I would like to live in Bali.

Arak17 wrote:

Hello

I noticed that this post as many others are outdated, anyway is there someone who is planning to move to Indonesia next October or November ?

Indonesia is a less than popular destination (Not Bali) for several reasons, most being the difficulty in finding legal work.
Before you make plans, make sure you have plenty of cash or a legal job with work permit and visa sorted out. Your chances of finding legal work after arrival are limited.

If it's just a holiday, I gather Moroccans can get a 30 day VOA but that should be checked as the country list changes from time to time.

Hey Fred

Thank you, I know it's hard but maybe with a remoting work thing's should be a bit easier don't you think ?

Kind regards

You would really need a work permit for remote working but talk to immigration and get their opinion.
If they decide it isn't an issue, you're fine.

Hi Fred

Still I'll have to deal with the visa issues because I'm planning to stay for more than 2 months, by the way I saw your profile mate very interesting, well I'm thinking of getting married to an Indonesian or Malaysian woman and settle in one of those 2 countries if I have a chance ... so you (maybe) know the story better than me.

Cheers

Haha.....choose an Indonesian woman and live in Indonesia.

I'm not really sure about that yet, I need to go there and have a sense of the cultures and people there.

Just another quick point to make about living in Bali is that it is a whole lot more expensive theses days than it was when I first moved here.  In other words, it's important to set a realistic budget.  I've seen expats ebb and flow like the tide here, and the vast majority of those that were forced to leave, had to reckon with this harsh reality.

Hi Ubudian

Thank you for the info, hope  you can make it more clear please, and give me some  estimations about the cost of daily life for a minimalist single male.

Best regards.

Depends how minimalist you want to go.
Locals commonly earn less than 5 million Rupiah per month - that's quite a lot of minimalism .
I lived on 2 million a month for 3 years, but that was very simple village life.

Thank you Fred your Comments are awesome, maybe I need to talk to you two on PM about this if you please. your experiences and years of living there is interesting.

Arak17 wrote:

Thank you Fred your Comments are awesome, maybe I need to talk to you two on PM about this if you please. your experiences and years of living there is interesting.

I prefer the open forums so everyone can see the questions and answers.

Okay as you wish, in that case I don't have any more questions for you thank you

In answer to Arak's request for more specificity, providing details is next to impossible as it all depends where in Bali you want to live.  That being said, the cheapest manner of life on Bali for an expat is to find a family where you can arrange a long duration home stay in their compound.  That sort of arrangement is more available in the less developed areas of Bali, such as the central highlands and western Bali.  That sort of arrangement also mandates learning Indonesian at the least, and at best, also learning Balinese.   

“Locals commonly earn less than 5 million Rupiah per month - that's quite a lot of minimalism”

That's true enough Fred, but in Bali, with family compound living, you often will have three or more adults living in that compound, each at least earning that monthly wage, and each contributing to the overall cost of living.  It is still commonplace here for males to never move out of their family compound, each male bringing into the compound the woman they marry.

Hi Ubudian

Great stuff as always, thank you man you are awesome, I liked the idea of preserving the culture of places thing that unfortunately lot of tourists and expats don't respect.

I'm happy to hear that you enjoy my input. 

Before you seriously consider taking the plunge and moving to Bali you might consider spending a month or two here and exploring every corner of this very diverse island.  Bali has always had a well deserved reputation of being a place where most anyone can find what they want...and it's doubtful that will change in foreseeable future. 

Cheers!   

Yeah sure that's the Idea my man, 2 month is a key player.

All I can say is that Bali is changing and the number of Chinese tourists are increasing in numbers exponentially as Indonesia taps into their market. Perhaps your business ideas should be weighted accordingly as they are the new income stream for the future.

Actually, it's the opening up of free visas on arrival to some 160 or so countries that is having the greatest impact on Bali.  It's going to take a while before there is enough accumulated data to make good decisions regarding target marketing towards any particular group of tourists.

Interesting point- I'll put my $5 on the Chinese 😊 Check back in 12 months 👍🏻

I don't know how much you know about Bali, but the Chinese, both from the PRC and Taiwan have been regular tourists arrivals here for some time.  The Bali Hotels Association has on-line data by month going back to 2002.  As it is, there is a significant portion of the tourism industry on Bali dedicated to Chinese tourists who tend to travel by group tours. 

Their specific needs are well satisfied by businesses here which are largely owned by Chinese-Indonesians, and IMHO, for an expat who isn't Chinese...this is a tough area to compete with.

