Day 76 – Going to Canggu (18/10/2015)
“The best hair cut of my life was the cheapest hair cut of my life.” – Caleb’s wise words of the day
We had to get up kind of early today because the shuttle to Canggu was going to pick us up at 9 am. We had a quick breakfast and went off to the next destination. It took about 2.5 hours and there was no air-condition, it was not very comfortable. Because it was a shuttle bus we didn’t get dropped off at the hotel, we just got dropped off somewhere. Because our SIM card expired yesterday we didn’t know how to get to the hotel, so we took a taxi. That cheater didn’t tell us that we could have just walked, the ride took five minutes or not even. I was pretty upset. Our new home is called Saren Guesthouse and our room is really nice. We only pay IDR 250’000, which is a great price for this room.
We got a scooter and went to Pizza Boy for lunch. I wouldn’t recommend that place. My pumpkin soup didn’t taste like pumpkin, my pineapple juice was pretty much just water, the bruschetta I ordered was a hot pizza with tomatoes, which is not what bruschetta is…disappointing lunch.
We went back to the room and took about a two hour nap. We’re so tired every day, it’s ridiculous. We don’t really have any plans for Canggu, we’re honestly just kind of waiting for the 27th to fly to Thailand. That’s why we spent the whole afternoon in our room, which is totally fine with us at this point in time.
Caleb wanted to get a hair cut for a while and he also almost got one in Amed but because the guy there didn’t speak one word of English he was too scared and left without a hair cut. Now he found a place online called D’Banjar Barbershop. For once Google maps didn’t let us down and we found it very easily. The barber didn’t speak much English either but there were a lot of pictures of different celebrities on the wall, so Caleb just chose a picture and that was what he got. I was a bit scared that he will get a funky Asian hair cut but he actually got an awesome hair cut. He’s lookin’ fly.
Next place to find was Frestive Supermarket. We wanted to find some wine and we did. I told myself to not get wine in Indonesia anymore because so far I didn’t like any of them but today we got Plaga Red. Maybe I’ll like that one. That supermarket is very nice. They have a counter with fresh meat, they have cheese, they have Lindt chocolate, bread from a “German” bakery and they have Kägi Fret! We didn’t buy any of those things but even just seeing it makes you feel like home a bit. 🙂
On the way back we went to Pondok Lupita for dinner. We saw it on the way to the barber shop. It’s a really cool place. There are about six food stands around a circle of tables, it’s all kind of outside under umbrellas and it’s very nice made. The food was good and the prices are unbelievably cheap. Only one thing is not to recommend and that’s the milkshakes. First of all they put shredded cheese on top of it. Yes seriously, shredded cheese. When we saw it Caleb though it was coconut and I thought it was white chocolate but it was shredded cheese. On a milkshake! That was just super weird. Unfortunately that wasn’t the only problem about the milkshake though, it just didn’t taste good. Our guess is that they use a kind of syrup for the different flavors and mix it with water. At least that’s how it tasted.
Back in the room I was pretty excited about having a TV and I was even more excited when we saw that a movie just started. Fatherhood with Patrick Swayze.
Day 77 – Be Chocolat by Michel Clement (19/10/2015)
“The Swiss make chocolate better than the Balinese.” – Caleb’s wise words of the day
I like the place we’re staying at, the room is really nice but breakfast was not that great. My tea tasted like sea water, which was disgusting but because our plan for today was to go to “Be Chocolat by Michel Clement”, a kind of chocolate factory, I knew that I’ll get over it. 🙂 So we took our scooter and went to the place of happiness. When we got there it was quite disappointing. It was only a tiny little room, you couldn’t sample much and the prices were really high. However, it was interesting to watch them making pralines and stuff. Even if the prices were kind of scary because they were per 100 g, we decided to get some different pralines (6 pieces). We also got a big slab of chocolate each and an espresso for Caleb, which included a little cake. All that cost IDR 140’000, that’s more than a dinner would cost for the two of us. The chocolate was good though and in our situation (being in Asia for 76 days) something really special.
Next goal was to find a nice place for lunch and to just explore the area. What we’ve seen so far, it’s nice. We ate at Pit Stop, where Caleb had a delicious sub and I had an amazing burger.
Then we went to the beach. We don’t know if it was Canggu beach but we think so. It wasn’t very spectacular, very wavy and we didn’t have anything to lay on, so we went back and we were already done with our program. For the rest of the day we just enjoyed the air-condition, TV and Wifi in our room.
