we left the beach in Kuta a few days ago to go up to Ubud, an artsy town in Bali where we managed to pick up some great artwork for our home (whenever we get us one of those). It was a great place, but the combination of the terrorist bombing in November and the fact that this is traditionally low-season means that we are offered rides incessently by anybody with either a car, minibus, or scooter. As a little experiment, we decided to see how many rides we were offered in the short walk between our hotel and whereMo was baking her cookies (check her upcoming entry for info on that). I had my backpack on (as we were heading to the bus station after the baking) so we were a prime target. .....In the 14 minute walk we were offered transport 24 times by everyone from hotel staff to guys playing checkers on the sidewalk to my personal favorite: a guy in a minivan who offered us a ride once, then again only 100 feet later after he let off his other passengers (we only counted him once)...good times :-)