Evenings out from the Bali retreat

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Flametree retreat · Pondok Pisang, Candidasa · what there is after dark

The retreat itself has no alcohol and an early start, and that is rather the point of it. But a good many people arrive a day or two early, or stay on afterwards, and some bring a partner who is not doing the yoga at all. This page is for them.

None of this is part of the retreat and none of it is paid for by Flametree. It is here because Pondok Pisang turns out to be a very good base, and almost nobody realises what is within reach of it after dark. Guests have done every one of these.

Sketch map of south Bali showing where you can get to after dark from Pondok Pisang, with drive times to Candidasa, Sanur, Ubud, Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu — Where you can get to after dark, and how long each one takes. Sanur is the one to pick.

Open this map for your phone

Saving the map to your phone. Tap Open this map for your phone and the picture opens on its own. Then press and hold it and choose Add to Photos on an iPhone, or Download image on an Android. It then sits in your photos like any other picture, so you can show it to your driver on the night.

Five minutes away: Candidasa

You do not have to go anywhere. Candidasa is a short walk or a five minute drive, and there are a few places that stay open in the evening.

Candidasa Restaurant and Music Bar, which is exactly what the name says, and has live music on some nights.
New Queen Pub.
You and Me Lounge Bar.

Nobody is going to pretend Candidasa is a party town. What it has is a drink, a meal, sometimes a band, and a walk back along a quiet road. For a good many people that is the whole of what they want after a week of pranayama at a quarter to seven in the morning.

The one worth the drive: Sanur

If you want a proper night out, Sanur is the answer, and it is about an hour and three quarters to two hours down the coast.

A rendering of an open air beachfront restaurant in Bali at dusk, tables set on the sand under strung lanterns with the last of the sunset over a calm sea — Dinner on the sand at Sanur before the music starts. A rendering rather than a photograph.

Casablanca

A rendering of a warm open sided bar in Bali at night with a live band playing, lanterns overhead and a mixed crowd of adults dancing near the stage — A band, a dance floor and a crowd of every age, which is exactly what Casablanca is. A rendering rather than a photograph.

The busiest place in Sanur, and the reason to go.

Live bands every night from about 9pm, and a dance floor that fills up.
Open 5pm to 1am. Closed Sundays. Monday it opens at 6pm.
No cover charge at all. You walk in.
No dress code. Shorts and sandals are perfectly normal.
Happy hour Monday to Thursday, 5 to 8pm, with two-for-one cocktails and beer buckets.
Drinks are mid-range. Dearer than a warung, far cheaper than Seminyak.
The bands play disco, classic rock and mainstream pop, and the crowd is a good mix of ages, tourists, locals and expats together.

Linga Longa is the other live-band place in Sanur if you want somewhere else to move on to.

Why Sanur rather than the famous places. Sanur is live bands, cold drinks and a crowd that does not require a three in the morning finish. It is a two hour drive rather than three, there is no entry fee, and nobody is going to look at your shoes. For most people staying at Pondok Pisang it is simply the better night.

Two ways to do it

Dinner down there. Leave Pondok Pisang about 4.30pm, arrive Sanur about 6.30pm, eat on the beachfront, walk to Casablanca when the band starts at nine, leave about 11.30pm, home about 1.30am.

Dinner here first. Eat at Pondok Pisang or Sea Breeze, leave about 7.30pm, arrive around 9.30pm as the music starts, stay to closing, home about 3am.

What a night out costs

The night	Car hours	Car	Four sharing
Candidasa, dinner and a drink	3 to 4	about AUD $35	about $9 each
Sanur, dinner down there	about 9	about $90	about $23 each
Sanur, after dinner here	about 7.5	about $75	about $19 each
Kuta or Seminyak	about 11.5	about $115	about $29 each

Entry at Casablanca is free, so on a Sanur night the car plus dinner and drinks is the whole of it. That makes it cheaper per head than most of the day trips.

These car figures use about AUD $10 an hour, which is roughly IDR 125,000, and they include the waiting time. They are a planning guide, not a quote. Wayan gives the real price.

Arranging it with Wayan

Wayan will do a late night run, or arrange one of his drivers to. This is normal and he is used to it. Four things make it go smoothly.

Ask the day before, not on the night.
Agree the price up front, including the waiting. Waiting hours and driving hours are not the same thing to a driver, and this is the one place a night out gets expensive by surprise.
Make sure the driver has somewhere to wait and something to eat. Build it into the price rather than leaving him sitting in the car for four hours.
Not a Sunday, if Casablanca is where you are heading.

If you would rather we set it up, ask Chris while you are there, or ask us before you fly.

The rest of the island, briefly

So you know the lie of the land, rather than because we are recommending them.

Kuta and Legian, about two and a half hours. The famous one and the cheap one. Sky Garden and Engine Room are the landmark clubs. Beer runs about IDR 25,000 to 40,000, so two or three dollars. Loud, young, late.

Seminyak, two and a half to three hours. Polished rather than rowdy. Ku De Ta, Potato Head, La Favela. Cocktails about IDR 80,000 to 180,000, so six to fourteen dollars.

Canggu, about three hours. FINNS, Atlas, Old Man’s. The youngest crowd on the island, and too far to be sensible from here.

Ubud, about an hour and a half to two hours, and worth a separate word.

Ubud in the evening is a different proposition from Ubud in the daytime. We steer people away from Ubud during the day because the roads in are narrow and the traffic is unreliable. After about six in the evening that largely goes away. And Ubud is very yoga-friendly, so a number of our guests spend a night or two there before or after the retreat anyway. For live music rather than clubbing, Laughing Buddha, CP Lounge and the Jazz Cafe are the ones people mention. They finish earlier than the coast.

Getting home

The coast road at one in the morning is quiet, and it is a long drive in the dark. It is perfectly safe with a driver who knows it, which is exactly why you use Wayan or one of his people rather than whoever is outside the club.

Tell somebody at the resort roughly when you expect to be back, particularly if you are on your own.

And if you are practising in the morning, the six forty-five pranayama comes around remarkably fast.

Where to next

The free half-day tour in the middle of the retreat, which Flametree pays for, is on the free afternoon page.

Bigger days out at your own cost, from Lake Batur to golf to the Liberty shipwreck, are on the full day trips page.

Adding an island at either end is on the islands page.

Everything about the retreat itself is on the retreat information page.

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