Hey, guys! My name is Vitaly, I’m Russian, currently based in Bali.
Was surprised that here is no topic about Bali. I think, it’s very popular destination right now for poker-players, who’s living (or just traveling) in Asia.

So to make this discussion more interesting, let me give you quick intro about me.

I’m 30 years old, have been playing poker professional since university.

Started almost 11 years ago, I got my free $50 in pokerstrartegy and since then got hook up with poker)

Kinda quickly got to NL50 playing PartyPoker and after that never thinking serious about quitting poker.

Played a lot of 6max games, usually 5-6+ tables, was grinding heavy) Then switched to HU, was playing up to 5-10 on starts with everybody) Fun time, but too much stress.
After was playing a lot of HU matches at 2/4 and 3/6 while KOTH on stars and got back to 6max games, when HU was totally dead.
Experimenting not so long time ago with Chinese rooms and it was quiet good for me. A lot of crazy HU matches as well)
Now trying not that actively play PPpoker.


About traveling and Bali.

Originally I’m from Novosibirsk, Russia, but I used to live in different countries. At the age of 21 I left my city and went to Thailand and still have been traveling in South-East Asia and all around the world.

Thailand - spent 1 year in Pattay mostly, lots of parties)


I’m on the left, my ex-girlfriend and my good friend.

Philippines - spent 2 years in Angels, Manila and Boracay. Was playing some offline games, parties and poker (as usual at this time lol)

Macau - spent 3 months, offline as well. Was spending profits from online in casions (poker only!), bars, clubs and saunas)

Bali - lived there for 3 years. Surf and poker)


How I started


With friends, all guys are poker-players.

Costa-Rica - spent 1 year in Jaco. Was learning Spanish, surfing and playing poker.


With costa-rican friends. They are not poker-players)))


Costa-rican way of living - not need much)

Colombia - had been living for 2 years in Medellin. Had Colombian wife and girlfriend from Venezuela, got my cedula, but then had to divorce, which is not easy)


View from my apartment. Beautiful!


Some extreme forest-trips with friends.


And paragliding!

Bali - 1 year and still going


Surfing even in Moscow)


And some quality left-handers in Indo)

Bali. Beautiful and interesting place.
Everybody can find something he will like here. Nature, surf, parties, a lot of good restaurants, fresh food, interesting culture, some kind of spiritual things, lots of creative and sports people from all over the world and I can keep going forever)

Quick facts you need to know before going

Places to stay
Canggu (surf/parties/hub for digital/creative ppl) - Bukit(Heavy surf, chill, nice views, parties) - NusaDua(beaches w/o waves, chill)

Cost of rent
Guest houses around 30-50/night
Apartment monthly 200-1000+ (decent quality starts from 300-500+ usd/month)
Villas nightly 50++++
Villas monthly - mostly 1k+ for 1-2 bedroom.

Many options for villas could be rented out only for six or twelve months.

Cost of food
Wide range of healthy food, unbelievably tasty coffee, restaurants, markets, whatever - everything for good price and with wide range of options.

Cost of services
Motorbike - 100 usd/month
Visa-extensions every two month 50 usd + you have to leave the country after 2 months of staying or make social visa for 6 month with no crossing the border (otherwise you will get new stamp for 2 months)

Surfing
Would recommend to go to surf-school
~50 usd for each group-class or privet instructor for 100 usd/per 2 hours

Other activities in the island.
Will bring it to the table in the future posts)


Don’t want to be super-specific with this info in my first post, if here would be interest I give detailed info about these topics.

About this thread.
Feel free to ask anything about Bali and countries I mentioned above.
Would be nice to help poker-players to have great experience in the island.
Also we can organise here occasional meet ups for dinner/activities/surf/trips to other Indo islands etc.

Nice thread, man. I'm here now, too. You don't see much about Indonesia in the travel forums and although Bali is far from any sort of hidden gem, it seems really underrated on 2+2 anyway. Cost of living, ease of life, weather, food, dating - everything is great here.

Subbed! What standard of apartment do you get for like 5-600$ monthly? And how is the wifi in those?

Gonna need a power ranking for the women by country

How do you feel about the locals in Bali?

Are they scumbag thief muslims that will start to mess with you if you stay longer than a week or two or do they generally mind their own business?

Nice pictures and good story btw.

Disagree only with dating) In general I like girls from asia, but in Indo its kinda hard for me, dont know why..

For $600 monthly you can find good one, of course depends on the area. Actually market of apartments not that big as villas market. So you have to spend some time looking for right one, especially in touristic areas.
Usually for this prise range you will get good room (maybe w kitchen), where you can live with comfort (price will include everything: internet, electricity, cleaning 2-3 times a week, often can find some working space inside the room as well).
Also there are some good small houses for this price.

