Hi! We finally made it to the town of Ubud, Bali. Ubud is known as the bohemian, cultural, artsy, and yoga capital of Bali. When we booked our Air BnB in Ubud, we decided to stay with a family here to get to know the area better and maybe meet some new people. We stayed with a kind couple named Chika and Dian. Chika is from California, and Dian is a local. Chika came from Cali all the way to Bali to marry her and has settled his life down here. They are the kindest and most hospitable couple you will ever meet. They taught us quite a bit about Bali and the Hindu religion (which is the prominent religion here in Bali) . Komang, their house maid, cooked us a Balinese breakfast every morning. It was awesome, and we loved her dearly as well :). It was such a great experience to stay in their home and rent what they call “the red room”. I had my hesitations about staying in a private room in someone’s home, but it turned out to be an amazing experience. I highly recommend trying it at some point in your travels.
While we have been traveling, Alex has maintained his remote job through owning his business Fabric Eleven which specializes in web design, brand, apps, and marketing while also working for a company online named Toptal. Toptal hires the top 3% freelance talent of developers and designers in the world. He has been really happy working with this company, and would highly recommend it to any of you computer experts out there looking to work remotely and travel the world at the same time :).
The Toptal company has a forum or chat where you can find if other co-peers are working remotely in the same area as you are. This gives them a great opportunity to meet up in different places in the world, wherever they may be. When we got to Ubud, Alex posted in the chat to see if anyone was working in Bali.
A few minutes later, we found out a guy named Dima was working remotely in Bali. Him and his wife Kate were planning on living in Bali for 4 months, then going back to their home country of Russia . They considered it somewhat of a long honeymoon as they just got married in January. We reached out to them and ended up meeting them on our first night at the corner of the main palace in Ubud. The rest is history!
What a wild way to start to a friendship right? They are wonderful people, and I think they will become lifelong friends. We are all pretty thankful that Toptal opens a dialogue for their remote employees to meet up with each-other. BTW, I am not paid or endorsed by Toptal to compliment their company but I have to tell you that Alex has been so happy working with this crew of people. From what I know, they are an awesome and talented group of people. How great to work for a company that you are passionate about and that really cares about their employees.
Anyways, when we met Dima and Kate, we took them to a local Indonesian dance that Chika had recommended for us to do on our first night here at the Lotus Flower venue. It was amazing and I really felt a part of the Balinese culture that night. What an introduction to this area of Bali!
We have had a great start in Ubud, and I cant wait to show you the rest of our experiences here!
Love, Nurse Vanessa
