Your People Will Find You Everywhere

On the previous pages, I wrote about how we rented our first villa in Bali for just six days.

After that, we wanted to stay in a few different areas—not choose a place based on someone else’s advice, but understand for ourselves where we would actually want to settle.

At the same time, we needed to figure out how the housing market here even works.

• What is available?
• Where do people look?
• How much does it cost?
• And what kinds of places can you find in different areas?

Once, in Thailand, one method had already worked for me.

I left a post on Google Maps, in the reviews for our condo—a type of housing—saying that we wanted to transfer our contract. That was how we managed to find someone to take it over.

So I decided to experiment in Bali too.

I posted on Threads with roughly this message:

“Hi, Bali! It’s only our second day here. We’re looking for a place for two months, so if anyone is transferring a lease or knows of any great options, please share. We don’t have a specific area in mind—our only wish is to be not too far from civilisation, but somewhere quiet 😅”

I wasn’t only interested in finding a home. I simply wanted to see what people would offer me.

What the prices would be. Which areas would come up. And how people actually look for homes here.

Renata saw that post. She had once bought advertising from me in my channel South Africa 🇿🇦 Cape Town.RU.

That was how we first met—online, through the city media project I run. She messaged me, and we agreed to meet for coffee the very next day.

Altogether, Renata had lived in Bali for two and a half years, and she was happy to share what she had learned.

She told me about the different areas. Shops. Prices. Everyday life. Safety. And all the other basic things you worry about when you are only just beginning to get to know a place.

😎 We talked for around four hours. And honestly, at some point the story of how we had met started to feel quite incredible to me.

We are both from Russia. We lived in different cities there. We met online through city media about Cape Town—a city in Africa. And then we met in real life for the first time in Bali.

We sat together in a café, talking as if this entire route had been completely ordinary.

Many people are afraid to move or travel because they do not know what will happen to everything familiar:

What about my circle? My friends? The people I know? The people I am used to having around?

We live in the age of technology.

We have messages, video calls, and the ability to remain close even while living in completely different parts of the world. And no one knows which country you might meet in next.

One of the greatest advantages of a life spent travelling is that, over time, wherever you arrive, there are people you know. Sometimes a person from one chapter of your life unexpectedly appears in the next.

That day, I also began to understand little by little just how differently everyday life works here.

Shops, for example.

Bali has the kind of supermarkets we are used to, where you can find almost anything. But the prices can be several times higher.

They are useful for delicacies or products that are difficult to find elsewhere. But when you need good meat, vegetables, and fruit, things work a little differently here.

Once you settle in a particular area, you get to know local people and gradually learn who sells meat and where to find good fruit and vegetables.

Buying those products directly from them is often both cheaper and tastier. Bali also has seasonal boxes of fruit and vegetables delivered to your home.

A new selection is put together every week, so the contents are never exactly the same and depend on the season. A box from Puri Tomato costs around IDR 600,000 and contains enough produce for about a week.

There are also small convenience stores similar to 7-Eleven.

There is no 7-Eleven in Bali, but there is Circle K.

The selection is smaller, but you can still pick up all the everyday basics:

• something for the house;
• laundry products;
• water;
• drinks;
• a quick snack.

Everything seems familiar enough, but every country has its own chains, prices, and way of doing things.

Renata told me that Coco Mart and Pepito Market are considered some of the more expensive supermarkets.

We usually shop at Frestive Supermarket. The selection is almost the same as at Pepito, but the prices are noticeably lower.

After our meeting, Renata sent me her own little cheat sheet for grocery shopping:

• Ithon — a basic shop where you can find everything.
• Pepito / Fresh Market — fresh meat.
• Gourmet — a large selection of cheese, bread, and meat.
• Nirmala — another good shop where you can usually find everything you need.

We also talked about the different areas and about safety.

And Renata was not speaking about safety only from stories she had heard from other people. About a month before we met, money had been stolen from their villa.

But that is a separate story, and one I will definitely come back to.

That evening, the owner of our villa recommended that we drive to Nusa Dua for dinner. He also told us about a place there that, in his opinion, we simply had to visit.

That was our first time exploring the area. It was the kind of place you could hardly drive past without stopping.

Everything around us was beautiful, clean, and well maintained.

You could walk or go for a run without a constant stream of cars or clouds of exhaust fumes nearby.

After the other parts of the island we had seen, it felt like a real oasis in Bali.

We drove around, looked at everything, had dinner at NUSA, and went home to rest.

But one of the greatest pleasures of those first few days was the villa itself.

After living in Vietnam, we were so happy to have the outdoors back in our lives.

Not just four walls, but our own open-air space where we could sit, work, talk, listen to music, and rest.

The kitchen at our villa was under a roof but had no walls, so even while cooking we were still outside.

That was where we spent most of our time.

We only went into the bedroom to sleep or cool down when it became too hot.

Maybe this kind of space matters so much to me because it reminds me of childhood.

I lived with my grandmother in a private house.

We had quite a large yard, and I spent almost all my time outside rather than at a computer.

Walking around. Building little forts. Always inventing something.

That is probably why having space beyond four walls has always mattered so much to me.

That day, Bali slowly began to reveal itself to me from two sides at once.

Through the people who somehow find you even on the other side of the world.

And through the feeling of home that sometimes returns all the way from childhood.

📖 Page 4.

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📝 Useful notes:

🛒 Where to Buy Groceries in Bali — coming soon 🏡 Bali Neighbourhoods: Where to Look for a Home — coming soon 🔐 Villa Safety in Bali — coming soon 📍 NUSA — Nusa Dua — place card coming soon