Might post some guide "where and how to look for place to rent in Bali".

Interent is good now. 4g form different carriers works fine too. No problem with that at all.

Hahaha) For me its super-easy
Russians 10++++
Any other country)

Local balinese people are hindu, but there are a lot "foreigners" from different parts of Indonesia, which are muslims.
Balinese are super friendly and helpful (like locals in "proper", not touristic Thailand), but of course some of them are shady, especially if you are going around Kuta or Seminyak.
Quiet standard thing for Asia - most of the people you meet will be really friendly and nice to you, but not all).

Have been traveling a lot and the most crazy thing (I got robbed just in the street) happened to me in Europe, not Asia)

Thanks!

It looks like you've lived an interesting life filled with adventure. Thank you for making this thread.

This is so cool that you are able to play poker and travel around . Do you have any stories from your travels that you would like to share?

This would be very useful, information online is quite limited when it comes to Bali!

That's funny, I always heard that Russian women are the biggest gold diggers. So you are saying that for you in terms of beauty and gf/wife material: Russians girls > girls from any other countries, right?

Mainland Chinese girls are The ultimate gold digger. Second to none.

I have 0 experience with Chinese girls but a few years ago I met a Belarusian guy (who lived a few years in Moscow) in Lao during a visa run, very good looking dude (not a Chad more like a Vladimir) (no hom0) who was full time modeling in China. Talked about it with him and he confirmed me it, Russian girl are the biggest gold diggers. So idk lol sample size etc but I would love to hear more from someone who has lived in both countries.

Are these 2 things related? I.E. the Colombian wife found out about the Venezuelan girlfriend?

Do you mean the divorce was not easy emotionally or in terms of paperwork and logistics?

Are many online sites available in Bali? Or just the grey market ones such as PP?

Personally, I like the locals in Bali and Indonesia far better than in any other foreign country I've lived in (Mexico, Cambo, Thailand, Vietnam). As OP said, you hear of some theft in certain areas (especially Kuta) but theft is virtually non-existent in other areas. For example, I've forgotten to take the keys out of my motorbike more times than I can count and when I tell the locals about my stupid mistake, they say "Ya everyone does that. No big deal." I went for a run on the beach once with a local girl and she purposely left her keys in her bike.

More importantly (for me, anyway), I've found the people in Bali to be friendly in a genuine way that I just haven't seen anywhere else. Thai people are renowned for their smiles, but most who visit there for a bit longer realize that Thai friendliness is relatively shallow. I lived in Thailand for close to a year and never met one Thai guy that I could call anything close to a friend. To contrast that experience, it's been really easy for me to make friends with cool Indonesian dudes.

OP, I hope you don't mind me jumping in once in a while like this. Let me know if you do.

How have you been going about it? I've mostly used the common dating apps and have found Indo girls really easy. As easy as Thais, if not easier - that's saying a lot.

It depends a lot on season, but I had great results finding places when I arrived in February, which was low season. There's a few Facebook groups where you can post your budget and criteria, then the owners message you. I ended up with a really nice villa with a pool and daily cleaning for ~$350/mo in a quiet area.

This one of the stories)

I was planning to stay in Medellin longer and my 6 months stay was almost finished. At this moment I had already signed yeraly contract for my apartment and there was only one way to stay in the country for next 6 months - get married!)
My friend asked his Spanish tutor to help us, so she found girlfriend, who agreed to be "my wife" (and tutor was "helping" my friend).
In the begging everything looked easy - just couple of visits to attorney, sign some papers and we are fine to stay in Colombia as long as we want to.
But lately we found out, that we have to go to Bogota for the interview, which I almost screwed up)
So basically we signed papers, that we are living together, but in Colombia it gives you same obligations as marriage. Your "wife" even can take half of your belongings if something goes wrong)

So while the interview I got asked did I meet parents of my "wife" and answered "Not yet".

After I found out that its almost impossible to live in one house with girl without knowing her parents, cos Colombia is very traditional country when it comes to family. Connections inside families are very close, often you can meet someone around 30 y.o. still living with parents and it's ok for them.
In my "russian" (europeanized) opinion it's crazy) Not in a bad way, but just totally different compare to what I see in my country.
So fortunately it still worked out for me and I got my cedula.

After couple of months my plans had changed and I decided to go back to Russia for some time. We went to same attorney again and asked to begin divorce proceedings.
Yes, it was not easy in terms of paperworks - cos government dont want you to be single!) I end up leaving Colombia without any confirmation that we are divorced (my "wife" had some problems with her ID), so I left some payment for attorneys and my original birth certificate and was hoping they finish the process.

