# Being a Nomad; The first 30 days
_This is a summary of our trip to Indonesia._
> 30 days, many adventures, many mistakes.
Published 2018-03-12 by Patrick Heneise.
Canonical page: https://patrickheneise.com/blog/being-a-nomad-the-first-30-days/
Individual articles about Indonesia:
- [Padang Bai](/padang-bai-indonesia)
- [Canggu](/canggu-indonesia)
- [Gili Air](/gili-air-indonesia)
- [Ubud](/ubud-indonesia)
We arrived on February 7 and departed on March 9. As the visa is valid for 30
days and I’m lazy, I entered “02/07/2018 + 30 days” (American date format is
required, no idea why) into my favourite search engine
[DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com). The date I got was March 9, which I put
into the calendar right away. Unfortunately, most date calculations don’t
include the first date entered as the first day, which lead to us overstaying
our visa by 1 day. Luckily we “only” had to pay 300.000 IDR per person per day.
There were several ups and downs during the trip. After living in Barcelona for
6 years, I am searching for solitude and peace. Canggu with it’s hundreds of
motor scooters on narrow roads was definitely not that; it reminded me of Berlin
with its hipsters. There’s no authenticity left in Canggu. Ubud was better and
the monkeys definitely lifted my spirits, but it’s still too much traffic.
During my time in Padang Bai and Gili Air I had absolutely no issues getting up
at 6am and going for a run every other day. Neither in Canggu nor in Ubud did I
once work out. Imagine an easy 5km run around the island, along the beach with
the sun just rising over the calm sea, fresh winds … that was my running
experience on Gili Air and it was inspiring.
We went to Canggu because I’m incorrigible and want to have a plan for
everything. Given the articles and comments on the internet, I didn’t expect any
shopping opportunity for slippers, beach wear and a GoPro on Gili Air, that’s
why we went to Canggu to go shopping in surf shops etc., just to find the exact
same shops on Gili Air. I still don’t have a GoPro, but I found everything else.
## **Being Without A Home**
One of the first questions we usually get asked is “Where are you from?”, and
when I answer “Germany”, people happily respond “Ohhh, Guten Tag”. I smile and
nod, but feel very uncomfortable. Despite being _from_ Germany, I don’t live
there neither do I consider it my home, especially in a time where Nazis are the
[3rd biggest party](http://www.dw.com/en/afd-what-you-need-to-know-about-germanys-far-right-party/a-37208199)
in Germany and there are
[countless attacks on foreigners](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flüchtlingsfeindliche_Angriffe_in_der_Bundesrepublik_Deutschland#cite_note-18).
In the short time that we were there, we experienced passive aggression and
racial “jokes”. Being in an interracial marriage, I’m not proud to be a German
right now. So I tried to find new answers to the “Where are you from?” question.
After we explain our situation, the question changes to “where have you been and
where are you going next?”. That’s when the conversation becomes really
interesting. We are _homeless_. In order to skip the awkward “where are you
from” and go to the interesting “where have you been and what’s next”, we
started with various short versions (“elevator pitch”) to explain ourselves,
ranging from “we’re traveling for a year” to “we’re homeless”. When we answered
“we’re traveling”, people associated that with holidays, spending money and free
time to roam around, which simply isn’t true (and leads to getting ripped off).
So we slowly altered towards the homeless version. We tried the _Digital Nomad_
variation as well, but most people don’t really understand what that is yet.
It was hard in the beginning to accept the fact, given the negative connotation
to homelessness, but I’m getting more and more used to saying “I’m homeless, I’m
a nomad” — I’m home where I am, enjoying the moment and moving on when I’m ready
(or when the visa runs out). Accepting the situation also leads to a new
mindset. Obviously we found dozens of souvenirs and things we wanted to buy for
_home_. Not having one makes it easy to say No. The souvenirs we take are
memories, friendships, photos and videos, everything else stays where it is.
## **Friends**
Leaving Barcelona was easy. Leaving everyone behind was and still is hard.
Staying at a place for a week or two at a time doesn’t offer the chance to build
up friendships. Most of the people we meet, we see no more than 3–4 times before
moving on. Sometimes contacts are exchanged, but that’s rather the exception. On
the bright side, there are lots of opportunities for a first impression and we
can improve along the way. It’s hard to tell if this will have an impact on our
travel choice, maybe at some point we’ll slow down a little and stay for a few
months at a place before moving on. For now we’ll continue to move frequently
and see how things evolve.
## **The Best Moments**
In the Sacred Monkey Forest I leaned against a wooden rail. A small monkey came
over and took my finger, then shook my hand and kind of cuddled against my arm,
that was really cute.
Also in the Monkey Forest, I sat on a bench for a few minutes. A small monkey
came over and jumped up my back, eating his sweat potato on my shoulder. Another
tourist came by and offered to take photographs. At some point the monkey jumped
off and I got up, the other tourist sat down and waited for about 15 minutes for
another monkey, but none came, so the poor guy left disappointed.
Diving in Gili Air was fantastic. Seeing huge sea turtles of over 1.5m span
floating through the ocean is a very cool thing to see. Same goes for the Manta
Rays at “Manta Point”. Some divers we met told us they went for a thousand dives
before they finally saw a Manta, we got to see 5 or 6 that day on our first dive
after the certification.
## **The Biggest Mistakes**
We’ve made them, there’s no need for you to make the same mistakes 😏
### **Budget**
For the first month, we didn’t have a budget, decided to just live a life and
not look too closely at the prices because “everything is cheap anyway”, that
was a terrible misconception. We didn’t plan in advance and decided most of the
trips and hotels a day before leaving. We spent over €3000 in the first month in
Indonesia. The lesson learned is to plan ahead and make a budget. In Barcelona
we spent about €1200/month on rent and utilities and that should be the
guideline for hotel rooms: 1200/30 is €40/night for us, which we exceeded a few
times in touristy hotels. We didn’t use AirBnB as I’m not very comfortable with
the platform, it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for on booking.com
for example (beachfront + breakfast + rating over 9.0). Of course the
[PADI](https://www.padi.com) Open Water certificate and multiple dives
afterwards were not budgeted for either. We are now in the process of defining a
budget for accommodation as well as activities and dining.
### **Clothing**
When you’re packing your bag to leave for a similar adventure, leave your
clothes behind. You might be tempted to bring your favourite shirt, jeans,
whatever. Just don’t. Resist the urge, pack it nicely in a bag and leave it in
storage. It’ll be there when you decide it’s time to settle. Whatever you take
is either too precious for the conditions here or simply too damn hot for the
climate. Most places we’ve been had machine laundry so far, but you never know
when the clothes come back ruined from laundry. Everything I brought on the trip
is either on its way back to storage in a very expensive package or thrown away.
The only things I still have from Europe: a few pairs of socks and underwear, 1
set of running clothes (being hand-washed straight after training) and 1 pair of
crossfit shorts. I got new pure cotton or linen clothes here;
“[Ali Baba Pants](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ali+baba+pants&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images)”
are 1–3 Euros and last for 1–2 months at least. Cotton or linen shirts are the
same, 1–3 Euros at most. Even “fancy” brand shirts are cheaper and better
adjusted to the climate and it won’t hurt as much when they come back damaged
from the laundry. Also they’re super light-weight, the most important feature
when traveling carry-on only.
### **Transport**
The fast boat service Patagonia Xpress has shuttle services included in their
fare, check out where they can pick you up in advance and save the money for a
driver.
### **Shipping**
A small package (30x30x30, 3kg) from Indonesia to Germany was €100. Make it
worth it if you really need to ship stuff.
