Allez, alley!

The main roads around Ubud are two narrow lanes in width. From there, neighborhoods are accessed by driveway-width paths. And from there, you access most of the houses by these narrow sidewalks, which are just about the right size for two people or three motor scooters loaded with construction materials. And since all the houses have high walls and there are stray dogs everywhere, it’s sometimes a challenge to see all this as charming. I mean, it is charming, but you do have to remind yourself from time to time.

Maybe someday development will progress to the point of a grid system like we’re used to. But for now, it’s all built on top of ex-rice paddies, so the land is terraced and transacted by canals. And there’s no money for infrastructure anyway, so it will probably be alleys and improvisation for a while longer.