BALI FOR DIGITAL NOMADS: UBUD VS CANGGU

It's now been just over a month since I've been living here in Canggu and so I thought it would be a good time to share my experience and compare it to what I experienced last time in Ubud.

If you're not familiar with either area, Ubud is the region in the centre of Bali that is popular for Yoga, Spirituality and Meditation whereas Canggu is the new kid on the block. Canggu has amazing nightlife, trendy cafes and the beach but it does come with a few issues.

Keep watching to hear my experience in each.

Courtesy: Chris the Freelancer

Hey guys! Chris here from christhefreelancer.com and if you're considering coming to Bali as a digital nomad, you're probably tossing up between here and Ubud and down near the coast in Canggu.

Here in Canggu, it's all about the trendy cafes, the nightlife and the beach. Whereas here in Ubud, it's more about relaxation yoga and meditation. But of course there's a lot more that separates these two areas than just the beach and the mountains.

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So, in this video we're going to dive deeper into Ubud versus Canggu: what are the major differences and which one is best for you alright. So if you've been following from the beginnings of this channel you would remember that Bali was actually our first stop on a “digital nomad journey” ie our journey to working online and traveling / living abroad and back then I was working for a company back home in Australia I was working full time hours basically.

So, I needed a productive space. I needed to know that my internet needs were taken care of. I needed to be somewhere that was consistent. And back then I was really interested in these digital nomads co-working spaces and so I was very interested in this but one space called Hubud co-working space which is actually in Ubud. And so my life looked very different to what it looks now.

Back then I would wake up around 7:00 in the morning have breakfast and then I would go straight to the office which was the co-working space. I would work the morning, have lunch work the afternoon, come home, de-stress have a massage, do laundry, watch YouTube whatever right.

On the weekends I would go into the mountains, go check out some of the sites to see and that was one of the funnest parts of being in Ubud actually. Back then we actually didn't know about this area called Canggu.

And back then, Canggu was less developed than it is now but there was still a scene here. There was still a co-working space and so during that time that we were in Bali we did the first two weeks in Ubud and then the second two weeks we did in Seminyak which for remote work I wouldn't necessarily recommend. I planned on going to this co-working space called lineup hub but when I got there I just it didn't it wasn't the place for me

It wasn't as interesting as Ubud was, but luckily somebody gave me a tip-off and told me about this co-working space called DOJO and DOJO has been the space I've been working out of most often while I've been here in Canggu and when I went there I was just like how did I not know about this place before.

They have an amazing community of digital nomads there. And back then, like I said Canggu was just getting started, so fast forward years ahead and I've been travelling and working now for just over two years and every time the conversation has come up for Bali it's all been about Canggu, Canggu, Canggu…

So, I kind of knew that when I came back to Bali I had to check out this area called Canggu. And now after a month here in Canggu, I can definitely say that support my decision to come to Canggu and it's definitely been the area that I've preferred in terms of my experience, both in Ubud and in Canggu.

So, in this video I want to talk about the comparison between the two and it's not a battle royale to determine like what the best area is this is more about like what's it all about. What's Canggu all about and how you can make a decision as to which one is right for you.

So, of course one of the major differences in my experience between staying in Ubud and staying in Canggu is the time period. I mean it was a little over two years ago that we were in Ubud, so of course I wanted to go back see what had changed and kind of establish what the digital Nomad life would be like in Ubud two years on.

So, what I found from a weekend away in Ubud was, yes it was more closer to kind of tourist activities like seeing the beautiful rice fields or seeing waterfalls, checking out Monkey Forest…

So, that's all in quite close proximity. So, I definitely recommend visiting Ubud and the other thing about that's great about Ubud is that you can walk everywhere if you stay kind of in the central area.

It is more touristic in the sense that people are going there to vacation in the more traditional sense rather here in Canggu. I think people tend to stay a bit longer and it's more of an expat scene here. So, in Ubud if you don't want to ride a motorcycle you can definitely or a scooter bike or whatever you want.

To call it, you can hear some of them behind, you definitely can do without in Ubud now in Canggu. I got a scooter black as soon as I arrived here because it's almost impossible to walk everywhere in Canggu and I knew that from coming here last time the other thing that you should note about Canggu is that you might find it’s hard to get Grabs, Ubers and Gojeks those three are the main ways to get around using apps.

So, that's kind of been restricted by the local taxi industry. So, that's another consideration as well. You can definitely get a Grab if you're in off street here or a Gojek, but sometimes it's gonna be difficult if you're definitely if you're around an area that's quite popular or there's other taxis it's gonna be hard to get get away with getting a Grab, Gojek or Uber.

Anyway, back to Ubud. So, when we were in Ubud we had to do some a little bit of work, a little bit of stuff on the computer. And so I went on a little bit of a journey to find the best Wi-Fi. I didn't want to go back to Hubud because it's expensive for just one day. And I didn't want to spend the whole day there anyway.

