Iseh Village, Sidemen: The Rice Valley Painted by Walter Spies and Theo Meier at the Foot of Mount Agung

Iseh is a small customary village within Sinduwati village, Sidemen district, Karangasem — a few kilometres north of central Sidemen on the road to Selat, at about 700 m above sea level. Its terraced rice fields framed by Mount Agung were already on European painters' canvases in the late 1930s, long before Sidemen was nicknamed “Ubud of the past”.

In the Footsteps of Walter Spies & Theo Meier

• 1937: after nine years in Campuhan, Ubud, Walter Spies built a “mountain hut” in Iseh to get away from the stream of visitors. Here he painted Iseh im Morgenlicht (1938).
• Guests kept coming anyway: composer Colin McPhee, anthropologist Jane Belo, novelist Vicki Baum and the Swiss painter Theo Meier.
• Spies was arrested in late December 1938, later interned as a German national, and died when the ship Van Imhoff sank on 19 January 1942.
• Theo Meier (1908–1982), a citizen of neutral Switzerland, stayed on in Bali and made Spies' bamboo house in Iseh his own. A Tropenmuseum photo dated December 1953 shows Rudolf Bonnet and Antonio Blanco talking in his Iseh studio; Meier himself recalled President Sukarno's visits as great events for the village. He moved to Thailand in 1957.

Exploring Iseh Today

• Take a morning walk along village lanes and paddy dykes: terraced fields, salak groves, bamboo stands, and Mount Agung, usually clearest before 9 am.
• Save the painting Iseh im Morgenlicht and the 1952 and 1955 photos of Iseh from the Tropenmuseum collection (available on Wikimedia Commons) on your phone — the landscape is still easy to recognise.
• The site of Spies' house on the ridge remains, but the building has been renovated and is now private property (it has been rented out as Villa Iseh) — not a museum. Enjoy it from the road and don't enter without permission.
• Iseh sits on the Sidemen–Selat road, so it pairs easily with a trip to Pura Pasar Agung on the slopes of Mount Agung.

Etiquette & Tips

• The paddies are the workplace of subak farmers: stay on existing dykes, don't step on crops, and greet the farmers you pass.
• If you pass a temple or a ceremony, wear a sarong and sash and never block a procession.
• Carry cash; some rice-field trails around Sidemen ask for a small donation of about Rp20,000–25,000.
• The Sidemen–Iseh road is narrow, winding and busy with trucks — take care when walking along it.

Practical Info & Booking

• Location: Banjar Iseh, Sinduwati village, Sidemen, Karangasem — View on Google Maps
• Access: about 15 km (25–30 minutes) from Semarapura, about 37 km (around 1 hour) from Ubud, about 44 km (1–1.5 hours) from Sanur; a rented car or scooter is most practical.
• Guides: there is no village ticket or counter; guided treks can be arranged through guesthouses in Sidemen, typically Rp150,000–300,000 per person or per tour.
• Instagram: search on Instagram

Stay a night in the Sidemen valley so you can catch Iseh's morning mist — check AccessiaPass hotel vouchers for the Karangasem area.