- Nadia Rose and her partner Steve Willis left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2022 and moved to Bali, Indonesia.
- One of the biggest struggles they faced was leaving behind the comforts of a big city for island life.
- Over time, they have become more mobile and have come to embrace the island’s slower pace of life.
This essay is Nadia RoseA 31-year-old female embodiment guide and creative director living in Bali. She also YouTube Channel She and her partner, Steve Willis, talk about life on the island. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.
My partner, Steve, and I moved to Bali two years ago. July 2022.
I grew up in Malaysia and started my career in the fashion industry in Kuala Lumpur, and while living in the capital city I met Steve, who moved from Sydney in 2015 to take up a job in teaching.
After a month of dating, we decided to live together. At first, we lived in his apartment, and after six months, we found a better location, a one-room serviced apartment. We lived in the city center, near the Botanical Gardens, and lived there happily for six years.
That’s when I suggested we move to Bali. I had been running my own digital content business on the side for 8 years and working for a women’s retreat company. I’ve always been passionate about women’s empowerment and the retreats were A whole new world opened up for me.
I wanted to meet like-minded women and build a community with coaches I could learn from. I wanted a new challenge and Bali seemed like a place with lots of creative opportunities.
We were attracted to Bali because it was an international hub connecting Kuala Lumpur, where family lived, with Sydney, and we also had a strong desire to connect with nature, especially since the pandemic.
Steve was also looking to change jobs and we felt it was the right time for us to start the next phase of our lives.
So we took the plunge. Looking back, it was a quick process. We decided in January 2022 and six months later we were in Bali.
It seemed like endless possibilities lay before us and we couldn’t wait to explore new sides to ourselves. Looking back, it took us longer than we expected to find our footing.
We tried to jump in and learn how things work.
The bureaucracy was overwhelming and I quickly realized there was no manual. I ended up learning everything the hard way.
For example, we were used to bill payments being automated. In Bali, we paid in person for several months before we learned how to pay online.
I missed the convenience of a serviced apartment with a great gym and easy access to public transport.
In Australia you can walk everywhere, in Malaysia you can take a car but here you seem to be able to walk to your destination but there are hardly any sidewalks, you need to get on a motorbike to get around and it took us 10 months before we got our own motorbike.
As we try to adjust to our new life, the challenges we face begin to increase.
There were also health concerns as the house I was renting had mould in it, and after three visits to the doctor and one to the hospital, I had to return to Kuala Lumpur before I finally got a diagnosis.
Being surrounded by overwhelming change every day was exhausting and made it hard to enjoy the process. To make matters worse, we were our own harshest critics.
I didn’t fully celebrate the milestones I achieved during the move.
Looking back, we too I focused on getting my life in Bali started right away. Quitting our jobs and leaving home was a big risk and we knew we had made the right decision.
But living in Bali for the past two years has taught us to slow down and just go with the flow.
Coming from a city, we’re used to efficiency and getting things done quickly, but here we just have to kick back and let things sort themselves out, including those never-ending traffic jams.
We also realised that we were not alone.
Many others I spoke to in Bali have experienced similar challenges of building a life and career here while transitioning from a 9-to-5 work schedule — after all, having a set routine was a big part of life in the city.
Living in Bali encourages constant growth. I feel like I’m a different person every quarter. And at the end of each day, We are glad we moved.
