Indonesia - Bali

December 2015

Indonesia - Bali: the beach and the town.

On the island of Bali - known as the island of 1000 temples, as there are more temples here per capita than anywhere else - there are only four forenames.   You soon notice that every business is owned by Wayan, Made, Nyoman or Ketut.  

We stayed in an AirBNB property,  Villa Shanti in Canggu, a ten minute walk from the famous Echo Beach.   

 Thank you Martha and the Muffins for introducing me to this lovely place.

The villa, which is in a small surfing community, was clean and tidy and came with the use of a cook, cleaner and driver.   Their services weren't included in the price, of course, but they were at the end of a mobile [provided for your convenience] phone line.

The small town has everything you need.   Pizza, bars, french patisserie, burger joints, vegan juices, back-packs and trendy establishments and lovely Balinese food.  

We didn't use the services of the cook - Nyoman - as we ate out.   

Breakfast is a must at Monsieur Spoon.  

WOW - the range of cakes and bread was amazing!

We ate in a few different places of an evening.   Once, at 5pm, we jumped a taxi to take us to The Plumber's Arms 5kms away....  No one warned us that the traffic at rush hour is so bad that it would take us 75mins to do the journey.  We could have walked it quicker.

We ate traditional fare: Pork chops, with mash; Chili Con Carne; Roast Beef pie; etc etc.   The food was lovely.  After tucking into our starters we soon forgot the horrific journey here.   Incidentally, the journey back to our villa took 15 mins.   My advice: leave at 8pm!

Another evening we at Warung Dandelion.  Our driver, Wayan's, younger brother, is the owner and the food was delicious.  They also have free wifi, (pronounced wifie here) although i'm not too sure what they are advertising:

After 3 days in Canggu we moved onto Ubud.  The cultural capital of Bali...actually, Indonesia!  

The highlight of our visit - apart from the amazing restaurants - was the Greenbike Cycling tour we did.   We started up land near the volcano and cycled down - all down hill - taking in the village life, temples, paddy fields and a coffee plantation.    Mostly I was too busy looking to take pictures... that's what its all about, after all.

Since returning, the negative aspects of the Civet / Lawak coffee has been pointed out to me, and rightly so, has taken the shine off that part of the trip.

tea tasting 

 Our offering to the family temple

Mount Batur - our view for breakfast

Eat, Love Pray... 

Giant passion fruit

 end of the cycle meal

Paddy field view

While in Ubud, we stayed outside town at the Pajar House.  It was small villas with a bedroom and bathroom.  They provided free shuttles into town from 8am-10pm daily.  

The breakfast wasn't up to much but the view from our patio was lovely.

While in Ubud we ate out... lots!

Watercress - tasty food, big prices.  Amazing garlic bread.

Mingle Cafe bar - great pizza, cocktails and atmosphere.

Siam Sally - we ran in to get out of the rain.  Good music and cocktails.

Biah, Biah  - excellent Satay and cheap local food.  Lovely staff.

Confused now, as two places with the same name and similar images on TA.   Here is another link - lovely banana leaf local food.  

Ganesjha Ek Sansriti - amazing Indian food.  Lovely staff.

Cafe Lotus - we didnt eat here but the ladies in our cycle group said they'd had a lovely meal.  Views amazing.

Laughing Buddha - we popped in for a drink, good music.

We will return to Bali as according to Tripadvisor there are about 440 more establishments for us to visit.  

Also, I didn't get a massage nor did we visit Pura Tanah Lot!