Canggu (Indonesia)

Canggu dominates the Top #5 of NomadList for a long time now and we were told there’s lots of good (surf) shops around. As we planned to by swim gear , flip flops etc. in Indonesia instead of packing it right away before starting the trip (big mistake), we decided to go for a quick 2 day scouting and shopping trip to Canggu.

We couldn’t have chosen a more radical change from the quiet life in Padang Bai to this stressful traffic nightmare. It’s impossible to take a nice stroll for 10-20 minutes. There’s no sidewalks, most cars honk when driving by and most free taxis stop to offer a ride, almost like “Why are you walking? Idiot!”. Restaurants and coffee shops are hipster and healthy, whereas the health-vibe seems a bit deceptive. Unlike Padang Bai, where there are no plastic straws in drinks, and there is recycled water in the toilet for example. Small details where you see the true dedication for health & environment.

The shore at the beach is really narrow as well, no chance for a romantic walk along the beach or an early morning run either.

I don’t get the hype around Canggu so far and can’t wait to leave this place again. Just for the record, the wifi and LTE speed near our hotel.

Internet speed results WiFi and LTE

Lesson learned

Initially, we wanted to depart from Padang Bai directly to the Gilis, but since there wasn’t much information on shops and availability on beach wear, we decided to go for this shopping. This could have been avoided if we packed flip flops, shorts etc. at home and would have been cheaper as well (we paid more for Havaianas in Canggu than on Amazon in Germany.

Now, as we’re on Gili Air, there were multiple surf and dive shops on the 600m walk fro the harbour to the hotel and I wish information on the internet would have been better about this island so we could have avoided that trip to Canggu.