The Week I Flew Back To Bali, Indonesia

This Week:

My final (social) days and events in Da Nang, Vietnam.
The Bali taxi driver story.
Comparing how much has changed here since I was here last.

May 2025

Su	M	T	W	Th	F	S
27	28	29	30	5/1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Where In The World Was I?

🇻🇳 Da Nang, Vietnam
🇻🇳 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
🇮🇩 Bali, Indonesia

Metrics From The Week

Kinda proud of how my YouTube consumption has been dropping lately (aside from the travel days).

Business Update

Finally cleared up my report backlog and got back to outreach again this week.

Got another report request, nice! Time to put all these high-conversion assets and systems I’ve been making to the test.

And in other news, I’m finally starting to see some of the creators I’ve worked with actually implement the suggestions I’ve given them. THAT has been cool. I’m taking that as a win already. I’m pretty confident that they’ll see success over a long enough timeframe, the murky question becomes will they see results within the next 7-14 days (a quick win). Unfortunately a lot of that is not under my control which sucks but it is what it is.

On the YouTube (personal branding) side of things, I recorded a more raw+authentic chat style of video. I’ve been finding it more cognitively straining the more I scrip. The more I script things out, the more I want to speak everything that I script, which is hard.

So I went for a bullet point and just riff style video.

And people seemed to resonate with it.

I know I’m not “supposed” to look at my metrics because it kills my mental health but MAN I just love data and analytics.

I was doing some analyzing of all my videos lately. It’s interesting to see how the different videos compare from a metrics perspective.

Sorting by average view duration, almost ALL my videos in which I share some kind of raw authenticity, honesty, vulnerability have the highest view duration.

This has made it more difficult trying to figure out my strategy to get both inbound business leads with long-term personal branding. I’ve shared this dilemma before and the most positive feedback I get like this, from my life story videos and life lessons videos, the harder it becomes.

So, still figuring out how to balance this.

I’ve also not come across another channel that’s “successfully” done this. Which either means I’m doomed to fail or I’ll be the one that people point to as the success story.

Which one I’ll end up as? Only time will tell. (This is one of those moments that’ll be very fun to come back to in a year)

Snaps From The Week

THE most unbelievable day I’ve seen here this week. AQI got down to 49.

You could see the peninsula so clearly it was wild.

Sun blazing.

The color of the sand and water just popping out.

Everyone and their mother out swimming and playing on the beach.

It really hit me there, the gratitude for being able to experience such a special place.

Social Events

Played pickleball again last Sunday morning AND Wednesday!

Literally my entire body soaked in sweat. Even my socks and shoes were soaked. So much fun though.

Went to another two Element Studio classes: strength & conditioning, and another intro to inversions.

Getting there!

I captioned that first photo on my Instagram story “Twerking or handstand? You decide” and so many people 😂’d

Also I was chatting with someone that works there (one of the owners?) and she asked about my work. Without hesitation she recommended I put a blurb in the group chat because she was sure there were other people in the community making content on YouTube.

I was just surprised how friendly and supportive she was!

That’s kind of been the type of vibe I’ve gotten from other nomads here, just happy to help in any way and I love that.

Socializing

Social Exchanges

Last week I started literally zero social exchanges, this week almost instantly jumped back up!

Here’s a peek at my weekly note for your curiosity:

- [x] Start a social exchange 4 times
	- 4/27/25 "I like your cat!" to the girl outside Nam House Cafe after chat with [life coach].
	- 4/28/25 "I like your laptop stickers!" to girl at Hideout Cafe (_after_ I thought about it, missed the first opportunity, waited 20 seconds, overthought, then said it anyway!)
	- 4/28/25 "I like your socks!" to the attractive/cute girl at Element Studio class, she had "finger" socks.
	- 4/28/25 Guy Melick at hostel at bed under me, I walk in "ah I was shaking _your_ bed last night?" laugh, then "where are you from?"
	- 4/30/25 "that looks better than mine" to the woman (Bridget) next to me at Bottega5 with the cheese wheel pasta.
	- 5/3/25 "you leaving?" to guy packing up in dorm room, got into chat ([name])
	- 5/3/25 TWICE walking down Pererenan road, foreigner outside an ATM, "do you speak English? Does this have a fee?"

The Grab Motorbike Driver

I went to a cafe one day and was taking a Grab motorbike back and the driver was from Hoi An so he didn’t know the area well.

