I grew up in the country, and when I was young I was lucky to be able to work on a small farm. To this day when I smell freshly cut hay it brings back strong – and great – memories. I think as time has moved on my mind has held on to the positives, and let go of the memories of 40+ degrees Celsius in the loft of the barn stacking square bales when I could hardly breathe through the dust. In any event, I always look back at the farm with fondness.

It is really fascinating for me to see other people working in rural areas as we travel the world. One thing I noticed in Southeast Asia is how manual the work is, and how small the farms are.  There are still a lot of small family farms which is nice to see, but they work very hard with limited use of big machinery like we use in Canada. With no disrespect intended, I would say they work over here like we worked 75 or 100 years ago. It’s just not possible for most small farmers to buy tractors and large equipment.

Rice is by far the most commonly farmed crop in this area. Rice fields are everywhere. We were fortunate in Bali to make friends with a taxi driver / tour guide who used to farm rice. He was able to tell us all about the work, the process, the lifestyle, and show us around different farms.  What an awesome learning experience.

We decided to make a video about rice. Check it out if you are interested. We took our drone out to the UNESCO World Heritage rice paddies in northern Bali to get some good footage from above, and we visited some fields around our house in Ubud to show a close-up view.

Hope you enjoy.

Shawn