Thread: Sending or shipping stuff in and out

of moving without ballast.
All of you somehow want to start a 'new life' (as I understand it) in Bali. That is a beautiful idea. But you all bog yourselves down immediately by trying to transport your 'old life' to your 'new life'. Means you want to continue living as you are used to live, but in Bali.
Somehow the logic of this evades me. I think you will only really 'live in Bali' if you do not take your ballast. There is nothing essential you would need which you could not acquire there, and all will virtually pay for itself, as you save the costs of shipping, customs, and headache.

Try it! Leave everything at your old home for a while, but go to Bali. Make a complete new home there, not bringing anything. After 6 months you will actually realize that you hardly need anything from your old home anymore :), and be a happy person, truly 'living in Bali'.

Point well taken Lothar. I am thinking about it.
What is ballast?
Dropping off ballast to lighten the load and travel farther....
making room for new things....
Yes, makes sense.
Or carry some ballast as a stabilizer?
Anyway, something to weigh carefully (pun intended)

I've gone the whole range in my life, from money, property and prestige, ie 'having it all', to being dirt poor and getting canned goods handouts from church on a new continent, starting from scratch and 'getting my stuff together', to lose pretty much everything of material value again in an earthquake in 94.
I am getting pretty good at letting go of China, antiques, appliances etc.
Actually I am only buying cheap plates now.

But I don't think I am as brave as you, and head out into the blue yonder without the tools for my livelyhood, such as a PC, books, photo equipment, and such.
And then there are intangibles...mementos, things that represent people, events, someone's loving efforts, a music collection that expands the heart and mind.
I can't quite think of that as ballast in the first sense, but maybe more in the second sense, a stabilizer for the soul, if you will. Things like that will go too, some day, but not just yet.

It had occurred to me as well that leaving some stuff behind in storage may be a good idea. If it is really needed in Bali, it can be shipped later. If not, friends can throw it on ebay or donate it or whatever.

When I think of my 7 crates that traveled from Europe overseas, I think: there was my so-called life, reduced to 3 square meters in a container, and still, there was a lot of useless stuff in it, and essential things were missing. Voila!!

I hear from people that you probably know after a year or two, if life in Bali is for you or not. Or if your marriage survives Bali or not, or your relationship flourishes or withers when it undergoes the 'real Bali' tanning process. Either you crack (and go home) or you get supple and adaptable, right?

I hope to hear more of the why and how experiences from all of you who have been living that part of the world.

Thanks for the good insights so far.
Uma

Hi Uma

Just a few points to add. I moved to Bali about 6 years ago from Australia and air-freighted 16 boxes of stuff, including guitars, PCs, hi-fi speakers, a couple of mountain bikes, etc. The big hold-up at the customs wharehouse when it all arrived was about 30 VHS tapes I had which were mainly my young son's video collection. The 'officals' said they all had to be viewed for censorship reasons. By then, I'd been there several hours and could hardly breathe in the place. I was so peeved that I told them they could have them. In the end, they let me have them without any 'viewing'.

As for sending mail from Indonesia: the best thing is to make sure the PO staff bang the stamps with their little franking hammers so the stamps can't be re-used.

The video/TV system in Indonesia is PAL. I'm not sure whether any VCRs have multifunction switches here - possibly. The main problems with VCRs are that hardly anybody uses them anymore (most people use VCDs and DVDs, which are switchable), and that video (or audio tapes, for that matter), tend to disintegrate from the heat and humidity.

PCs and laptops are readily available here, as are digital cameras.

Storing your music and visual arts material on a spare hard-drive is an excellent idea. Then again, you could burn all your stuff to CD-ROMs or DVDs. If you do do that, I'd suggest you make at least one copy of every disk you burn, just in case.

:D

Not on topic, but I wanted to say here that I personally am really enjoying your newly posted pics on the expat pictures site. In three words, keep it up! :oops: Selamat!

On topic, Eri and I priced a whole host of electronics in Bangkok on our recent trip, and compared to Bali, Bali is right on and competitive. If Bali can be faulted, as I've noticed anyway, it's that the latest models are somewhat slow arriving here.

Hi Roy

Thankyou very much for your encouraging comments about my pics. I appreciate it.

I notice, however, that very few people post any comments for most of the images on the site. Then again, I'm guilty as well.

Hope to run into you soon. I do know where Ubud is, but did you have a look at that pirated Bali map (published by Periplus)? It comes in at a whopping 39MB bit-map. I can't get it to print properly - unless I break it up into several pieces and print them out individually. Then again, I could just buy it.

Cheers to all at Nuri's
:mrgreen:

Amigo, I too have noted few comments on the pics. Maybe most folks just want to enjoy the photos, and if they have something to say, they do it on the forum? Dunno. Just a thought. In any event, I think one should not regard lack of comments as sama sama with lack of appreciation or enjoyment.

As I surf the web, Bali sites that include photos in particular, I can surely find breathtaking "travel" views of Bali, but nowhere else can I find this personal, gut level cornucopia of insight into Bali that I can see on the expat photo site.

I hope most visitors to the photo site see it more as a photo journal than as photographs to be judged from artistic parameters.

Looking forward to your next Ubud visit, but sorry, I missed the Periplus map. Remember, I don't ever drive in Bali, so I can always rely, map, or no map, on someone else to get me where I want to go.

See you soon?