ubud by motorbike

so this afternoon after much prodding by Finn and Harmon to take a ride on the scooter we are now renting, I got some somewhat helpful directions from the kid who lives at the house with us and off we went.  This was a whole new experience for me, and one that I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with, though the boys didn't seem to mind at all.
First of all, riding a scooter around the streets of Bali is not much like riding a motorcycle in most places.  There seem to be very few rules governing motor vehicle traffic.  There are no stop lights here in the village and surrounding areas, and the lines in the road seem to be no more than a suggestion.  I don't know what the speed limit is, if there is one, but I do know that you are not allowed to own or ride a scooter  or motorbike with a motor larger than 250cc's.  Whatever other rules there may be seem to pretty much go out the window when it comes to scooters and small bikes.  Intersections are particularly interesting with bikes more or less turning at will and driving wherever an opening appears.  There is no such thing as right of way.  The one good piece of advice I was given was that if you can get into a pack of bikes you are generally safer.  You need to watch out for other bikes passing though as there are those that are not so cautious and will zip right past and then out into the middle of traffic to pass the cars or trucks ahead of the pack.
It is not unheard of to drive slower though and I'm still not sure what the etiquette is for passing.  Honking is by no means considered rude, it is simply a way of letting someone else know that you are coming up on them or approaching a blind turn or coming near a person walking or maybe you're just saying hello to someone you know on the street.
Then there are the roads.  The roads are generally just wide enough for two cars or trucks to pass each other without one going completely into the ditch or shoulder.  The shoulder is sometimes just wide enough for a bike to pull over onto, though trucks or small buses or cars are often parked there.  There may be large potholes to contend with as well as any other number of heavily laden trucks, scooters, dogs wandering around and of course the occasional person walking near the side of the road balancing a fully loaded basket on top of their head.
Once you have learned to navigate all of this you are ready to ride with two or three small children and sometimes a spouse.  For an added challenge you can navigate through the monkey forrest: a narrow winding paved trail that is sometimes wide enough for two scooters to pass complete with blind uphill or downhill turns and of course, the occasional monkey in the road.
By the end of all this, I was diving like a pro of course, thinking 3.5 million Balinese can't be wrong can they?  The amazing thing is that despite all of this, I've yet to witness an accident (though I've been assured that they occur) and the Balinese are for the most part completely good-natured and calm about the whole process.  I haven't sensed much road-rage.  These are over all a pretty calm and peaceful people.