[Outlet Closed] Nalu Bowls @ Single Fin, Bali—
Yesterday when I ended work at 4pm, my friend chatted me and asked if I were free to accompany her to Nalu Bowls as she was craving for it. Oh gosh, that Nalu Bowls that everyone raves so much about? Sure, leggo! *rushing to my friend's place*
Nalu Bowls has 3 outlets in Bali: Seminyak, Canggu and Uluwatu. Since we both lived in the southern side of Bali, we went to the Uluwatu one. Nalu Bowls Uluwatu shares the same space with Single Fin, a bar perched on a cliff with magnificent view of Indian Ocean. This place was filled with tourists from all parts of the world who came to witness the wonderful sunset.
By the time we got there, it was sunset time and we were made amazed with the stunning ocean view and the sunset sky color. Truly God is a great creator of the universe!
Nalu Bowls itself is just a shack next to Single Fin entrance (look for the colorful Single Fin graffiti, Nalu Bowls stands right beside it). Their menu was straightforward: smoothie bowls and smoothies only.
Pipeline - IDR60,000
I initially wanted to have the J-Bay (peanut butter), but it was unavailable so I settled for the Pipeline instead, which was made of banana, pineapple, mango, coconut, coconut milk, coconut water and granola. I got to enjoy the best of both worlds: amazing ocean view and delicious smoothie bowl on hand. Yassss, I was in paradise! The smoothie bowl was nutritiously-packed with various kind of fruits blended together and topped with sliced bananas, shredded coconuts and crunchy granolas.
Yes, yes, I highly recommend Nalu Bowls to everyone in search of good smoothie bowl in Bali. Whoever invented smoothie bowl is a genius! I think I have a serious addiction to smoothie bowl already — it is like drugs to me. Healthy drugs, zero harm.
Posing with this famous graffiti wall
While this post is still being written, I'm gonna share my experience getting to and from Nalu Bowls. So I ordered a GrabCar from my friend's house in Jimbaran. We told the driver that we would get off at Single Fin. The journey was quite long, it took around half an hour as there was traffic jam too. The driver then stopped right before the main gate of Blue Point area whereby there was an entry fee of 5k per car. Single Fin was still nowhere in sight but the driver told us he did not know the exact location so he asked us if we could just get off at the main gate and walk a bit. Okay, we got off and walked together with other group of tourists. We paid 55k (if I'm not wrong) for the trip. No, the real problem had not come out yet.
We finished eating at 6.30pm and we were about to order Grab again, but there was no driver nearby and the system kept having 'no driver found' message. We thought that the location might be too inaccessible, so we tried to call normal metered taxi. The customer service staff had sent a taxi to our place (we told them to pick us up at Blue Point Bay Villas) but after 15 minutes the taxi didn't show up. We called the company again and suddenly the staff said they could not send any taxi to Blue Point area. Whut? We went mad after seeing a taxi dropping off passengers at the villa and then it went off again quickly. Apparently it was not the one we ordered. Seeing us in desperation, the villa security guard told me something that turned us down: 'no taxi is allowed in this area'. Online taxi like Uber and Grab are even more prohibited. The only option left was to take local transport service (rented car or minivan) but they charged us an exorbitant price of 300k for a single trip to Jimbaran! That was insane! We tried to bargain for 150k (that's actually still a high amount to pay) but they did not let us. Another metered taxi then came dropping off passengers and when we approached that taxi the local rented car drivers yelled to us, 'okay I give you 150k!'. We ignored them coz we thought we were gonna ride that taxi. The taxi driver rejected us and said they could not pick up any passenger from Blue Point - they could only do the drop off. Meanwhile, we still did not want to take the local transport given the nonsense pricing.
I then suggested my friend to walk away from Blue Point area (at least until the entrance gate) and from there we might be able to call normal taxi or order Grab. Yup, it would be a long walk but it was a safer option I guess. Luckily, we met a group of three girls who were also walking out to find a taxi, so we walked together and we decided to share the taxi as we would go toward the same direction. We finally found a taxi stopping near the main gate, but the driver asked us to walk slightly farther before we could get into his taxi. After we walked and got into the taxi, the driver politely told us that he was afraid of the locals there; that was why he asked us to walk away from the area first so that nobody would see us taking his taxi. If any local resident saw a taxi taking passengers in the area, there would be arguments or even fight. Sigh, I felt pitiful to these metered taxi drivers. The locals always take opportunity to cheat and make more money from tourists. This experience has taught me a lesson — and for you my dearest readers — that it is always better to just bring your own vehicles (or if you are a tourist in Bali, do rent a motorbike), unless you have too much money to blow on these transport scams.
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Single Fin Restaurant & Bar
Jl. Mamo, Labuan Sait, Uluwatu
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