nomad4ever

If you are into Electronic Gadgets, you might think that a holiday destination like Bali is not the right place to buy or bargain for the latest toys. Tech hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok dominate this area in Asia.

In general, you are better off purchasing your new Laptop or Android Smartphone in one of those places. But thankfully, things are changing fast and the population of Bali (and its Expat Community) are getting more and more tech affine. This provides new opportunities to sell IT and gadget gear here also and suppliers make increasingly use of it.

I’m still amazed by the laid-back atmosphere of Laos.

Unbelievable is the beauty of Vang Vien, where we stayed 4 days, just sitting at the river admiring the landscape and environment. Nature aplenty, with rice fields, caves, mountains and mud tracks.

The changing light coming over the mountains, the fog, the flowing river, the swarms of bats during sunset which avoid collisions and sudden maneuvers, and maintaining constant situational awareness by flighing smoothly in incredible figures and formations – what a sight!

I’m currently trying to implement the long-requested threaded comments and an easier identification option via Facebook Connect. The old Avatars and MyBlogLog Profile Pics will go, as they are outdated and too geeky.

Please bear with me, if site or comment formatting is currently distorted, as am doing open heart surgery at the site. Hoping to get it done within the next few days, but most likely you will see an interim status before the final solution.

Thanks for your patience and keep commenting meanwhile. No comments should get lost!

I was asked many times over, to update the Cost of Living spreadsheet on this page. Time is definitely ripe for an update, as prices in Bali soared over the last 3 years.

The economic crisis, a weakening Euro and an Indonesian Inflation (unofficially in the double digits) did all their part as well to change Bali from a backpacker’s paradise into a full-blown ‘Tourist Dollar Money Making Machine’.

Tourist numbers rose already to pre-crisis levels in Bali and are still climbing steadily. While most prices also went clearly up, there are still a handful of exceptions.

Just a short note, that this website won an Award of Excellence by IGLU, one of the biggest travel companies in the UK with millions of people visiting their portal site every year. IGLU has won many awards based on their hard work and dedication to the traveling customer, who they offer many holiday destinations to, as well as a range of information.

Okay, now this is what will happen next: the link back from their page will send some of their ‘millions of visitors’ over, to increase my traffic tremendously.

Bali is located just below the equator. That means the weather is tropical, humid and constantly hovering around or above the 30 degrees Celsius mark.

Being a sporty person usually means you will be doing your workout or running sessions early in the morning before the sun reaches its summit, or in the late afternoons.

Or you might consider going to an air-conditioned Gym, there are quite a few around here.

Still there are crazy people (mostly tourists), who jump around at the beaches at noon, playing ball games or simply trying to get sunburned as much and as quickly as they can.

Currently in Indonesia a bill is mulled by local conservative politicians, that foreign men who want to marry an Indonesian woman would have to pay the equivalent of USD 55.000 to the government.

Many observers and especially Mixed Couples who are willing to tie the knot in the near future are left dumbfounded. They say love don’t cost a thing. In Indonesia maybe only a small fee.

Is that the selling out of  the country’s female population to stimulate the economy? Or even smells like institutionalized prostitution?

Read on for the latest state of the union:

When I made my assumptions last October, that Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III might be poised to become the 15th president of the Philippines, nobody expected that the results would come in so clearly and undisputed.

Usually laughed-off Aquino as a ‘mental’ or bespectacled pseudo-intellectual, who only came to political power due to his name, proved his critics wrong by winning yesterdays elections for President of the Philippines by a wide margin.

What happened on election day, how did those numbers add up and above all, what can this beautiful yet starved country expect in the coming months ahead?