My Opinion on the Bali Digital Nomad Controversy - Reporting Live from the UK

Kristin:    00:00:00    It was just a reminder that no matter how prepared you are, certain things can happen that are unexpected and that's just part of travel. 

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin Wilson, Host:   00:00:32    Hey there, Kristin, from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 204 of Badass Digital Nomads. I'm coming to your headphones a little bit late today, <laugh>, and that is due to some adventures in travel that I will tell you about in just a minute. You know those kinds of days where nothing's going right and it's so frustrating that you actually have to laugh about it <laugh> because you think what more could go wrong? It was one of those kinds of days or weekends I should say. Uh, so yes, I am talking to you from England, which is my new home base for the next few months. So give you a bit more info on that as the weeks go along and definitely dedicate an entire episode to my initial impressions here of this area where I am at in Manchester and the people, the prices, the culture, all of that great stuff and some sites that you might want to see if you choose to visit here.  

Kristin:    00:01:39    So we'll get into all of that, but today we are talking about the Bali Digital Nomad controversy, which is related to an article that came out online on Business Insider's website by another digital nomad. And after watching things unfold for a couple of weeks, I decided to do a YouTube video about it, which has more than 20,000 views in the first week. And so I thought it was definitely worth sharing with my podcast audience. So I will let you listen to the whole story and then at the end I'll give you some more of my takeaways and feedback and read some comments from the comments section because there are some very colorful but very insightful comments there from people around the world. So I wanna share those with you.

Unbound Merino

Kristin: But first things first, I have a special announcement, something that we've never done before and we are giving away a $100 gift card to Unbound Merino, which is an awesome company started by travelers for Travelers that sells comfy, durable, lightweight Merino wool clothing for both men and women.  

Kristin:    00:03:03    So we're gonna be raffling off a free $100 gift card there this week to one person who leaves a review for Badass Digital Nomads. So you have one week up until May 1st to leave a five star review for the podcast, and a winner will be randomly selected from the reviews of the week. So a little incentive here to leave a review for your favorite podcast. And to enter, all you have to do is leave a review, take a screenshot and email it to me at hello@travelingwithKristin.com. So just take a screenshot, you can put in the subject line podcast review and email hello@travelingwithKristin.com, traveling with one l Kristin with an I, not an e <laugh>. And I need your emails because we need to be able to email you to send you the gift card if you win. So I think that's the best way to do it.  

Kristin:    00:04:10    And then I will announce the winner in two weeks time. So go ahead and leave that review right now. Leave a review today and you have a really good chance of winning because we don't get that many reviews very often. But we did get a new review on Friday from a brand new listener named Love Over Everything and they say, found this podcast yesterday and have already listened to many episodes. I'm feeling super inspired to create my new reality and a little airplane emoji. So thank you so much love over everything for leaving a review during the first 24 hours that you started listening to the podcast and after binge listening. So I'm gonna go ahead and include you in the raffle for the free gift card. And if you haven't tried Unbound Merino's clothing, you can check them out with our link at the top of the show notes.  

Kristin:    00:05:04    But I've had a lot of pieces and they last a really long time. They're super comfortable and you don't have to wash them as often because Merino wool is naturally antimicrobial. So if you've been trying to pack light and pack less, then you definitely need this in your suitcase or carry on for that matter <laugh>. And you can also see what it looks like And my newest YouTube video, which is a packing video over at youtube.com/travelingwithKristin where you can see exactly how I pack, why I bring what I bring with me. And that was definitely a fun video to make, but also contributed to why the podcast is late today. Uh, because I was working on that video all weekend after traveling for a few days to get here. So whirlwind week, but I will go ahead and tell you what happened when I got here because hopefully it can help you avoid the same fate when you're traveling around the world.  

Kristin:    00:06:04    And as you know, I'm quite organized and diligent when it comes to international travel planning. It's who I am, it's what I do, it's what I do for my clients. And I have a very detailed checklist that I go through when searching for rental properties for myself or for clients and my clients know and and people who are in ready to relocate now they have copies of the checklists. There's a lot of things to look for in a rental property that you might not think about at first or you might just assume it's going to be okay. And then you get to your Airbnb and you notice that it's not what you expected. And if this has ever happened to you, it's annoying because you either need to just deal with it and stay there and be uncomfortable in this place that you probably paid good money to rent or you need to go through the landlord or customer service to do dispute resolution and fix whatever is necessary.  

Kristin:    00:07:04    So over the years I've seen it all or so I thought. And so I've created this checklist where you can avoid a lot of common issues that happen when you arrive to a property that's not what you expected <laugh>. But these are things like asking for the internet speed test and checking the location to make sure that it's, you know, within walking distance to the places that you want to go or it's by good public transportation or that it's not next to places that are going to disrupt your work or your sleep. So places like bars, restaurants, nightclubs, uh, train stations, schools, churches being above below or next door to any of these things can end up creating not the most comfortable environment. So I always look at that and ask questions and clarify with the landlord or with the property manager to find out what the situation is.  

Kristin:    00:08:07    And I also recommend that people get an inventory of the house, especially if you're going to be there for a long time and to make sure that everything is included that you expect and that the furniture and linens and cups and plates and everything is as it's shown in the photos. So after looking around for about a month, I found a property that fit all of my needs. So as I'm doing my checklist, checking the location, checking the internet, I find out that the internet was very slow, like eight megabits per second, which is its speed that I haven't had in probably 12 years. So I talk with the property manager about upgrading it. She talks with the owner, the owner upgrades it to whatever the most, uh, the highest speed is in the area, which with her internet service provider it was 63 megabits per second.  

Kristin:    00:09:03    So she agrees to upgrade to that one, but at the same time, I don't trust it. So I contact other ISPs and I find out that I can get up to one gig speeds through Virgin media. And I also make sure that I have all the requirements to be able to get a contract there. As a foreigner, you have to have a local bank account. There's other requirements, there's a long-term contract, there's cancellation clauses, yada yada yada. But I made sure that I could get a backup connection before I signed the contract to rent this property, paid the deposit, paid the rent. Another thing that I noticed when, you know checking is it next to anywhere loud like schools, restaurants, highways, uh, was that there was an a construction site across the street and this was not visible in any of the photos, but I noticed that there was no photo facing the front of the house from the living room.  

