Canggu aka “the GU”.
Where the bikes meet the sea. Where yoga pants are worn by mermaids. Where The Farm is a place hot surfers sleep. Where The Practice isn’t a thing, it’s a place.
More hip that you can handle. You won’t find Circle K’s here, but you will find “temples” with Deus in the name.
How to find this mystical land of Hipstery? Let the girls of Gu Guide help you to recognise your arrival..
You know you are in Canggu when..
- Smoothies are served in a bowl with a spoon. What, you thought you were drinking it?
- You cry when Nalu runs out of Acai.
- You get that look when you ask for cows milk instead of coconut, almond or soy. We should really charge you extra for that.
- Your Coffee comes with a picture in the foam, and if you don’t Instagram it – you’ll upset the hipsters.
- Children snack on sugar and palm oil free raw chocolates, because Oreos are just NO.
- Being spotted in public using plastic is more serious a crime than that non-vegan leather handbag you’re wearing. Eww and eww.
- You tote the season’s hottest canvas, and if you don’t – you haven’t Bali Buda-ed hard enough.
- There are more barber shops than there are beards willing to be groomed.
- There are more Italian restaurants than there are Indonesian Warungs.
- Kombucha is drunk in wine glasses, and is more expensive per litre than actual wine.
- Staying another month to “find yourself” also translates to “I’m starting a swimwear label”.
- In an effort to save paper, people just draw on walls instead.
- There are more people by the surf snapping that ultimate Instagram-warrior-pose-on-a-rock-at-sunset, than there are actual surfers.
- The Bali dog is the hippest accessory, and the only one that won’t be stolen off your Vario scooter at night.
- School nights involve Ping pong, Battle shots and Tacos with a side of permanent leg art.
- It’s hard to order a drink without being offered a free skin sticker (hip speak for tattoo).
- Skateboards are only ridden drunk, in an empty pool, in front of every cool kid in the Gu. Never on roads.
- Driving off the worlds skinniest road into a rice field is just another Friday night.
- Tinder is completely unnecessary, just take a surf lesson.
- Your Indonesian boyfriend can’t pick you up from happy hour, because they might think he’s a Go Jek driver in disguise, and that means anarchy.
- Drivers go all Kate Moss on you and won’t get out of bed for less than 100,000.
- Girls driving custom bikes managed to lace up their boots, but forget their clothes.
- No females turn up to Ladies Night, because they are all at home being crazy cat ladies, tending to their twenty orphaned kittens who “found THEM”.
- You wake up encrusted in black sand with zero recollection how.. Sandbar happened.
- Nobody gets blow waves at the salon, that’s what no helmet is for.
- If you know where your bike is on Monday you didn’t Sunday hard enough
A golden triangle in Bali’s South, Canggu officially consists of Berawa, Batu Bolong and Echo Beach, though it’s difficult-to-define borders often welcome Batu Belig, Umalas and Pererenan into the mix.
Already home to many Bali expats and a popular choice for the back-packer type, Canggu is captivating the attention of a new wave of visitors. Tantalising tourists with the offer of peaceful serenity, seducing surfers with its world famous breaks and enticing wedding planners with villa estates on lush sprawling beachside blocks: Canggu is the new place to go. When in Bali, it is worthy of at least.. we repeat AT LEAST one solid weekend.