Yuli

Mah-day and I met Yuli at her office on the second day of my stay in Bali. She works for a luxury villa rental company.   We went out to get a bite to eat and then we went to see some of the Villas her company represents.  She has been working at Bali since she left Bintan.  Yuli is originally from Jakarta, went to a school catering to the hospitality industry – hotel, restaurant management, food and beverage etc.  Working in Bintan was her first job after internship in a hotel in Singapore.  I find it very interesting that so many of young women in SE Asia – Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand are so well connected to the rest of the world and are so mobile.  During my years of visiting this area I have met many of them.  They tend to be very young – in their early 20’s, well educated, great communication skill and very hip.  Yuli has her Blackberry on her 24/7, her Facebook application running on it and connected to her 200+ friends all over SE Asia and China.  They are socially and professionally equipped be able to plug into the workforce of just about anywhere in the world.  Most of them I have met are either in the hospitality industry or in High Tech.  Neither of these industries have much of a geographic border.  They can take and apply their professional skill anywhere in the world.  Like Tom Friedman says The World is Flat.  The Yuli’s of the world are the human manifestation of the flat world.  As I have traveled and vacationed in SE Asia for the past 10+ years, meeting young people such as Cedric, Lisa and their friends, Yuli, Mah-day and many others have been a great pleasure.  For me it is these human connections I have been able to make is what I enjoy so much about my travel and vacationing through the whole region.  Yuli has been working in Bali for the past three years since she left Bintan.  She manages all the relationships with all the agencies that book the villas through her company.  She getting married this coming February.  She met her fiancé in Bintan.  He now works at the Hard Rock Hotel in Phuket, Thailand.  For the time being they are going to stay put in their respective jobs and may be some time down the road they would be able to work in the same hotel or same city.  As you can see these are very mobile, and cosmopolitan bunch.  I asked her where is she going for their honeymoon, she said she will get just two weeks time off and she will have to organize all her wedding logistics in Jakarta, get married and come right back.  No time for honeymoon.  Honeymoon will have to wait.

 

After lunch we went looking at some of the luxury villas Yuli’s company,  BHM Villas, http://www.bhmvillas , represents.  We saw three homes they were really beautiful, one of a kind, individually architected and custom built homes.  They were all owned by either Europeans or Australians.  They are all beautiful homes, they come with varying number of staff could be as many as five staff – cook, gardener, security guard etc.  They are pretty pricey as well varying from $550/night for smaller ones (3 bedroom) to $950/night (5 bedroom+) for bigger villas.  The villas are gorgeous.  However I was not crazy about their locations.  Typically these villas have been constructed on what used to be rice fields.  Farmers have been selling their land to developers.  The Villas are not cheap, a five bedroom villa will set you back about $1.5 million.  Once you are inside the villas they have high walls and you are in a very beautiful space but there is no view to look at.  From the upstairs of the home you are going to see rice fields and other homes.  I did not see any villa overlooking the beach or the ocean.  I think those are mostly taken by resorts.  Net net, I will go back to Bintan villas any day over the Bali villas. 

 

Some things in Bali are very inexpensive, some other things are priced like any first world country.  The labor here is very cheap.  A front desk clerk in a hotel makes about $300/month.  Hotel rooms however are pretty reasonable: for Hyatt rack rate around $140/night Grand Hyatt around $220/night.  Although Four Seasons was very pricey at $850/night.

 

I was somewhat disappointed with what I saw in terms of Villas.  Not a great value in my opinion.  What is surprising though, the market seems very strong in terms of occupancy.  I met an Australian guy in one of the newer golf clubs we visited.  He is involved with timeshare condos overlooking the golf course.  Again there was no great ocean view or anything and he told me that their occupancy rate runs between 80% and 100%.  I was very surprised.  I guess it is all about supply and demand.

 

I took Mah-day and Yuli to dinner to the Ocean Beach Club restaurant in Kuta.  It was again a great experience.