island of the future for IT people

After all the American cities, let's take a break and take a look at the famous island paradise from the picture – Bali.

Green palm trees sway in the sea breeze, the blue surface of the ocean and snow-white sand – somewhere here they are filming the next series of Bounty advertisements.

You can get a visa on the spot – no problems, just relaxation. On site you will be greeted by humid hot air outside and stuffiness that does not subside even at night – quite expected for the tropics, and I like this much more than minus 20, so let’s not grumble too much about this.

The prices for taxis and bike rentals are ridiculous, and immediately put you in a positive mood. And when the exchanged hundred bucks turn into a million local money, you actually begin to feel like a millionaire. Bali is a very affordable place to live. Finally, you can live in a two-story villa with a swimming pool for the price of a one-room apartment in Moscow.

Prices in restaurants and shops are also pleasantly surprising with their reasonableness. Of course, Bali is not Europe, but the quality is no lower and certainly higher than, for example, in the USA.

The infrastructure is also present. Fitness centers, coworking spaces, shopping centers, various sports facilities. There's even a hockey rink. Everything seems to be in place.

The ocean and nature around are, of course, magical. There are white beaches and black volcanic beaches. There are several volcanoes you can climb that sometimes erupt. Lake Batur inside the volcano looks like a picture from Avatar, and if not for the number of unexpectedly annoying flies, it would be included in my top 3 places on the planet.

There is wonderful diving in Bali and the islands around – there are many corals and spots with something to see.

Well, everyone knows about surfing – one of the best places in the world that is accessible all year round.

Colorful holidays and many temples add a lot to the atmosphere. On the Nyepi holiday, for example, you cannot leave the house and turn on the lights.

So, you definitely won’t get bored in Bali, literally and figuratively.

The local population adheres to a mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism and local beliefs and is therefore very tolerant of the oddities of visitors. There are no restrictions on alcohol, smoking or religious prohibitions. There is no particularly aggressive push for goods and services, and I have never seen locals hitting on foreigners on the street. They live their lives and let others do the same. Local residents are very calm and measured people who, as a rule, are in no hurry.

For IT specialists, there are coworking spaces, smoothies in bars and cheap internet. It must be admitted that all the new decent infrastructure on the island was almost entirely built by Russian-speaking guys who came to Bali in recent years. The Balinese are not accustomed to our level of quality and are not yet capable of creating it. But there are so many of our guys that you will immediately feel at home. People of Slavic nationality sit in all cafes, restaurants, fitness centers and co-working spaces (Balinese people don’t go there because it’s expensive). I wouldn’t be surprised if slogans like “Bali is not rubber” appear soon. But, in truth, the visiting guys are doing a lot of cool projects, and raising the level of quality in Bali to a completely different level, and the Balinese see this.

Solonin, for example, is building his city of the future here in Nuanuin a bionic futuristic style, and also hosts a local Burning Man Lamp (photo below). And prototypes of such settlements have already been built in Parkju. Looks very interesting and epic. The IT community, accordingly, is quite large. There are several large communities, such as Hegai, Uhome, Wednesdaybusiness breakfasts at Hubble and so on, which organize regular meetings for startups.

There is a very good portal Bali Forum in Russian, where all the places and activities are described in detail.

There are also crypto-bros and various kinds of hustlers, where would we be without them. But even these guys are conscious and practiced. In general, everything here is practical, so if you haven’t breathed from the uterus for a long time and feel that your vibrations are somehow not up to par, you urgently need to fly here. Specialists will immediately perform surgery on your open chakras right next to the plane, and you will feel like a completely different person. If this does not help, a trip to Gili and local special cocktails are guaranteed to open a direct channel to space and the next release will be easy and painless. True, there is a risk that you will understand that at heart you have always been a yogi or, for example, a forester, you will leave Aichi and go to live in the jungle, but maybe it is for the better.

Basically, it looks like heaven on earth with a bunch of eccentric but interesting people and you urgently need to quit whatever you are doing now and fly to Bali? This is certainly true, but there are a couple of problems worth being aware of.

Let's start with the Balinese. These people are in no hurry, they never do anything on time and right the first time. You will have to acquire angelic patience to do any business here. And even without this, your level of acceptance of the universe will rise here to extreme heights, inaccessible to mere mortals – otherwise you will not survive.

Everything that can be done through the ass will be done exactly that way, and absolutely nothing can be done about it, and you will immediately become familiar with such a phenomenon as “soria.” The locals' scoring skill has been pumped up to the maximum. There is complete chaos and wildness going on everywhere: mountains of garbage, open sewers, and the stubborn reluctance of the locals to make sidewalks; the ubiquitous stray bobbies will attract your attention whenever you try to walk around the city.

