Rice dry?

that seems like a good idea but the whole mold thing sounds too risky try a slab of hardwood I.e ironwood
any kind of wood that doesn't have a smell or any kind of sap
cherrywood works well too if you flip them every 12 hours your buds should be ready to smoke in 3 days
wooden chests work to.
Make sure it's single layered though or else you'll sweat the buds and you might get mold

I'd probably grab the hair dryer and do some experimenting before I tried packing buds in with rice... I guess it really depends on how humid it is there though. I store my seeds mixed with rice to make sure they stay nice and dry, but that's a bit diff than buds imo.