Kristin:    00:10:05    So there was this big window in the back towards the garden, but what is in the front? So I always wanna know, you know, what's on the sides of the building, what's in front, what's in back, and when the owner sends the extra photos, I see through the window that there's a huge construction site out front. And so, you know, I talk with them, the owner says, oh, it's an abandoned site, it's not active. Um, because I don't wanna live in front of a construction site. Having already done that in Miami and then also being a podcaster and working from home, I, I don't need to hear construction all day long. So checked on that, checked on the internet, checked on everything, everything seems good, go through with securing the property. I get to Manchester on Friday and the first <laugh>, the first thing that went awry was that the taxi driver can't find the property and neither can I, I'm looking on Google maps.  

Kristin:    00:11:03    We're looking at the house numbers, it's like this house number just doesn't exist on the street. And as it turns out, this is something that has never happened to me before Google Maps was actually wrong. So I didn't even know Google Maps could be wrong cuz I've just never seen it before. But it just had the wrong location for this house. It had the house number is 13 and it was next to on Google Maps houses that were like number 52, number 45. And so for some reason Google Maps had the wrong location on Apple Maps. It was correct. So whereas I thought I was renting a property that was out in the countryside, you know, away from noise away from the highways, turns out it was the first house right off of the highway which has like eight lanes and tons of exits and stuff.  

Kristin:    00:11:59    So I'm already a bit confused and disappointed that oh great, it's gonna be a lot louder than I thought because of all of the traffic noise, but it's fine, we'll deal with it. So the lesson there is to check different maps, apps to just make sure that the address is in the correct location. <laugh>. So we find the house, I come in and you could tell that it had been cleaned but it wasn't like very clean like the bathrooms had been cleaned, the window surfaces had been wiped down the tables, et cetera. But there's like dust everywhere in the corners. There's some stuff left over from previous tenants, the trash bins are all full. There's like dirty sheets stuffed into the drawers and it just needed a deeper cleaning. So I spend the whole day Friday doing a deep cleaning, um, but also walking around the property and checking for anything that's wrong or that's broken.  

Kristin:    00:13:03    So that's another thing that I recommend to all of my clients is to do a walkthrough right when you get to the property to make sure everything is as it's expected and if not to report it as soon as you get there. So that way you can't be liable for any damages, anything that's lost, anything that's broken and you can bring any issues to the landlord's attention before it's too late. And if needed you can cancel the reservation, you can switch properties before getting completely settled. Um, so I go around, I find that the shower head is broken off. So yeah, there's no shower head, the place is pretty dirty, the internet is not upgraded. So remember I had confirmed the upgrade even the day before the property manager confirmed with the owner. The upgrade is there like everything is set up and lo and behold, it's not when I get here.  

Kristin:    00:13:58    So I do the speed test, the speed is still slow, I report all of these things to the property manager and then I just start cleaning cuz there's no time to have anyone come and clean and I need to sleep there that night and move in. So I didn't really use the internet that much when I got there because I was cleaning. But then that night, uh, I noticed that it's just disconnecting a lot and so it's the weekend the next day and I thought it would be pretty low chances that they're able to fix it over the weekend. And I was right. So the next day I go out, I go grocery shopping, I get a sim card for my wifi hotspot, you know, just as a backup come back and I start working on editing my video for Sunday. So I'm not really online much during the day. 

Kristin:    00:14:50    I email the property manager, I'm like what's the update on the internet, the shower, et cetera, et cetera. They haven't replied the office is closed cause it's the weekend. So I, I call and no one answers anyway. I continue doing my work and then by Saturday night when I go to upload the YouTube video, I realize, okay, the internet's just completely out <laugh> at this point it's not, it's not even working. The light's blinking. I go through like all the tech support, um, with the company, which they can't really give me much info because I'm not the account holder. So I just go through like troubleshooting steps online. None of it works by now. It's like midnight, it's too late to go, um, to call anyone or get help. And so I try to activate my wifi hotspot and for some reason I can't add credit to the prepaid sim card because their website is broken.  

Kristin:    00:15:48    This was like a mobile LYCA and eventually I figure out a way to do it. I don't even remember now what I did. It kept saying my number wasn't valid. And anyway, eventually I found a way to do it. But then I realized that Leica is the only company in the UK that doesn't allow you to tether other devices. So you can't use their sim cards as a hotspot. And this has happened to me before in a different country and I forgot about it so I can't use my hotspot and my Solis hotspot that I usually travel with, I gave it away because I just did this whole Marie condo cleaning and I wanted to upgrade to the new version of the Solis. So I actually didn't have it with me, but I thought, oh no worries, I have fast internet at my house, I have my hotspot, like I don't need three, like the first day that I get there I'll just order the new salise from England.  

Kristin:    00:16:51    But of course I needed it <laugh> the first day. So, uh, yeah, I basically, it didn't have internet. So Sunday I go to the mall and I get all of the different sim cards. I got sim cards from five different companies just in case. And of course all of them work as hotspots. So I was able to use the internet on Sunday to upload my video, which ended up going out on Monday. Um, but anyway, it, it was just, yeah one thing after another, there was also a TV that was missing that was on the listing, um, but not in the photos. And so the landlord said that she would provide a tv but then after I moved in she changed her mind. So she's like, no, no TV now. And so then I was fighting with them over that. Now I'm getting a TV and a new microwave cuz the microwave was broken.  

