Vegan Falafels and Waterfalls

A couple of hours along the coast and we stopped again, in a little place called Anturan which is just 10 min drive from Lovina.

Most people come to this area for the dolphin watching but not us! Neither of us, as vegans and dolphin lovers, had any desire to chase dolphins in noisy motor boats. No, we came to here for the vegan falafels! Ok, not strictly true, but once we found them, we did find it hard to leave and so we didn’t.

Peaceful beach at Lovina

The afore mentioned falafels were found in a great veggie restaurant (oh how we’ve missed you vegetarian restaurants) called ‘Akar Cafe’ run by a really nice English woman. Not only were the vegan falafels decidedly yummy, but they came with some oh-so-fresh salads and some oh-so-tasty hummus.

Akar Cafe in Lovina

Delicious falafels at Akar Cafe

At home, Caryl and her extraordinarily brilliant work colleagues used to like to indulge in ‘Falafel Fridays’ which would involve a trip to the local Friday market to get falafels for lunch. We would have sophisticated conversations about the makeup of the perfect falafel and so we like to think of ourselves as people who take eating falafels seriously.

That said, we really, really rated the falafels at Akar, so much so that we had them 3 times during our week long stay, accompanied by a very tasty and hugely exciting vegan pancake for dessert.

Vegan pancakes!!!

Putu’s warung in Lovina – lovely people and tasty food!

Very-very good gado-gado

The only thing stopping us from eating there every day was a little local warung owned by a nice Baliniese man named Putu. His daughter made possibly the best gado gado salad I’ve had in Bali, the secret being in the freshly made peanut sauce where the spices and peanuts are ground up by hand (so Putu tells us). Note to self: learn to make amazing satay sauce at some stage when we have a kitchen again…

Lovina is a nice spot to explore the surrounding attractions (when you aren’t eating falafels) and we went on a great trip out to Menjangin Island snorkelling which was fun and was accompanied by this seafaring vegan meal which is a great reminder to always ask for vegan stuff in advance.

Crystal clear waters of Menjangan Island

Our vegan lunch on the snorkelling trip

We also decided to visit a waterfall at exactly the same time that a huge rain storm decided to begin. Paul became incredibly chipper and tried to motivate Caryl to enjoy the walk to the Sekumpet Waterfalls which would be beautiful on a sunny day but was less enjoyable when soaked through and wearing a borrowed plastic poncho.

No comment!

Caryl descended into a grumpy sulk only to be rescued by a huge plate of ‘nasi goring’ (fried rice) at the end when we got back to the restaurant where we parked our car. We love the fact that you can get this simple rice dish anywhere in Bali meaning a hearty vegan meal is never too far away.

It might be worth noting at this stage that Caryl is also starting to hate the car. It’s quirky roller skate cuteness still remains but sitting in the boiling heat on the plastic seats, sweating profusely has become a bit tiresome. It has air-con but as it has just about as much power as a roller skate, all energy is needed to keep the engine turning when going up steep and curvy ‘roads’ (which are actually sometimes very bumpy, narrow, stony tracks through jungle thanks to the useless nature of Apple Maps directions).