I worked in China for 5 years and an expat here for another 5. They will be coming in numbers that will blow your mind. I noted that in 1Q 2017 the numbers of Chinese tourists outnumbered the Australians for the first time. I'm no expert- just saying they are coming in big numbers in the next few years. 😊

What I'm trying to explain Dave is that the Chinese, particularly from the PRC, are most generally not independent travelers.  They are almost exclusively tour oriented, and these tours book in hotels geared for them (some Mandarin speaking staff), and eat in restaurants where their bus tours take them.  To be blunt, their business is not particularly lucrative, and there is little incentive for investors or businesses in the hospitality industry in Bali to gear their business specifically for the Chinese tourist. 

I'm simply conveying the thoughts and attitudes of the many expats I know, as well as my own Balinese family, who are involved in the tourism industry here in Bali.  I don't know anyone who is even remotely thinking about changing their businesses, or expanding them to cater to the Chinese market.

I know a guy with a large hotel on Bali - wonder if the thought of aiming at Chinese tour operators has hit him.
I'll mention it.

I agree with you both. Simple business changes like signage, menus, room cards make a world of difference for the discerning Chinese tourist. And agreed- many travel in groups due to language and cultural differences.

Just for the sake of clarity, since the subject of this thread is Bali, and this thread is posted on the Bali forum, all of my comments have been specific to Bali.  Other areas of Indonesia may well be more suitable than Bali insofar as developing a tourism infrastructure geared toward a specific origin of tourists…viz, Chinese, but that is not Bali.

At no time in the history of tourism on Bali, which has its beginnings with the English and Dutch steam ship companies of the very early 20th century, has Bali engineered it's approach to tourism to accommodate any specific ethnic group or nationality.  That isn't about to change regardless of how many would be tourists from any particular group are “knocking on the door.”  Moreover, it is this unique approach to tourism on Bali which is an essential part of Bali's amazing success as a tourist destination.  BTW, that success was just recently acknowledged by Bali being named as the world's number 1 best tourist destination:

http://www.businesstoday.in/current/wor … 48541.html

We are used to periodic waves of particular tourists coming here over the years…Australians, Japanese, Russian, etc.  These “waves” come and go, and they'll most likely continue to come and go in the future. 

It is with this history and these facts in mind that I would most assuredly not encourage a would be new expat to Bali to formulate a long term business plan or strategy geared towards any one particular origin of tourist.

Ubudian wrote:

I'm simply conveying the thoughts and attitudes of the many expats I know, as well as my own Balinese family, who are involved in the tourism industry here in Bali.  I don't know anyone who is even remotely thinking about changing their businesses, or expanding them to cater to the Chinese market.

I hope that Bali will not try to target more tourists from Mainland China. I travel a lot, and one of the worst things is finding that you are staying at a hotel full of Mainland Chinese tourists or visiting the same places as them. I'm talking about their loud voices, lack of manners, not understanding the concept of queuing, throwing litter everywhere, spitting on the ground, loud burping, etc etc etc. In fact, in many of the places where I travel overseas the locals that I know or meet often grumble about tourists from China. Taiwanese tourists are far better behaved and I have no objection to more coming to Bali.

So while targeting Mainland Chinese tourists may earn restaurants and hotels lots of money, I pray that their numbers will not increase in Bali. It would be sad to visit Bali and hear Chinese being spoken everywhere.

I was trying to keep my comments a bit more PC.      But your observations have already been duly noted here as well. 

Five or so years back Bali was being inundated by Russian tourists.  It went so far as Cyrillic being added to street signs in some of the areas down south.

Suffice it to say that it wasn't long before they were banned from a number of hotels.  Too bad in one way...as I rather enjoyed watching the young Russian gals showing up for breakfast in their bikinis and high heels!   

Hopefully the Balinese will limit signs in Chinese writing to within the Airport.

You can count on that...and in particular, the sign warning of death to drug smugglers. 

Hello guys,

I'd like to live at Bali.
Because some financial issues, i need a job at Bali 1st. Any helps or information for job or place to live?
Or maybe new friends/community for sharing.

Thanks alot.

I guess I am lucky being over 65, a yearly retirement visa is so easy to get but now you have to show proof of health insurance and pay a tax to the government which my agent called “life insurance “.

Hi there Bali dudes,
I'm in Nha Trang ,Vietnam.     We are now totally overrun with “low end” bottom feeders from China.    This town is getting on average well over 100,000 a month in Chinese tour groups.

They travel on the smell of an oil rag.   They've ruined a lot of the breakfast buffets , and some hotels have stopped the buffet service.

These scrounging , farting, spitting ignorant little parasites eat everything in sight, and then fill handbags and pockets with whatever's left.  It's like a plague of fookin locusts has been through the place.