Kristin:    00:17:44    There was just all of this stuff happening <laugh>. And so, uh, yes, a moral of the story is triple check the location, always ask for an inventory before you sign the contract and put a deposit and always check the speed of the internet when you get there. Do a walkthrough, make sure everything is as expected and report all problems at the very beginning and follow up with them. Now luckily the property management company has been really helpful and responsive and everything should be sorted by tomorrow. But it was just a reminder that no matter how prepared you are, certain things can happen that are unexpected and that's just part of travel. So even though we got off to a rocky start, it is a cute house and it's a nice location. Unfortunately the construction is not very loud, it's just the building's almost done. So they're mostly doing the interior work. So I don't think it'll be a problem, but still to ask about it specifically and then be lied to is not fun. But anyway, we're here. All is well. I'm sipping some tea as you do in England. I've got a great podcast for you today and we'll read some of the comments at the end. Enjoy. Oh and remember to leave a review for a chance to win the $100 Merino will gift card.

Podcast:   

Kristin:    00:19:21    So a digital nomad in Bali did a feature with Business Insider about why he left Bali and why it's not worth living there anymore. And as you can imagine, there was a huge backlash. People were angry on social media and it caused such an uproar that he sent a newsletter this week, two thousands of his subscribers explaining the situation and sort of offering apologies, sort of not. And I was just watching this whole thing play out online and I have a lot of thoughts and comments about it. So I figured rather than add to the Instagram comments, why don't I make a video explaining what happened and my insights into whether his complaints are warranted or not. Now there's three main reasons that people are angry. The first one is that because this digital nomad did a feature with CNBC just a year before singing Bali's praises and telling people on how they can live a life of luxury for just around $2,000 per month.  

Kristin:    00:20:31    So this got hundreds of thousands of views online, it was on YouTube, it was all over social media. And then just a year later he's retracting that claim and he's saying why he left Bali. And so people are like, wait, what? That's hypocritical. But more than what he said on paper, what I think is most interesting is the psychology behind this sequence of events because here we have in year one loving Bali, loving the lifestyle and telling the world about it. And then in year two, not so much leaving the island and going elsewhere. And so at the end of this video I'm gonna explain what I think was going on there because it has a lot to do with the different phases of culture shock. And if you're aware of these signs and symptoms then you can know if you're experiencing something similar when you travel or live in a different country.  

Kristin:    00:21:30    Now the second thing that people are mad about is his privilege to be able to come into a country as a foreigner, live there, enjoy a low cost of living in a high quality of life and then up and leave when things get difficult. The locals in Bali have been struggling and especially during and since the pandemic and there is a tension right now between the locals and the expats and the tourists. And so I'll explain a bit about what's happening there. And then the third reason that people are angry is I think out of frustration that some of what he's saying is actually true. There are legitimate problems in Bali from overdevelopment and over tourism to horrible pollution, traffic, accost of living crisis, water problems. And more recently it's also been this invasion of expats remote workers and even refugees of the Russian War in Ukraine.  

Kristin:    00:22:34    Tens of thousands of refugees have also been pouring into Bali causing a lot of issues and the governor of Bali has actually lobbied the central government in Jakarta to revoke the visa on arrival for Ukrainian and Russian citizens. So we're gonna talk about that as well. There's a lot to digest here. So let's get into it and let me know what you think in the comments below. Okay, first let's take a look at the article so you can judge for yourself what you think about this situation. Okay, if we look at the first article here, and this was from February of 2022, I think the headline really says it all. This 33 year old left the US for Bali to live a life of luxury on $2,200 per month. See how he spends his money? And he says here, I live better in Bali than I did in the us Here's how much it costs.  

Kristin:    00:23:31    So this is a very common trend of promoting Bali as a destination for remote workers, digital nomads and other foreigners who are looking to live there long term. So we're gonna make the distinction in just a minute about expats versus tourists because this is a big misconception here. But what is very accurate is that there's been this influencer culture cropping up in Bali with people who've only been there for a few weeks or a few months, making all of these posts that are photoshopped and edited and look so great and they are promoting Bali as a destination usually to either get likes or for other, some other form of self-interest. And so you see a lot of articles online promoting not just Bali but a lot of other destinations as well. So it says that he grew up in Nigeria, then moved to London and then the US So he's definitely lived in a lot of countries around the world and he has legitimate reasons for wanting to leave the us.  

Kristin:    00:24:39    He says that being a person of color, he didn't feel valued as a human being sometimes and like many of us, he had this desire to travel and see the world. So totally relatable, nothing wrong with that. And he talks about his story of becoming a digital nomad, starting with no money whatsoever and his business journey. But as fate would have it, one day he was scrolling, the old Instagram saw a picture of Bali and the rest is history. He bought a ticket in 2019 and never looked back. It talks here about how he used visa runs or tourist visa extensions to be able to stay in the country for more than 30 to 60 days at a time. And this is a really common practice called perpetual tourism where foreigners who are living in a country without a visa or work permit can just live on their passport stamps essentially coming and going and it's not allowed and it could be illegal in many cases.  

Kristin:    00:25:45    So it is a practice that you need to check with your country of where you're going to, to even see if it's uh, possible to do this. But it's usually discouraged because governments want you to either have a work visa or a residence permit or something like that that allows you to stay there. But it does happen in Bali, in Mexico, in lots of different places. So it seems like that's what he was doing and earning about $140,000 per year. So this is notable because the minimum wage in Bali comes out to less than $200 per month. So that's like $1 an hour. So you have a lot of people living on six figures per year potentially. There's estimates that there's around 30,000 expats living in Bali. I don't know how much they all make, but the, the foreigners and the tourists are definitely have a higher income than the locals if they're able to work remotely and pull in six figures a year.  

Kristin:    00:26:46    So you've got this income disparity between locals and foreigners that happens in a lot of countries. So this is not unique to Bali, but um, he breaks down his cost of living here, $2,233 per month. I'll link to this article so you guys can read it later. Um, but falling in love with Bali, this is what is known as the honeymoon phase of the curve of cultural adaptation. So there is a curve that has been, uh, scientifically demonstrated that is the general phases that you go through when you move to a new country. And everyone's favorite phase is the honeymoon phase because this is when you first arrive to a place and everything seems great. It's like you're seeing everything through roast colored glasses. And it seems that that is what Olu did here. He got to Bali, he saw how beautiful it was, how nice the people were, how low the cost of living was compared to what he was spending in the US and he thought, hey, I'm in paradise.  

