In this vlog, the creator—an entrepreneur and coach who has spent five years traveling between Bali and his home country—documents a month-long stay at The Mansion Hotel in Ubud, Bali, paying only $40 per night. The video opens with a personal back‑story about his childhood trips to Bali, the contrast between his cramped Seoul upbringing and the spacious villas of the island, and his current mission to blend entrepreneurship with a nomadic lifestyle. He gives a detailed tour of his hotel room (dual desks, view of pool and trees, rain‑driven ceiling sounds) and the hotel’s communal spaces (pool, yoga shala, lush flora, friendly staff). He explains how he secured the discounted rate by negotiating a month‑long stay, urging viewers to always ask for a discount when booking long‑term. The narrative then shifts to why he chose Ubud—its reputation as a spiritual hub popularized by “Eat Pray Love,” the prevalence of yoga studios, conscious festivals, and vegetarian/vegan eateries. He recounts meeting a New York‑based entrepreneur at a micro‑festival (Bali Bloom) and subsequently taking on a consulting engagement to help launch a relationship‑skills online business. While balancing this client work with his own coaching venture (House Manifest), he reflects on the challenges of solitary work, the pull between socializing and productivity, and the importance of using time wisely as he ages. He describes how he combats isolation by striking up conversations with fellow guests, gym‑goers, and hotel staff, and promises to share those interviews later. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action for viewers interested in nomadic living, remote business building, relationships, or Bali travel to comment, and ends with a positive, “keep calm and vibe on” sign‑off.
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Bali, Indonesia, the magical island that's been my second home for the past 5 years. This time, for just $40 a night, I've spent an entire month at a stunning hotel in Ubud, what many call the spiritual mecca of Bali. Now, I wouldn't call myself a yogi or a raw vegan. I'm an entrepreneur and coach, deeply passionate about creating, teaching, and facilitating deep, meaningful connections, and obsessed with a healthy dose of funky poppy beats. Nonetheless, this Ubud experience has opened my eyes in ways I didn't anticipate. In this video, I'm going to show you the hotel, how I got this amazing deal, what brought me here in the first place, and what I've learned and experienced during my unexpected stay here. Welcome to my room here in Bali. I've been staying here at this hotel for about a month now. It is mid-February 2024. Staying in Bali at this particular hotel in this room for the past month has been special, interesting, and inspiring on many different levels. But taking a step back and talking about Bali first, it's the first place I traveled to as a kid in Southeast Asia with my family. And I still remember just thinking about all this. I was a kid in Seoul, Korea, and Seoul is a huge metropolis, and we weren't exactly the wealthiest We were living in this tiny apartment. There's just not a lot of space. And coming to Bali, and then there's these big villas and pools, and you can look up in the sky and see the stars at night. And that was just something that was a completely different experience as a kid. And coming to Bali as an adult to really execute my entrepreneurial mission, it's also enjoying the lifestyle of it and then really meeting people that normally you wouldn't really meet in general, and experiencing all that this crazy place has to offer. And being someone who's more used to the city life and really being outside the comfort zone in a way, and experiencing all the beauty that Bali has to offer, being on a scooter and then exploring all these different parts of, of the island, and yeah, just really enjoying nature, really being close to nature, all that, that's been Every year it's been really amazing. So that's why Bali has been so special on different levels. So there's a lot to be said about why Ubud, why Bali, and the comparison between Canggu, Ubud, and different parts of the island and all that stuff. But before I get into that, my experience and my perspective, let me give you a tour of my room and this hotel first. Let's go. All right, here is my hotel room. Got these two desks put together because need my laptop stand here, you know, it's crucial for that good posture. And yeah, it's pretty cozy, I can't complain. Pretty good space, uh, nice bathroom. Go. And the best thing about this whole place is that from here you can see the— this incredible view. Got the pool, the trees, the sky. Yesterday I saw this amazingly beautiful rainbow over there. Yeah, the best thing about it is that obviously it's a hotel, so they come clean, and the service has been like really, really incredible. Incredible. All right, that's a tour of my hotel room. Let me give you a tour of this hotel. You can see— oh, cicadas! I don't know if you can hear, it's like noise cancellation, but this is the vibe. I got this pool, next level. Hello, morning! The best staff, the best staff taking care of us. Thank you. What I really love about this hotel is that every corner there is something special, there's something new, and it's got this crazy mix with nature. So yeah, just something really special. And just check this out. Just look at how like purple these plants are. It's just like it really awakes you with different senses. And there we go. This is the vibe. A lot of people doing yoga. This place is like affiliated with this yoga studio called the House of Om. Yeah, so this is the room I stayed at the first night here, and I woke up in the middle of the night and it was so loud, and it was because of the rain. The rain was hitting the ceiling, and because it's not really concrete, it's just like tents, you know, you hear it so loud. The vibe is really good, but I had to change the room pretty quickly. But I've got no complaints about the current room I'm at. Looks like a little festival vibe, you know. I can totally see that in like at Burning Man, you know. Shala everywhere. I think it's because, because this place has a lot of people doing yoga, naturally it's got a lot of different yoga shalas. One thing too, talk about here is that meeting people is so easy, not only at this hotel but just around this island in general, because everyone is trying to, I guess, either find themselves or learn something about themselves, learn something about this island and the world and everything. And I think that contributes to the ease of getting to meet new people. Now this is the backyard slash also the front yard of this hotel, and this leads to the entrance. Here's the vibe. The lovely staff. Hello. I'm just doing a little bit of filming. I was like, yeah, these people have been super helpful for me. Like amazing people. This is probably the reason why I'll come back here. Thank you. Suk sama. All right. So that was the tour of the hotel I've been staying at and my hotel room. And as you saw, This hotel is just full of flora and fauna. There's so much stuff going on, a lot of trees, and just looking outside my window, someone just literally jumped into the pool. This amazing pool and a lot of little statues, and just like the vibe is, you know, what you would expect Bali to be, like the picturesque Bali. It's like how Hollywood would portray. Yeah, by the way, the name of this hotel is The Mansion Hotel in Ubud. Yeah, it's pretty crazy that I'm spending this much time in Ubud. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you how everything happened and why I'm here. First of all, Ubud is very known to people who seek this spirituality vibes. Initially, this place got really popular because of the movie Eat, Pray, and Love. You probably heard of it. Everywhere you go, there's a lot of meditation centers, yoga, retreat places, tons and tons and tons of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Yeah, I think it is a vibe. I don't know if it's the vibe for me, but like, I've always thought that it's pretty interesting. They say it's like the spiritual Mecca of Southeast Asia, if not the world. But that's not the reason why I came here. Earlier this year, I got connected to an entrepreneur. He's originally from New York, and he's been building a lot of different kinds of communities around the world, and Most notably, a couple years ago I went to this micro festival here in Bali called Bali Bloom. They say it's like a conscious festival. Conscious is also another word that you'll hear often in Bali. Everything has to be conscious— conscious breathing, conscious eating, conscious meditation. Like, everything is conscious. But anyway, I went to this festival. This one I went to, organized by this person I work with, it's like a smaller scale micro festival. That's how I met this guy originally, but even then we didn't really meet properly. And this time around I heard that he is launching a book and he's looking for someone to help him build his internet business in the relationship skills building space. And obviously helping people connect on a deeper level and creating these different experiences is something that I've been really, really dedicated to for the past 5 years or so. So I just got connected to him. So we started chatting and I realized that there's an opportunity for us to work together, for me to help him out as well and make a little bit of money at the same time. So we agreed on a consulting engagement deal. But anyway, so he was looking for a place to stay in Bali, Canggu, Ubud, and different spots, and just got a deal at this place. Uh, usually this this hotel, this room I'm staying at, they charge somewhere around $75, $80 a night. But because we're staying here for a long term, we got a deal. And this is a tip for you as well: when you are looking to come out to Bali, first of all, you should stay for at least 3 weeks, ideally a month or longer. And when you do that, let's say you look up Airbnb and hotels and, you know, all these different things, chances are you're going to be moving around quite a bit. But let's say you want to have one home base, and from there you want to travel around and do other stuff. Make sure to negotiate. Instead of booking a spot right away, what you can do is like, hey, I'm Steven, I came across your beautiful apartment and I'm looking to stay for a month, and I'd really appreciate it if you could offer a discount. Yeah, just by asking, you'd be really surprised. They give you a discount. I've never really not gotten a discount when I ask, so always do it. It's a strong tip for you. Coming back full circle now to what I've been doing, Ubud, like really spending a lot of time consulting a fellow entrepreneur build this business and then using the remaining time that I have to build my own business. Not only House Manifest, but also this coaching business and then everything that revolves around it. And it's been really fun and interesting at the same time. And I'm not gonna lie, a bit challenging as well, because I realized that I'm naturally the type of person that likes to be really social outside. And, you know, I gain a lot of energy by going out there, vibing with people, seeking new experiences and all that stuff. But I don't know why, but for the past few months I've been feeling like, okay, when I step out, I feel like I'm not really using my time efficiently. I don't want that. Right? Yeah, maybe because I'm getting old, I keep on coming back to this idea, but the older I get, the more I feel like, wow, like time is the only thing that all of us have an equal amount of and you can never get back. And I really want to make sure I use it really, really wisely. Yeah, I've been spending quite a lot of time alone because I don't really know that many people in Ubud. So what that has meant for me is that like there's been a lot of like ups and downs, right? Also, when when you just work out of your hotel room and you just go to like your colleague's hotel room to work and you come back. Like sometimes I feel tired, sometimes I just sneak in a cheeky nap, and times I feel like, damn, like I'm spending a lot of my time alone. Like yeah, so this hermit mode is not something that I'm really used to, but also I've been very, very appreciative and grateful for the fact that I've got this amazing environment where I could focus on myself, focus on my, on my vision. And just build things. So I realized that, okay, at this hotel, they're just like, there's a lot of people roaming around. So I just started talking to people, people at the gym, you know, people just kind of going in and out and saying hi to people. So, you know, I started like interviewing them as well. So that's been really, really fun. I'm gonna post those videos very, very soon. Wherever you are in the world, hope you don't lose faith. Yeah, my vibe is with you. If there's anything you'd like to learn more about regarding a nomadic lifestyle, building a business remotely, dating, relationships, connection, building community, Bali, or any of these amazing places around the world, comment down below and let me know. Keep calm and vibe on. Peace.
