How we relocated a web studio in Bali
Some time after the final transition to freelancing , the number of customers inexorably grew, despite the number of hands and bandwidth. Having found some freelance friends with similar problems, we decided to unite in the name of good goals and create our own web-studio.
Years passed, the processes were getting better, the web-studio gradually grew, adding new staff and remote workers. It so happened that people who were responsible, easy to lift, and with whom it became easy to brighten the work process with non-standard ways of working time, got into the office very close in spirit, temperament and character.
Periodically, we chose to work in coworking, cafes in trees, nature, and other places of interest.
It was going to fall, and in one of the plenings, which were delayed until midnight, a bright thought flashed that it would be cool not to hang around another winter in the cold, but to relocate somewhere to warm countries. I am sure that the imagination of many people more than once teased the flattering photos of happy virgins, who settled somewhere under a palm tree in Thailand, with a laptop and some kind of refreshing-hot cocktail in hand. Our brain also wanted palm trees, sea and sun glare on the monitor.
That same night, it was decided that this winter we would be a couple of months together with the studio where it was warm.
The next day, we told the staff about our idea. For people working in the studio for more than a year, the studio fully covered the flight and accommodation, for those who only joined our ranks, the flight was fully covered, but it was necessary to partially pay the rent.
As expected, there were many who wished, out of 16 staff members agreed to go, not a lot, 12 people.
When all the emotional ecstasy was gone, we were faced with the task of preparing for relocation.
1. The choice of location
In addition to the sea, we still wanted to have more or less sane time difference with our American, British and Australian clients. The close proximity of Asia to Australia solved the last problem, but in any case, communication with England and America had to be shifted to the remaining Ukrainian Jedi.
It was originally planned to choose between Sri Lanka and Thailand, but after talking with a shoal of friends who had migrated to the Indonesian island of Bali last winter, we finally chose him. Despite the dense population density, Bali had a lot of small villages with a good internet, not too spicy food, very friendly people, surfing and a huge number of places that could be visited by the whole crowd during the whole relocation. A bit scaring the rainy season, which is in Bali just in the winter, but people who have been at this time said that the rains are more like our summer rains than solid non-stop rains in other parts of Asia.
2. Air
Initially, it was supposed to fly by the Ukrainian company MAU to Athens, and from there, by the company Flyscoot (Asian low cost) to Bali. But for many guys it was the first flight on an airplane (for some even the first trip abroad), the impression of which I definitely didn’t want to spoil with delays at the airport, limited space for knees and toll water. In addition, the international operator Qatar airways just started to enter the Ukrainian market with pretty good price offers. When I contacted the support service to find out the necessary details on the ticket, they offered us to make a free stopper in Qatar for a day with coverage for a 4-5 star hotel. Unfortunately, due to certain reasons, we refused to stopover, but the impressions from the flight remained the most positive:
3. Accommodation
All friends advised to go to Bali, rent a scooter and look for accommodation already in place, which we did. A bunch ofkofounders volunteers arrived in Bali a week earlier to find a sane abode. As a temporary shelter, we chose a small hotel in the city of Kuta, rather “urban”, dirty and obviously unsuitable for a two-month existence. While our colleagues were already jealous of our early “vacation”, every morning at 6 o'clock, in the rain (which, by accidental coincidence, lined every day from 6 to 9 am), we traveled by mopeds towards Ubud (the intended location of our housing), they traveled around the villages in search of something sane, after which they returned to Kuta and worked (the full-fledged 6-8 hour working day has not been canceled).
There was little confusion from such searches. The prices were rather big, and the quality of the houses left much to be desired. In one of these outings, looking at a house on a rice terrace, we came across a middle-aged American composer, who had lived in Bali for a year and a half, slowly composed music to the sound of rain and occasionally thought about life ... In short, this American gave a very sane Advice - to post our housing expectations to one of the local Facebook groups dedicated to rental housing in Bali. Without hesitation, I found about 30 such groups and left a post in each of them that our twelve collective needs a super cool retreat for a couple of months for the agreed amount. The next day I received about 40 proposals (the proposals continued to arrive for another 2 months even after I had removed my post from all the groups). As it turned out, in Bali in their time they built a lot of villas, which were simply idle, due to the limited marketing skills of their owners, as well as their huge number. After seeing a couple of options, we stopped at a two-story villa with a swimming pool, which was located at a distance of 200 meters from the ocean in banana bushes.
4. Insurance.
To go to Asia, and even for a couple of months without insurance, would look like a complete suicide. Now there are quite a lot of offers on the insurance market of Ukraine and almost all the companies, having learned that we need 12 insurances, offered us preferential terms and discounts.