Kristin:    00:27:54    And I think anyone who's been to Bali has definitely seen that side of it. But the longer that you stay in a country, the more that facade of the honeymoon phase starts to crack. It is like a marriage or a relationship where you can be in that honeymoon phase at the beginning, but the longer you're with someone, the more you might have problems or you might argue. And so that is how the name came around. So he talks here about all of the things that he loved about Bali and on the last line here it says something about Bali grounds me here it finally feels like home. So that was last year. Fast forward to this year almost exactly one year later and he says, I make $140,000 a year running a digital nomad agency from Bali, but here's why it's not worth living there anymore.  

Kristin:    00:28:54    And let's see what he says. So he moved to Bali as we know in 2019, but he says that Bali is now polluted, congested and overly commercialized. And he says that living in southern Europe is a better choice for digital nomads. Now we'll look at what he's complaining about in just a second, but if we pull up the curve of cultural adaptation and this is by the good old US state Department, we see the honeymoon phase, then we see the frustration phase and then adaptation and acceptance. There's actually two phases there. You begin to adapt, then you accept and integrate with the new destination. And after that there's also reverse culture shock when you come back to your home country. I have some videos about that that I will link to in the description below. But it looks to me like Olou left Bali during the frustration phase and didn't wait until he got to the adaptation and acceptance phase so he didn't fully integrate with the country.  

Kristin:    00:30:02    As it says here, the honeymoon phase can last a relatively long time if you are adapting easily and enjoying the process. But it can also last a short time if your adaptation is difficult or slow. And if you've been to Bali then your honeymoon phase could have lasted a day, a week, a month, six months. It depends on where you were in Bali and what your experience was. And we'll get to that in just a second. But uh, the frustration phase is where language and cultural barriers become too much to handle and this is where you either need to wait it out, join the struggle and adapt or leave. And in olus case it looks like he just decided to leave. Would he be able to reach this adaptation and acceptance phase? I guess we'll never know. But if you find yourself in the same position, then remember this cultural adaptation curve, you could just be in the frustration part and need some more time to be able to really, really feel at home there.  

Kristin:    00:31:09    So in this article he details how he makes money and from where it looks like a digital marketing agency, cryptocurrency and hosting virtual events. But then like many people, he saw the photos of people with palm trees, coconuts and laptops and he thought, I wanna go there. So he went and he liked it but he also struggled with loneliness. So although he says some of the good things about Bali here, he says it's too polluted and traffic is insane. Now there is some truth to this because in 2018 the Bolonese government declared a trash emergency because 50 tons of trash per day was washing up on the beaches and they've taken some steps to try to clean up the land and the waters. But pollution is still a big issue, not just the trash but also the traffic and the smog. Indonesia is the second largest polluter in the world after China.  

Kristin:    00:32:17    So this argument does hold water. Speaking of which water is also a problem in Bali and local residents have complained that the infrastructure can't cope with the massive amount of people and development in the area and in some cases it's allegedly illegal development, uh, where people lie about what they're building or there's also been allegations of bribery and corruption of local officials to let hotels and developers build bigger buildings. And so that's another issue as well. Now, before tourism was Bali's biggest industry agriculture was, but now there have been articles online about rice patties being literally paved over. So the reduction in green spaces, the increase of people and the increase of traffic and you do get pollution and smog. Another one of his qualms here is that there's a misconception of being in digital Noma em Bali, that it's a vacation that you won't have to work or anything.  

Kristin:    00:33:25    And I don't think many people have that misconception anymore. I think anyone who's worked remotely knows that you work more when you work from home than you do when you work in an office in many cases. And a lot of us are having problems unplugging whether you are in Kansas or New York or Bali. And so, uh, I don't know, I don't think that many people think that remote workers are on vacation all the time. So if you do have that expectation when you go to Bali, then you will be sadly mistaken, but it will work the same wherever you are in the world. He also says that getting a digital nomad visa to live in Bali is difficult. So staying in Bali long term is too difficult because the government wants over a hundred thousand dollars to be put into a state owned bank account for you to be able to stay there.  

Kristin:    00:34:15    Now Bali doesn't have a digital nomad visa yet, like other countries as I mentioned, they do have 30 to 60 day tourist visas, but they also have some non lucrative visas and investment visas if you would like to stay longer. And these do cost more money. Um, but that's normal of anywhere in the world. It's only been in the past couple of years that any country has had a digital nomad visa. So before the pandemic, the only way to stay in countries as a remote worker was either to apply for a work permit, which is very difficult or to get a golden visa, which is basically buying residency or buying a passport usually in the six to seven figures. So there's nothing specifically about Bali that's harder in my opinion than other countries. I mean now some countries do have digital nomad visas that will allow you to stay there for one, two or three years.  

Kristin:    00:35:15    But that's very recent and I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary that Bali has these schemes because they're very similar to what other countries are offering. But they do have a second home visa for foreigners and retirees and they also have had more than 3000 people apply for the existing visa to be able to stay and work remotely for at least six months. So there are some options. He also mentions that it's gotten too commercialized and overdeveloped, it's not as relaxed as it once was. And this kind of cracks me up because the first time he went there was in 2019, and this is all about perspective. If you went there in 2019 and then you left in 2022 or 2023, you're gonna have a much different perspective of what relaxing versus commercialized Bali is compared to if you were there in the early nineties and then you left in the early two thousands.  

Kristin:    00:36:19    I mean the first time I went to Bali was 2008 and I did find it quite relaxing and like a magical paradise. And when I went back in 2015, I kind of felt how Olu feels now that it was too overcrowded and too commercialized. So that was four years before he arrived. So this is really all about personal perspective and I'm sure that the locals have a much different perspective than Australian surfers who have been going there for the past few years or so or tourists from around the world who've been going to Bali for years. So I think it's gonna depend on your exact experience and it's not something to tell other people not to go there. But he does have a point about the overdevelopment. As I mentioned, the landscapes are being paved over and coming from a small town in Florida, we used to be known for our orange groves.  

