Ubud, the cultural heartland of Bali. Away from the teeming crowds around Kuta, alive with arts and crafts galleries, traditional ceremonies and performances. Surrounded by green rice terraces and and tropical gardens. Easy to spot a hen and chicks fossicking at the roadside or a solitary rooster strutting down a busy street, only to disappear into a beautiful Balinese gateway. Offerings of flowers and fruit placed in dainty plaited palm leaf baskets at family shrines, doorways and shop-fronts, to dry and be swept away for more to be placed the following day. Always someone to offer "transport?" or "wares?" Elegant restaurants and cafes or simple warungs, but all delicious and inexpensive. Fruit drinks, spa treatments and invitations to an evening performance with superb costumes and gamelan music against a magical setting sun. We spent the first three days at a private villa, Castello Jasper, on the edge of the town and among the rice paddies. The next three days were spent in a typical Balinese homestay, Ketut's Place, one of many along the road into central Ubud. This consisted of ornate stone rooms each with own terrace and garden, set along a pathway through tropical gardens and with an inviting pool overlooking a steep tropical valley.