When I asked the hotel employee in Canggu if she could recommend me a running route here in the area, she looked at me puzzled. At first I thought that she did not understand me linguistically. But that was not the case - my question must have irritated her a lot - that someone in the yoga hotspot asks for a running route does not seem to happen often. After I was not satisfied with her suggestion to run on the beach, she suggested to run to rice fields and but also warned me right away that I have to run a lot on roads to get there.
Since I'm not very familiar with this area, I followed the Google Maps route, which she had entered on my phone, and was curious to see what was in store for me. First I walked a really long distance on roads. Here in Indonesia there are no sidewalks - if you are lucky, there is a narrow strip next to the road on which you can walk, and sometimes you really have to walk directly on the road. Because the traffic here is anything but orderly, it stressed me out a bit and I didn't know if I should pay more attention to the traffic or the ground in front of me (with lots of bumps and holes). The hardest part for me was changing sides of the road on these busy streets. I think once I waited longer than 10min until I had my chance to cross them in a sprint.
After about 5 kilometers I luckily reached a quieter area. I still had to run on roads - but these led through small villages and left and right of me were mostly rice fields or small temples.

I followed this road further and it went downhill, there were more and more hotels right at the roadside. And then, right behind a curve the road ended and right in front of me was the sea - Pererenan Beach. After about 8 kilometers on the road and exposed to the direct sun, I really enjoyed the sea and the wind there and took a few minutes break.

Looking at the map, I then decided to walk back another way and walk as long as it is a nice area with quiet paths and roads. The not-so-nice part of the way back I would take a Grab (like Uber with us in Austria).
I just let myself be guided and then walked a bit along a very quiet stretch of beach. Then when cliffs appeared in front of me on the beach and the path didn't look like I could cross, I went back to a road and walked along rice fields away from the beach again. Just before I reached the main road again, I passed by a particularly magnificent temple, which had a large gilded dome.
Arrived at the main road (now I had already covered more than 13km) I then called as planned a grave, which then brought me the remaining distance back to my hotel.
In general, I already enjoyed running in Canggu. If I were to go running here again, I would probably have a Grab take me directly to a quieter area, do my lap there and then pick me up again and bring me back to the hotel. Grabs are very cheap here and this investment is worth it at best to escape the stress of being a runner on main roads. 😊
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