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Sabbatical Prep
Blog 2
Wednesday 22 February 2023
The preparations
Okay, it's getting really close now. In one week (!!) we will travel to Bali, which will mean the start of our sabbatical. Like I told in my first blog, we plan to stay away from home for about 7 months. In preperation we of course had to take care of a few things and if you know me you should know that I make lists for everything. For exemple what to buy, what to do before departure, etc.
A ticket to Bali and the apartment for the first 4 months have already been booked and we have do not have a real planning or itinerary. In the past few months I have scoured the internet and Instagram for inspiration and have been pinning everything in Google Maps. So when Dion is busy with his dive courses I can discover the area. I also saved a lot of to do's for the Balinese weekends. All the green-blue dots are saved restaurants, cafes, useful addresses such as the supermarket and cool places to visit.
Health & Insurance
Not unimportant are the vaccinations we have had: Hepatites A/B, DTP and Covid. Indonesia has currently dropped the vaccination obligation for tourists, but we don't know which countries we will visit after Bali yet. So, better safe than ssorry. I also got vaccinated for rabies, because I want to pet all the dogs and don't know if I will make friends with some monkeys. We also ensured that all minor complaints were discussed with the doctor, we went to the dentist for a check-up and ordered extra medicines. Any medical costs we incur while traveling are covered by our insurance policies in the Netherlands. We have, however, taken a good travel and cancellation insurance.
Visa & Work
To stay in Bali for an extended period, we need a visa. Should you just go there on holiday, as we did in 2022, you will get a standard 30-day tourist visa on arrival at the airport. You can extend this to 60 days if necessary. As we will be there for at least 4 months, we need an official visa, which ensures that you can stay there for a maximum of 6 months. The so-called "single entry tourist visa". After doing some research, we understood that it has become a lot harder to get such a visa because of Covid, provided you have a sponsor. Fortunately, we have one: the diving school where Dion will do his training. Everything has now been arranged for this as well. Dion has been in regular contact with the owner of the diving school to coordinate things.
A question you will probably have (or not) is what about our work. Dion can fortunately make use of the sabbatical arrangement offered by his employer. This has allowed him to take 6 months off and then stick about a month's worth of holidays on top of that. I am currently between jobs and, as mentioned in my previous blog, I hope to find a remote job. So I will be focusing on that the coming weeks.
House & Cars
What a lot of people really ask is what we do with our house. Rent it out? No, we chose not to. Simply to have a back up in case we do get home earlier than planned. We're lucky to have enough family who can stop by now and then to flush the taps and the toilet and water the plants. We put our cars in my parents' garage so they can give the tires a spin every now and then.
Purchases
Making many new purchases was actually unnecessary. We had already bought a bunch of new summer clothes and good bags for our holidays in 2022. I also bought a drone back then and Dion purchased his own diving gear. I did, of course, buy some necessities for this year like a stash of sunscreen, extra earplugs, essential skin care and my favourite lip balm... Things like soap and shampoo we can get there. And no, we didn't really need anything, but I still bought some nice gadgets that I thought we should have with us. For instance, I bought a laptop to blog on and maybe work on. It's also nice that we can back up our photos on that too. I also bought GoPro colour filters and a gimbal for my phone. Basically all things to capture our memories as well as possible.
Counting Down
So at the moment there is not much left to do, except enjoy the pre-fun, countdown, stress (in my case) and go through the various "farewell lunches and dinners" with friends and family. Of course we will have to pack our bags the week of departure, but knowing myself everything will be ready by then. Most of it is still in my suitcase, so...
A practical update, but the preparations should be mentioned. The next blog will be an exciting one: Our arrival in Bali! Keep an eye on it!
Love,
Diana