Kristin:    00:37:18    But now all of those orange groves have been sold to housing developers and orange trees have been replaced with housing development. So I can definitely see how this problem would be happening in Bali where rice patties are being paved over to put hotels and villas. So he does have a point with that. The realtors in Bali have said that sales are three to four times higher in 2023 than they have been in the previous 10 years and there's been up to a 10 times increase in buyers from the Ukraine and Russia. So more people are buying and investing in Bali. There's been a housing shortage, it's become a seller's market so there is additional commercialization and there's no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. He also makes a valid point about the influencer culture in Bali. And this has been an issue that's gotten a lot of attention online because of some bad behavior by different influencers.  

Kristin:    00:38:25    Now yes, maybe around much of the world these days we're used to seeing selfie sticks and selfies and people uh, filming content for social media. But Bali, because of its beautiful landscapes and people and culture has definitely attracted more than their fair share of influencers and sometimes no harm done. But there have been reports of influencers filming very dangerous stunts or flagrantly ignoring health protocols. During the Covid pandemic, one girl was allegedly deported for painting on a fake face mask before going into the grocery store. But it's not just influencers, it's tourists in general. And I did see a headline that said that Australian tourists are no longer quote unquote the worst. And there's also been this trend in people who are in Bali on tourist visas working illegally advertising their businesses on social media and in some cases teaching people how to stay in Bali without a valid work permit or residence permit.  

Kristin:    00:39:34    So this has been a problem and there's even been Instagram accounts, uh, run by anonymous locals of people calling out both influencers and also local tourists who are working illegally. And the Indonesian Workers Union has stated that foreign tourists who work illegally are a form of colonialism in the modern era. Their chairman even compared this to quote an occupation without the use of weapons. Those are strong words and Bali has had a very turbulent history of colonialism, violence and occupation. So it's pretty significant to hear that type of language from the locals. They do not sound happy. Now there are remote workers working illegally as well as people working in person and from all different countries, but there has been a big focus on Russian tourists who are working illegally and they're taking physical jobs as well as remote jobs. So they're doing things like photography, working at hair salons, tattoo artists, motorbike rentals, real estate, all sorts of jobs.  

Kristin:    00:40:49    And the authorities are cracking down on that. The local government has deported some people for working illegally. They are arresting people and Bali's governor has also lobbied the central government to revoke visa on arrival for Russian and Ukrainian citizens. People have a lot of opinions about this as well. And there's only about 8,500 Ukrainians compared to 60,000 Russians. So the Ukrainian embassy has said that they haven't had such a negative impact on the area. But this is also up for debate as well. Another reason that locals don't like this is because foreigners don't pay taxes. So it's like a triple whammy. They are working illegally taking local jobs, they're not paying taxes and they're earning much more than the locals do. But if we go back to OL's article, he says Traffic is insane and a five minute drive often becomes a 30 minute wait in traffic.  

Kristin:    00:41:58    The beaches are dirty and unpleasant and the pollution seems out of control. I have to wear a mask when I'm on a motorbike to avoid inhaling the exhaust smoke from construction trucks. With all of the issues in Bali, it seems like a longer wait to get to the beach for a foreigner should be the least of people's worries. But bad traffic does affect everyone as well as pollution and has a huge impact on the animal life there. This also goes back to an issue of inaccurate expectations where what people expect when they get to Bali is the Instagram version, but what they get is the reality. So there is a disconnect there from those photoshopped pictures to what it's really like. And this is a problem because tourism in general is a double-edged sword for Bali. The island depends on it, but it also results in these other problems.  

Kristin:    00:42:58    But it doesn't seem like the government wants to slow tourism down anytime soon. And it's also ironic that OU has these complaints. Now when tourism is at a fraction of what it was before the pandemic, it's only re recovered to about half of the annual tourism arrivals compared to prior to Covid 19. What really struck me from reading this article is that the problems that he mentions were still problems before and they were problems when he arrived there. But if we look at the tourism arrivals to Bali, there've been more than a million tourists per year since the early nineties. We look at the numbers in 2000 it was 1.4 million tourists, primarily from Australia, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, and the us. Then in 20 18, 6 0.5 million tourists from Australia, China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore. And then in 2023 the top five countries for tourists were Australia, India, Russia, Malaysia, and South Korea.  

Kristin:    00:44:10    So what I see here is that millions of tourists from the same countries over the last 20 years has been something that's been very constant in the colonese economy. Now there's a lot of attention on digital nomads, but there's so few digital nomads that I don't think there's the same level of gentrification simply due to nomads. It's due to a combination of the millions of tourists per year, the trend towards overdevelopment and also other expats who are not nomads, but who are going to live in Bali long term to retire who are working in local businesses, et cetera. So Australia has been the largest source of tourists to Bali since at least 2000. I think that's because it's so close to Bali. Bali has great waves, there's lots of surfers in Australia as well, and it's mostly tourists from Australia, Southeast Asia, and also the UK than the us.  

Kristin:    00:45:16    So that hasn't changed. It was definitely that way when he was there in 2019 and it remains that way today. He also mentions predatory behavior from locals. There's definitely theft in Bali as there is in many areas that rely on tourism for their economy. There can be money exchange scams and lots of things that you would see in other countries. So he is correct, but that's also not something that is unique to Bali. He also notes that the quality of life in Bali has dropped, especially when compared to some cities in Europe like Prague and Barcelona. Now I would say that Barcelona is much more expensive than Bali. It would be very hard to have the same quality of life in Barcelona compared to Bali. But as he says, $2,000 can only get you so far in Bali these days, and that is true. Whereas the cost of living used to be less than a thousand dollars per month for foreigners who are living there, it can easily cost you $2,000 now for rent.  

