The Pros and Cons of Living in Bali

Bali has been a great place to live for us and especially during Covid. All the health protocols are followed and we never felt stressed by the situation. Everyone just wears a mask and gets on with pretty much a normal life.

Its not a major topic of conversation and definitely something not to divide people no matter what your beliefs are on the situation.

There has definitely been no panic buying of anything at all. I find it just crazy when I see the shelves bare in supermarkets around the world.

The vaccine rate is pretty good here and most have been double vaccinated.

What I do think is great is how easily you can get a rapid test or PCR test. You're basically in and out within minutes and testing stations are everywhere.

This is our 5th year of living in Bali, and for now our base. We hope to later in the year to be able to travel to Europe but we will see what the situation is later in the year.

In the meantime Indonesia has over 17000 islands so we have plenty of places to explore.

We just loved our recent trip to Java, we loved Lombok and in the next couple of weeks we will be heading to Nusa Lembongan and then the Gili Islands.

All are easy to get to and flights to Java and Lombok are really inexpensive.

The thing that I love about living in Bali is that it is a very multicultural community and we in fact rarely get to speak to a native English speaker. There are a lot of Europeans here, Russians, Brazilians etc

I must admit when I speak these days to a non native English speaker I seem to have this weird accent. I have no idea why I do that. I even find I'm also texting in pigeon English.

One of the most fabulous things about living here is that you can have a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget. The type of lifestyle that we lead here would cost a bomb in Australia.

We have a live in housekeeper called Tooki and she is very much a part of the family. She probably speaks 3 words of English but with my limited Indonesian we get by. I am extremely good at charades these days.

She's very funny and laughs a lot. Its a little like living on the set of Fawlty Towers if you can remember that show.

Ladies, you will appreciate this.... I haven't had to do any housework for 5 years now...not one thing.

Tooki always has a cup of black tea with turmeric, ginger and lime waiting for me in the morning.

She will have all our fruit chopped up for breakfast and chops up all our vegetables for dinner.

She changes the bed linen twice a week and washes towels every other day.

I think hubby and I would have to go to a nursing home if we moved from Bali as we even forget how to make a bed.

There is only hubby and I here and we keep it pretty tidy so she has a lot of free time as well.

You might think that a live in housekeeper would be intrusive, as I thought at the start it would be, but its not at all.

Tooki starts work at around 6am and does all the downstairs, sweeps outside, tidy's up the garden, feeds the dog.

When I come downstairs after yoga etc around 8.30 she will then go upstairs and make beds and clean bathrooms etc.

She then comes back down to clean up after breakfast , do the washing and ironing . She will finish this around midday.