Take the Long Way Home

Our stay at Canggu (pronounced CHAN-goo) came to an end and we set off on our way home, but not without some classic stops.  South of Canggu is Seminyak, where we had an epic brunch at Sisterfield, rated one of the best restaurants in Bali but completely unassuming on its corner.  Swanky and hip, the wifi password was “UlookGoodInBikini”- maybe not after eating there! 

My fried eggs had dill in them and between that and the smashed avocado I was in Heaven.  As if that wasn’t enough, we stumbled into MadPops ice cream shop and couldn’t resist their coconut ice cream on a cone.  More Heaven.  Later, we ducked into speakeasy-esque coffee shop, Revolver, hidden down an alley and it was like slipping into another time and continent. 

Seminyak has a hipster vibe to it, remixed with Bali classics like the fish pedicure.  Jay couldn’t resist that one.  We had some fun in the shops, pretty much said “yes” to everything, and had a perfect, casual Thursday afternoon.  Jay handled the crazy traffic like a local, performing a new trick that I call the “foot slap”- slipping between the curb and aggressive traffic, the bike becomes unstable during the weaving and the best way to combat this is to stretch out the leg closest to the curb and slap the flip-flopped foot repeatedly against it as you pray through the madness.  “Foot slap” makes a noise that I will not soon forget, but got us to Kuta for a great ramen dinner (we’ve been craving pho and found a great spot at Kuta Beach Walk) and home safely back to Uluwatu.

First small detour worth mentioning: On our way to Kuta we realized that the 3D Museum was close to us.  (If you’ve never used maps.me, it’s an AMAZING app that downloads maps and then navigates without wifi- we use it to get everywhere, and it’s perfect about 75% of the time.  Nothing a few “foot slaps” can’t handle, and it reveals interesting places like the 3D Museum.)  I know what you may be thinking…this sounds touristy.  Aren’t you the tourists who hate tourists?  Yes. To all claims.  They took our shoes, so barefoot and ticket paid we forged on. And the first few rooms were terribly lame.  The art is incredible, don’t get me wrong, but the poses are mostly ridiculous and the employees there to frame your photos seem about as excited as the Chuck-E-Cheese workers in America (without big furry mouse heads to hide their lack of enthusiasm inside).  However, we decided to go with it and ended up laughing hysterically and loving the goofy, terrible photos.  The optical illusions are pretty spectacular on some of them, and when you watch other tourists lay on the floors to get the shot you pretty much have to up your tourist game.  Done and done.

Another small detour worth mentioning: Before leaving Seminyak, a promoter stopped us.  He was wearing a Karma Beach shirt, which I recognized from beach parties advertised around town.  Jay had just gotten his feet exfoliated by fish, so we must have looked boujee. He handed us sealed promotional cards, which we opened to reveal “prizes”.  Jay won two t-shirts, but I got the golden ticket: a 7 night stay at one of the Karma Beach Villa Properties (Bali, Vietnam, Thailand, Germany, or India), a GoPro, or 2 million rupiah ($150 ish cash).  The only catch was that we had to scratch off the official prize AT the Karma Beach Jimbaran property, after a “short” presentation.

Jay said scam, but I think he was just bitter with his two t shirts.  So he humored me the following morning.  See next blog. 

A hint for how to find Revolver

That is not me getting braids in the background

sunset at kuta beach