Lately, when I was in Novosibirsk, I received mail that I still have to sign some additional papers with notary. Of course all documents were in Spanish. I went to couple of notaries in my city and told them the story and all they did - laughed at me hard, nobody could help me with signing these papers in Spanish)) There were no options for me, except going back to Colombia and sign it by myself, but I decide not to, asked my "wife" to do everything what is possible to get divorce there by herself and I let go the situation.
After 3-4 months without any info about my marriage got message from her by whatsapp that finally we are divorced)

Other thing about my colombian "wife": for me it was just "business" relations, but at some moment I realised that she likes me a lot. She didn't try to do some strange/bad things to me or play with me, but first time in my life I had a feeling like girl is really into you, but you have to say "no".
Once she asked me to come to her house where she was living with friends (like 4 or 5 girls) and I agreed cos in my eyes it was just friendly visit. When I got there I understood that we are alone in whole house. We were spending time just talking (was trying to improve my spanish lol)) and suddenly she got really close to me (literally face to face) and I understood that she's waiting for me to kiss her, was feeling super-akward, had mix of strange feelings inside and was thinking how to escape and not offend her...don't want to be in the same position again..never!)

I heard the same) Chinese are next level.

Yep, for me, with considering cultural background, Russian are the best, with everyone else far behind.
We have lots lots lots of beautiful girls, which are smart and good in family things.
Of course, a lot of them can use it "against" you (i.e being gold diggers), especially in big cities like Moscow or Saint-Petersburg. And I can understand that - consumer society affects almost everyone, but still believe my wife will be Russian (give it like 95%)

Will try to make a post next week) Stay tuned)

Almost everything available to play and deposit.
Can play Starts, but deposit only w VPN.
Not sure about 888, I think can play as well, but deposit w VPN
Party, Chico, Micro, GG - no problem to play and deposit.

In general dont need to worry about restrictions here. Can easily find some options if you want to grind in Indo.

That's an interesting story. Didn't realize that it was that easy to get "married" in Colombia. I guess the headache is if/when you have to get "divorced".

Was the plan to always get a divorce as soon as you got your cedula or did you only want the divorce once your plans changed? Also, what made you change your mind about living in Medellín, you didn't like it much?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm in a similar situation. American, but was looking to live in either Medellín or Mexico City. Eventually I chose Mexico City, but I could possibly see myself living in Medellín one day if I get tired of Mexico.

Hm, in my opinion it is pretty much the same between Indonesia (Bali) and Thailand.
In non-turistic areas everyone will be truly friendly for foreigners and when it comes to business - local people might "attack" in some way.

Maybe you just found right place for you, which is great!)

I know many stories when surfers from local "schools" did a **** things to foreign instructors, which "take" (in their opinion) their job (and they don't care that guys just doing job better).
Few years back it was very common to hear how guys in motorbikes attack girls, trying to steal bags from them..

Muslims in other Indo islands can be dangerous as iLiveInAsia mentioned above. Heard many stories about aggressive locals in Lombok, which is 90%+ muslim island.

So Indo and Thai, as a relatively poor countries, have a lot of population, which might want to take advantage of you, but basically I agree - if you will be good to locals they will be good to you and you really can relax and calm down here and dont need to worry about staff like forgotten keys in motorbike))

Man, always welcome! Would like this thread stay alive not only because of my posts!
It's nice to have some discussion going)

I just arrived in Bali, and I can't play on PS.com: "real money games not available in your area". Both in cash games and spins.

Was there a ban recently? Did you have to do something specific to be able to play, like contact the support?

Anyone worried about the active Volcano?

Sorry I cant tell you about that, but when this message appears it is unlikely you will be able to play from Bali anymore (last year it was working propery)still a very important information thx.

I am about to find a place where to grind the WCOOP in SEA.

There are not many countries left so I guess I will head for Bangkok.

Right now I am in CHiang Mai and during my stay (after two weeks) the Wifi starts blocking Stars (Website and Client) So right now I have to play over my 4g hotspot. I think and hope that its only related to the Provider AIS here.

But any tips on which country (except Thailand) to play from would be much appreciated.

No, nobody else here seems worried, either. I know there was an eruption over a month ago - maybe two now - but I haven't heard the volcano mentioned since whenever that was.

There was an earthquake a couple days ago that everyone was posting about on social media, but I don't think there was any damage or people injured in that, either.

Nice thread. I possibly have 1-3 weeks in September where I'm considering Bali. I'll hit you up when I'm closer to a decision.