We heard that the two best places in Bali for digital nomads were Ubud and Canggu. After being scared by the crowds and traffic in Ubud, we decided pretty quickly to base ourselves in Canggu. We visited a villa and decided that day we wanted to take it – so we also signed up and paid for 50 hours at Dojo coworking space (which is a really nice coworking space and community, but let’s be honest, a bit too expensive for Asia. We decided that ok, with a 50 hours pass, we would be paying around $1.50/hr which is not so bad, but come on, $15 for a day pass? That’s even more expensive than Berlin.)
Mistake: getting excited too quickly and committing too early. A few days later we (or at least, I) regretted our choice to stay in Canggu. Why? Too many hipsters. Too many foreigners riding around in just a bikini, their shirts off, wearing headphones but no helmet. Ugh. While I am confident in and trust Artur’s riding ability, and Indonesia being the fifth Asian country in which he has driven, I would never get on the back of a bike without a helmet.
Food options are great in Canggu, but I really wonder how much the ‘health food’ thing is really just for a show. I mean, you hear all the time about gluten-free people who don’t actually have an intolerance to gluten. You have all these vegan, hippy type people in Canggu, but are they authentic or just doing it for the image? I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, there are many great people in Canggu too, maybe I just met too many of the douchey kind.
Despite that, Canggu is a beautiful place and the locals were really lovely. It’s a really easy place to live or base yourself. It’s like a western bubble in Asia.