Today we wanted to check out Seminyak, the Beverley Hills of Bali (well kind of). It’s certainly not for a travellers budget however there’s some lovely shops and cafes if you fancy treating yourself for the day. The shopping is incredible here and you certainly won’t find as many markets kicking around.
Seminyak is quite flashy and arguably feels very different to the rest of the island. I almost felt like I was in a whole other place. The downside of Seminyak as you walk around is that culture becomes quite lost and Bali becomes very Americanised. However, flashy being your thing- you will be spoilt for choice with Seminyak’s world class hotels and creative shops and galleries.
Trip Advisor has been a godsend for us as it helps to eliminate overpriced restaurants when you’re on a budget. We managed to find a great place for breakfast, Cafe Zucchini which was very reasonably priced in comparison to the surrounding restaurants (though still more expensive than anywhere in Canggu). The Juices here were amazing and again there was so much to choose from. Breakfast was so tasty, keeping to form I chose another granola bowl. This time with yogurt and shaved coconut sprinkled over the top I could eat hundreds of that stuff!
Granola , Coconut & Yogurt
Smoothieliscious
Breakfast Platter
We set about looking for a beach spot to chill out and I must say, Seminyak’s beach’s are far more desirable than Kuta’s with long stretches of white sand, far less busy and much more relaxing. We found renting sun-loungers was quite expensive but we haggled with the man and managed to half his original price so we felt like we were onto a good deal!
The waves here are so intense that swimming in the sea is prohibited along a lot of the beach, not good news when you’re sweltering hot and looking to cool off! Paddling was acceptable but the lifeguards were getting royally pissed-off at tourists making their way further and further into the sea. At one point during the day, around 5 or 6 lifeguards charged into the water to rescue a young girl who had been swept away by a huge wave!! It was scary yet spectacular to see how efficiently trained the lifeguards actually are and they had the girl out within seconds – she was lucky this time! Those big red warning flags made a lot of sense after that.
Waves in Seminyak
Seminyak Beach
For lunch we found a great little beach spot, Chringui Beach Bar. As one of the only places playing deep house, Gary was keen for us to check it out… You could either eat at a table inside or just chill outside on a beanbag drinking Bintang (Bali’s own beer) and let the day pass you by. We were surprised to find that the food was so cheap! The stir fry I choose was lovely although I can’t seem get on board with Bali’s trend of frying an egg on top of your noodles – odd if you ask me. The whole place had a really cool vibe and I can definitely see us returning before we leave!
Beanbag City
Back home, I chilled by the pool for a while whilst reading. Be sure to check out my travel reading recommendations yet to come…
Then it was back to our fave, the Betelnut Cafe for dinner where I tried one of their speciality burritos (Yum) and had my first proper taste of passionfruit in a cooler. Questionable taste maybe but I thought in the future it could go great with some gin!
The sunset was spectacular yet again and we were lucky to have a great table looking out over the rice paddies. There is just something about sunsets that makes me think . They seem to allow time to reflect and I took that time to think back how far we had both actually come, from deciding to give up our jobs, save for month-upon-months and squash ourselves into my parents house for more than half a year to make this all worthwhile… and it certainly was!
Burrito
The Sweet Life
Beautiful Sunset
Has rice ever looked so good?
Thanks for reading and be sure to keep up to date with our journey… Remember comment, I’d love to hear from you!
Goodnight.
Lots of Love
Xx
