Get in my Belly!

Day 31-  After a rewind of our journey to Maratua, we finally arrived in Canggu, Bali (pronounced Changgu), known for their surfing and food. This place came onto my radar after seeing some photos on a friend of a friends instagram. Our schedule was open and we had nothing booked so we came down and found a little hostel on Batu Bolong street. The food scene in Canggu is unreal and we happily ate our way through this town, one restaurant at a time. We stayed in a cute little dorm room at Canggu Stay, minutes away from some of my new favorite eateries.

We arrived in the evening and went to the little italian restaurant attached to our hostel called Rustica Cucina. The pizza was amazing and the decorations were vintage chic. 

Day 32- I have been following a restaurant on my instagram for the past year, admiring the amazing colors, ingredients and combinations they create. To my excitement, I would finally get to eat at Crate Cafe and it truly was as good as I expected. Life is crate. This is The Brekkie Plate; tomatoes, avocado, bacon, greens and poached eggs served on toast. 

Food for the soul.

We needed to get our Visa's extended so we spent most of the day driving around the city trying to find the immigration office. We were sent to three different locations,  we eventually arrived at the right office only to be told they were no longer accepting applications for the day and we would have to return the next day. Driving can sure take a lot out of you. So we found some food to refuel our bodies.

Canteen makes fresh food with delicious ingredients. Their quinoa salad, with feta, rocket tomatoes, chick peas, nuts, avocado and lettuce is exactly what I needed. 

Day 33- Crate knows how to make this girl happy. Mike had The Bean (first photo), bacon, beans, toast and a poached egg. I enjoyed The Barber (second photo), french toast with a banana in the middle of two pieces of bread, topped with scrambled eggs and bacon. Mmmmmm 

We gave the Visa a second attempt and headed right to the immigration office. The girl working the desk tried to send us to another office, based off of where our accommodations where located in the city but we convinced her to process our applications. We will need to return in one week to continue the process. 

We stopped at another new favorite for lunch. Bungalow Living Cafe, combines beautiful decorations for the home with delicious healthy food. 

                             

I forgot to take a picture of our food but I had the cashew salad and it's to die for. So much flavor in one salad bowl. It took the prize for my favorite meal of the trip so far.

Mike and I are travelling for a long time and there will be points where we need our own time and privacy and I need to be able to get myself around to have my freedom, so it was time I learnt how to drive a scooter. It was magical.

                     

  

                                  

When we got home we made our first attempt at surfing. It was quite successful. We both rode our way to shore a few times and also realized how much we need to build up our arm strength... we were exhausted. We tried every technique possible to get us back out to sea in order to catch the next wave and it was so frustrating when a wave would grab our boards pulling us back to shore. haha We had a lot of laughs and inhaled a lot of water. 

We went to Deus for dinner. It is a huge establishment off Batu Bolong that sells custom motorcycles, apparel, art and a restaurant, all under one roof. The executive chef is great with patrons and includes chatting with the guests amongst his other duties. We had the homemade ricotta ravioli and gnocci. The restaurants makes everything on site including the pasta, ricotta and all sauces. It was by far the best ravioli I have ever had. At the back of the restaurant they have a cool chill out spot with drinks and a DJ spinning old school R&B tunes. The only thing that could have made it better is if DJTJ was working the booth. 

Day 34- Woke up for another delicious breakfast at Crate. It was declious as always. We left our hostel around 9:30 in the morning and returned no more than an hour later to discover that we had been robbed!!!!

                                  

Coming into our room not knowing what was taken and what kind of damage had been done gave us both a terrible feeling in our guts. We think the person must have watched us leave because it is odd to get robbed in broad daylight. A girl staying at the end of the hall heard the crack of our door around 9:40 am but assumed it was someone working on the building. We were incredibly lucky. We had Mike's laptop stolen and our stuff shuffled around but it could have been so much worse. The cabinet in the background shows the handle was broken off when they tried to break open our locked drawer. They were unsuccessful at opening ours but managed to open the other ones in the room. We had everything of value in there, including my professional camera, my ipad, Mike's ipad and my bank cards. Luckily our passports were with immigration so those were not at risk of being stolen. Unfortunately our roomates were not so lucky. One of the girls had locked up her backpack with the professional camera and ipad of her friend inside. Since it was locked, the thief chose to take the entire bag. The rest of our day was spent waiting for our roomates to return to give them the scoop and writing a report with the police. The police consisted of two guys watching a television series in an office and they were counting on Mike tracking down the thief by locating the last used IP address on our dropbox. We knew the thief had hooked up the computer to wifi because my photos all started to upload to dropbox. Unfortunately, the location of the IP address has a 4 km range in all directions so it was impossible to track. Also the girl who had her ipad stolen had her find my ipad function switched off. It would have been sweet sweet justice to catch the guy/girl but it wasn't in the cards this time. We took the rest of the night and went to the shopping district where they sell new and stolen electronics. Our laptop was definitely there (we think) but we couldn't find it. The isles were filled with guys ripping apart peoples computers for parts or wiping the systems clear of personal info. We decided to buy a new cheap laptop to replace Mike's stolen one, otherwise we wouldn't be able to back up our photos or load photos to the blog.  It felt wrong to support the same market that we believe were involved in selling stollen goods but we couldn't be sure and this presented a cheep solution.

After a very long and stressful day, we went to Warung Dandelion for dinner. It was exactly what we needed to relax. When we walked in, it was as if we entered a magical land. They serve traditional Indonesian cuisine and there were litterally bunny rabbits running around the secret garden. (the garden isn't a secret but it just sounds better)

The food was amazing and so was the service. Now it was time to rest. 

Day 35- Woke up to another hearty breakfast at Crate. This one was nutritious and delicious. I had The Blackout (first photo), blueberries, coconut milk, muesli, frozen grapes and fresh coconut. Mike had The Mixup (second photo), yogurt, apples, strawberries, granola, honey and muesli. I look forward to recreating these dishes when we get more settled in somewhere. 

We had so many plans to surf while in Canggu but with our run around with the Visa extensions and the break in, we were too busy trying to settle everthing up. We had to go back to the police station with our roomies to finish the report and waiting for our translator took most of the day. When we finally put the event behind us, we caught a cab to our next destination. 

Canggu, until we meet again.