How is the health and safety in Bali right now amid the global crisis?

When reopening for tourism, Bali says it will focus on attracting remote workers to choose the island as their workplace:

"We will focus on a new pattern of how Bali is not just for leisure, but indeed to work in Bali as well"

thebalisun.com/bali-tourism-will-target-digital-nomads-and-those-who-work-online/

Hi! I’m still struggling to figure out how to handle health insurance.

What handy guides have you found to help figure out USA health care?

I’m struggling with:

• When it’s okay/wise to go without coverage while abroad, these days.
• What other type of insurance I want while traveling, and whether it needs to be a supplement to USA insurance or if it can be a replacement.
• Etc.

Above all, I think I want out. I wonder about success stories in moving to some other system/location, and the method you’d recommend: additional citizenship, a special visa, etc.

I have searched this topic and struggled with it, so summaries and clarity are super helpful. I appreciate any and all help with this. Thanks so much!

Any US nomads found health insurance with global coverage? My current approach has been to have US health insurance, essentially a waste of money but if I ever got very sick I could go home and have coverage. My actual healthcare is a combination of travel insurance (haven’t really used it much though) and paying cash in cheap places like SE Asia and Latin America. The cobbled together approach is neither simple nor very cost-effective. Love to find a product with global coverage that also satisfies Obamacare requirements. Any leads?

Looking for somewhere to celebrate New Years in Bali! I would prefer somewhere in Kuta or nearby, but if it’s worth the travel, give me your suggestions!

Not looking to spend too much money either.

Thanks =)

Hi experienced nomads!

I’ve been nomading around SE Asia, HK and China for the last 4 to 5 months. I’ve been moving a lot and now I need to settle down for 3 months to finish some work. So the idea is to be in a stimulating city where I can find nomads, start-ups, self growth, self improvement, spirituality environments.
I already been for one month in Chiang mai, and liked it a lot in this respect, but wanted to try somewhere new, so was thinking to go to Ho Chi Minh or Bali. As I will be working mainly most of the time, the idea is not to spend much this three months, so my idea is to spend around 1200usd per month.

Would appreciate any opinions on this.

Best place to sit down and work for three months on a 1200usd budget a month?

Thnx

My husband and I are looking for a place with nice weather, fast internet, comfortable/modern/nice housing, (hopefully walk to town/shops) and budget friendly for 2-3 months in June-July-August 2018. We are looking at Canggu, Ubud, Bali, Seminyak. I can’t seem to find a good house (the entire place) for less than $1400USD on airbnb, TripAdvisor, VRBO, or Facebook groups. Can anyone recommend a realtor or agent in Bali/Canggu/Ubud that can help me find a place that’s nice? Or if it’s just unrealistic- where in Southeast Asia (or surrounding) area would you recommend for that kind of nice town, fast internet, and good weather in June, July, August? Thank you!

Hi there, I’m currently looking at Allianz Global and IM Global as a health insurance for long-term travel in Asia. Any experiences with those two or are there better options for European residents?

Bali was at the top of my short-list of places to go DM for 1-3 months until I saw it had the “Zyka” tag on Nomad List . I’m not super read-up on the whole state of Zyka, other than occurrences of infection being on a decline (for now), but I am a worrisome enough person about such things that it has got me reconsidering. Though, it still seems to not be stopping the rate of DMs visiting Bali…

Is there cause for large concern here, or I am just being a nut? …It’s been known to happen pretty frequently over such things

I’m making plans to travel from Portland, OR to Canggu, Bali in a little over a month. Looking around at flights now. Can anyone lend experience on the most affordable flight path (airports and airlines) to take?

I subscribe to Scott’s Cheap Flights, but nothing obvious has shown up in that direction (Portland, OR -> Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -> Bali ???). I’ve so far just been looking with Google Flights + Momondo. Any other tips from more experienced travelers are much appreciated.

If you’ll be in Canggu Sep/Oct, I’ll return any favors with tasty eats and cold drinks

My girlfriend and I started our DN life this March and went straight to Chiang Mai because of it’s ease of living. We love it. CM is great – we got a scooter for 2700 THB, a nice apartment for 8000 THB all in, we get our laundry done for 50 THB, eat out at nice places every day for less than 100 THB etc. Arriving here needed nearly no preparation – it just worked out all by itself.

We are still on tight budget and don’t want to give up much of CM’s quality of life but we want to see other places and we are now thinking about what could be our next destination. We are not really willing and able to spend more than what we spend now. Bali seems to be a good place according to what you all wrote.

How does it compare to Chiang Mai or Thailand in general?
CM can get very hot and we often acknowledge that we should have chosen an apartment with a pool here. Can I rent something in Bali for a few months with a pool for less than 250 USD?

Are there any Nomad-houses or similar projects at the moment that make it easy to connect to other people?

We don’t really hang out in co-working spaces, more in cafés. We source products in China and sell them to customers in Europe through e-commerce.

