OBAMAS VISIT BALINESE PADDY FIELDS DURING VACATION

OBAMAS VISIT BALINESE PADDY FIELDS DURING VACATION



The Obamas have been spotted taking a trip to the picturesque Balinese rice fields during their luxury vacation to Indonesia.

Barack and Michelle Obama, along with their two daughters, flew into the popular tourist destination on Friday evening before heading straight for the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, Ubud, where villas cost upwards of $2,500 a night.

Today, the family too a walk through the lush, green Jatiluwih rice terrace, one of UNESCO World Heritages. They looked relaxed as Barack donned a blue polo shirt and Michelle kept it casual in a baseball cap and vest, with her jacket tied round her waist. The couple's youngest daughter Sasha, 16, joined them in a bright yellow baseball cap, and white vest.

Malia, who reportedly joined the family for their vacation and flew in with them on a private jet, was nowhere to be seen.



Barack, who lived in Indonesia in the 1960s, is later scheduled to travel to the island of Java to speak at the 4th Indonesian Diaspora Congress in Jakarta, where he spent his childhood after his mother Ann Dunham married second husband Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian man.

On Thursday, Barack Obama was spotted in Hawaii, where his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, lives with her husband and two kids. She accompanied the Obamas on their trip to Bali on Friday.

The family arrived at a military airport via Guam on Friday evening, with Ngurah Rai Military Air Base commander Col. I Wayan Superman enforcing security measures along with scores of soldiers and police officers.

Prior to their landing, the commander told the Jakarta Post the Obamas' private jet would have priority, although they would try to minimize any disruptions to the other flights.



Barack and Michelle are also joined by Malia, who is on her gap year before she starts college at Harvard in the fall, and Sasha, who recently celebrated her 16th birthday and wrapped up the school year at Sidwell Friends.

Both Barack and Michelle kept it casual in jeans as they were greeted on the tarmac by Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika before the family's motorcade headed towards Ubud.

The Obamas then traveled to the Four Seasons, where freestanding villas come with a private pool and a spacious sun terrace overlooking the lush rice fields surrounding the Ayung River.

From anti-gravity yoga classes to rafting on the river, the Obamas will have plenty to do for five days before the former president heads to the island of Java.

He's scheduled to visit Yogyakarta, a city known for its cultural heritage where Obama's mother did anthropological research.

He will then head to the capital of Jakartaa keynote speech at the Indonesian Diaspora Congress, which starts July 1.

'We don't know what the theme will be of Obama's keynote speech, but we have proposed two main themes to him: globalization and pluralism,' Chairman Dino Patti Djalal told reporters earlier this month.

Obama was born in Honolulu to a white American mother and a Kenyan father after they met as students at the University of Hawaii.



But his parents divorced, and his mother went on to marry Lolo Soetoro, with whom she had Maya. They eventually moved to Indonesia for a few years in the late 1960s before Barack returned to Hawaii.

Many Indonesians felt a strong bond with Obama because of his exposure to Indonesia and its culture, even making him a two-metre (six-foot) bronze statue that was placed in his former school.

The statue of 'Little Barry' -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school friends -- depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said Obama's visit to holiday in Indonesia came after several invitations from President Joko Widodo.

Since leaving office, Barack, Michelle and Sasha have settled in a 8,200-square-foot mansion in Washington DC while their younger daughter finishes high school.

The former first couple have been enjoying themselves after eight years, jetting off to Richard Branson's private Necker Island before vacationing in Italy.

They've both scored lucrative book deals, and unveiled plans to construct the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park to train and encourage the next generation of leaders.