"Your story to Indonesia"

m17tgw

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27
Hey Everyone

hope you & all loved ones are well under the current circumstances, I'm Marty from England, and would to love to hear your stories of how your own unique life story brought you to Indonesia, long or short good or bad I'd love to read and take everyone's view on life and how you all made a life there, so i'd appreciate to get to many people here, nice to meet you and thanks for visiting , I'll give you a insight into my journey so far.

I first met my future soulmate 6 months in remission after battling a long spell with cancer in 2016, became friends and kept in touch weekly which soon became daily, late 2017 she herself was diagnosed with cancer herself, so herself needing months of treatment soon became our long period of daily contact, and under the delicate situation was giving her a smile on her face knowing she could beat this, early 2018 she's also a winner and in the clear, September 2018 was my first time to meet her in person just as close friends at this time having both having our own battles and so much in common we decided to give a relationship a chance and its the best thing I've ever done , she ended up pursuing a dream of running her own business and did this in bail with a cafe in Kuta, meeting many new people and learning so much shes decided to move back to Jakarta to be with her family before going back to Belitung where shes from, so once this Covid-19 is under control at some point someday, ill be making some long term visits up to 6 months to live with her and adapt to the culture and like to learn the language fluently.

Thanks again for reading!!
Marty ;D
 
I met people from here online & struck up deep friendships, came to visit them, fell in love (with the place). Decided to stay.
Later met the guy who I married... converted visas over the years from sosbud to kitas to kitap.
 
2012 - 2016 : I met her online, and kept contact with her as a friend maybe more than a friend.

2017 - now : I proposed her, she accepted, planned to come here, we got married in 2018. Till now staying in this beautiful country with my lovely wife. Next year I'm planning to convert my spousal ITAS to ITAP.
 
by accident.

was offered a job in Malaysia and a job in Indonesia.

The Indonesian one looked more enticing.
 
2014 : Travelled to Bali for holiday
2014 : Quit my job to travel SEA
2014/2015 : Found myself feeling at home in Indonesia
2015: Finished traveling, return “home”
2016 : Apply for job in Indo, fly to BDG for interview and accept and begin KITAS process.
2017 : Move here.
 
I had a long-standing interest in Indonesia due to reading Raden Adjeng Kartini's letters for a college class.

So it was with great delight that I first visited in 1986 while living in the Federated States of Micronesia, as the spouse of part of a delegation exploring the (ridiculous, though no one would admit it) possibility of buying airplanes from IPTN. There is so much historical context to that trip, which I did not fully understand until much later. At that time BJ Habibie had embarked on his ill-advised push to turn Indonesia into a world-class manufacturer of aircraft. The FSM's interest in purchasing planes had the Indonesians in a tizzy; they wined and dined the hell out of us. I could write a book about just those few weeks. (For those unfamiliar with the outcome of BJ's efforts, Indonesia never sold any airplanes outside the country for cash; they traded a few for some cars manufactured in Malaysia and that was it.)

Anyway, the amazing trip convinced my husband that Indonesia was an interesting possibility, career-wise. When we moved back to the United States after three years in the FSM, we both completed academic programs that made us able to secure work in Indonesia. I ended up moving to Indonesia in October 1993 and he followed around February 1994.
 
Phoned a guy in Toronto and was told he was in Indonesia because a large industrial plant had just decided to by a competitors control system. Hmm if they are buying a control system. So I phoned them as asked to speak to dept. manager who i knew was a bule and asked about a job because if they had just bought a new system....
He said it was too early but a guy called Bill needed someone in a different location so I phoned Bill who I had met some years previously when I tried to sell him something. He wanted my resume before he went home so I stayed up for a while compiling one.
Upshot? Three weeks later I was sat in North Sumatra.
 
Brilliant Stories guy's thanks so much for your input!
 
A coworker of mine had backpacked through South East Asia and would tell me stories almost everyday about his experiences and eventually my wanderlust got a hold of me. It was 1996 and I was 23, frustrated with work, school and my family at the time I decided to leave my comfortable lifestyle in Alaska and fly off to Jakarta Indonesia not really having a plan or even knowing what I was going to do when I got there. When I finally arrived I was completely blown away by the the hospitality and friendliness of the Indonesian people. Eventually I met a special Indonesian lady and we've been married for 23 years.
 
