A year ago… we are staying in North Canggu.
As Bali developed as a tourist centre, the communities surrounding Denpassar became more urbanized, less agrarian. In turn, Jimboran, Kuta, Legian, Seminyak… all the names I’ve dropped in my past posts, these are the communities – once villages in their own right – that are now part of urban fabric of the Balinese capital.
But once upon a time, not so long ago, these were farms.
The rice economy relies on water, and the streams that flow to the ocean from the hills and mountains beyond. That causes some peculiar problems for transportation, since those streams flow perpendicular to the ocean shoreline. And so it’s hard to travel from Denpassar to those urbanized villages, like Kerobokan and Canggu.
This is known as the shortcut. It’s as narrow and dodgy looking as it seems. And believe it or not, it’s two way traffic.
It obscenely splits and divides rice terraces. And along the margins are going up warung and yoga studios and coworking spaces, where from your terrace-side windows, you can watch the remains of an agrarian society trying to cope with tourism.
We have so far travelled…
- 14 094 km Air
- 102 km driving (7 km today)
- 38.1 km walking (6.6 km today)
This is a 163 part Blog series, chronicling my family’s Le Grand Voyage II – a six month, round the world trip through Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece. It’s a 163 part reflection on the trip, highlighting some touristy and distinctly no-touristy photography (just a sampling of the 20 000 photos I snapped on three cameras) and the stories behind them.
- Where’s Teddy now? is my YouTube Vlog – www.youtube.com/wheresteddynow
- Teddy can also be found on Twitter – https://twitter.com/wheresteddynow
- Instagram? Absolutely! – https://www.instagram.com/wheresteddynow/
- FaceBook? Uh-huh.– https://www.facebook.com/wheresteddynow/