Any tips or experiences are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’m a professional psychotherapist who is starting out in this lifestyle and I’m curious to hear what specific psychological struggles people had to overcome while making the transition to life as a DM. Also, what do you do to stay mentally healthy while traveling to foreign lands. I’m interested in hearing any insights people may have, especially since I am working on a book on psychological resilience and I can’t think of a more stressful transition than moving from a static to a nomadic lifestyle. If you’re not comfortable putting your experiences on a public forum, feel free to PM me.

Hello, is there anybody around with experience with “Adobe Connect” meetings?

We are thinking to move to Bali - Canggu or Ubud, however our business demands working with this Adobe platform. Our concern is if latency is good enough and connection stable to do the teaching job from Bali to European located Adobe Connect servers.

Thanks so much fore any hint on this.

You can test the connection quality with Adobe Connect from your location to different servers worldwide from this page - for Europe there is a UK-based server listed to test:

Thanks again!
Gunter

What’s up nomads!

What do you use to get internet for work when you travel? I’m trying to figure out the best option to get internet when I’m traveling. For now mostly in Europe and mostly for conference calls with screen sharing. I’m willing to spend $200-300 per month.

I need to:

1. tether my laptop to my data plan on my phone, or on another device (like SkyRoam which I don’t have yet, but considering)
2. have data on my phone for essentials like Google Maps when driving around.

My US carrier is Sprint Wireless. I have unlimited data, which I can enable globally at no extra charge but it’s supposedly 3G, but doesn’t really work. Sprint also has a plan called Sprint Global Roaming, which offers high speed internet, but it’s $30 per 1GB which can add up to $500-$600 per month given my usage.

I’m not always close to WiFi or Co-Working spaces. I’m looking for a solution that would basically allow me to get on a Google Hangout or GoToMeeting call on my laptop from my car.

Any experience with gadgets like SkyRoam or similar ones from Verizon or AT&T? How good and reliable are those?

Any ideas? What do you use?

Thanks,
Alex

I am considering moving to Ho chi Minh to work on some projects for several months. I was all set to go until I was reading about the issues with bag snatching and reading blogs about getting robbed. I lived in manila and Iloilo for awhile and in the Philippines and had no issues but I was also younger and more care free.

It seems like a good place to get started. But could anyone comment on the issues with safety.
I just really need a good cheap place where I can be really productive for 6-9 weeks and really take my programming skills to the next level. I was hoping I could do that in ho chi minh. But perhaps it is not suitable, I also don’t feel like stressing out about my bag all day as well.

I did chiang mai this time last year and it was good but I also got bored after awhile. Would Da nang or hoi ann be less stressful in terms of bag snatching?

I’m wondering how Digital Nomads with pre-existing conditions insure themselves.

I’m German and most of the German DNs I know keep their primary residence in Germany and go with private health insurance (~150-250€/month) + travel insurance (<50€/month). Sadly that’s not possible for people with pre-existing conditions; those (at least in Germany) are required to voluntarily insure themselves with the governmental healthcare providers at 15.7% of pretax revenue (min. ~350/month, max. ~850€/month).
Probably most other European states work in similar fashion?

The last few years I have gotten along by tricking a little (staying registered as a student), but I’m soon hitting the age limit where that’s not possible anymore and am now looking at either incorporating and paying myself a fixed salary or getting a residency in another European country with a (for self-employed people) more accessible public health system (my main focus is on Portugal’s NHR regime).

Does anyone else here have/had a similar problem? I wonder how others have solved this issue.

Hi all!

I am considering going for 1+ month in Amed (to get more into freediving).

I need to be able to make Skype calls & other work-related tasks. I need a speed equivalent to one allowing me to watch Youtube videos.

Ubud is way more connected in comparison, so I don’t expect anything wonderful.

Wondering if anyone has done this before & if yes: what 3G
provider they used, or what cafe/restaurant/hotel had a good/reliable
enough wifi connection.

Note that I went to Amed last year & the 3G connection on the 2 providers I used at the time was terrible. That’s why I’m asking for help.

Thanks in advance!

p.s. I also posted this question on travel.stackexchange.com/questions/82403/quality-of-wifis-3g-reception-in-amed-bali

Hello,

I’ve been living outside the USA (my original home) for the last 10 years. I only go back occasionally to see family for a short period of time. I’m looking for a health insurance provider that is willing to provide global coverage (USA excluded) with no reimbursement policy that will also cover preexisting conditions.

In the philippines, they will let us die if we can’t work out a payment arrangement (or at minimum pay a deposit). If the bank is closed and I can’t get the money for the deposit, we die.

My current provider (here in the philippines) is blue cross philippines . I’ve grown tired of their incompetence and general ineptitude and am searching for a replacement outside of the philippines.

There is one thing I really like about our health insurance provider. They provide us with a visa card for which we use to charge all of our necessary medical expenses. It’s not a ‘health care credit card’ but our actual ‘proof of insurance card’. The card is issued from our health insurance provider and has all of their markings / logo / information on it as well as a 16 digit visa number, magnetic stripe and visa logo on the card.

Does anyone know of a health insurance company that will direct settle by giving the insured a visa / master / amex / etc card to charge their related medical expenses to?