Kristin:    00:46:25    So that is an issue. It's also something that's happening in Thailand and cities around the world, uh, as more and more people are able to work remotely work from anywhere and there's more vacation rentals, more Airbnbs out there. And that does put upward pressure on the housing prices. And I think all of us have been affected by the global cost of living crisis. So Europe is certainly not immune to that and you will get a different lifestyle living in Europe, but it's really hard to compare Europe with Bali. They're completely different cultures, different continents. I mean they're different in so many ways. So in my opinion, this is just a personal preference of his. This is, uh, a very individual decision and it seems like he's making that decision that I don't necessarily think needs to be a blanket statement for people who are thinking of going to Bali or to recommend to people who are interested in Bali that they might get what they're looking for in Europe.  

Kristin:    00:47:29    I think a lot of the European tourists to Bali would have a different opinion there. And this is a part that made people mad or he says, if you're paying to live in a wooden shack, in a noisy, overcrowded city, is it worth saving some money? And you know, people are mad that he could just leave or that it was insulting to Bali to to call it that. But again, try being a local earning minimum wage in Bali and trying to find good housing. He also makes a very bold statement that Europe is now the best option for digital nomads. And while he enjoyed his four years spent living in Bali, he's left for Southern Europe. Uh, this is very subjective. Uh, many people have said that even places like Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece that he has mentioned, uh, have also been affected by an increase in the cost of living tourism, uh, especially housing prices, partially due to remote workers.  

Kristin:    00:48:27    So I don't think that there's anywhere in the world that's a very attractive place for people to go and live and work that's going to be immune from these issues for very long. He is right that more people need to speak up about these issues rather than romanticizing the once perfect island to promote their personal brands and businesses. But romanticizing the quote unquote once perfect island to promote their personal brands and businesses, that's something that people got angry about because in the previous article he was doing just that one year ago and he did acknowledge that in his newsletter that that could come across that way. Um, but nowhere is perfect guys. And I think at this point, you know, we know that Instagram posts are being manipulated and edited, but those things that make Bali Bali I think are still there. I haven't been in a few years, but I think that there's a way to go to Bali and enjoy it without being a part of the problem.  

Kristin:    00:49:41    And I don't think that these are reasons to avoid Bali completely. He says these are the places where digital nomads will flock to once they realize the downsides of living in Bali. However, there are downsides to living in every country. If it's not one problem, it's another. That's not to say that we shouldn't confront these problems and try to solve them. I think that is more something for the local government and local and international tourism operators to really take responsibility for especially developers in big businesses. But there also are things that you can do to be a responsible tourist visitor or short-term resident in Bali. From what I've read, the people just want tourists to respect their culture, respect their land, respect their laws, and just be empathetic and good people when they're there. So don't pollute. Try to support local businesses and local home stays and bed and breakfast instead of going to the biggest corporate hotels.  

Kristin:    00:50:55    Pay people who work for you a fair wage if you're there operating a local business or if you own a home there and don't break the laws, don't work illegally, don't want that you're working illegally and that you don't have to pay any taxes. Try to contribute to the local economy. Make sure you have the right paperwork to be able to live and work there and be respectful. Respect the local culture, respect the people, respect their customs. Regardless of what your personal beliefs are when you're in another country, you need to follow their rules. The biggest problem that popular tourism destinations face is tourism and the byproducts that come from that, remote workers and digital nomads like Olu can have a bigger impact than tourists if you are staying in the country longer. So it's more important to not just spread the word about your complaints about a destination, but if you are going to be living there for four or five years, then try to do something to make a difference while you're there.  

Kristin:    00:52:08    Join local conservation organizations and activist groups. Get your paperwork in order. Get to know the people and ask what they want help with, what are the problems that matter the most to them? I remember years ago the founder of Nomad List was working with a group to try to reduce plastic and replace plastic bottles with biodegradable ones. So there is a lot that you can do not just in Bali but wherever you travel. But what do you think? Is Bali ruined as Olu says, or is it still paradise? And do you agree with the way that he went about voicing his concerns? Let me know in the comments below and to hear my perspective on the reality of long-term travel. Watch this video next. Okay, so that was a doozy. It was definitely a sensitive topic, but after putting this video out there, I'm really glad that I did because there were so many positive comments, acknowledging that it was a hard topic to talk about and multiple topics wrapped in there, but also people grateful for sparking that conversation and just trying to tell it like it is and be objective about it, but also not deny some of the issues that are going on there and try to find some sort of solutions.  

Kristin:    00:53:38    So if you have something to add to the conversation, then I definitely encourage you to head over to the YouTube comments to make your voice heard. Dragan says, wow, this is honestly one of the most realistic videos I've seen about expats. I learned about that culture shock curve from you long before I left the us And although I was aware of it, I still fell into the frustration area. I am adapting and hope to master it in the next six months or so. Thanks so much, Kristin <laugh>. I think I went directly into the frustration phase coming to England this week where I skipped the honeymoon phase and just went right into frustration. So <laugh>, I can definitely relate to that. Darren Lamb says, I think this is a very important video. I'm an expat as well with a proper work visa and I can't believe the number of digital nomads that romanticize the country.  

Kristin:    00:54:33    Move there, fail to learn any of the languages, love it for a short time, and then just leave as soon as things get hard. The insane amount of privilege that digital nomads and not just westerners have is insane. The perpetual honeymoon stage will never allow anyone to live a meaningful life in any country if that's the case. And ooh, some real talk there from Darren Lamb. I think I've been guilty of this as well. You might have seen the video on my channel of why I left Costa Rica and even reading Olus article and thinking deeply about these topics. There've definitely been times that I did this. I went to a country, I didn't like it, I just left and I didn't try harder. And I do feel an insane amount of privilege to be alive on the planet today and to be able to travel where I want.  

