Working remotely from Bali is as awesome as you’d think, but.
I know that when there’s a “but” in the middle of a sentence, all that comes before is usually bullshit. Try and forget about this common-sense rule while I tell you about my experience working remotely from Ubud, Bali in Summer 2017.
Everything before the “but”
I had been to Bali twice before, always on holiday, and loved it from the very first day. So as I was making my way to Italy (my homeland) from Melbourne (where I lived for 3 years), renting a villa and working from Ubud, Bali for a while, like a true digital nomad, seemed like a great alternative to the usual 3-day stopover to decompress in between long-haul flights.
I had heard about Hubud, a co-working space in the most spiritual, yogi-friendly town in Bali—Ubud. So after a week of holidaying/getting set up with scooters and stuff, I signed up and started working from there.
The atmosphere at Hubud is one of a kind. People from all over the world gather there to get their work done in a bamboo house that’s the perfect mix of Balinese culture (shoes off before entering, coconuts, monkeys climbing up the electric posts just outside of the space) and all that’s good about the tech-hipster world of today (good internet connection, good coffee and all sorts of hippie organic food). Your workstation can literally overlook one of Bali’s legendary rice fields.
Plus, the variety of people you meet there is heartwarming. From freelancers travelling around the world to people who actually decided to move to Bali permanently and set up their business there (Italians included!), you’ll get to meet some really friendly and clever people. Networking opportunities are just a “Hi, nice to meet you” away, and the staff is made of awesome locals. They organise all sorts of socialising/learning events and do all they can to nourish and grow a sort of little big family.
Everything you’ve heard about the joys of remote work can be experienced in Hubud. The idyllic setting is perfect to boost creativity, productivity, and happiness in general. I cannot recommend it more. Plus, it’s just a 5-minute walk from The Yoga Barn, a very popular yoga studio where I had some of the most amazing (albeit crowded) yoga classes of my life.
And if you feel like a change of setting from time to time, the Ubud area is packed with lovely remote-work-friendly cafés and warungs with good wifi, excellent coffee and amazing food. One of my favourites was WAMM, not far from my villa, near Bophut village. Other highlights include Watercress (great smoothie bowl), Seniman coffee studio (best coconut cappuccino I’ve ever had), and Clear Cafe (the whole menu is amazing, and the place itself is just fabulous). Alchemy, Vespa Cafe and many others in Penestanan village are great too.
Surrounded by the lush tropical nature of the island, the frangipani trees, and the scent of the incense used for the ever-present offerings to the gods—you’ll feel so far away from the crazy pointless rat race of the big capitalist cities, and way more connected with yourself and everything around you.
My villa was in a little village just a 10-minute scooter ride from the center of Ubud. It was a lovely two-storey house with an outside kitchen and a pool, and it overlooked the rice fields. My morning scooter ride to work included taking a little shortcut right next to the monkey forest. It’s probably my favourite memory: you’re on the scooter and there’s monkeys jumping from tree to tree wherever you look. If this is not a 100% Balinese experience I don’t know what is!
Ubud is in the jungle, and the closest beach is about 1 hour away. To enjoy some beach life, I spent 5 days in Amed, a little seafaring village on the Eastern coast, very popular among divers. I worked from there too, and the view was quite exceptional.
Sunsets are magical in Amed. You can enjoy a drink at a bar on a hilltop while staring at all the shades of sunset, with good old Mount Agung in the background. Great memories.
Like in the rest of Bali, food is cheap. But in Ubud, food is also really, really good and really, really top-quality. Scouting for organic, macrobiotic, vegan, healthy restaurants is one of the activities I enjoyed the most. If you’re into healthy eating, you’ll enjoy not only the variety but also the quality of the food. Obviously it’s still Bali—you need to know where to go, do a bit of research maybe, but the average restaurant is not only safe but also incredibly yummy.
Let’s move to the stuff after the “but”.
Health
Be aware of a very important thing that Instagram stories and Medium posts don’t mention: Bali is a tropical island, and in Ubud you’ll be in the heart of the jungle. There are health hazards everywhere you look—and beyond.
Disclaimer: my health isn’t the best. I have quite a weak stomach, and am just pretty fragile in general. So this obviously doesn’t apply to everyone. But the health-related risks are there and need to be taken into account.
Being a tropical country, the island is home to a pool of bacteria that are unknown to your organism. And to quote an American chiropractor I met who’s been living there for 10 years now, “the bacteria are not just in the food and in the water, they’re in the air”. When I had my first episode of stomach shenanigans, all the expats at Hubud were telling me stuff along the lines of: “We all go through that from time to time, it’s normal”, “Consider yourself lucky, I was like that for my first two months here” and “ Don’t worry, you’ll be fine soon”.
You all know the drill: wash your hands like all the time, especially before eating, keep a hand sanitiser in your pocket, don’t eat in dodgy/run-down-looking warungs, avoid ice, don’t drink tap water, don’t pet the stray dogs…
But watch out, because that’s not always enough. It wasn’t enough for me, at least—and after talking to a few people there, I know it’s not enough for many others.
