So let me get this straight.
You own a busted arse homestay/kost the same as me but you also own a potential $4.5 million block of land which you are not really interested in selling ??
What's your excuse ?? :) :)
Cheers
Ken, you may have already picked up that my brain is not normal but here is an explanation. I am one of the few expats (I actually do not like that word) who really enjoy living in Indonesia. I love wandering along the beach in the morning and having a chat with the local people. I enjoy having a beer or twenty with friends while telling lies to the pretty little Indonesian girl serving me.
I will even go as far as to say I enjoy it when Markit comes out of his cave in the jungle and turns up to drink my beer and eat my cheese.
With my busted arse little homestay we tuck between 6,500 and 7,000 people into bed per year. (Our place only sleeps 20 at one time.) These people come here as tourists and leave as friends. A major percentage of them are repeat offenders with many coming back here 3 times per year. This means we have a very friendly social type atmosphere going here most days.
I feel that I am very lucky to have made all of these wonderful friends.
I live in one of the villas of the busted arse homestay so my life is constantly filled with laughter and happy people.
I love the fact that my rubbish man charges me 100,000 and 2 Viagra tablets per month to cart my rubbish away. How many men do you know who carry Viagra tablets around in their wallet so they can share them with the rubbish man?
Recently I purchased a block of land and there was a derelict bike on the land. While carting the bike home around 6 local people stopped and asked if I needed a hand. I love that as well.
Goodness me 25 beers a day at $2 is only $350 a week. How much money do we need?
I love that I was given a cheque this morning from a fund raising day we operated recently. I will wander down the road and give this to the John Fawcett Foundation in a short while (
THE JOHN FAWCETT FOUNDATION - YAYASAN KEMANUSIAAN INDONESIA)
Many people overlook the obvious things, my Indonesian wife left school at the age of 10. With my guidance she now earns $50,000 per year in her own business.
Recently I was sitting in bar/restaurant and the pretty little waitress told me that her wage of 1.5 million per month was not enough. I offered her a job cleaning two of my new villas at 750,000 per month per villa. She gave me that stare than many people seem to reserve especially for me and explained that it was the same amount. This is when I explained about putting 10 cans of soft drink into the fridge and selling them for 10,000 each (purchase price is 4,500). If the holiday makers drink 5 per day she has a profit of over 25,000 per villa multiply this x 2 villa x 30 days and the soft drink alone equated to more than her current wage. The little light inside her eyes started to glow. I then added beers in at purchase price of 11,000 and sale price of 20,000. Now there was a smile happening. Now I included wine purchased at 120,000 and sold at 160,000.
Suddenly she could see the prospects of a take home wage of 9 million a month.
Tours and transport have not been mentioned to her yet. (commissions range from 5% to 20% on these).
I love it when I can help people think outside of the usual rectangle
So there is a long winded answer to why I live the way I do.
P.S. you are welcome around for a beer at any time.
