When we first landed in Bali, we honestly didn’t really know what to expect. We figured that we would do our best to bounce around to different places on the island to see what spot was our favorite. Our first place was Kuta/Legian – it’s a region on the west side of the island.
Our AirBnB wasn’t too far from Double Six Beach. It’s a tourist hot spot and bustling with activity. We loved our little place; It was right in the middle of the action! Here is the busy little street that our place was on – note the “100% Genuine Fake Shop” in the background.
I feel like we spent most of our time eating, and figuring out where we wanted to go next… to eat. We love the restaurants here! Most of the time, we eat at the small “warungs”. These are local little mom-and-pop places that are run outside of people’s houses. We spent a lot of time at our new found friend/neighbor Gusti’s place.
However, when we wanted to make an event out of lunch/dinner, we would head out and look for places with a pool! That’s right, a lot of the restaurants have a pool in the middle of the tables! Once you place your order, you can go swim around for a little bit, perhaps suck down some coconut or a soda water, and then get out when your food is ready! My only question is, WHY don’t more places in the U.S. function like this?! It’s amazing.
Meals at the local warung range from 2-3 dollars a meal. So, naturally, we would eat out for MOST of our meals. However, there are times, usually late at night when you have got to get a snack on, right? So we hit up the local supermarket to make sure we were prepared.
On our first grocery run, I decided to try as many of the local chips as I could. I got quite the assortment. My recommendations go as follows:
1.) Cheezels – for sure the best out of the whole lot (but spendy spends, so I won’t get them again); pretty sure they are actually Malaysian.
2.) Chitato – Not to be confused with Cheetos. The Indonesian BBQ flavor. Pretty good!
3.) Kubuka “Super Pedas” – I got these as a spicy option – holy cow! It is spicy! “pedas” means spicy in Indonesian, and they weren’t lying – SUPER spicy for sure.
4.) JetZ – not a whole lot of substance, but tasty for sure.
5.) Krip Krip – a multigrain ‘healthy’ option; they were alright.
6.) Pota Bee – literally the worst chip I have ever tasted.
(Yes, I linked to all that I could find, so you can order and try them for yourself. ENJOY. haha)
We spent most of our days at one of the pools or at Double Six Beach. It was easy to spend the day there with delicious smoothies, cheap Indonesian food, and mellow surfing.
One day, after exploring a different part of town, our Uber driver recommended a place for sea food. (Side note – yes, Uber is a thing in Indonesia. And actually, there is a huge controversy with the ride share app – the local transportation/taxi drivers are fighting it full force. If they see you, and think you are ordering an Uber, they will come and harass you non-stop; sometimes it can get pretty mean. So ordering an Uber is kind of a top-secret, stealthy-ninja affair) We assumed that the prices would be similar to what we had already been experiencing – maybe if it was a really nice place, a little more expensive.
Well, we get there, and this place was FANCY. The tables are out on the sand, right next to the surf. The have live music, lots of service, and just a really uppity atmosphere. We sat down, still thinking that this place was going to be “cheap”. Well, we were wrong. And by the time we realized how expensive the meal was going to be, we were committed. Oops. So, moral of the story, always ask the driver how expensive the recommendation is! OR, just stick to the one dollar sign status on Yelp.
So far, Madison’s favorite place to eat was Kind Community. And I will admit, the fruit bowl was delicious. I am always a little weird when we “have to go” to a vegan place. I just assume there is going to be nothing that I like. BUT, to be fair, I am almost always pleasantly surprised.
