Chapter 3: Exploring Canggu

Canggu (pronounced "Ch-aa-n-gu") is a coastal village a little ways away from the busy streets of Seminyak. If you like your sea rough and rowdy, your crowd casual, and your meal options healthy and innovative, Canggu is the place to go.

The brekkie disappointment from Cafe Daun urged us to head out and find some decent food options immediately. In tune with the vibe, we headed out all casual to explore Jl.Pantai Batu Bolong, the main-mid street in Canggu. As we began our walk up the Jl.Nelayan, we realized pedestrian-ism may not be the best way of getting about

places in Canggu. Custom-made bikes and light-weight scooters swished past us on speeds we didn't expect from the laid back streets of Bali.

Jl.Pantai Batu Bolong was everything we were looking for in terms of cuisine. It had a row of eateries all competing to serve the tastiest, healthiest and most affordable food on the block - the Betelnut Cafe, the Crate Cafe, the Bottega Italiana Canggu, the Roti Canai Restaurant, the Poke Poke - to name a few. Sure there were some pricier fine dining options as well, but these easy going ones seemed to be beating them hands down.

We chanced in on the famous Sunday market at Canggu, showcasing local vendors peddling "what you would expect beachy tourists to buy". The wares ranged from bikinis, belis, t-shirts with your regular

chill-out slogans, accessories aaaaand your indispensable beach slippers. After a quick look and some impulse buys, we sat down for our daily quota of Bintang at Love Anchors Bar who host the Sunday market. The interior of the bar was peculiar with a vintage heavy electric saw hanging right above your head beside the bar. Perfect set up one of the cliched deaths in Final Destination. Although we laughed it off, we inconspicuously moved our bar stools away from under the saw with a silly laugh. We just got here, why end the trip that soon!?

After working up an appetite with a quick walk up and down the road, we settled down for lunch at the Betelnut Cafe. The place smelled delicious and was almost fully occupied when we went in. We got a place for two in one of the community tables on the first floor. The menu was complete with a range of, well, everything from smoothies to full lunch sets. The theme being healthy, we kept it on track with young coconut water and apple-ginger-lime juice. Anxious to try some local yum, we ordered local red curry chicken and vegetable yellow curry, both served with red rice. Lunch was nothing but perfect. Our only complaint being there was too much chicken in the chicken curry! To sum it up, let God bless the Betelnut chef for our

first bite of tasty goodness in this trip.

As the skies grew cloudy, we returned to our abode for the evening. As if on cue, it started pouring and effectively canned our beach-side dinner plans. Instead, we decided to source burgers from PitStop and gulp down some homemade cocktails with our duty-free sourced Bacardi white rum. PitStop is a small joint right at the intersection of Jl.Nelayan and Jl.Pantai Batu Bolong with burgers to die for. We tried out the Rosemary Lamb and the Carnivore burgers that night and those will forever remain in our burger hall of fame.

The Sunday ended on a high point as we fit right in with the bright food-loving crowd with wind-beaten hair. Just being us.