Jason Lunn.com/ Portfolio of a life…..

Should be fun, she has turned up with her mum and sister,..!!

Bank Accounts for foreigners in Indonesia

I found out today that there is a possibility based on my  lengthg of stay that I can open a bank account in Indonesia, Commonwealth Bank offer certain foreigners Rupiah bank accounts depending on their assesment of you passport and its visa stamps to date. So i will be able to find out if I can get one tomorrow. This is good for transfering money RE land and stuff.. way more secure.

Trade winds have turned around East Side surfing is now on.

Landed in Bali yesterday, surfed Nusa Dua today, seems like the trade winds are turning and the east side of island is turning on a gain wave wise. So that means the wet season is on its way.. I love Bali it always feels good coming back still super busy but it makes a pleasant change from the rural Lombok lifestyle I have recently experienced. had a pedicure and manicure today as my nails got pretty bad working on River’s villa.. small news, all good today..

Ok the land I have placed a deposit on has been measured by the land department and appears to be approx 10are bigger than I had been told 65 instead of 55 that I was buying. This is a problem as I have no more budget to spend on land, so we need to negotiate with the owner on what happens next as I am up to my minds budget limit. Its a big plot and I could pay extra and consider on maybe selling small parts at a later date but do not want or really have the initial capital to do this. So we will try and get the owner to continue with the initial offer that was agreed for the whole block but not an amount per individual are (are = 1unit of land 10m by 10m) and then that would be great  as I will get a little extra land only if on paper as it actually has not grown since the first offer.  However if he and his family think there is an opportunity to get more cash then I am sure they will try, so I do not know whats happening today until later. Tha will be another entry at a later date….Aghhh always little obstacles….!!!

Sunset Silhouettes at Dreamland,.. well we have been speaking on the telephone most evenings and she is coming back to Bali for 4 days on the 28th September so we have planned to meet up, which I am looking forward to.. Like I said earlier have I found myself in a long distance relationship as a result of meeting her and on the 28th it can hopefully get a little closer again..

One day the limousine broke down

GWK Bukit Peninsula Bali

Many hands make light work

I really do try and cherish the little spectacles I daily encounter here that I would not encounter in the UK,.Team building exercises from my experiences in offices in the Uk are group hugs, holding hands, falling back with your eyes closed as your loyal colleagues save you and various other positive thinking motivational tools imported from the USA.. Here I just watch how a group of ants carried this Gecko across a whole concrete slab then up and over a wall..

Looks like the wet season is around the corner, its has rained non stop all night and all day. Ramadan has just finished, which means the local mosques will turn off their loudspeakers for the next 11 months. Seriously they pray on loudspeakers all night long for 28 days solid during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Yesterday I was invited for a meal with all the village people where I plan on buying a plot of land, so this was a wonderful experience for me, I have a few pics of this truly magical culture change,  I was welcomed, fed to bursting point with all the local Lombok and Sasak quisine and made to feel part of the local community as I watched chickens, cows, dogs and children play in the coutyard, buffalo graze and all the local woman prepare food in cooking pots over burning timber.. a great experience, truly out of this world, priceless..This was their Christmas Day and I really was a able to see the difference a community makes to the well being of all involved..

Oh yes, I forgot to metion I awoke up to the building shaking as an earthquake 6.5 on the Ricta Scale hit Bali, a bit scary my first earthquake experience!

The tropical gardens  he has created are really are colourful

All the wood is localy grown mahogany and other exotic timber all carved by local artisans, so much cool detail to look at

Here are a few pics of the villa of my friend Richard Tetro where I am staying in Kuta Lombok. River as he is known started this project 4 years ago from a bare piece of land and these are some shots of how it looks now,.

This is where I like to be most days..

The Gardens are a little piece of sculptured paradise,..

10th September 2009
Surfed this morning and decided to walk around the piece of land I am buying to get some inspiration and work out a route for a small road to the top where the view is.

Problem 1..Electrical pylons about to be erected through my land..