Kristin:    00:55:29    And not just to be alive, but to be from a country that has a relatively strong passport for all the pros and cons that every country has, including the us It is completely unfair that people from some countries have more visas fee free travel than others. And I happen to be born into a country where I, I have quite a bit of flexibility on where I can travel on a tourist visa and that is definitely not lost to me. One of my friends who's currently in Namibia with her boyfriend, they're trying to get a visa so that they can travel together because he even needs to get a visa to go to Europe. And this is something I've talked about in other podcast episodes as well. But on the bright side with more and more digital nomad visas out there, hopefully this will level the playing field when it comes to passport privilege and give people from any country in the world who are able to earn an income online or through freelancing remote jobs, that they will have the opportunity to apply for the same types of visas as everyone else.  

Kristin:    00:56:44    And hopefully that will make people who typically have to apply for a tourist visa have the option to apply for a digital nomad or remote work visa where they can stay for a longer period of time. In places where an American would be able to stay for three months or six months, people from some countries might only be able to stay for one month as a tourist and they might have to apply for a tourist visa. So these digital nomad visas do open up a lot of countries that would otherwise be more difficult for people to travel to. And safety wing is in the midst of developing their own country on the internet and negotiating bilateral agreements with different countries to allow their citizens to be able to travel visa free to those countries. So that will be a really cool solution in the future as well.  

Kristin:    00:57:39    But it, it's not realistic, as Darin says, to learn the language in every country that you go to. It certainly is helpful if you can learn something and if you do plan to stay somewhere forever, then definitely learning the language I think is a must if you really want to fit in in that country and really understand the culture on a deeper level. But that's not to say that you shouldn't travel if you don't learn the language. I mean, most of us only know a couple of languages at most. So yeah, and when you do learn the language, you get to see and understand more of the problems and struggles of that country. Um, but I don't know what the solution is for people you know, not liking a country. I don't think you should force yourself to stay somewhere that is not resonating with you.  

Kristin:    00:58:29    But I can see both sides here. But he is right that the perpetual honeymoon stage will never allow, uh, yeah, I guess going from one country to the next in a perpetual honeymoon stage is going to create some level of emptiness because life can't always be happy and a honeymoon all of the time. I'm sure a few people who are married feel like they've been in the honeymoon stage for 50 years. Maybe some people do <laugh>. There's exceptions to every rule. But I do see what he means there. And part of what allows us to interpret life is being able to take the good with the bad and compare the highs with the lows. That's how we get perspective. That's how we know that hot is hot and cold as cold and dark as dark and light as light. We have to see both sides and trying to avoid any sort of pain and suffering is just in direct conflict with the human experience.  

Kristin:    00:59:33    So I think that the result of pursuing the perpetual honeymoon phase as a traveler will ultimately result in the opposite. So I do think that we need to have balance there. Alina McLeod says, very well done assessment. Bali's an amazing place, but it's definitely an island that needs some breathing room from the influx of tourism. I hope they're able to find a way to do that without affecting the local industry too much. Definitely agree with Alina and I, I also heard from one of my friends who was born in Bali, or I think he was either born in Bali or born in Indo and grew up in Bali to parents who are from the US who were just kind of hippies in the seventies and went over to Ino. And he, so he was born there and now he lives in Miami. And what he told me is that although the ESE government is very focused on increasing tourism from places like China, the Chinese tourists typically book through Chinese tour operators.  

Kristin:    01:00:36    And so very little of the money that comes from those tourism bookings trickles down to the local economy and to the locals themselves. So that is another problem that the government has to contend with. And as we know from economics that trickle down effect doesn't necessarily trickle very far reason for truth says Kristin is a gold standard, thank you for a fair and balanced, non-emotional but educational evaluation of this incident, which I'm confident is not the only time this has happened. Perhaps today's episode will help many seeking the nomad life. Thank you. Reason for truth, and I hope so. Cosmic Orphan says your advice at the end is spot on no matter where you go, respect the culture and the customs of wherever you go. And I definitely agree with that, but it's easier said than done, right? We want to theoretically respect the culture and customs of where we go, but it's, it's also hard when you're in a country where you're experiencing a lot of culture shock or you may not just not patently agree with many of the customs and the laws there, or you may just feel very uncomfortable and being in a place longer can help you find a new comfort zone.  

Kristin:    01:01:59    But it's, it's a tough one because it's extremely important and it's something that we all must do. I mean, I think seeing that movie Brokedown Palace scared the crap out of me. I never wanted to break a rule or a law anywhere anyway, but I definitely didn't wanna break one in a foreign country and end up in some Thai prison. And I think they even have a TV show now Locked Up Abroad or something that I can't even watch because it's just terrifying. Like just the thought of in a jail in general, but in another country would just be awful. But there is a fine line between respecting a culture and its laws and also acknowledging when a country is violating human rights. So I'm never gonna agree, for example, with, uh, human rights abuses in places like North Korea or Saudi Arabia or Iran or many countries around the world where, where women or the L G B T community and other groups are abused or discriminated against or endangered in some way.  

Kristin:    01:03:14    So usually when you go to a country, you want to of course respect their culture of respect, their laws, but then there comes this question of, do you even visit countries where you don't agree with their governments or with their policies or with their foreign policy? And so these are questions that we all have to grapple with, but when it comes to Bali and, you know, people throwing their trash on the ground or painting fake masks on their faces to go to the grocery store, I mean, things like that, that are just disrespectful, let's not do that. David Mann says, I imagine most of these countries are sick of digital nomads because they aren't tourists don't spend money like tourists, don't pay taxes and just drive up real estate for everyone. Uh, that's kind of a common opinion among some people, but I don't think that countries are sick of digital nomads or there, there wouldn't be such a push worldwide to attract digital nomads to different countries through digital nomad visas.  

Kristin:    01:04:17    But certainly digital nomads on a day-to-day basis spend less money than tourists, but they are spending money longer. So digital nomads may live in a country on more of a budget than you would be on when you're on vacation, but they can stay there for three months, six months, one year, two years. And so ultimately they end up spending more money than a tourist who goes for one week. So that's my perspective on that. Um, they don't pay taxes in many cases to the country that they're in, but neither do tourists and most people pay taxes somewhere to a country that they're a tax resident of. And then as far as driving up the real estate for everyone, definitely in places like Ngu or Ubud or Bansko, Bulgaria, small towns, maybe Cheng, Mai, places where there's a large number of digital nomads compared to normal tourists or compared to locals.  

