Tirta Gangga is a village in the Balinese countryside. We went for a walk through the rice fields, where we saw lots of little Hindu temples set up in the fields. We saw some farmers ploughing fields manually using a plough pulled by cows and we saw some people planting rice in the flooded terraces. We passed one man who was washing his cows in stream - quite strange! And we had a laugh with some farm labourers who were sheltering from the rain and pretending to drink their bottle of arak (local rum).

We were led around by a local guy. He told me how he had been studying law at university some years back but after the Bali bombings tourism dried up and he could no longer find part-time work to fund his education so he had to go home to Tirta Gangga - I found that so sad. He was hoping he would be able to complete his degree soon.

In the afternoon I went to the Water Palace - an unexpected treasure to find in this rural location - stunning landscaped gardens with lots of statues, fountains, pools full of large fish and water lillies and ornate bridges. It was very beautiful and made the stop in Tirta Gangga well worthwhile.

There was one guy working at the Water Palace that I bumped into three times during the day (it's a tiny village) - he was deaf and couldn't talk much but he was very sweet and friendly and we could communicate a little bit. I had my photo taken with him and he was very excited about that!