WHY BALI? AND HOW WE FOUND OUR PLACE
I have always wanted to live abroad. For a long time, the
fantasy was a small town in France, bike around, etc., but as we got closer to
fulfilling that dream (and learning French) we decided that, hey let’s do
something more active, while we still can. (Remind me to tell you about the
three phases of retirement!) So we decided to go “all in” on scubadiving (one
of our favorite hobbies to do together, and frankly hiking is getting harder on
us). The obvious country is Indonesia, and the obvious place is Bali.
Initial suggestion from expats was “go to Bali and then find
a place”. We made two trips before moving here: the first just to see if we
liked Bali and diving in Bali (we did), the second to scout out a place. On
that first trip, we set some parameters for what we wanted and determined that
we did not want to rent in the local economy, we wanted to rent in the tourist
economy. The local economy is much cheaper, yes, but we didn’t want to get dependent on the local
culture and work ethic, which we knew nothing about. We wanted something where
there was a tourist infrastructure, that was run by a Westerner, that had a
dedicated staff (rather than a relative of the owner), and we knew we would have to pay more
(maybe a lot more) for those things but that’s where we are in life. We're retired, we don't have kids, and we are in good health but we ain't going to live forever.
Other criteria were that:
*it not have a western exposure
(that Indo sun can be blazing!),
*that it have a layout where the living area
opens to the pool at the same level (the single nicest feature of indoor /
outdoor living),
*it be 3BR 2Bath (so we can have enough room for ourselves as well as
our guests),
*have a large enough pool, a full kitchen, hopefully a view, definitely
some breezes, and not too difficult to get to.
We picked Ubud because, although
it is not on the ocean, there are a full range of activities and restaurants,
good tourist infrastructure, and many villa choices. TONS of tourists in high
season but pretty nice otherwise. Also a bit cooler (and wetter) than the coast.
I went through the standard booking platforms like FlipKey,
VRBO, AirBNB, etc. and emailed owners asking if they would consider a yearly
lease. Many would not. Some were enthusiastic (sometimes it felt “too
enthusiastic”), and some helpful. I worked out a budget we thought we could
live by, negotiated discounts in return for a year’s commitment, and made a spreadsheet
of seven villas to visit and stay in for a few nights each. The third one was
the clear favorite, WAAAAAAY above the others, and we took it immediately,
cancelled the remainder of our villa-visiting schedule, and went diving!
It was an excellent decision. The villa has everything we
want, and we love the staff – and especially the owners. I could not overstate
how important that is! We like traveling to Padang Bai or Amed for diving and
then coming home!
So we are here (Villa Santana, part of Satori Villas on Jl. Kajeng just north of Starbucks in downtown Ubud):
