After a few days of complete over indulgence at Ayana we decided to venture outside the walls of the resort and hopped in a cab to Canggu.
After about 35 minutes of winding around tight corners and dodging scooters loaded down with everything from entire Balinese families to gardening tools and construction gear we arrived at our destination, Milk and Madu.
Set amongst the slightly chaotic streets of Canggu lies a large platform set back in what feels like could be somebody’s backyard or garden that houses a cafe called Milk and Madu.
I was told that Milk and Madu had killer breakfast, and it didn’t disappoint. Fresh fruit, amazing juices and smoothies plus the most incredible breakfast bowls and croissant sandwiches is a recipe for success in my mind. It’s a serious must if you ever find yourself in this corner of the world!
It’s a really cool environment, primarily full of Australians and Americans who are working on their laptops, reading, writing or just hanging out together. It was a cool peek into what life could be like living here in Bali for longer than 3 weeks.
After breakfast we decided to explore the area a little bit more by scooter. We went to Echo Beach before it started raining then headed to do a little bit of shopping and find some lunch. Canggu is different than the other towns in Bali that I’ve been to. It has an extremely heavy western influence and most of the people you see and interact with are there on extended holiday or living there and surfing. Definitely something I could get on board with…
When we rented our scooter we asked the man at the rental company if it was possible to have 3 of us on one scooter, he assured us, multiple times that it would be fine. And since we had seen everything from entire families of 4 to someone driving with a 10′ ladder on the backs of their scooters we assumed he would be right. Well the Balinese police didn’t seem to agree with that logic when they pulled us over and wrote us a very steep ticket. PSA: In Bali they take your license to the courthouse and you can’t get it back until you pay the ticket. But since a lot of times non-locals are pulled over for being exactly that a $20 bill can ease the tension and get your license back in your hands!
It was a little stressful in the moment but ended up being something we laughed about over the course of the day.
We finished the day by stopping by the Old Man’s Surf Spot, I couldn’t resist heading to the beach to take some pictures for my dad (sorry Dad). It was seriously so cool! I wish I could have spent more time hanging out in the area.
When I come back to Bali (hopefully in the nearish future) I will definitely plan to spend more time in Canggu and Umalas, it’s such a fun spot and I could definitely see myself spending a few months weeks here and really becoming part of the community. I wish we could have spent more than a day there, but we had a boat to catch to the Gili Islands!
