My first month as a Digital Nomad in Bali
Hey everyone!
It’s already been one month since I’m working from Canggu, Bali. I wanted to write a blog post to give you a feedback about my life here. It may make you want you to come here, and that’s the goal 😄 Bali is amazing!
Holidays
I started this trip by 10 days of holidays with my friends.
We landed in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, which is located on Java Island.
Here we immediately took a flight to Yogakartha, in order to visit Borobudur temple! We woke up at 2 AM to see the sunrise, and we enjoyed the beautiful view of this temple:
Then we took another flight to go to Bromo Volcano, a volcano at the east of Java Island. Same story here, we woke up at 2 AM to go at the top of a mountain in front of the volcano to see the sunrise on it. The view is really worth it!
Finally, we took another flight to Denpasar, Bali.
In Bali, we did Ubud, to see Tegallalang Rice Terraces:
And went to Amed on the north-east of the Island to go snorkeling:
And finally, my friend left me in Canggu, and went back to France! Canggu is located on the west coast of Bali:
Rent
When I arrived in Canggu, I needed to find a room I can rent monthly. My criteria were:
- Not too expensive (Max 350€ per month)
- Walking distance from the beach and Dojo
So on the first day, I just went at Old’s Man to take a beer on the beach. In about 5 minutes, I met some guys, and they proposed me to go to their residence for a party there. I followed them, and discovered the owner still had one room available 😄 So I visited the room, and took it!
Here is the residence, and the private pool:
Here is my room!
And here is my street
For that room, I pay around 318€ per month (5.5 millions IDR).
They told me that next month I’m going to be kicked out of this room, but they’ll give me a cheaper one in this residence (😁), that will cost me only 200€ per month, so that’s really great.
I’m exactly 8 minutes walk from Batu Bolong Beach, and 5 minutes walk from Dojo Bali, the coworking space where I work.
My room is cleaned everyday, and they provide water, toilet paper, towel, it’s like a hotel that I pay monthly 😉
Food
No debate here, the food is amazing in Bali, and crazy cheap! I eat at the restaurant all the time, and never ate at home yet. Depending where you go, the food cost:
- 5k for a street food seller on a motorbike (0,28€)
- 15k/30k for a local Indonesian Warung (90cts/1€60)
- 50k/100k if you go to more “hipster/touristic” restaurant (2€85/5€70)
I’m going most of the time to little indonesian Warung because I like the Indonesian food and i’s cheap!
I’m happy to live just next to Warung Sika, a really good Warung with prices starting at 14k.
Here are a few pictures of the food.
A Smoothie Bowl with Bali’s fruits at Cocomo Canggu:
Warung Sika, great Nasi Campur for 24k:
Healthy Avocado Salad in Alter Ego in front of Dojo:
Money
The currency here is the Indonesian Roupiah (IDR), and today 1€ = 17 000 IDR.
You can often pay by card in Bali, but most places will add a 3% fee on top of that, so I just pay everything by cash.
I use Revolut to withdraw money here (Revolut is life here, get one card if you don’t have one already), and it gaves me the best rate and no fees.
ATM skimming are frequent here, so by paying with Revolut I can keep my card “frozen” most of the time, and I just unblock it when I need it. So even if my card is copied, the guy won’t be able to use it.
In 1.5 months in Indonesia, I haven’t been skimmed (yet) 🙂
Work & Internet
As I told you, I’m working from Dojo Bali, a coworking space located in Canggu, just near Echo beach.
This is a typical morning for me at Dojo:
Internet is powered by 6 optic fiber, but the speed depends of the moment of the day. Dojo often get crowded in the afternoon and the speed goes down as more people are on the Wi-Fi. But on most of the day internet is just great!
In Skype meeting rooms, you have Ethernet cables so the speed is just perfect for calls. Don’t forget your Ethernet adapter if you have a Mac 😉
You can work in Café as well, there are many great cafe in Canggu and they all have Wi-Fi. I discovered recently the app “Wifi Map” that crowdsource every Wi-Fi on earth, share passwords and display Wi-Fi speed. Download the app and you’ll see that many cafe have awesome Wi-Fi! For example, I discovered recently that “Avocado Factory” just near where I live has a Wi-Fi with 40Mbps, sweet!