By the way, insurance still needed a couple of times. Many guys had problems with their ears after surfing, a banal cold. Several people fell from mopeds, and abrasions in Bali due to a very humid climate, heal quite a long time and need constant treatment.
Prices for insurance are not very different, so I advise you not to save on it in any way and carefully read the terms of compensation when an insured event occurs, so that there are no unpleasant surprises.
5. Internet
We had a pretty good internet connection in our villa, but for 12 IT specialists, there was not enough good internet access. Therefore, immediately upon arrival, we chose the maximum rate with a speed of 40 megabits + the owner of the villa, on his own initiative, installed an additional powerful router that caught all over the territory of the house. In addition, for remote attacks, we bought a pair of 3g / 4g packages of local mobile operators. By speed / coverage, Telkomsel liked the most.
Most of the cafes had a fairly decent internet connection, which allowed them to be used as improvised coworkings.
6. Organization of working time
We worked centrally, on average, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes we went to some interesting place in the morning and worked in the second, sometimes we worked in the first to free up time for the evening.
Periodically, we chose to work with different cafes, combining working hours with surfing or swimming. The prices of food and drinks in the cafes were sometimes lower than the price of the day in the co-working of Kiev.
7. Visa issue
For citizens of Ukraine there are 3 options:
1) to open a work visa KITAS.
The most correct and legal way. In this case, you need to enlist the support of a local company, which will be your visa-sponsor or open a company in Indonesia. The cost of a working visa will be within $ 100 per month + commission of the intermediary company.
2. Upon arrival, a free 30-day visa is issued without the right of renewal. The cost of a trip to Malaysia or Singapore is approximately equal to the cost of a long-term tourist visa, so special brave souls can try the Vizaran option .
At the end of the month, people just fly for a day to the country of interest to them and the visa is automatically extended upon arrival in Bali. The option is illegal, but is popular with many freelancers.
3. You can make a long-term tourist visa at the Embassy of Indonesia in Kiev, worth $ 45. Again, you can work on this visa only at your own peril and risk.
6. Entertainment
When you come to any agency / guide / office and say that you need something for 12 people, absolutely any doors are open for you. We managed to get significant discounts on everything from renting scooters to renting surfboards and all sorts of activities.
When people have similar interests and are very easy-going, it was not difficult to find what to occupy your awl. We traveled almost the entire island, met the dawn, saw off the sunsets, went surfing, rafting and of course worked hard.
All the guys really enjoyed our Asian experience. There was a feeling that this trip really brought us together, and we became one friendly family. I hope that our experience will be useful to someone and will push small web studios to new achievements.
Years passed, the processes were getting better, the web-studio gradually grew, adding new staff and remote workers. It so happened that people who were responsible, easy to lift, and with whom it became easy to brighten the work process with non-standard ways of working time, got into the office very close in spirit, temperament and character.
Photos of working days
Periodically, we chose to work in coworking, cafes in trees, nature, and other places of interest.
It was going to fall, and in one of the plenings, which were delayed until midnight, a bright thought flashed that it would be cool not to hang around another winter in the cold, but to relocate somewhere to warm countries. I am sure that the imagination of many people more than once teased the flattering photos of happy virgins, who settled somewhere under a palm tree in Thailand, with a laptop and some kind of refreshing-hot cocktail in hand. Our brain also wanted palm trees, sea and sun glare on the monitor.
That same night, it was decided that this winter we would be a couple of months together with the studio where it was warm.
The next day, we told the staff about our idea. For people working in the studio for more than a year, the studio fully covered the flight and accommodation, for those who only joined our ranks, the flight was fully covered, but it was necessary to partially pay the rent.
As expected, there were many who wished, out of 16 staff members agreed to go, not a lot, 12 people.
When all the emotional ecstasy was gone, we were faced with the task of preparing for relocation.
1. The choice of location
In addition to the sea, we still wanted to have more or less sane time difference with our American, British and Australian clients. The close proximity of Asia to Australia solved the last problem, but in any case, communication with England and America had to be shifted to the remaining Ukrainian Jedi.
It was originally planned to choose between Sri Lanka and Thailand, but after talking with a shoal of friends who had migrated to the Indonesian island of Bali last winter, we finally chose him. Despite the dense population density, Bali had a lot of small villages with a good internet, not too spicy food, very friendly people, surfing and a huge number of places that could be visited by the whole crowd during the whole relocation. A bit scaring the rainy season, which is in Bali just in the winter, but people who have been at this time said that the rains are more like our summer rains than solid non-stop rains in other parts of Asia.