This is what Bali street always looks like

The Balinese mentality is specific. On the one hand, they are very peaceful people, but on the other hand, the words conscience and responsibility do not translate very well into their language. Everything needs to be negotiated, and even this may not help, since the foreigner is by default to blame for everything.

Walking here is unsafe, but not because of crime (which is almost non-existent, with the exception of monkeys – they are real pirates), but because there is simply nowhere to walk. All the streets are made for motorcycles, and you will constantly jump away from bikes and cars rushing from all sides.

What do you even know about traffic jams?

There are no rules on the road, everyone drives at random and wherever they want. Meeting here is a relative concept, and depends on who met whom: trucks, by definition, do not have oncoming traffic and everyone gives way to them. Dogs, with a completely Buddhist calmness, wander and sleep on the roads and they don’t care about you or the fact that the car won’t be able to jump over them. Locals walk along the roads at night dressed in black, with baskets of bricks on their heads. And drivers are simply a phenomenon difficult to describe. You just have to try to keep your distance and leave a millimeter of distance in front of your bike and the car in front, and a Balinese will immediately squeeze into it and vomit in front of you at a speed of 30 km per hour. I don’t know why they do this, apparently they can’t stand empty space on the road. You can't relax even for a second.

And you will have to ride a bike here. Driving by car is pure hell – the roads are narrow and it’s impossible to overtake someone normally. As a result, there are many kilometers of traffic jams for hours, which cannot be avoided by car. Locals overload trucks every five times, as a result of which they crawl like turtles and periodically fall apart in half right on the road, scattering their cargo and the surrounding motorcyclists like ninepins.

Big trouble with medicine. Here she is so-so. There are normal hospitals, but the prices there are not what we are used to. An appointment may cost 1 million plus several million examinations. But insurance will help you here.

Next you need to get used to Bali time. It's like bullet time only in a different way and means that nothing is ever done on time. Everyone will be late and any deadlines will be missed. And this applies not only to Balinese, but to everyone who lives in Bali. And the reason is this:

Bali is a completely unpredictable place. At any moment, a tropical downpour can begin, and a trip of 5 minutes will turn into 50. The Internet will stop working unexpectedly and suddenly. The roof of the villa will start to leak or water will come out of the floor, the ATM will eat the card and support will not be able to do anything (soriya). On Nyepi holiday, mobile Internet is turned off (where is the logic?) and in general it is unstable here. It is difficult to predict or even imagine all force majeure events, but they occur regularly. You just have to accept it.

All normal infrastructure was created by foreigners. But since foreigners are not allowed to do many things, interaction with local masters cannot be avoided and here you will have to improve your acceptance skill to the maximum. The beauty industry is so-so, and so is the auto-moto-bicycle-photo service. Delivery really works very well, and taxis too (our taxi Maxim is present, and it works very well, which surprised and pleased me). It is better not to even try to solve legal issues regarding visas, kitas and business yourself (this is useless and can cause mental disorder) but to leave it to experienced specialists, such as Legal Indonesia.

Local animals and insects (being native Balinese) also crawl out of every crack and into every crevice. There is nothing particularly dangerous here (apart from Dengue fever), but such close proximity is unusual at first.

Corruption is very common. It is common to give and ask for bribes, and even extort them. No one is punished for this and many things, in principle, cannot be done without bribes. Well, in general, a foreigner here has no rights. It costs the local authorities nothing to deport for any violation, real or imaginary, or even put them in prison. Many foreigners work here illegally, since it is impossible to get a kitas (business visa) to work as a cook or guide. So it turns out that the sword of Damocles hangs over your head constantly.

If you live here, legalization is not so easy and depends on the profession. Most remote IT workers do not do this and live from one visa to another. But there is no other IT here, there are too many local IT companies and they pay ridiculous salaries. So in terms of work, there are no options here and you will have to work remotely. The time zone is very inconvenient for almost everything. It is more or less still possible to work with Europe, but you will have to sit up at night. Working with the USA is extremely inconvenient and, accordingly, the salaries of IT specialists here are the same as in Russia.

Bali is not a good place for a startup, despite the excellent smoothies. There is no vc here, and it will be difficult to work with vc from other countries. Well, Bali is not famous for its legal system and compliance with laws. Investor confidence in the region is low.

Also, it's hard work here. Forcing yourself to work in the office when there are so many interesting things on the street is quite difficult and requires self-discipline, and even the strong in spirit relax after a while. Because if you don’t relax, life here is torture.

Compared to the USA, Bali gives much more Life in the Work-Life balance. Several times more and living here, despite the chaos happening around, is much more fun. I would compare it to living in a dorm versus living with strict parents. Yes, with strict parents there is always order in the bedroom, but is life really about order?

In general, there are many advantages and I like Bali. But it is not suitable for everyone and is definitely not paradise. Pictures on Instagram are good, but reality is completely different.