07/04/2023 Canggu
Canggu
Back in time
In 2019 Blake and I had already stayed at Pondok Canggu Homestay. It’s a small hotel in a perfect location away from the hectic big city life and surrounded by rice fields. We were really hoping that the rice fields wouldn’t have been destroyed and replaced by other big hotel chains instead.
Almost the same
Luckily, apart from one more hotel on its right side, it looked exactly the same. Moreover, all the rice fields were still there.
Unfortunately, the bathroom got a bit rusty and the shower wouldn’t turn hot. But who’s complaining for 15€ p.p. per night and when it’s 30°C outside?!
A very happy reunion
It was so great seeing Blake again after the yoga retreat! Being separated for a few days (technically only one full day) just feels weird after we had spent the past 270 days together non-stop. I’m pretty impressed we haven’t killed each other yet, now that I think about all this time together 😉.
Have dinner in a warung
A warung is a type of small family-owned business — a small retail, eatery or café — in Indonesia […] A warung is an essential part of daily life in Indonesia. In the passage of time, the term warung has slightly shifted — especially among foreign visitors […]— to refer more specifically to a modest Indonesian eatery […] But for the majority of Indonesians, the meaning is still a small, neighborhood convenience shop, often a front room in a family’s home.”
wikipedia.org
We went to the “Warung Bu Mi”. This one had a buffet style where you can pick and choose from a lot of different options (including different meats and tofu options). Each dish costs between 30 and 60 cents. So my entire big plate of Indonesian food only cost less than 2€!
Sunset at “our spot”
Even though Canggu’s beaches are not the most beautiful ones (especially not after the ones we saw in Western Australia), its sunsets are pretty spectacular!
So in the evening we walked to the beach and together with our bintang beer and fresh coconut we sat down on two bean bags and celebrated sunset and being back together in Canggu.
Go (window) shopping
Canggu is known for all its trendy clothes shops. After sunset we had a look at different shops and tried on different clothes. Blake even bought a new shirt, which I think is the first clothing item he has bought on this trip in the past nine months.
Go clubbing
Afterwards Blake’s friend Joel, who Blake had spent the last few days with, while I was at the yoga retreat, and Blake and I went to a bar called “Bland Sand Brewery”. Although everything is really cheap in Bali (and cheaper than in Central America and South America), alcohol pricing is quite high.
Since we are not used to late nights anymore after our early nights in the camper van in Western Australia, we made it till 11 pm until we called it a night.
08/04/2023 Canggu
Canggu – a food heaven
I was really excited for breakfast (I usually am, but this time even more) as we were going back to our favourite breakfast spot: Crate Café. All their food is mouth watering, healthy, fresh, beautifully prepared and so cheap!
If there weren’t that many other amazing cafés to choose from, we would come here every morning (which we actually did back in 2019).
Pool and beach time
Still recovering mentally from the yoga retreat and maybe from the night out last night, we had a relaxing day by the pool.
And before we knew it, our coconut and bintang beer were calling us for sunset at the beach!
Try an ear candle
After another beautiful sunset, I went to one of the many massage places, but not for a Balinese massage this time. I got an ear candle instead, which apparently has a lot of benefits, such as:
- Improved sense of smell
- Improved sense of taste
- Relief of dizziness
- Clearer thinking
- Improved lymphatic fluid flow
I have no idea if I felt all these improvements right after getting the ear candle, but the energy ball I ate afterwards from “Motion Café” certainly tasted amazing!
09/04/2023 From Canggu to Ubud
Another delicious breakfast at Crate Café
We went back to Crate Café for another tasty smoothie bowl, before renting a scooter for the next few days.
Rent a scooter
We absolutely love renting scooters on a tropical island and go off exploring in our own speed. Today we were on the way to Ubud again for a day trip.
Ubud
The scooter ride to Ubud took about 50 minutes, which is considered a long drive for Bali-standards (back in Western Australia we drove that distance only to catch up with friends in the evening).
On the drive we saw old temples, green rice fields, people carrying food on their heads and other scooters with way too many locals on them.
Walk the Juwuk Manis Rice Fields Walk
In Ubud we took a side street near the palace in order to walk the Juwuk Manis Rice Fields Walk. It felt great getting out of the crazy chaos of Ubud and Canggu which were both full of scooters, taxis, people and shops.
The walk was beautiful and ended at the “Sweet Orange Warung”, which was right in the rice fields.
Donate a concrete slab for the Juwuk Manis Memory Lane
The path near Sweet Orange Warung is being upgrated by using concrete slabs, which are easier to walk on (and ride scooters on). It is called the “Juwuk Manis Memory Lane”. Individuals and businesses can donate towards the path to receive a personal stone.