2. Air
Initially, it was supposed to fly by the Ukrainian company MAU to Athens, and from there, by the company Flyscoot (Asian low cost) to Bali. But for many guys it was the first flight on an airplane (for some even the first trip abroad), the impression of which I definitely didn’t want to spoil with delays at the airport, limited space for knees and toll water. In addition, the international operator Qatar airways just started to enter the Ukrainian market with pretty good price offers. When I contacted the support service to find out the necessary details on the ticket, they offered us to make a free stopper in Qatar for a day with coverage for a 4-5 star hotel. Unfortunately, due to certain reasons, we refused to stopover, but the impressions from the flight remained the most positive:
Photos from the flight
3. Accommodation
All friends advised to go to Bali, rent a scooter and look for accommodation already in place, which we did. A bunch of
There was little confusion from such searches. The prices were rather big, and the quality of the houses left much to be desired. In one of these outings, looking at a house on a rice terrace, we came across a middle-aged American composer, who had lived in Bali for a year and a half, slowly composed music to the sound of rain and occasionally thought about life ... In short, this American gave a very sane Advice - to post our housing expectations to one of the local Facebook groups dedicated to rental housing in Bali. Without hesitation, I found about 30 such groups and left a post in each of them that our twelve collective needs a super cool retreat for a couple of months for the agreed amount. The next day I received about 40 proposals (the proposals continued to arrive for another 2 months even after I had removed my post from all the groups). As it turned out, in Bali in their time they built a lot of villas, which were simply idle, due to the limited marketing skills of their owners, as well as their huge number. After seeing a couple of options, we stopped at a two-story villa with a swimming pool, which was located at a distance of 200 meters from the ocean in banana bushes.
Photos of the villa
4. Insurance.
To go to Asia, and even for a couple of months without insurance, would look like a complete suicide. Now there are quite a lot of offers on the insurance market of Ukraine and almost all the companies, having learned that we need 12 insurances, offered us preferential terms and discounts.
By the way, insurance still needed a couple of times. Many guys had problems with their ears after surfing, a banal cold. Several people fell from mopeds, and abrasions in Bali due to a very humid climate, heal quite a long time and need constant treatment.
Prices for insurance are not very different, so I advise you not to save on it in any way and carefully read the terms of compensation when an insured event occurs, so that there are no unpleasant surprises.
5. Internet
We had a pretty good internet connection in our villa, but for 12 IT specialists, there was not enough good internet access. Therefore, immediately upon arrival, we chose the maximum rate with a speed of 40 megabits + the owner of the villa, on his own initiative, installed an additional powerful router that caught all over the territory of the house. In addition, for remote attacks, we bought a pair of 3g / 4g packages of local mobile operators. By speed / coverage, Telkomsel liked the most.
Most of the cafes had a fairly decent internet connection, which allowed them to be used as improvised coworkings.
pictures cafe
6. Organization of working time
We worked centrally, on average, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes we went to some interesting place in the morning and worked in the second, sometimes we worked in the first to free up time for the evening.
Periodically, we chose to work with different cafes, combining working hours with surfing or swimming. The prices of food and drinks in the cafes were sometimes lower than the price of the day in the co-working of Kiev.
Working atmosphere
7. Visa issue
For citizens of Ukraine there are 3 options:
1) to open a work visa KITAS.
The most correct and legal way. In this case, you need to enlist the support of a local company, which will be your visa-sponsor or open a company in Indonesia. The cost of a working visa will be within $ 100 per month + commission of the intermediary company.
2. Upon arrival, a free 30-day visa is issued without the right of renewal. The cost of a trip to Malaysia or Singapore is approximately equal to the cost of a long-term tourist visa, so special brave souls can try the Vizaran option .
At the end of the month, people just fly for a day to the country of interest to them and the visa is automatically extended upon arrival in Bali. The option is illegal, but is popular with many freelancers.
3. You can make a long-term tourist visa at the Embassy of Indonesia in Kiev, worth $ 45. Again, you can work on this visa only at your own peril and risk.
6. Entertainment
When you come to any agency / guide / office and say that you need something for 12 people, absolutely any doors are open for you. We managed to get significant discounts on everything from renting scooters to renting surfboards and all sorts of activities.
When people have similar interests and are very easy-going, it was not difficult to find what to occupy your awl. We traveled almost the entire island, met the dawn, saw off the sunsets, went surfing, rafting and of course worked hard.
All the guys really enjoyed our Asian experience. There was a feeling that this trip really brought us together, and we became one friendly family. I hope that our experience will be useful to someone and will push small web studios to new achievements.
Some photos from relocation