Mobile Internet
Mobile internet in Indonesia is really great, and super cheap.
The best carrier is Telkomsel, and you have LTE all around Bali with really great speed (I have 40Mbps in 4G most of the time).
Now, the price: I paid 100k (5,70€) at the airport for 1 SIM card + 20gb of data all around Indonesia for 1 month. Super deal!
This month I upgraded to 40gb a month for 10€/month, but I think I’m going to downgrade because it’s too much.
The fun thing is that it’s not like in Europe/US, they’re not connected to your card, and you have to recharge every month by going to a store selling internet package 😛 I find it great because you are more flexible, and can reduce/upgrade your mobile data at any time.
Visa
You have different options. If you stay 6 months in Bali without living the country, you can apply for a 6 months social visa. This is not what I did!
I took a simple Visa On Arrival (VOA) at the airport for 35$, that allows me to stay 1 month in the country. Then I did a visa extension with an agent, Visa4Bali, for 650k (37€). I had to go one morning to Jimbaran to give my fingerprints, and now I’m able to stay 1 month more in Bali.
With the VOA + extension, I’m able to stay 60 days in a row in Bali, then I have to do a Visa run.
So I’m going 4 days in Singapore in 2 week to renew my Visa. Some people go to Kuala Lumpur, that’s another option.
Meeting people & Going out
The really good thing about Dojo Bali is that the community is amazing! Every month, you have Dojo’s BBQ, a party at the coworking place with a great barbecue (the meat is just amazing) and open drinks (beers, cocktails, shots!).
People here are all welcoming and open-minded, and you make many friends super easily.
Every friday night, there is Dojo “Beach & beers”, where you can meet Dojo members. Always a great night!
Even outside Dojo community, you meet many people in Bali because there are lots of tourist and long term traveler here. Just go at Old’s Man on Wednesday night and you’ll understand 😛 There are many beach club here as well, like “The Lawn” just next to Old’s Man.
Most parties ends at the Sand Bar (directly on Batu Bolong Beach) that plays music until 4 AM.
Massage
If you like massage, Bali is a great place to go! The cheapest massage I had was “60k for 60minutes”, which is 3€80 for 1 hour of massage in a Spa, not bad! 😄
But you can get more fancy massages: 4 hands massage, deep tissue, aromatherapy, foot massage.
The best massage I had was in Amed, in a Spa on top of a hill, it was 130k (7,5€) for more than one hour masssage in a really great environnement. The spa was kind of open so we had the lights of the sunset 🌄
Traffic
This is the only point I don’t like in Bali. The traffic when you want to move from one city to another is really bad. There are hundreds of scooters everywhere, and many people have accident here.
That’s why I tried to be at walking distance from everything.
But sometimes I need to ride a scooter, so I just rent one for a day (50k a day/2,85€) and try to drive carefully.
My budget
This is my budget for this first 4 months in Bali. It includes everything I pay, not just my spending in Bali. This means there are all my online subscriptions (iCloud, Revolut, mobile phone FR & indonesian).
- October is a little bit more expensive because I’m going to Singapore for my Visa run so I pay 109€ of flight (two-way) + 88€ for 3 days of hotel here (and I’m going to sleep in a spaceship, yes)
- I’m doing my laundry every week, and it costs me 35k (for my clothes cleaned + ironed!)
- I’m back in France in December to get my Engineer Diploma + Christmas
- “Education” is my budget for books, online courses or movies. I read on my Kindle because books are too heavy for a minimalist traveler 😄
My feedback about Bali
My feedback is really simple: Life is great here! 🏖️ Food is amazing, weather is amazing, people are great!
Before going to Bali, I was living in Paris and was commuting hours per day in the metro.
Now, my day starts by waking up with the sun ☀️ at 6 AM, walking 5 minutes to work, working the whole morning in a nice environnement near the beach.
Around 11:30, I go out and eat at the restaurant with my friends of Dojo, and after I usually have a nap at my pool.
I go back to work after my nap, work until 5 PM and then go swimming/surfing at the beach until sunset around 6:15 PM.
After that I go eating outside/have a drink/just chill on the beach!
Questions
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments below 🙂
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