Being vegan at home is a cinch, piece of cake, no problem. You are in control of what you eat, what’s in the fridge, and you have the time, the ingredients and the tools to cook many things you have never tried before. Not that vegan cooking is hard, in fact it’s super easy, but it does sometimes require a little imagination if you are not used to it.
Travelling however, as I found out last week, is a different kettle of fish. I have just taken my first trip away post-COVID lockdowns. I was so excited to have a change of scenery and be going on holiday; domestic, but exciting nonetheless as this is Indonesia! My trip involved airports, flying and being at the mercy of hotels and restaurants for food 24/7, a totally new challenge on my vegan journey.
Let’s start at the airport. It didn’t help that most of the coffee shops and restaurants were closed due to lack of customers. We ended up in the airline lounge, with very limited snack choices. What I needed most was a coffee. No milk alternatives available of course, but that was OK, I just had an espresso from their machine. What I din’t expect was that without having had a big milky coffee, I was actually hungry on the plane! The special budget-strapped COVID-era airline service means no special meals, and of course the meagre savoury sandwich had meat in, so I ended up with a granola bar and a small piece of cake (which probably had milk or egg in, ho-hum). After that I was still hungry, but also had a sugar crash coming as well. Note to self, take snacks on the plane next time.
We stayed our first night on Sanur Beach in Bali. A relaxing walk along the beach, rewarded us with blue sky and sea views, heaven after 6 months straight of Jakarta air. We took late afternoon drinks and snacks at a great place right on the beach called Genius Cafe. I highly recommend it, they had vegan options for most things on the menu including the pizza’s, which was a very pleasant surprise.
The resort we stayed at was the lovely Puri Santrian, a locally owned place right on the beach, and sadly one of the few resorts that was still open and bravely trying to eke out a return from the few tourists around. Their menu however was not so vegan friendly, or even vegetarian. For dinner, I had to ask them to veg-ise a caesar salad, which still had mayo and parmesan on. The main course was better, as they gladly left the chicken out of the Thai curry. Food challenges notwithstanding, the restaurant was in a great setting with friendly staff, and it was a treat to have cocktails on the beach.
For breakfast, the continental option included fruit and a piece of toast, so far so vegan, but it also came with a plateful of delicious looking pastries. I was weak, I caved, and ate a croissant. Oops.
Guiltily fortified, we made our way to the ferry to Nusa Lembongan, our main holiday destination. Nusa Lembongan is a small island off the south coast of Bali, popular with surfers, scuba-divers and those looking for a barefoot beach experience. We had been to this beautiful island once before and loved the diving. We figured it would be a safe and easy test-run of the COVID-travel protocols in Indonesia, and it was. It was also very devoid of tourists, meaning social distancing was very, very easy. As with Sanur Beach many of the hotels and restaurants were closed and choices were limited for dining.
We quickly slipped into a blissful island routine. Early breakfast, followed by diving (thank you to Two Fish Divers), then lunch, a few hours sleeping/reading/relaxing, then watching the locals fly kites and sunset on the beach before dinner. A hard life…
But back to the food. Lunch was easy, delicious and vegan. Nasi Campur is a staple Indonesian dish, and the name literally means “rice with everything”. For the meat eaters, “everything” included chicken and fish. My vegan version came with tempeh, tofu and veggies, perfect! The only places open for dinner were either the local warungs (family owned street-food style resturants) or places serving a western menu. As good as Nasi Campur is, I didn’t feel I needed it for every meal, so we went to the western places, in particular an amazingly organised place called Lemongrass, with awesome food and service. I generally stuck to the pasta’s which were always vegetarian, but usually had sprinkling of parmesan on. Not quite vegan, but not too far away either.
But breakfast… oh dear. Our accomodation was at a small place with about 4 rooms, and one young Balinese girl seemed to be taking care of everything. Breakfast was provided, but there was no choices or options (except not to eat it). Every morning, I was presented with a plate of eggs, with either 1 piece of toast or a small piece of banana cake. There was nowhere else open to eat, I didn’t want to go diving unfortified, and she had already cooked it, and so I ate the egg’s. I did try and tell her that I was vegan and didn’t eat egg’s, but the next day there they were again. Did I feel bad – yes. Could I have made more effort to find a plan B – probably. In future, I shall try to declare my dietary preferences, both before we arrive, and on checking in, so there are no surprises. Maybe that will give a better chance of success?
I was pleased, however, that I had had the foresight to take with me some small cartons of soy milk as dairy milk was not widely available, and there was certainly no milk-alternatives in the stores on the island, thus I did have milky tea and coffee with no drama at all. A small win after my breakfast defeat.
So what did I learn? As expected, travelling and eating out as a vegan is quite hard and does require some planning, some work-arounds, some menu wrangling and the odd-compromise. My biggest take-away is that I will have to get used to explaining to waiters what a vegan diet is. You cannot be shy and expect a vegan meal. I thought I had this skill mastered with being vegetarian for so long, but in this part of the world vegan-ism is not well understood at present, and so it takes a whole other level of patience and persistence.
Now that domestic travel is permitted to most places in Indonesia, we intend to travel more often, and I am looking forward to finding new vegan travelling hacks to share with you all.
If you have any good tips or tricks for vegan travelling, I’d love to hear from you. Post your comments below or leave a message on my facebook page. Happy Dairy-free travelling!
Letter from Jakarta. 