In Reply to: Canggu - is it difficult to get taxis? posted by stephjoy on Tuesday, 25. May 2010 at 21:23 Bali Time:
You don't wanna know my husband's response when I said someone on BTF who has kids asked about taxi's in Canggu -I will very politely rephrase his reply without the lively expletives "You are in the middle of absolutely no where & it's a pain in the bum to get anywhere or back to your villa at anytime of the day or night"
My words/version -We do enjoy our quite times BUT Canggu is a hell of a long way out from anything or anywhere.IF you wanna party,eat out or shop in town regularly you will be spending a fair bit of time & money on transport.If you have 2 kids you will both need International motorbike licences & considerable experiences riding motorbikes - & feel safe having the kids on the back of the 2 bikes & then be prepared to drive around in the dark with no signs through out dark lanes & pot holed dirt roads trying to find local cafes & restaurants that are also in the middle of absolutely no where.We got lost many times in spite of the fact that I can speak some Bahasa Indonesian & could ask locals for directions.
Hope your villa has good pool & facilities for the kids.Each to their own but as a Mum I certainly would never stay in Canggu with young kids,teens or 20's.We do enjoy our quite times together but when you are with kids a holiday needs to be a bit different.
If you haven't already booked a villa or somewhere out at Canggu it really would be better to organise for your other half to get transport to go surfing out at Canggu & for all the family stay elsewhere & he just does day trips without you & the kids.This is what one of our good friends does who goes surfing.There is nothing at all at Canggu to see or do or anything at all to go re shopping - unless you surfing,enjoy long walks or quite times reading or what ever.
If you want to talk more re Canggu I will be happy to chat.Only you know what is exactly right for you & your family but I sure know I would not be staying in the area with a 4 or 14 year old,they will be bored witless & I expect you will as well if your hubby is out surfing all day.
In summary -it is about a 99% chance IF you are staying in the Canggu area that you will NEVER see a taxi.We spent a full week in the area & never saw a taxi anywhere near our villa was OR anywhere within 10 minutes motorbike ride.
Couple of choices - you get to know a local driver off the street,ask your pembantu who she knows,get one recommended by your villa (probably higher price)or a driver from a BTF member who lives in Canggu - who will look after you OR you make friends with a driver "In Town" who is happy to regularly making the trip out to Canggu.IF you want some phone numbers for local Canggu drivers or other drivers who will go mall the way out to Canggu - please email me.More than happy to help.
If you plan a trip to Canggu & have a nice clean & well maintained villa with good facilities & good access to transport it could be a nice place to stay.You definately need to do some planning to make sure you have good access to decent transport.
BTW - Don't ever rely on local restaurants in Echo Beach to do delivery for meals.One night we had cheese & biscuits for dinner because all local places would not deliver because they were too busy & the restaurant next to us had closed well over 2 hours early because the boss wasn't there! (He was mega peed off when I told him the next day that all of his staff had walked out early the night before & that his phone had been ringing unanswered for 3 hours)
Spent over a week in the area - happy to help if you think I can.