Nothing special.
I lived in HKG with an Indonesian for 2 years (+ knew her 2 y before that)
When in 2017 I decided I was fed up with the HKG livestyle and madness, I asked her "I am fed up with HK, I am going to retire and leave. If you think you can continue to stay with me and bear me, I am OK to give it a try in Bali. Forget about me living in your jungle village (40 km south of Banyuwangi), that's a 100% NONO (I had visited twice already). You have till this evening to answer."
2 hours later she announces "ok, I follow you".
Note that she had spend 12y in HKG (8 for me) and was even more fed up than me with all them lovely and polite Chinese...
Now living in Bali since 3 years with regular visits to the jungle village. Bali is not paradise, but pretty well bearable for a relaxed pensioners life. The jungle village is ok for max 7 to 10 days every 2 months.
Yeah, yeah, compared to most it doesn't sound very romantic, but I have never been one.

And after having visited around 50 countries, worked and lived in a dozen, I never "fall in love" with a place either.
Now, multiply my pension by 3, I would probably be off to Tahiti, St Martin or Seychelles....
 
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Like Mr BaliFrog I also wouldn't romanticise it too much. Most of the people are very friendly, and it's nice to see frequent smiles, on the other hand there are many freeloaders around especially within extended families. Also my observation is that the really friendly, tolerant and honest people are often from the older generations, it remains to be seen how the younger generations turn out in this regard, with the religious radicalism on the rise amongst that age group.
 
I also want to thank all the people who commented here. It is always interesting to read about other people's story.
I also try to make my story short.

I made some friends online in 2007 and in the summer of 2008 I came to Indoneisa for the first time. That was quite a big and risky thing, looking back now. I never travelled that far alone and I couldn't really be sure who I will meet. anyway, all went well and I still have contact to a lot of people back then, although we live in different parts now. I went to Jakarta, the wider area and Palangkaraya at that time. Something I will never forget, it made me fall in love with the country (more to that later).
In mid 2009 I met my future wife through some friends. In January 2010 we met for the firsr time and in summer 2010 we married. Then in January 2011 she moved to germany with me. 2014 our daughter was born. Then 2018, one of the craziest years in my life, my whole closer family died, except my brother. My mom, my grandmom and my stepfather all died in the same year..hell..even the father of my boss. A real crazy year. I wasn't really happy there anymore and we decided to move to Batam where my wife is from cause she still has a lot of family here. That's it so far.

One more thing about my love for the country. Of course in the beginning it is amazing to experience a new country and its people. I still stand with saying that most of the people are very friendly. Other things I see with mixed emotions, especially religious extremism. I never had a problem with people in that way, still this whole Saudi influence more or less gains ground in many areas. That being said I still love the country for many reasons i only wouldn't romanticise it, like some people already mentioned. Still, I guess that is something everyone will see for themselves sooner or later.
Best of luck and health to everyone here.
 
Hey Everyone

hope you & all loved ones are well under the current circumstances, I'm Marty from England, and would to love to hear your stories of how your own unique life story brought you to Indonesia, long or short good or bad I'd love to read and take everyone's view on life and how you all made a life there, so i'd appreciate to get to many people here, nice to meet you and thanks for visiting , I'll give you a insight into my journey so far.

I first met my future soulmate 6 months in remission after battling a long spell with cancer in 2016, became friends and kept in touch weekly which soon became daily, late 2017 she herself was diagnosed with cancer herself, so herself needing months of treatment soon became our long period of daily contact, and under the delicate situation was giving her a smile on her face knowing she could beat this, early 2018 she's also a winner and in the clear, September 2018 was my first time to meet her in person just as close friends at this time having both having our own battles and so much in common we decided to give a relationship a chance and its the best thing I've ever done , she ended up pursuing a dream of running her own business and did this in bail with a cafe in Kuta, meeting many new people and learning so much shes decided to move back to Jakarta to be with her family before going back to Belitung where shes from, so once this Covid-19 is under control at some point someday, ill be making some long term visits up to 6 months to live with her and adapt to the culture and like to learn the language fluently.

Thanks again for reading!!
Marty ;D
Lovely story nice to hear and hope all is well and better by now.
 
Lovely story nice to hear and hope all is well and better by now.
thanks for your comment, sorry to say since leaving Jakarta on 1st January 2020, and the arrival of Covid -19 I have not been able to return back to Indonesia, its been a long heavy 18 months being apart from my angel, and Indonesia recently was added to UK's Red list, so 2021 will be most likely out of the question to visit, Cancer brought us together Covid kept us apart but nothing will break us.
 

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