Borneo Blues: My Messy Digital Nomad Life in Indonesia's Hidden Gem
i landed here with nothing but my laptop, a questionable backpack, and a burning question: can you really work from the jungle? turns out, you can, but the humidity has a way of making your fingers slide off the keyboard like they've been coated in butter. i just checked and it's...there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. the air hangs thick with moisture, wrapping around you like a damp blanket that you can never quite shake off.
this place? it's not on the typical digital nomad radar, which is exactly why i picked it. no coworking spaces with ridiculous names like 'the hive' or 'the nest'. just me, my laptop, and the soundtrack of monkeys arguing about who knows what. if you get bored, Samarinda and Pontianak are just a short drive away, though honestly, i haven't made it that far yet. something about the pace here makes me want to... not.
"the internet? it's here, mostly. sometimes it disappears for a day or two. that's when you learn to work offline. or, you know, just stare at the river and call it 'reflective time'."
- a fellow nomad named Kai who lives in a treehouse
accommodation is... rustic. i'm calling it 'rustic'. the locals call it 'completely normal'. there's this guesthouse that charges next to nothing but the wifi is about as reliable as a politician's promise. someone told me that the owner's nephew's friend's cousin's brother sometimes 'helps out' with the network maintenance. that explains a lot.
"don't eat the street food near the market on tuesdays. that's when they clean the fish stalls and the runoff goes... somewhere questionable. thursdays are fine, though."
- a local woman who didn't want her name mentioned
the food, though? absolute heaven. i've never had mie goreh that made me question my entire life before. i found this tiny warung that serves it with this chili sauce that i'm pretty sure contains some kind of magic. they don't take cards, so bring cash. and maybe some antihistamines, just in case. check out the ratings on Yelp for other warungs, though most of them won't have this particular magic chili.
work-life balance here is... different. when your wifi cuts out at 3pm, you don't get frustrated. you go for a swim in the river. or you nap. or you watch the sun turn the sky colors you didn't know existed. the pressure is low, the humidity is high, and somehow, my productivity is through the roof. go figure. find more about remote work opportunities here.
"we get tourists asking about 'authentic experiences' all the time. i tell them, 'authentic is when the power goes out and you're just sitting there with a candle, talking to your neighbors about nothing important.'"
- a guy who runs a boat rental business
i heard that this place is going to get some fancy new development next year, which means prices might go up and the vibe might change. so if you're thinking about coming, maybe come sooner rather than later. or wait until after, when all the developers get bored and leave. either way, it's your call. i'll probably still be here, trying to figure out how to make my laptop work in 99% humidity without it spontaneously combusting.
the thing about being a digital nomad here is that you're not just working remotely. you're... existing remotely. the line between work and life has blurred so much that i'm not sure where one ends and the other begins. and honestly? i'm not complaining. well, not much. except about the ants. there are a lot of ants. check out more travel tips on TripAdvisor.
so yeah. that's my life. messy, humid, and filled with more unknowns than spreadsheet formulas. wouldn't have it any other way. mostly.