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Nomad Lessons Learned From Getting Airlifted Out Of Bali
It’s not all sipping coconuts and rope swings over rice paddies
Working from Bali is the holy grail for digital nomads and travellers, but the Instagram-worthy dream may not always turn out how you think.
In March 2016, I was somewhere I never thought I’d be.
On an inflatable stretcher being squeezed into a tiny private jet by four burly men, strapped to an oxygen tank as my insurance company footed a bill for me to fly from Bali to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. (I was later told that I had not got insurance, my bills would have been in the region of $50,000).
My first digital nomad expedition, a month in Ubud, was curtailed abruptly after just five days, as I became rapidly paralysed with suspected Guillean-Barre Syndrome.
As much as I don’t really like to relive that memory, a meeting with a friend yesterday reminded me that so many of us are planning to ‘live the dream’ — travel the world with a laptop, and that my (somewhat sombre) story is just as valid. I have learned important lessons that might help others if they end up in a similar situation.
