20 Hours That Changed Everything: Volcanoes, Rapids, and a Bali Sunrise I’ll Never Forget - Nomad Notes | EP 27

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Join Ryan as shares exhilarating adventures of living and working in Bali, Indonesia. From climbing a volcano at 2:30 AM, to exploring the monkey sanctuary, and experiencing an intense white water rafting adventure. 

Learn where Ryan met his friends from around the globe, discover the beauty of lava fields, and savor the unique flavors of the most expensive coffee in the world!

This 20-hour day of excitement highlights the true essence of what it means to live the digital nomad lifestyle!

Listen and be inspired to start your journey to become location independent, so you can join the rest of creating unforgettable experiences around the world. 

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DISCLAIMER:
Listening to stories of beachside zoom calls, mountainside work views, and island-hopping entrepreneurs may cause severe wanderlust and an irresistible urge to turn your laptop into a passport to freedom. Side effects include daydreaming about tropical coworking spaces, working with Ryan to learn how you can start working and traveling and buying a one-way ticket to Bali. Get ready to start living your dream life today!

Transcript

Ryan Mellon: [00:00:00] Hey guys. Welcome to another episode of Digital Nomad Nation, nomad Notes edition, where I give you a little bit of a peek. What's really like living and working here in Bali, Indonesia. So let me take you back to two 30 in the morning, running on three hours of sleep. We Climbed into this beat up 1980s Jeep, no doors, no windows, just metal moonlight and adrenaline.

we were about to chase the sunrise up a volcano. And let me tell you, that day turned out to be the wildest I have had. But before we get to the top of the mountain. Let me rewind. So over the past few weeks, I've had some good friends here, one visiting from Germany. Her name is Anne, and my friend Otto from Denmark.

I actually met Anne in one of the, sketchiest hostels in Sydney back in 2019. Basement level, free pizza and beer kind of thing. that had loud speakers in your room, waking you up with announcements like you're in high school. it was a terrible corporate hostel. [00:01:00] thank God I don't do the hostels anymore, but that's where we met and somehow we've stayed friends ever since.

And as far as Otto, we met in 2020 right before Covid and Koh Phangan. it was right before Covid hit Koh Phangan is known for the full moon party, like 20 to 30,000 people partying on the beach all night. every single full moon.

also just the island has amazing places to ride a motorbike, to sunset points and, amazing beaches during the day. And. such a cool place. So that's where we met as well, since it was Otto's first time in Bali. And, and second, I wanted to really give them a full tour. So we started in Ubud, in the deep jungle.

in the middle of the island, we hit the monkey forest or the monkey sanctuary. Where monkeys are escaping from the sanctuary, climbing over power lines in the traffic, stealing fruit, like, jungle Ninja, [00:02:00] very classic Bali. really cool experiences. They're, as far as just seeing about 1200 monkeys, they're very well fed.

they're somewhat in captivity in the sense that the sanctuary is a large park for them. that's fenced off, but they can come and go and leave as they please. and so they're very well taken care of. They have. Pools to splash around in and play in. and it's always fun to see the tourists that get too close and get phones stolen and, get assaulted.

It's, it's always an interesting experience. And then, I took them on the a TV tour that I did a few weeks ago. This turned out to be way more fun, because it didn't rain a lot and we were able to drive. The ATVs through the river, with big cliffs on the side and through the mud.

And we just got super soaked and we really enjoyed it. But the real highlight of, these past couple days was the Jeep Volcano tour. we got picked up at around 3:00 [00:03:00] AM and we started climbing the volcano in these old 1980s, 1990s Jeeps, we're in a caravan snaking our way through the darkness, up the side of Mount Batur.

Some Jeeps are breaking down, others are fishtailing on the gravel. it's a little bit chaotic and kind of hilarious. Finally, we reach the top and it's quite cold up there. We're at a high elevation. luckily they had some tea for us. And then the sky slowly starts to shift from seeing the stars and pitch blackness to like a deep purple.

And then there's this unreal golden glow as the sun breaks over the horizon. Below us, there's a lake and, lava fields and the ocean in a distance. It was silent still, and it was just a perfect experience. And after sunrise, the real off-roading began, bouncing back down the volcano. to the old lava fields from when Mount Batur had one of its largest [00:04:00] eruptions, which was in 1963.

It left behind tons of, volcanic rock and, we got to, Go over the terrain and the Jeeps and walk around a little bit and check out the rocks. there were people just like stacking stones and hanging out there. 

There were people there trying to sell bracelets and different type of, things to the tourist as you can find anywhere in Bali. but it was just surreal to be on the lava. The lava flow, the old lava flow, and see this old apocalyptic kind of beauty almost. and then we had a coffee time, so we visited a plantation where they make poop Luwak coffee, the famous poop coffee.

So if you don't know a luo, it's a catlike creature. with a long tail. it's kind of in the cap family, but lives in the wild and it eats the coffee cherries and digests the beans and yeah, the beans come out the other end. So what they do, they clean it, they roast it, and somehow it's [00:05:00] one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

Tastes smooth, weirdly earthy. But hey, when in Bali, and finally we did white water rafting. So I was a little bit skeptical. It was dry season. I thought we might be just like gently. Floating down the river, but no, it was class two or three rapids, in the biggest river in Bali. And the guide was like, hold on tight.

And we, we absolutely got soaked, crashing through the rapids, laughing, screaming. It was a full on two hour ride. Down the river with waterfalls pouring down from large rocks above. At one point we pulled into this little riverside shack blasting music, selling beers, and it was just absolutely epic.

So we hiked back outta the canyon legs like jelly, and finally crashed back in town around 11:00 PM It was a 20 hour Day. zero regrets. So yeah, I just wanted to share that slice of life with you guys. These are the kinds of moments that make [00:06:00] digital nomad thing totally worth it. The reunions, the randomness, the adrenaline, and those sunrise moments that just hit different.

I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you on the next 

one.