The Workation-Experiment

Since we have ethical problems with experiments on animals and we can´t afford the programmers for a computer-simulation, the only solution left was a self-experiment: The Coconat-Team turns themselves into temporary Digital Nomads. The decision for Bali was easy, we have friends living here, coworking spaces are thick on a ground and it is wonderful warm during the cold dark European winter: For six weeks we move 11.544 km South-East on a hunt for maximum productivity.

 

At the beginning we live with friends, a coworking space is located at a hip surfer beach just 10 minutes away. Young, dynamic, highly motivated, our laptops under the arm we are heading for the space: Closed! Mmmhhh… okay. No problem, our friends live in a very nice house with pool, seems a perfect place to work from. But, oha! Not so easy to work if you want to be social with your friends and you have to organise your daily life (visa, cooking…). Furthermore the Internet in the suburbs of Denpasar is a cranky creature, and additionally, on the many construction sites around they work seven days a week, no chance for concentration. No, there is no productivity like this!

We thought it better to get away to Dingo Woop Woop (as our Australian friend says): Amed, East-Bali. It´s beautiful here and quiet… no coworking spaces but every hotel and restaurant offers wifi. Very, very, very slow wifi. Nevertheless we finally find the perfect place to work. A small resort, located in front of the coral reef with a pretty stable 5mbit internet connection, tables to work at, and even power outlets… everything that makes the laptop worker happy. So, let´s get it started!

Breath in the warm ocean breeze, open the laptop and switch her on… Arghhhh!! The screen only shows gobbledigook! Some hours of research later we have to accept that the problem was bigger than we could deal with. Amed is very scenic but probably one of the worst places south of the Equator to try and fix your laptop.

The city of Ubud is the better address. We met the Mac specialist in the parking lot of the CocoMart. He pressed the power button, saw the strange shadows around the apple icon, he breathed out between his lips. The screen came up to the same gobbledigook as before, and the computer was quite quickly announced to be dead. After another meeting with the mac-dealer on a low-lit parking lot I finally managed to get the address of his shop a few days later. Then the long negotiations with the bank (no, I didn’t steal this credit card, yes, I really need that much money, yes, I am really me…) and just a short 10 days later we are holding the new computer in our hands and go on with our workation-odyssee…

In total, four weeks have passed by, our productivity has definitely been lower than expected but one thing is certain, aside from the computer drama and that one-week battle with dengue, we had a very good time!

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