We have been in Bali for just about a week so we figured it was time to check in and let you know what we are up to!

First on the agenda, was a three day stay in Canggu (pronounced chang-goo), a lovely little town on the southwest coast of Bali known for surfing. Our hotel room was $15 per night and had air conditioning and this amazing outdoor bathroom.

Our room was just a two minute walk from the beach and one of the hottest surf spots in town. Checking in was not like a standard hotel in the states by any means. We pulled up in our taxi to a small convenience store and out came a short Balinese man. We had no idea if we were in the right place but come to find out, the man owned the store and also the hotel. So we checked into our hotel at a convenience store on a random dead end road; there’s a first time for everything!

Our three days in Canggu consisted of a lot of food and beach time. Tristan surfed every day (renting a board was just $3 for 2 hours) while Taylor cheered from her cabana bed on shore (only $3 to rent for the entire day).

In our brief stay in Bali, we have come to know that food is both delicious, inexpensive, and a wild-card (poor Taylor getting an upset stomach every other meal, but nonetheless powering through!). Almost every dish we ate was between $50,000 and $70,000 Indonesian rupiah… which is about $3-$5 US dollars. And we aren’t talking plain buttered toast for breakfast. The below breakfast dishes, including two coffees was about $11 US dollars total (and keep in mind, you can spend a lot less than this and still have amazing food).

Quinoa coconut milk porridge with fresh strawberries and dried raspberries, granola and homemade yogurt:

French toast of sourdough bread with bananas, nuts, and shredded coconut:

The ambiance in almost every restaurant was very hip and honestly felt like you were in a fancy, high end, Los Angeles brunch spot most of the time. There are also a lot of “mom and pop” Balinese food spots that have very minimal decor, oddly terrible lighting, but fabulous food and the friendliest people.

High-end Southern California brunch spot or random inexpensive Balinese cafe? You really can’t tell, can you:

Doesn’t get much better than $1.40 for coconut water from an actual coconut:

After Bali, we headed two hours north to the tiny tiny town of Medewi. It’s definitely off the beaten path but there was good surf that enticed Tristan, so naturally… we went. It was a much more authentic experience than Canggu because there were hardly any tourists and very few signs of western culture. We stayed at a lovely little three room surf hostel run by a local man, Eddie.

One of the other guests staying at the surf hostel was an Austrian woman named Nina, who we quickly befriended and spent an entire day with. We took our mopeds up into the hillside through some remote little Balinese towns with the goal of finding this sweet water fall we had heard about. We ended up getting slightly lost and had to ask a local woman for directions. She was very nice but didn’t speak any English, so wasn’t able to describe where we needed to go. Instead, she signaled to her young son, who stood up, hopped on his bike, and gestured for us to follow him. Needless to say, we got a little VIP chauffeur!

Nina and our little Balinese tour guide:

And then we actually made it to the water fall!:

As amazing as this week has been, we have to hit you with some Bali real-talk. Like us, you’ve probably seen tons of pictures on social media that make Bali seem so glamorous and stunning (we are guilty of posting these types of photos too!) but this is not how it is around every corner. Bali is quite beautiful, but there’s a lot of trash. Like piles of garbage bags on the side of the road, extremely polluted streams that runoff into the ocean, and pieces of trash beside you while you’re swimming. Not that the states is a leading example of trash-free by ANY means, but we were definitely caught off guard when we came here.

There are definitely places that make an effort to reduce waste by eliminating plastic bags and plastic straws, but it’s still an issue. For instance, many people simply light small piles of trash on the side of the road to remove the garbage (including a lot of plastic which is then melted and released into the air). Add to this, the constant inhaling of exhaust/fumes from the hundreds of other mopeds, cars, and trucks, you get some fairly polluted air.

Not to sound like total divas (because we are so grateful and happy to be here!), but we wanted to be truthful about our experience as well. The best we can do is to limit of use of packaged goods, pick up trash when we can, and wear face masks when we are driving in heavy traffic.

On a lighter note, we arrived yesterday in Ubud and spent the afternoon in a monkey forest, which was… the best.

It was amazing to watch them interact with each other because it was just like watching small children play. We even saw them actually wrestle together and push each other off branches. Within the monkey forest there are also a handful of temples as well, some dating back to the mid-14th century. It’s hard to fathom just how old the structures are, especially when you come from a country that’s only 250 years old; the US is basically an infant.

Tristan basically had to pry Taylor out of the forest because she loved it so much (and may have taken a few too many photos and videos, but totally worth it!). Would definitely recommend to anyone traveling in the area. It was only $10 for the two of us to enter and was well worth it.

Now we are off to explore Ubud! Until next time.

With love, T&T & this cute monkey