Remote work Austria part 2 and preparing for Indonesia (Bali)

Part 2 of remote work in Zell am Ziller

The weekend before my third (and last week) of remote work, two of my friends joined me in Zell. They landed on Saturday morning at Innsbruck airport, which is just an hour drive away from Zell am Ziller. After picking them up, we directly hit the slopes. As it was still early in the wintersport season (15th of December), we enjoyed a full weekend of nearly private skiing on the slopes of Zell.

After the weekend I started my working days around 7AM, as my two friends would go out for skiing around 9AM. In that way my working day ended around the same time they would come back from skiing and we could have a drink, dinner together and play some games in the evenings.
During this week, we stayed in Gielerhof in Zell am Ziller, on an approximately 15 minutes walk from the slope lifts. But theres also a free shuttle bus to the slope lifts that stopped almost next to our apartment. The Gielerhof farmhouse houses several apartments. It was very clean and furnished with everything we needed. It was also a very good location for me to do my remote work. The only negative thing I experienced, was on one day where video calls I made for my work where a bit unstable. This was because the speed of WiFi (and even the internet connection on my mobile phone) where insufficient to support this properly. But beside that single day, I was able to do my work without any problems.

After this week with my two friends, I joined my girlfriend with her family for holiday in Hochkrimml (which is in the same area, Zillertal Arena, as Zell am Ziller). We spent the Christmas holidays in Austria and drove back to the Netherlands the day before New Year’s eve.

Preparations for remote work in Indonesia Bali

After a month in Austria, the next adventure is following up very fast: 2 months of remote work from the Indonesian island Bali. My brother Sven is joining me for the first month. We’ll both be working 4 days a week for our employers in the Netherlands. The second month I’m in Bali, Fleur (my girlfriend) will also come over for 2 weeks. I took some days off to have time to travel around Bali with her.

I have been to Asia before (Vietnam), but not as a remote worker and Bali might have some completely different rules. So I took some time for a good preparation. I collected information from the internet (which is full of good tips and advices) and spoke to some people that did something similar to my plans. With all that information, Sven and I decided to only book an accommodation for the first week (Bali Bustle in Kuta). Arranging things on location is a lot cheaper and very accustomed. Some of the other important tips we got was to rent a scooter for 2 months and get a local SIMcard to have mobile internet and be able to do phonecalls cheaper. I also arranged a 60 days visa for Indonesia beforehand in the Netherlands (at the Indonesian ambassade), this is a lot easier and doesn’t require me to go to the ambassade in Indonesia. If you stay 30 days or less, you can just get a visa on arrival in Bali.

Another thing I had to arrange was a proper insurance. I’ll be taking some costly computer equipment from my employer. To have this properly insured I had to take a temporary valuables insurance next to my regular travel insurance.
Time difference between the Netherlands and Bali was also a point of attention. It’s 7 hours earlier in Bali opposed to the Netherlands. As I work in a team, it’s good to have aligned working hours. I agreed with my employer to work from 11.00 in the morning when I’m in Bali, at this time it’s 4.00 in the morning in the Netherlands. Which means theres at least half of a day overlap to work together with my colleagues. We’ll see how this works out, I can imagine that (if necessary) starting later won’t be such of a big problem for me.

In our spare time Sven and I are planning to do some trips around the island and for sure do some surfing. Bali is a perfect location for surfing, so that’s certainly something I want to get better at there.
Once we’ve arrived and settled I’ll certainly share an update from Bali!

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