Kristin:    01:05:24    If it's a small village or town, that could be the case. But I think in, in most cases it's tourism in general that is driving up real estate prices and there's just too low of a number of digital nomads to have that big of an impact on, on the rent unless it's in a very small town. Steven Ponti from Australia says, as an Australian, it makes me so happy to hear that we are not the worst anymore. Haha, jk, he's been going to Bali since the early two thousands, and he said that he noticed on a recent trip that there was more abuse and sometimes aggression from the locals than he was used to seeing 20 years ago. But he said, Hey, I'm just an Ozzie and it's probably me the others are complaining about. So he sees it kind of on both sides, where he's noticed this increase in scams or entitlement or aggression compared to 20 years ago, which can be a fact of tourism based economies.  

Kristin:    01:06:30    And I've certainly seen that happen in Costa Rica. But at the same time, he notices that, Hey, but he's just a foreigner on vacation there. And maybe people see him the same way Cindy Child says this was a good video. Really helps those who are fantasizing about becoming an expat understand that there are levels to this expat life. So true. Cindy David Mybe. I think I'm pronouncing that right. He says, just catching up on some of your videos. And lo and behold, this video on Bali, which is near and dear to my heart, he says that, uh, he took in everything enthusiastically and came away thankful of, uh, this video and the issues that it laid out, the controversy. And he says, thanks for giving your fellow travelers much to ponder and think about. He said that he's a former Peace Corps volunteer and that the first thing that they taught them as they entered the Peace Corps was to try to integrate with the culture, walk a mile in their shoes and appreciate what makes a place special.  

Kristin:    01:07:35    And he goes on to say that each time he's left Bali, it is the local friendships that keeps bringing him back and has led to his decision to make Bali a part-time home for now. He also notes that Bali is a very pluralistic society, that this is woven into the fabric of their culture. They're accepting of people of different religions and that active Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and Hebrew communities all live there and get along and actively share in each other's celebrations, which I did not know. I knew there were a lot of people of, of different faiths living there, but I didn't know that they would celebrate each other's holidays. And he also mentions that, um, due to the culture and the society that many communities work together during Covid to help each other survive, he says, no place is really home until you contribute to your community.  

Kristin:    01:08:31    Might take a day, a year, or several, several years. Not for me to judge how long it takes, but it is a must to be happy eventually, I believe. Well, I wish I could read all of the comments to you. Uh, there's about 300 comments so far, so many good ones. Tim says, thanks for this video. Really well done, well formulated, balanced, and helpful. Bali was not for me. I spent a few days there appalled by the crowd's, rubbish traffic and tourists with bad manners. However, I can see the phases of adaptation very well, and I'm sure I've lived through those myself. So that was something that we talked about. You know, that there are crowds, there is trash, there is traffic, there is tourists. So those things do exist and how do we coexist peacefully, but then also how do we minimize the traffic?  

Kristin:    01:09:25    How do we minimize the pollution? How do we minimize the destruction to the environment? Mo says, love this. Kristin, you touched on an interesting topic about the tension between locals and digital nomads. Unfortunately, it's a situation where no one is the good guy or bad guy, but everyone has their own angle. Denny says that while he and his wife want to travel and live abroad, they often wonder if they would be adding to the problems that plague some of these locations. He says, I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can best be partners to the places we visit and relocate to. Yeah, this is a, a topic I've been thinking about a lot and I talked about in the, the beginning of the year that I wanted to do more episodes around sustainability and giving back to the communities that we visit.  

Kristin:    01:10:15    So I'm still researching that there's a lot of information to take in and there's also a lot out there about the dangers of volunteering in different countries and how it has created other sorts of side economies that can be harmful to the locals. I saw a documentary on the plane last year, I'm forgetting what it's called. Uh, it's called The Last Tourist. And it highlights the problems with, for example, volunteering at orphanages in different countries because very well-meaning volunteers go there, which then causes more people to give their children up to orphanages. And it also creates very significant short term bonds with the children who you then may never see again. So it goes into a lot of details about that, and I think that wherever you volunteer, we all have good intentions, but there can be these other unintended consequences. So I don't have all of the answers to that, but I still think that it's better to help than not help.  

Kristin:    01:11:32    So maybe instead of doing paid tourism, uh, volunteer opportunities to just wait until you get to that location and meeting up with local groups or doing things that are only going to help and not hurt like a beach cleanup can never hurt the beach or hurt anybody. But talking with, uh, local groups rather than organizations that are focused around attracting paid tourists to go volunteer is probably the best route. Getting in touch with organizations that don't have any ulterior motive for attracting foreigners to help with their cause. And also just asking the local people, you know, like talking to your neighbors, people down at the coff coffee shops, people in your network when you go to a place and the first people that you start to meet, the first locals that you meet, just, I think it, it can never hurt to get word of mouth referrals and go to where the locals go.  

Kristin:    01:12:41    <laugh> hokey said, gosh, I think I'm in the frustration part and I was born here <laugh>, that is perfect because you know, at the end of the day, life is life and regardless of where you're from, you're gonna have frustrations and differing opinions and phases of, of life and your immediate community no matter where you're from or how long you live there. So hokey makes a great point and Keith says, thanks for sharing your thoughts of balanced discussion. Bali is an awesome vacation place and good reflections at the end. Great job, Kristin. Thanks, Keith. And I hope that you, yes, you listening thought that this was, um, a fair and balanced perspective and don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts, join the comments on the YouTube video. I'll drop the link and the show notes and remember to leave a review this week so you have a chance of winning that free $100 gift certificate from Unbound Merino. I look forward to reading your reviews, and the winner will be announced after May 1st. So you have up until May 1st to leave that review. It should only take you 30 seconds or so and see you right back here on Tuesday, May 2nd.