So, Hubud’s always a great option if you're in Ubud for a long period of time. But we just wanted somewhere like a cafe or a casual space to get some work done. And so the first space we went to that I had heard from another youtuber that had good internet was SEMIN AND CAFE and we went there and we tied it in with lunch

So, it wasn't a complete waste of time but the internet wasn't great at all and so I didn't really get much done we had our lunch and left. Then I checked on my phone for work hard. Anyway this is an app that you can find remote work, friendly cafes or places to work from and I put in my criteria powerpoints fast and free internet and there was basically only one that showed up apart from hoovered which was KISMET. So, he went to KISMET. Similar sort of situation the internet was intermittent. It was good at some parts but then not great at other times. And then we ended up at Starbucks in the end which had probably the best internet that we'd experienced in Ubud.

So comparing that to say Canggu. Canggu has so many work friendly cafes here. It is ridiculous. I'm actually doing an article on places to work in Canggu. So, if you're interested I will link that up. I'll put the URL right here on your screen and also the link will be in the description.

But it's actually been quite challenging to create an exhaustive list of places you could work from in Canggu because it pretty much. There's a culture here where you can rock up at any café and just ask the Wi-Fi password, sit down and get some work done.

That's a great thing about Canggu. The other thing that Canggu has over Ubud is nightlife. You know we've got beach clubs here, beach bars plenty of just just nightlife and it's in some crazy nightlife as well.

I went to the lawn on my first night. I went to Finn's beach club with some friends last Sunday. And so you'll find that people are a lot more focused on going out here and enjoying themselves. I definitely wanted a little bit more that so that's been good for me to kind of get out there and and let loose.

The other thing that's really obvious is of course at the beach. So, if you want to do surfing or anything like that, you definitely want to stay in Canggu. Even just going down to the beach to watch sunset is a bit of a tradition I found here.

From the people that are staying here long term they pretty much go into the sunset every day because it is a beautiful sunset and it reminds you of where you are and how lucky you are to be in beautiful Bali working remotely.

So, we've talked about work, we've talked about going out what else is there, of course you've got Fitness and if you want to get fit especially here in Canggu this is an amazing place to get fit you've got to CrossFit gyms I went to CrossFit wonder lust but I did my back

So, I do go back again nothing against CrossFit wonder lust it was I had a weak back and just yeah let's leave it there to CrossFit gyms. You've got kind of group fitness kind of establishments like Nirvana strength and yoga studios

So, there's a lot in the way of fitness here in Canggu if you want to do yoga specifically though. Ubud probably is the better space for you because it's all about yoga up there.

There's a famous yoga place called THE YOGA BARN in Ubud and if you're into meditation and kind of that spiritual vibe BLUEBIRDS probably more of a place for you. The other thing I'll say is that Canggu is kind of a young and rough-around-the-edges vibe.

I'm not saying it's people a truffle or bad here but I'm saying if your pain, may be an older traveler, maybe you want to get away from loud bikes and from kind of poor roads. You might want to stay up in Ubud.

Hey, I'm just talking about a bit in Canggu comparing the differences anything you want to add…

(Riccardo just walked in)

You love Canggu don't you?

Yeah yeah…

And you were saying the the nightlife being he's got a surfboard there

Yeah well there's also like art galleries and galleries yeah a few ones there's good pretty concerts like every two or three days

Yeah yeah so we saw ways happening something that's good listen alright

thanks man! Alright so there you go guys another perspective on Canggu. I've taken the camera off the tripod now cuz I'm running out of light.

I decided to film this at sunset here on the top floor of our villa here. Basically to summarize Ubud versus Canggu.

Ubud is probably the place I'd recommend to you if you want to just be chill, not have so many distractions like you do in Canggu. It's probably quieter up there and if you just want to get into your work and maybe meditate, do some yoga in the mornings and be closer to the tourist sites, Ubud might be for you.

For everyone else Canggu I think is amazing. It's got nightlife, got amazing cafes connected to internet and that remote work culture that you can just show up to any café and start work got awesome co-working spaces like DOJO I mention nightlife I mention co-working Fitness everywhere

you got those two CrossFit gyms, you've got yoga here as well and of course you've got the beach.

So, if you like surfing you're definitely going to prefer Canggu. So, I hope that informs your decision on where to travel to as a digital nomad. Ubud versus Canggu, you know, it's not one is better than the other but just different considerations for each.

I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did give it a like and subscribe to this channel. If you're interested in concepts like remote work, travel location, independence online businesses, freedom, all that stuff anything we talked about today if you're into subscribe to the channel!

And yeah just want to thank you guys for watching and we'll see you and they

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