For dinner we went to the Nr. 6 restaurant in Canggu on TripAdvisor, called La Mexicana. It was only about five minutes away from our hotel. When we saw the menu we were quite shocked though. There was no meal under IDR 74’000, normally that’s the price of two meals. As you can probably imagine because of the name, it is a Mexican place and seeing all the pictures of Fajitas, Burritos, Quesadillas…we couldn’t resist. We didn’t have a very expensive day either, so it was okay. The money was worth it. The portions were really big and really good.
Back at the hotel we took our wine and sat in the garden. Caleb made wine glasses out of plastic bottles (see picture), which of course made the whole wine experience even better. Actually Plaga Red is really not a bad wine, best one so far.
I don’t know what happened or how it happened but suddenly we don’t feel that great about going home anymore. So far I was always pretty excited about going back home in January but suddenly it doesn’t sound that exciting anymore. I think it took me that long to get used to the travelling life and now I’m not sure anymore how easy it will be to go back to Switzerland to our “normal”, pretty boring life. It’s actually scary to think about it. Of course I can’t wait to see my family and friends again but we’re going back to no job (at least for me), no car, no apartment…it’s scary. But then there is that part in me that can’t wait to have kids, find a good job, maybe do another education, maybe buy a house one day…but that would mean the end of our travelling days and there are so many more countries to see, so many adventures we would miss out on. We’re torn in between having kids and living a life how we’re living it now. How can you decide against any of it? Being an adult is not easy.
Day 78 – Yeh Leh Beach (20/10/2015
“When riding for a long time, ensure that you have a comfortable seat.” – Caleb’s wise words of the day
After a very stingy breakfast at our place it was time for a long ride. Caleb found an article online called “11 hidden beach paradise that Balinese would never tell you” and one of the beaches is Yeh Leh Beach, in the north west of Bali. Seeing the sunset at that beach was our goal for today. We were a bit scared of driving for so long but despite the fact that our butts were killing us, it was not really a problem. We had lunch somewhere along the way and got there after about a two hour ride.
Yeh Leh Beach is nice. It’s a special beach because there are a lot of rocks in the water, which looks amazing. We were there for 3.5 hours and we didn’t see any white people, it really is a hidden paradise. Our calculation was not that great so we had to wait a while for the sunset. We were just sitting at a table, talking for hours and right before the sun started to go down, Caleb set up his camera. It was an amazing sunset and worth the trip. The only bad thing about it was, that we had to drive back home in the dark. Honestly every time we get on a scooter I feel like “maybe we’ll make it, maybe we won’t” and driving at night makes the “maybe we won’t”-chance just a little bit higher. But we made it!
By the time we got home we were starving, so we went straight for dinner. We had great burgers (Yeah I know were not doing too well with the food lately) and after that we went to bed.
Day 79 – Mal Bali Galeria (21/10/2015)
“Steer clear of the police if you don’t have a license.” – Caleb’s wise words of the day
How can it be that hard to make good breakfast?! Whatever, today it was shopping time. We’re travelling for 79 days now and minus maybe five days (wearing long pants) I’m wearing the same pair of shorts every single day. I can’t look at myself anymore. I had to get new shorts. The shopping malls are all in Kuta and we weren’t that keen on driving into the madness of Kuta but we decided to do it. Even if I found shorts, which is a miracle, I don’t know if it was worth the trip. Why’s that? Because the police stopped us. Yeah maybe it had to happen one day but it hurt. Because we don’t have an international driver’s license we are technically not allowed to drive here. The deal was: we either pay them IDR 500’000 or we have to go to the police station in Denpasar and pay much more. Obviously we paid the 500’000. We became victims of corruption. For everyone who doesn’t understand this system…those 500’000 went into the police officer’s pockets. Converted it’s only CHF 35 but here it is half of our day budget.
We did get to the mall (Mal Bali Galeria) at one point and that was the next disappointment. There were almost no clothes stores and it was in general not that great of a mall. But as I already mentioned, I found what I was looking for and you can’t believe how excited I am about it. They’re jeans, which makes it even better. I haven’t worn jeans in three months. At home I wear nothing else than jeans. I feel good about myself right now. 🙂
Some days ago Caleb found out that Leila, one of his best friends from back in the days, is in Bali, which is an amazing coincidence. They hadn’t seen each other for years and today we managed to see each other in Canggu. We went for dinner together and had a great time. We decided to travel together for the rest of our time in Bali. Because she hadn’t seen Ubud yet and because Caleb and I loved it and we don’t really have any plans anymore, we’re going back there tomorrow.
The Travelling Smiths 