Water buffalo and weed eaters

Today, I timed my walk perfectly. I left after one rain, and made it home a minute before the next one. For three days now, I've done the circuit up to the momument marking the Jatiluwih Rice Paddies as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

I can't tell you how long the circuit is. My map doesn't have a scale, and everyone walks slower in the tropical heat. On top of that, there are a few steep hills. Today, I didn't rest at the momument and it took me one hour and 50 minutes.

It's a pretty amazing route. I leave the village by going down the steep hill that had that cursed loose gravel (see Winter, no, fall), cross the bridge and go right. Up an almost as steep hill, past the temple and into the fields.

Yesterday, someone was repairing a lower wall. They’d scoop out some muck with a hoe that has a blade that's 10 inches wide, and pile the sludge on the spot that needs repair. Then they'd tap it down and shape it with bare feet. When satisfied, they'd repeat the scoop and tap routine until the wall was the desired height.

For the past few days, the hills have been alive with the soft drone of weed eaters. These are used on the tops of paddy walls, and along the exposed side of the tall wall.

There has also been the gurgle and chug of gas fired ploughs, turning the mud and preparing a bed for the next crop. Dotted throughout the fields are cow sheds, with one or two complacent animals chewing as the watch the world go by.

Today, after seeing a motorbike pass me, where the passenger had a gas-powered weed eater in one hand and a sickle in the other, I was even more surprised to see a farmer ploughing his field with a water buffalo. It's the only one I've seen in this area.

So my views of old and new are complete. Tourists with selfie sticks by the monument and farmers with water buffalo in the fields. All on a January afternoon in 2017.