Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

[Jimbo]

Now in Lovina and rediscovering all about why I love it so in Bali. After 7 weeks in Toraja and Makassar it is like a breath of fresh air to be here.

Maria asked be today about buying a house here and I smiled. It would have to be small, balinese style and very cheap. I will also have to put off retirement again but hey who knows.

I have just been offered a new job back in Kazakhstan at an obscene salary working only 28 days on and 28 off so it may well be a possibility. Problem is I do not want to let my present boss down...we will see

[Sanurian]

Hi Jimbo

Now in Lovina and rediscovering all about why I love it so in Bali. After 7 weeks in Toraja and Makassar it is like a breath of fresh air to be here.

I know the feeling. We left Bali a few years ago and moved to Jogjarkarta. Managed to survive there for 18 months. A 'nice' enough place, but in the end, it drove me bonkers. So we moved back to Bali.

I remember when we drove back onto Bali and both felt 'the breath of fresh air' you mention. It really did feel much better to be here. Sort of like the places we knew in Java were in black 'n white, but Bali was in full colour.

Is your boss, by any chance, Borat?

I think Pak Bert might be able to find you a reasonable property up in the Buleleng area. If it were me, and I had any spare money, I'd probably buy something there myself. Maybe next year.

[Jimbo]

Tomorrow (today) I am off to do the touristy things that need to be done. Friday I am off to swim with fishes (not mafia style) and then hopefully to Berts to discuss housing on Saturday.

What a full life I am leading but the clouds of going back to Saudi are drawing ominously close

[froggy]

Heck Jimbo, ill go with you to saudi (will work for food!), Hook a brotha' up...... Frog

[BaliLife]

Sanurian, I feel the same whenever we "escape" surabaya.. Let's not beat around the bushes.. Bali is a much more amiable place both politically and visually.. Part of that, I believe is related to some of the current conflicts around the world and the fact that islam is right in the middle of it all.. Funny thing is that this stereotype of islam being violent is quite new.. It used to be 'exotic'.. But in any case, it is what it is.. Bali is tourist friendly ans that means white man friendly.. I completely agree about the black and white analogy, except surabaya is more like shades of industrial smoggy brown:)

Ct

[Dyah]

It´s very funny.... that as indonesian women with western husband I have same experience... I have good experience in Bali in comparation to the other place in Indonesia. Bali have other "aire" for colours relationship ... more international ambiente- that i love in this one world (one people).. i mean too colourfully of kind of people . Maybe the reasons is not just religion, i think about "normality" in daily live, that many tourist visit and stay in Bali. I feel so good in Bali, also i sold my home in Bandung to buy a house in Bali. Hmm... now i miss Bali -my new home- very much!

[SunFlower]

Im totally agree, We live in Singapore, great country state, great food, nice condo, super clean city and very organized and everythings simply work (especially compare with Bali), but we prefer and very much love to live in Bali, it's also great for our son to grow up there, playing in the beach and live in beautiful culture and nature, education won't be a problem as there are many international school there...

What i like about Bali also it's lifestyle beside it's rich culture, nice ambience, but also the feeling that everybody is welcome here...and that everythings is so affordable and won't cost a fortune to simply enjoy the great things in life.....

[DCC]

Hey this thread is turning into love fest, can we get a group hug!

Sanurian, you beat me too it - Borat's too funny!

[FreoGirl]

I have just been offered a new job back in Kazakhstan at an obscene salary working only 28 days on and 28 off so it may well be a possibility. Problem is I do not want to let my present boss down...we will see

Sounds like a pretty good deal Jimbo - imagine, you could work for 4 weeks, then spend 4 weeks in Bali.... it's long enough to make the commute worth it don't you think? Very tempting

[BaliLife]

Are u in engineering / exploration field Jimbo?

Ct

[Jimbo]

Senior Project Manager mostly working on Infrastructure/Civil Engineering Projects. They want me to look after the design and build of a new railway for an oil company.

I will discuss with my boss in Saudi before making a decision but as Freogirl states I could have 3 month in the UK and another 3 months in Bali. Maria has her heart set on a house here as well and the kids want to reserve a holiday room.

I just wish she had said this befor I bought the house in Sulewesi asI will feel aproperty developer at this rate

[BaliLife]

Well jimbo, you certainly live an exciting life, hopping from one continent to the next.. I'm a PM also but with a bank.. Staring at a piece of recycled toilet paper day in and day out would be more satisfying.. All the best..

Ct

[Dasha]

Jim I’m just a punter. But I have staff. If they wanna go to Indo for a rest they tell me and they go. Just had 3 last month from my crew who needed time to chill. If you are a guy in charge of the design (a mammoth task) and building of a railway system then how come you don’t visit Indo as much as you want to all the time? In the time that I’ve been on this site I’ve been to Indo 4 times – something that I would anticipate a guy like you would do in a corporate Jet whenever he feels like it. I find it strange/unusual that you’ve been there only once in that time. Given your status as a senior project manager building / designing a railway in Saudi Arabia. Obscene Salaries now that you mention it … what are we talking???

[Jimbo]

Dasha

It is precisely because of the responsibility that you cannot just hop on a plane and go whenever you choose. I am not in charge to make those decisions but answer directly to the president of the company I work for. He would not release his staff to to go to Bali whenever they wanted to. If you own your own business then you can make those kinds of decisions but most of us cannot. We do not have a copprate jet for me to jump on when the mood strikes and like most companies use normal economy class fares for business travel.

Hopping on a plane to Bali from OZ is also so much easier because of the distance involved. I am also not the guy in charge of the design and build of a railway in Saudi but may have that opportunity for a 60 km stretch of railway in Kazakhstan. The salary of which would be my business but high by any circles of thinking.

I have noticed in a previous post that you seem to have an objection to me not travelling to Bali often enough. Do you have a problem with that? If so what?

I have a family who also cannot just leave whenever they want to not only the expense of us all coming but most of our extended family are not in Bali and as I only get 30 days leave a year they have the priority.

Good luck to you if you can go more but as for me and my family there are many constraints on my time.

[Sanurian]

Hey, Jimbo

A thought for the day, coming up, pursuant to your comment for Dasha:

I am also not the guy in charge of the design and build of a railway in Saudi but may have that opportunity for a 60 km stretch of railway in Kazakhstan.

I vaguely recall a proposal to build some kind of railway system in Bali, several years ago. I forget whose proposal it was and haven't heard anything since.
Maybe you should check this out - you never know - you could be be a project manager to build 60+kms of railway in Bali! (It'd have to be better than Kazakhstan, no?)

More recently, I read some stuff about a proposal to build a mono-rail system around Kuta/Legian, supposedly to attract more tourists.
Now, I don't know about you, but that's got to be an absolutely brilliantly stupid idea. Then again...

One of my personal engineering fantasies is a cable-car from Penelokan to the top of Gunung Batur. Or an ever bigger one - from Rendang/Selat to the top of Gunung Agung.

I was talking to some engineers from England, (maybe Italy, I forget), a long time ago, and one of them asked me what I do in Bali.
Just for a joke, I told them I was investigating a proposal for a Balinese underground rail system...something like Kuta-Ubud.
He actually believed me.
Again, thinking back on it, it might not be as crazy as it sounds.

And if the "new Bali airport" ever gets built, (somewhere near Negara in west Bali), that could be an opening for a small bullet-train from there to Denpasar.
Endless opportunities, I'm sure you'll agree.

[matahari]

Dasha what is the mather with you... and what is your beef with jimbo really about, or are you just being jealous? You just smashed this fine topic