Bali was a destination that I wanted to visit since the big C took over the world in 2020. I have spent a fair share of lockdown hours watching vlogs and reading blogs about the life of living and working in Bali. When my partner and I were planning our South East Asia trip, it was a no-brainer that we’ll spend some time there.
We have decided to spend 3 weeks in total — two of which were remote work and one just vacationing.
This is the first of a series of articles, that will cover my recent trip to Bali. Follow for more. 😄
Mornings — exploring and adventuring 🏄♀
Just to set the scene, we are both Berlin-based techies, working for remote-friendly companies with flexible working hours. Bali is 7 hours ahead of Berlin (in November when we were there). This allowed us, to have the morning just for ourselves and explore the island, and start working in the afternoon.
We aimed to wake up early-ish, have some small breaky at home, get ready, hop on our moped, and off we go exploring! We were based in Canggu, the expat capital of Bali. Luckily Canggu is also one of the beginner-friendly spots for surfing too! And yes, you guessed it right, that is what we did in the mornings — catching some early, baby waves on Canggu Beach. 🤙🏻
We used one of the local schools there, called Old Mans Surf. The guys were super friendly and professional. We paid 250000 IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), for a one-to-one 2-hour class. It included a personal instructor, a board, protection clothing, and water at the end of the class. Highly recommend these guys if you are looking for a surfing instructor in Bali.
There were days when we were just driving around and exploring some of the local sights. One of those spots was Tanah Lot — a Hindu temple, just 30 minutes to an hour moped drive from Canggu.
The temple is a super famous and popular sunset spot. Although I’m sure the view of the sunset is amazing, we wanted to leverage our free time in the morning, so we went there during the day. There are not so many shaded areas, so don’t forget your hats and sunscreen. 👒
Note: Since we are not Hindu, we weren’t allowed to enter the temple itself, but we were able to go to the small island where the temple is and enjoy the views from there.
Afternoons — work time! 💻
During the 2 weeks of remote work, our office was all sorts of local brunch cafes and/or coworking places. We’d usually start our work day around 1 pm, local Bali time. This allowed us to have some focused, meeting-free time before the Berliners woke up and started with the daily rituals. Some of our favorite spots were:
- Sari Kitchen and Community — a coworking-friendly eatery, near Canggu Beach. I really loved their smoothie bowls. 😍
- Koast Cafe — at the time this was a newly opened cafe. They have a small pool, where you can jump in between meetings to refresh yourself. 😄
- PUCO Rooftop Coworking Space —a coworking spot, a bit on the outskirts of Canggu, that also had a small restaurant in it. They organize community events, so it’s a nice place to meet other expats.
Always read the reviews (we used Google reviews) when picking your coworking spot. Make sure they have a good and stable internet connection (in case you need to do calls), as well as AC. Bali has a tropical climate after all and having some cool air is always great. 😄
Evenings — relax and wrap up work 😴
We took it easy in the evenings. We usually would order food from some local, Indonesian/Balinese restaurant, and eat it in our villa. There were days when we treated ourselves with massages or went to the beach for some sunset walks. We were usually wrapping up work around midnight, to catch our Berlin colleagues for some last meetings of the day.
Although it sounds like a pretty simple day, I must say that every day was super eventful and I enjoyed every moment of it. I found myself much more productive working from cafes and coworking places, so I might make it a habit and do the same when I’m back in Berlin.
The next articles will cover more about activities we did during the weekends and our vacation part of the trip. So stay tuned! 😸
