Surfing, Sand and Sunsets

The Bukit, Bali’s premier surfing location, full of sun, sea, sand and surfers, despite being only a stones throw from the busy, touristy Kuta-Legion-Seminyak sprawl, this place could be a million miles away.

Its laid back and beachy, it has hypnotic waves that make us feel humbled. It has the potential to make you waste hours and hours of each day looking out to sea and watching surfing being perfected by those who are brave, fit or crazy enough to head into the water with a surfboard.

Jimbaran Beach

We stayed in Jimbaran in the Max One Hotel which was so super cool and funky that we felt like 20 something surf dudes just from checking in. The pool, the quirky flip-flops and the tasty vegan food at breakfast (which was eaten before photographs could be taken) definitely mean we’d go back again. Plus, you get complimentary beers in your room each day, Paul was very pleased with that…

One of our team loved these flip flops….

Awesome view from the rooftop pool

Jimbaran itself just seemed to be a busy road with restaurants, shops and local warungs on either side. The standard fare of nasi goreng & mee goreng is everywhere to be found but since we’ve become accustomed to eating tempe every day, the Vegan Food Quest went on the hunt for a tempe-laden dinner.

We found this ‘Tempe Goreng’ (translated means ‘Fried Tempe’) which is actually an upmarket restaurant version of a street food that you can find everywhere in Bali. We’ve been trying to avoid these little street carts that sell a selection of deep fried stuff on account of not really knowing if it’s vegan and not really wanting to find out because as much as we are very at home eating lovely fresh, healthy, raw salads and juices, we are also dangerously at home eating anything deep fried.

Anyway, we ate this yummy tempe goreng with a sweet, sticky kecap manis and chilli dipping sauce at GaRaSi Restaurant after finding out the batter was in fact just made with flour, making Caryl a very happy vegan indeed!

You can’t go wrong with deep fried tempe!

After our fried tempe heaven, we resorted to the old favourite (by now) tempe vegetable coconut milk curry. We may have put a picture of a similar curry in every single post about Bali and needless to say we really could eat it everyday.

More delicious tempe vegan curry

We spent the rest of our days in The Bukit visiting the famous surf beaches at Ulawatu, Bingan and Balangan and generally the scenery was better than the food to be honest. We ate this really tasty cashew tofu curry with red rice at The Cashew Tree and although it was really tasty it had been made earlier and microwaved…what a let down…and a reason not to return there.

Average cashew and tofu curry…

We were more impressed with the fresh juices we were able to get in most of the beach bars we visited. Beetroot, ginger, apples, carrots and oranges freshly juiced were enough to keep us going.

Superb fresh juices

This time around the Vegan Food Quest star of the show isn’t the food but the surroundings. The Bukit isn’t a place to go to eat vegan food but it is a place to visit to see a beautiful sunset, watch the surf and breathe in the beauty of this little bit of Bali.

Perfect end to the day on the Bukit