We started driving the wrong way and he turned around and went “is this the right way?” 😂

I pulled out my phone Google Maps and went “uh, not really but sure we can go this way”

He said something like “my phone maps, so bad, I’m from Hoi An”

“Do you want me to direct?” 😂

“Yes yes”

So I started directing him “turn right here, turn left here” and he started teaching me Vietnamese.

“Turn right, rẽ phải. Turn left, rẽ trái” and I played along “rẽ trái, rẽ phải”

Ah it was such a wholesome moment. The local people are so friendly here.

The Coffee & Conversation

I got a coffee with one of the coaches I met at the group coaching session 2-3 weeks ago.

WOW.

We talked for 3 hours 😂

Life, travels, our stories, learnings, coaching, business, the whole 9-yards. Such a fun, stimulating, and interesting conversation.

She said, “This is the deepest I’ve gone in a long time,” and that she doesn’t get to talk about this kind of stuff with many people.

And in the context of fulfillment and enjoying deep conversations, I said something at the end that really stuck with me.

“This is the part of life I enjoy the most.”

WOW what a statement that is. I didn’t really think it for that long, it just came out.

But I think it’s true.

It’s just a fascinating “life data point” the more I think about it.

Like how many times do you ever hear that phrase in your life?

Aaaaaaaaaand also YET AGAIN, I heard “you ask really good questions, you should be a coach” 😂

… and that’s coming FROM A LIFE COACH. Gosh.

How many more signs will I need from life before I listen 😂😂

Place your over-unders now, people 😂

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Networking

I met a guy at one of the fitness studio classes maybe 2 weeks ago. We set up a lunch & chat this week to talk some business and it was great!

He’s a music producer and has been wanting to get into content. His fiance runs an email marketing agency.

I got some good tips from her and we just had a great conversation sharing stories and talking about personal branding and stuff!

✈️ To Ho Chi Minh City

Alas, the time has come…

I left Da Nang to fly to Ho Chi Minh City for an overnight layover.

My first time here!

And I met this guy in the dorm room I was staying in. He just graduated high school (or the equivalent in the UK) and was on a gap year before university.

He gave me a recommendation for this burger place and me being me, I did about zero other searches and just took his recommendation 😂

It was actually fantastic. Maybe the best burger I’ve ever had.

And then walked back.

And stumbled into this random festival/concert. It looked like they were just handing out free beer. No wrist bands, no gate or entry. I walked on the grassy area and one of the staff girls came up with me and offered/handed me a cup of whatever it was. I declined but was kind of shocked.

I didn’t really understand what was going on, my guess is that it was non-alcoholic beer.

SO MANY MOTORBIKES wow. It’s like Da Nang but just amplified.

✈️ To Bali

👇 1/2 of my entire life (all of my clothes, shoes, toiletries, and meds) in this little bag amongst all the other massive checked bags 😂 (it was too heavy again 13.2kg versus the 7kg carry-on allowed, they made me check it again like AirAsia from KUL to Da Nang haha)

They also added these auto gates, so getting through immigration took be about 23 seconds. There was zero line for the auto gates. I got an e-Visa instead of Visa on Arrival, which had a really long line. Props to Indonesia/Bali!

I opened up Grab and booked a trip to Canggu as I walked towards the taxi area. It took longer than expected (1.5 hour trip) and kept cycling through “we’re still looking for a driver” as I walked.

Then I got to the taxi area and all the taxi guys were approaching everyone “taxi taxi! where you going? taxi! I give you good price”

I just kept walking and ignoring people, but this one guy kept following me saying “I’ll give you same price on Grab, where you going?”

I just kept walking until I reached the end of the taxi area, to the outside of the airport and this main road.

The guy goes “okay just keep walking, it will be too far good luck”

And without anywhere to go I turn around and start walking back.

“Ah you’re back, where you going? I give you same price on Grab”

At this point I was starting to get worried that no one would accept my Grab because it was too far.

So I kinda stopped and said 😒 “to Canggu” and he looked at my phone, the Grab price was 214k ($12.99) and he goes “I do 250k” ($15.17)

“My car is right here” and points to the car in the garage

“and this is my daughter” and points to this little 9 year old girl just standing next to the car 😂😂

After some rapid fire thinking I’m like 🤔 “okay you’d do 250k?”

“Can we do it with Grab” (you can’t unfortunately)

(he thought I meant book someone else via Grab) “You can do Grab but it’s going to take long time. My car right here, no waiting.”

“I can pay with credit card?”