I ended up having stomach issues almost the whole time, and in the end I had to be taken to a clinic where they gave me a high dosage of antibiotics because of a severe bacterial infection. I felt terribly sick, feverish, and the bad bacteria that colonised my gut are apparently still lingering 4 months after leaving the country.
I highly recommend bringing some probiotics with you (look for the ones that don’t need to be refrigerated). Some people just take them as soon as they land, but you should at least start as soon as you feel like your stomach isn’t right. Also, washing your hands is not enough. Use the hand sanitiser very frequently, especially after going to the bathroom—and by this I mean after you’ve closed the bathroom door behind you. Handles/door knobs are some of the dirtiest things you’ll touch. Also, always use it after handling money.
Fauna
If you’re not a fan of insects, Ubud will be a challenge. I’ve seen massive spiders outside of my house, in restaurant bathrooms and hotel rooms. I’ve seen snakes in 5-star hotels and was warned not to walk through rice fields to avoid unwanted hissing encounters. Monkeys are famous for biting tourists or just whoever’s holding something that looks like food (you’ll need an anti rabies vaccine if they bite you), and roosters will wake you up at 5am.
When looking for a place to stay, we asked the owners how well the house was sealed (gaps between doors and floors, open-air bathrooms) and we had to make some adjustments upon arrival too. The pool was a very cool thing to have, but it attracted a lot of very big bees as well as frogs—not that frogs are scary or dangerous, but sometimes we’d find one or two in the kitchen. We also had a bat who created a nest on the kitchen ceiling. Again, these animals have their own place in the world and I was a guest in their country, so I don’t want to sound like the classic disrespectful westerner, but I know my limits. I can’t do spiders. And other animals may carry who knows what weird bacteria that my stomach can’t handle. So this is, again, something to keep in mind.
Walking ATMs
If you’ve been to Bali on holiday, you already know. Mass tourism has done terrible things to this amazing island. In my most pessimistic days, you’ll hear me say we’ve ruined it for good. Even if it’s not your fault directly, and you’re committed to respecting the place and the locals, know that a lot of them will consider you just another random tourist. Someone who’s there to get super drunk on cheap cocktails, buy 2-dollar Bintang t-shirts and pretty much crap all over their traditions and values.
I can’t criticise those who feel that way: I’ve seen both Kuta and Seminyak (the most touristy areas) and was left with little-to-no hope for humankind.
The result of this, however, is that you’ll often feel they’re treating you like a “walking ATM” (to quote this guy). Everyone will try and make you pay two, three, four times more than you’re supposed to. They’ll be as friendly as possible, make you laugh, ask you where you’re staying and how much you’re paying for rent—just to get an idea of exactly how much money they can steal from you. Considering the overall big picture, I don’t blame them. That’s what we’ve made them think we’re good for. It just sucks when you’re not “one of those tourists” but you’re being treated like one, constantly.
(Goes without saying: just like we’re not all crappy tourists, the locals are not all scammers. I’ve met some genuinely good, kind-hearted and friendly people and you will too. Not trying to describe a whole population here.
For example: one night I was watching a religious ceremony happening right next to my house. It was full of locals. A woman holding a baby walked up to me and asked me my name, where I was from, and let me play with her baby and laughed with me for a good 15 minutes. She could barely speak English, but her warmth and joy didn’t need to be expressed with words).
Roots and a place to call home
Moving to a new country, working there and developing habits and a routine is never easy. It’s already difficult enough when you move with the intention of staying there for years. When there’s a very well-defined end date to the experience, you don’t have time to make your home really “feel like home”, because it’s temporary. You can meet people and hang out with them, but if you’re someone like me who doesn’t make friends in a couple of weeks, it will end up being more stressful than anything. Many of the people you meet are just passing by (like you) and being an extrovert ends up being a key prerequisite if you want to make friends. I’m an introvert, so short-term friendships are very difficult for me.
If anything, this experience taught me that I enjoy having a place to call home. When you’re there for just one, two, three months, you don’t have the time to feel like “this is familiar” to you. And for me—I’ve learned—this is important. I take time to develop a relationship with the environment I live in—I need to digest and process all the inputs I receive from the outside to learn how to establish “my place” in it. Other people just “roll with it” and probably don’t give this too much importance—these people will thrive in a digital-nomad lifestyle. And I think it’s great—but it’s something that I could do and enjoy only for a short period of time.
This is all to say that I’d recommend this experience to everyone—it’s a beautiful thing to do at least once in a lifetime. You’ll learn so many things about yourself, about the world, about other people, and you’ll bring those learnings home with you—wherever you decide your next home will be.
Just be prepared: when you come back and tell the story of your experience, you may find yourself saying it was amazing and you’re super happy you did it… but.