Due to Lombok’s rapidly developing infrastructure, Only now is electricity about to be supplied from an electricity provider. There is a huge network of pylons and cables appearing on hillsides every day to enable this. Unfortunately whilst walking my land today I have seen electrical cables have been laid on the floor through my land top to bottom and are awaiting pylons to supply electricity in a straight line to the top of the hill,… Aghhh these will be running right across where I envisage my dream house to be. No consent here gained or granted by the electricity board. No instead just send a group of lads in a pickup truck to roll electrical cables down the hill and cement huge posts up wherever they feel fit for them to do this regardless of who owns the land (this really is Indostyle or the Indo factor as my friend Eugene Tollemache puts it, No process just do it and deal with it later).

Ok this is also why I love the place, this is the reason I can ride around on a motorbike all day without a helmet and pay a policemen £3 even if I do get stopped. In this journey this is apparently the first hurdle to overcome. I cannot speak very good Indonesian due to the fact most people in Bali speak English and as a result I have had no need to really learn. Lombok however is very different the locals speak a combination of Sasak their native tongue and Bahassa Indonesia (the united language of Indonesia). So I need to work out here how to communicate the fact I need the persons involved to reroute some pylons hopefully before they are concreted through my land,..

This is Indonesia and this could only happen here never in the UK,  So time for a deep breath I am sure it will be cool..watch this space..

11th September 2009 Land Department Measure land,
A whole crew from the land department turned up on the land I am buying today with tape measures, theodolites, measuring poles and accurately measured the land I am buying. This is great it feels quite legit and official which is reassuring at this stage. They will be returning to insert concrete posts during the week to officially mark the boundaries.

12th September 2009 Grupuk Bay,
I have been surfing a break called Grupuk the last two days, its is a protected bay with an assortment of waves coming in at various sizes and angles. It is in a quaint little bay surrounded buy stunning mountains. The wave is about 1km off shore so  you need to negotiate a boat ride out from all the local hustlers on the beach, that see anyone with white skin as a bank on a legs. If you ever come here you will understand this. The wave; Fun wave easy take off with long rides left and right. I managed to spend some time working on my turns during these two days. Quite a crowded wave but more than enough to go around. My back went into spasm on my first wave yesterday and is still sore. I have to continually remind myself to drink lots of water. I crave black coffee during the day and I am pretty sure it has dried out all my vertebrae joints as I know I have not been drinking anywhere enough water during the day. I am feeling like a creaky old rocking chair at the moment so I am cutiing back as of now and getting on the hot lemon and ginger!

13th September 2009 Land Update
I received a map and plan of the land today from the Land Department, which is great. I also managed to have a few words with the crew of guys from the electrical company working on all the pylons in the area and it seems for a moment the work on the land I am buying has come to a halt. The pylons seem to be a problem in the whole of the Kuta Lombok area and the Kapala Desa (Village Head) apparently has told them to stop for a while and negotiate the electrical routes with the land owners. Well we will see…

14th September 2009 River Villa, Helped do some work on River’s villa today planed the bottoms of a door and sanded and oiled some hardwood flooring. Slowly in between surfing we are aiming to get the finishing touches done on his villa so it is suitable and ready for renting out…

15th September Back still sore so no surfing today.

Week one
One week has passed, I have really been having a wonderful time at Rivers villa he has really created a marvellous place to relax in and enjoy. To be honest it has inspired me to the point that I am considering doing the same and living here similar to him. So we have put the word out for some available land opportunities for me. I really feel like I would like to spend some time living in Lombok and see what I can do with the capital left from selling my house and the different skills and experiences I have gained over the course of my life. Rivers work here and the fulfillment of his personal vision has further reinforced to me the reality of a persons dreams materializing in their world if they simply just have a go. Include Jette Edens photoshoot.

Week two
I have been surfing various surf breaks some have been working better than others due to wind and swell directions. I put my elbow through my board on a heavy set wave at Mawi and my sea ulcers have also gotten pretty deep due to continued surfing.

