Greeting from Pantai Lembeng
Pantai Lembeng, or Lembeng Beach is the site of our new office in Bali. We are getting to know the locals.. more details later.
Last week I was telling you about the adventure continuing.. and how we are making things happen at pace. If you missed it you can catch up here.. Turkey update.
Because of your support we were able to send more money to Hatice our agent, who is allocating funds directly to needy people. She messaged me this morning she is planning at trip to one of the worst affected area to ensure your money is spent wisely. Thank you for your support, if you want to help you can by stocking the Turkish products we stock, check more here. On Tuesday we will catch a flight via Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu so these are our last few days on Bali, and as always it's a mad dash to finish projects, place orders and get things done.
The mornings are spent visiting suppliers checking samples, refining details - if possible placing an order. In the afternoon we head to beach.. not to chill but to check on the progress of our new office.
I thought you might be interested to know what things cost here.. where our office is feels lost and remote but actually we are only 15 minutes from the centre of Denpasar city. |
It's a small community here. There is a Balinese lady who looks after the carpark and charges a little money to the surfers that come to the one beach shack. She was happy to do a deal with us, for about £10 a month all our staff can access any time. Next door a guy called Ketut lives in a beach shack with four dogs, he was acting as security for the shack and the previous owner of our place. A helpful and jolly guy, with lots of local contacts, he is happy to keep an eye on the place at night and be a key holder, he says he will give us an early morning cleaning service and prepare the workspace ready for the team - cost about £80/month.. The warung (or local cafe) is run by a guy who at first glance looks European, a super gentle guy, and a super cook. He explains shyly that despite his looks he is Indonesian, from Java and his English is not that good. Apparently, there are Dutch ancestors somewhere in his family tree and he was cursed to be born totally European looking. His limited menu includes some dishes that Dutch people would recognise, a tasty lunch dish is less than £2, and a large freshly squeezed fruit juice is less than £1.
Today we have a dozen workers, plastering, tiling, fixing windows, and laying a new road.. it's all happening. This morning I went with Ringo to a place that sells coconut trees. We selected and bought two from a lady called Kiki for £150 - her husband will come tomorrow and plant them. Ringo who loves gardening was horrified, they should be £30 each he thought, but Kiki told us since the Russians came she can sell all she can get and prices are high. But garden plants will still be cheap - you can buy all sorts of fast-growing plants for £3 / dozen. So we will make a tropical garden.. for small money.. the high-quality windows that we ordered and installed within a week cost about £1000, inside is now already quiet and peaceful.
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So we have everything we need to create a haven of creativity and hopefully attract the best and brightest young talent in Indonesia. Any beachfront property in the world (especially near a city) is expensive. But apart from that our total renovation cost and set up of fully functioning (very cool) office desks and everything we think will be about £15,000. Of course, the total investment to bring the project to fruition is many times more than this.. but this is why we believe we can offer services at a serious advantage to you.. it will take time but we already have the bones of a product that can skyrocket your business super cost-effectively.. more details later.
This morning I had to visit the Immigration department for a brief interview and a photo taken, with respect to my working visa.. there was a massive queue almost a thousand people a day I'm told are applying for Kitas papers - long-stay visa's. Huge credit to the Balinese government, they have geared up for it, meet and greet people to help, free snacks for those waiting, ultra friendly staff. Now nine interview rooms rather than three, and an interview was done with good humour and quickly in two minutes. They are mostly anti-war but some are not, I listened to one guy rant on about how all the western media have it wrong, Russia didn't start a war, blar blar blar.. but when I asked him, he said he never ever wanted to go back to Russia.
Russians & Ukrainians They are everywhere, looking serious, slightly grumpy, conflicted and lost. Mostly young, often glamorous and good-looking. If you go in any bank it is full of them trying to open bank accounts. Our bank manager told me they have to limit applications to certain days otherwise regular customers cannot get service. They are severely limited as to how much money they can get out of Russia per month, and the Russian banks charge a 20% commission on transfers. Only super rich have resources to get around that, probably with cryptocurrency. There are enclaves for rich Russians already like ParcQ (tagline The City of the Future) hidden away in the hills. But many here are not that well off and are struggling to survive. Foreigners cannot run businesses here without proper papers which are expensive (I know), and the local news is full of stories of Russians running illegal taxi services or such.
Ukrainians here are even more conflicted, they escaped the war, but feel I guess like they are letting down the country by not staying to fight. Long faces.
We live in strange times.. next week we will be in Nepal, catching up with all our suppliers - the first visit since before the pandemic.
Full report next Friday.
Take care..
David |
