balinese government will soon realize that rice might be more important than the income for tourism I think there is no such problem really ) If rice fields are one of the tourist sites - the more tourists will come to see them, the more the local government will be interested in preserving these landscapes - it will benefit for both tourists and farmers.