Land
I have  looked at a few different areas and plots of land and have found a great piece for sale with road access which then climbs up the side of a hill spanning approx 55 are (1are is 10m by 10m) this is enough for a few good sized houses  and maybe some shops along the road, if this was to be realized the ones built higher up will offer views of the sea and all the coconut tree plantations and mountains that surround.

I instantly had a good inner feeling about this land, a calmness in my spirit so I have decided to give it a go an as a result we have negotiated a reasonable price, not super cheap however as the land here in this region due to speculation from overseas investors has doubled over the last two years. There is presently the construction of an International airport taking place in Mataram and completion is approx. being a year away. This really is generating an increase i interest investment and speculation here which as a result is pushing prices up steeply.

Land Ownership in Indonesia

Ok, It is not a simple process owning land here as it has to be in a the name of a an Indonesian resident with a complex loan contract  drawn up which allows a foreigner the rights to build, rent, lease and use the land indefinitely. There is a trust element involved here and I have heard many horror stories about people who have lost a lot of capital trying to buy land here. However there are also horror stories of people drowning surfing and I still surf heavy waves whenever possible. There are also great examples of ex pats who have pulled this off and I am following their example.

I can see that this can be achieved amicably if the right people are involved. River has a good crew of local professionals on his side and also the head of the village so I am working with these guys to get this right.

Week 3

Moneys transfered from UK to a nominated Indonesian bank account. All in all has taken ten days and 50% deposit has been paid on the plot of land I have chosen, I have now received officially signed and stamped paperwork with all the correct individuals witnessed by the heads of the village and others with positions of social standing. It has been made apparent to me that the leaders and local officials have clearly understood that tourism and the investment it brings is really of benefit to the local economy. As a result the people involved are helping the process run smoothly for me.

Speculation

There has been a tourism boom anticipated in Lombok for 10 years but due to the Bali Bombings a few years ago a lot of investment was withdrawn. However I can feel and see an increase in investors confidence here and as a result I am sure that in less than 3 years time, official helpfulness and efficiency levels this will be very different. I am taking a small risk here compared to buying land in the UK but it is purely financial. I have also weighed up the potential cost and losses and am prepared to take these risks in order to see many dreams materialise and become fruitful. Quite simply due to my skateboarding, bmx, moto x, and surfing I have accepted I have taken greater physical risks every day and even though I have been hurt I continue to achieve many of my dreams and goals. I still carry on smiling after each adversity and always learn a lot in the process.

I feel very blessed to be faced with this opportunity in this stage of my life and also at this stage of Lombok’s development. The dream of living in a beautiful place with waves to surf daily is a few steps closer in the right direction as each day passes and for this I am very grateful. I am fortunate to be able to undertake this at this stage before the cost of labour, materials and official beauracracy become over run. I really believe that soon there will be a significant increase in outside investors and thus I will just become another person in the queue if I do not take the plunge now. At this stage the queue is short and as a result I have the land department pushing my certificates through for me relatively efficiently due to the team I am working with.

I have now surfed a few times at

Mawi,… Left hander pretty heavy works best mid to high tide, most size swells picks up a fair bit when other breaks are small. Pretty hollow barrel and a quick take off. Rippy and strong currents on large high tides. Dry season wave

Segar,.. shallow reef pass right hander pretty hollow, cannot ho;ld too much swell, walls up well on the inside works best on mid tide incoming and outgoing,…rumours of a good left hander here have yet to materialize in my surfing experience of the place. Approx 3 take off points at this time of year the trade winds blow it out so need to surf early or when wind is light. Good fun uncrowded

Air Guleng,.. right hander sucky and fun, long paddle out shallow reef

I have presently got three big sea ulcers on my right hand and two on my left leg getting deeper each time I surf and ride my moped on the dirt roads back to River’s villa where I am staying. The dust on the roads is full of buffalo, chicken dog and cow traffic and the dust blows straight into the open wounds which have just opened up as a result of being in the sea for a few hours. Regardless of the betadine, iodine, sudacream, guazes and dressings I am using the damn things just keep getting deeper. The swell has been pretty good so staying out of the surf really will be a last resort.. Aghhhhhhhhhh!