“Yes we stop at my office. 1 minute”

I’m like 😒🤔 “okay fine.”

And ask for his name, “Koman” and get in.

His daughter gets in and I go “what’s your name?”

“Dinda!”

And we head off and start chatting here and there.

He says something like “maybe you want ATM, credit card 5%”

I’m like 😠😒 “… it’s fine”

We stop at his office which looked like a cell phone shop, he waves to get the attention of another guy standing outside and goes “you just pay here” and points.

“I stay here, it’s okay?”

“yes yes” and waves the guy over with a credit card terminal.

He takes out his phone calculator and I’m like oh here we go 😂😂

“250000” … “and because credit card we charge 5%”

“262,500” ($15.93)

…

“Okay. That’s fine”

He punches it in and I pay it. He hands me the receipt and we drive off.

We chat a bit. He’s been driving for 35 years! He’s seen quite a lot of change.

I knew it would take a while… But I just wasn’t expecting the trip to take THIS long.

We left at about 3:45pm.

(below) this was after about an hour already. Airport is just below the frame.

The traffic was VERY bad. There would be points where we’d just stop (near an intersection) for 15-30 minutes, MINUTES at a time.

One intersection was a 5-way?, no stop light, there were literally two guys in Grab driver jackets directing traffic 😂

I remember the trip being long last time, but I don’t remember these parked-for-20-minutes intersections. (update from last year’s The Life Of A Digital Nomad In Bali (November 5th, 2023): “It took us I think ~1 hr and 20 minutes to get from the airport to Canggu at ~4-5pm.”)

I started to feel bad for the guy because I think he got the worst end of the deal 😂😅 It didn’t really matter to me how long it took, I didn’t have any time obligations and I’m only gonna do this journey once not multiple times.

The upside was that they lived somewhat close to where we were headed which I felt better about.

His daughter played games on her phone for a while and watched some TikToks 😂

The whole journey ended up taking 2 hours and 30 minutes 😬

I was GPT’ing most of the way trying to learn about how it got so bad. I felt better knowing that tourists/tourism wasn’t the CORE of the problem. I saw maybe 1 foreigner in maybe 15-25 people until the Canggu area, then it was like 1 in 5. My understanding is that Bali has just had so many vehicles (motorbikes and cars) and almost zero new road development/expansion.

They’ve got some long term projects in the pipeline, but they’re still in the exploration phase, so maybe in 5 years 😂

And the taxi driver was explaining how the government just has no money 😂😅

At this point I was starting to recall all the other flights getting in at 9pm and 11pm that I disregarded as “too late” as actually the more favorable options.

So note to self, don’t arrive between 9am and 7pm next time 😂

He got me there safe and sound at around 6:15pm and asked for nothing extra. I tipped him an extra 50k ($3.03) “for the traffic” 😅

Wasn’t exactly what I thought might happen, but hey sometimes you can trust strangers 🙂

Back At It

WOW it feels good to be back. A good bit has changed, lots of little things. New buildings, new cafes/restaurants, etc.

Photo comparison from Nov-Dec 2023 vs. now (May 2025):

I didn’t get a new photo but this massive gaping hole in the sidewalk no longer exists! Progress! 😂 (photo from Nov 4th, 2023)

The cows are still here 😂

But that Bali island-village “feel” is still here.

Thoughts From The Week

Systemic Fatigue?

It’s been a LOT of go-go-go from pickleball to fitness studio classes to trying to still weight train at every opportunity I can. I definitely dug a little deeper a couple days the final couple weeks in Da Nang.

It’s been nice to have a couple days off from weight training, but I am very much looking forward to getting back into it.

The Insecurity

If you read last year’s “But Wait, Something Feels… Off” from The Life Of A Digital Nomad In Bali (November 5th, 2023): Definitely not as insecure this time 😂 though I do still notice my brain comparing myself to other people. There are some great-looking guys and girls here. Feels good to be around and have a high standard.

Remembering Your Life

I spent some time this week going back through my year of photos and pulling out memories into my Remembering Your Life photo album that I have.

It was fun to go back and relive memories.

I also refined them even further down to the top 20-40 photos and updated last week’s post with my year in photos. The Week Of Reflecting And Ripping Around On A Motorbike, April 27th, 2025)

It was interesting to note my gravitation towards more raw-style photos, photos of people (me, family, etc.), and contextual/landscape/broad style photos rather than the details.

Gonna be thinking about that as I take photos to help my future self.