Chillax at Canggu

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There are many, many surf spots in Bali, but after visiting Kuta, Seminyak, Nusa Lembongan (technically another island), Medewi and Balian, the only one I that I really still wanted to see before leaving the island was Canggu, just an hour or so further down the West coast from Balian.



Canggu is a cool surf town. It's in my Goldilocks zone of being big enough to have the amenities that I care about (most importantly, fiber optic internet) and a good social scene of western expats, while being small enough to not be too commercial, crowded, or ritzy. Since I've left, I've wondered at times why I didn't just stay there through the end of the surf season (September).



Whereas the expats I met who were living in Balian and Medewi were mostly older, either retirees or with a family, there were many young singles chilling in Canggu, mid- to long-term. The town has great food and hangout options, with cool beach-side joints, local babi guling (suckling pig), and of course nasi-padang fill-your-plate eateries. The biggest plate I managed to construct cost



The biggest plate I managed to construct cost <$3. The travelers and inhabitants had good vibes, and were open to meeting strangers.



Canggu is a bit of a sprawl, and requires a motorbike to get around. The roads aren't crowded though, so this isn't a big issue. On the plus side, there are a bunch of different beaches with surf breaks varying in quality and popularity, so that you can optimize for you skill level and crowd/wave-quality preference. While I was there, the surf wasn't particularly glassy or high-quality, but I think this was somewhat of an aberration, as I heard from my friend that conditions had similarly deteriorated in Balian.



As for lodging, I ended up staying at a cupcake cafe run by a lady from Jakarta who had a bachelor's from the University of Texas Austin. A high quality AC dorm room with fiber optic internet, a 5 min walk from Echo beach => happy Winslow. Longer term options seemed highly favorable. The generic option for mid-long term for foreigners seems to be the “villa.” I got offered to rent a 3-bedroom villa for 70 million Rupiah (about $6000) per YEAR. And that was just the opening offer. I'm sure it could have been bargained down.



I had already booked my flight out of Bali, so I had a mere 4 nights to enjoy Canggu. I had to make a pit stop to Ubud (4^th visit there on my trip!) which looked simple enough on the map, but involved driving through congested Denpasar, where the smog is thick enough to cut with a knife, and the motorbikes stack up 4 to a lane. Not so fun. I paid about $20 to cover the cracked light housing on the bike from my crash, then took a chill final night in “In Da Lodge,” the best hostel in Ubud.



I had a great time in my 6 weeks in Bali, and although I experienced quite a bit, there were still many cool places in the region that I didn't make time to checkout, like the shaking ashram, the chilled-out, motorbikeless, hippy, diving, party island of Gili Trawangan, the surfing off of Kuta (Lombok), and on the Bukit Peninsula at Uluwatu and Padang Padang. There were places like Kuta, Denpasar, and Singaraja that I didn't enjoy very much, but those are easy enough to avoid. Bali has a ton of diverse options, all of which can be experienced on the cheap (even cheaper if you stay long-term). The locals are generally kind and friendly (save Kuta's annoying touts who largely hail from Jakarta). One only hopes that they can reign in their pollution issues, because if not, I'm not sure how much longer Bali will have the reputation as a beautiful beach getaway.

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