We donated as well in order to get a concrete slab on the ground with our names on it. Once complete, this will help the locals to walk along, as some spots can get a little muddy when it rains. Unfortunately, they misspelled my name as you can see in the photo. Oh well, we did a good deed after all…
Walk over the Ubud Street Market
Next we walked over the “Ubud Street Market” in a side street, which offered a lot of different souvenirs and clothes.
Visit the Saraswati Temple
Afterwards we visited the Saraswati Temple, which looked impressive.
This beautiful temple is dedicated to Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge, music, art, wisdom and learning and was built in 1951.”
bali.com
See the Ubud Palace
Just down the road from the temple, we visited the Ubud Palace, which was very majestic.
Puri Saren Agung is the palace of the Ubud royal family, making it one of the most prominent landmarks in Ubud. It serves as a cultural repository of arts, dance and literature. The palace’s stage and meeting halls host international events, including the opening ceremonies of the annual Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.”
hotels.com
Relax in the infinity pool at Cretya Ubud
And then we drove to Cretya, which looked outstanding!
Cretya Ubud is a day club with an infinity pool overlooking the rice fields. There is even a DJ playing music on a separate pedestal. We had both never seen anything like that before. However, no one seemed to fully enjoy the scene as everyone was too busy taking selfies of themselves. We have to admit: Of course we took photos, too. But at least the relaxing time overweighed the time taking pictures 😉.
Get snacks from Bali Buda
Before driving back to Canggu, we stopped at Bali Buda, which is a health store chain with so many tasty and guilt-free goodies! Is it still a “healthy snack” when you have four of them at once? Asking for a friend…
Canggu
A very tasty dinner
Back in Canggu we went to the restaurant “Superfood Health Bar”. Here we enjoyed a tuna steak and a salmon filet and klinked our fresh juices to another amazing day in Bali.
10-12/04/2023 Canggu
Relax at a day club
The next three days looked pretty similar with little variations in our cafés and restaurants:
- Breakfast at one of the many amazing healthy café, eg. Superfood Health Bar, The Shady Shack or Cocomo Canggu
- Relaxing at our pool or at a beach club, eg. Finns Beach Club, Atlas Beach Fest or at Potato Head. (Atlas Beach Fest is just bulky and big, but still looks impressive. However, it wasn’t really our vibe.)
- A one-hour-massage
- Sunset at the beach
- A walk along the beach
- Dinner at a local warung
Go for some Balinese food tasting
However, on the last day we altered our routine a bit during dinner. We still went out for dinner at a warung. But this time we did a Balinese food tasting, which was really delicious and a lot of fun. Furtermore, it was such a good deal for only 15€ each (incl. water, fresh coconuts and dessert). After that we rolled (happily) into bed.
13/04/2023 From Canggu to Ubud
A rainy drive
Today we woke up to rain unfortunately. We still wanted to do another day trip to Ubud since we were going to meet a Balinese mate of Blake’s in Ubud who Blake had met on his travels in 2013.
Ubud
Interesting stories from a local
We met up with Blake’s friend at the café “Soul bites”, after getting completely soaked on the scooter ride to Ubud. It was really interesting hearing his stories about the Balinese culture and how Balinese people believe in good and bad spirits as well in karma and recarnation.
Visit the Monkey Forest
Afterwards we did a very touristy thing. I’m not even embarrassed to admit how excited I was to see all the wild monkeys in the “Monkey Forest” in the centre of Ubud – together with hundreds of other tourists.
I loved seeing all the monkeys running around freely and interacting with each other or just keeping their babies dry from the rain underneath the roof of a temple.
Monkey attack
After my seal attack in the Galapagos Islands a few months ago, I am trying to be a bit more cautious when it comes to wild animals. Nevertheless, I was so amazed by these human-looking monkeys! This is why all I wanted to do was pet them (and ideally take one home with us). Maybe the monkeys could sense my love for them, because suddenly one of the monkeys ran up to me and jumped on my head.
I know it was trying to nibble on the hoodie of my raincoat since I could feel irs teeth and fingernails on my skull through the fabric. But in my mind it was a friendly “hello German girl, I like you too” kinda scratch. So I was happy!
Canggu
Have dinner at Clear Café
Once we were back in Canggu we went to our favorite dinner spot, that we had already visited in Ubud on our first night in Bali: Clear Café. Both restaurants in Canggu as well as in Ubud look unique. What makes this café in Canggu so special is that it has a slide and a sliding pole that go from the second level to the ground level.
You know you’re not totally grown up yet when you get excited about using the sliding pole and the slide to go downstairs instead of using the stairs.
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