From Surfing in Canggu to Monkey Forest Adventures: A Family Journey Through Bali

In Canggu, there isn’t that much to do, but that’s what’s so nice about it. You can walk to the beach every day and rent a surfboard from stands on the beach for cheap, and the surf is really easy; you barely have to paddle, the waves take you. I spent hours every day surfing. Then you can just wander around and find a place to eat. My favorite breakfast place is on the beach, called O’Three. You can sit on a beanbag on the beach and have yummy crepes, açaí bowls, or more traditional Balinese food like Nasi Lemak. IthaKa was one of my favorite places to eat as well; the pesto pasta is delish!

One day we did the Canggu Jewelry Class, and made some really nice silver rings from scratch. 

We had a driver take us to Ubud, and we stopped at the Bali Bird Park and the Tegalalang rice Terrances on our way to Ubud. We also went to the Lumbung Sari House of Luwak Coffee and got to sample all of the different coffees and see the process of making them. 

In Ubud, we did the monkey forest. The monkeys will steal your things; that is not an exaggeration. One stole my sister’s water bottle, and later, one in Uluwatu stole my mom’s glasses off the top of her head. 

My favorite part of Ubud was Green Kitchen Bali. It’s a vegan Balinese cooking class run by a family in Sidemen. They picked us up from our hotel in Ubud and took us to all of the local markets to buy the ingredients, and then we picked the produce from the family farm before we began the cooking. They taught us about all of the ingredients and the meal was amazing. 

We did Mount Batur, with Mount Batu Sunrise Trekking. They picked us up as well, at 2 AM, and we had a tour guide who actually carried my sister on his back (she was like 10 years old at the time) because she had Bali Belly (from accidentally drinking from the waterfall) and got sick on the way up the mountain.