They go to the all you can eat seafood BBQs joints and do th same. What they can't cook & eat , They fill their carry bags with prawns, scallops and octopuses , and then take that back to their hotel rooms, and boil it up in the electric kettles.......😬😬.  Filthy bastards.

They bring their own cheap grog into restaurants as well.

So there's a “heads up”on what you blokes down there can expect when they start arriving in bigger numbers.   I was down there last month and was surprised to see so many.   

Nha Trang is now known as “Moscow meets Beijing by the sea”.   The Russians are the bottom end of the scale too, and we've got plenty of those as well.    If anyone's thinking of starting up a hairdressing salon to cater for the influx ,, you can forget that.    By the looks of some of these goofy little hobbits I'd say they cut their own hair as well.

The problem is, once travellers hear the Russians & Chows have got the place overrun, they look elsewhere.

Yogi's thinking of hibernation to deal with the above undesirables in his neck of the woods.

I believe you, and I've seen it in other parts of Asia, but not sure that it's alright to speak so strongly here, as it is bordering on racism.

The low end tourist market is always going to be a pain, and probably always has been.
The world's beaches all have problems the moment they aim for the squat toilet end of the industry.
Spain is enjoying Brits with fake food poisoning claims and Bali is having fun with crappy Oz drunks and druggies, all bottom of the pile low lives who suddenly discover their few quid or tiny bag of bucks goes a long way and so they can live like demi-lords for a week, commonly being a loud mouth pain in the bum to the rest of society, that including the many nice tourists from their own countries.
I'm unlucky enough to have met a good few from various countries, all sharing the same obnoxious attitude about how wonderful they are and how the whole place should cater for their every wish.
The single worst was a Brit who was making life totally miserable for the hotel staff with his disgusting language and very loud threats and demands.
I often wonder how the staff manage to deal with such cretins without resorting to spanking them over the head with an iron bar.

By all means visit Bali, please pop over with a view to retiring to the sun, or even consider legal ways to stay long term, but never abuse your position and make life rough for anyone else.

abdulkhalil wrote:

I believe you, and I've seen it in other parts of Asia, but not sure that it's alright to speak so strongly here, as it is bordering on racism.

Yogi tends to be direct and call things as he sees them and, as a Yorkshireman, I tend to like direct with no beating about the bush.
He specifically mentions the low end of the industry rather than all of any group, thus negating the racist comment (IMHO).
There is one word I'm unsure is reasonable so an edit to remove that might be a good idea.

Fred wrote:

I often wonder how the staff manage to deal with such cretins without resorting to spanking them over the head with an iron bar.

The reason is TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor is EVERYTHING to a hotel and if a staff member is named in a review then it's seriously bad news for them. In Indonesia they hold national competitions for best front desk hotel staff. I've seen these before and the situations they are put in in these competitions which are held in front of an audience is brutal. I've seen front desk staff from big hotels go to pieces and cry on stage because of the brutality of the attacks by pretend guests, often three at a time all shouting and making outrageous accusations and demands. The winner obviously does well for themselves.

abdulkhalil wrote:

Fred wrote:

I often wonder how the staff manage to deal with such cretins without resorting to spanking them over the head with an iron bar.

The reason is TripAdvisor.

I find the best way to get great service is simply to be nice, polite and smile.
I can't understand noisy fools who demand, threaten and are generally nasty to people.
As for review sites, if they have that much power something is out of order but I make a point of posting honest reviews when I visit a place, that commonly including how nice the staff were because  it's very rare they aren't.

Yes they do have that much power. You can check with Julien about that.

Unfortunately some "expert" hotel guests use that power to demand room upgrades, free stays, free breakfast etc by threatening to mention a front desk staff by name in either a good or bad light. It happens all the time.

I also believe in being honest with my TripAdvisor reviews. However, a couple days ago I left 1 out of 5 for a couple of restaurants where the food was incredibly bad. These were deserved as in one I had a fly in my teh tarik, and I watched the staff remove the fly with a spoon and then sneakily reheat the drink in a microwave when he thought I wasn't looking.

In this regard, sites like TripAdvisor do everyone a service. Hotels and restaurants should be held to account for their service and standard.

I've left fair and reasonable reviews, but always careful to take the cost into consideration when mentioning a place.
Saying that, I've very rarely been disappointed with staff regardless of the type of place I've stayed in.
One nice hotels in the mid to high end is the Java heritage in Purwokerto, a nice hotel but the sort of staff training as you'd expect from a seriously top end, very expensive place. The manager is doing an amazing job there.
All the hotels in that range I've stayed have had good staff but that place is outstanding.