Why We Left Tulum Mexico for Bali Indonesia 🇮🇩 (Not what you think...)

Lloyd & Mandy

📱Want a Sim card that works anywhere in the world? Click here: https://holafly.sjv.io/o4K05e  We loved a lot about Tulum—great food, beautiful spaces, wellness scene—but after a month on the ground with a baby, the day-to-day didn’t add up. Costly taxis, spread-out locations, “pay for everything” vibes, and a background tension around safety made us rethink our plan. We chose Bali because it simply fits our life stage better right now: baby-friendly, easy logistics, scooter culture (proper baby helmets!), and a calm energy that feels like home.  If this helped, like, comment your experience (Tulum vs Bali), and subscribe for more honest nomad family content from Bali.  GET IN TOUCH: 🌏 Email: lloydandmandyenbom@gmail.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloydandmandy/ 💻 Our Website: https://www.lloydandmandy.com/  TRAVEL INSURANCE THAT WE USE AND RECOMMEND: 🏥 Reliable Travel Insurance: https://www.safetywing.com/a/lloydandmandy  📱Want a Sim card that works anywhere in the world? Click here:  https://esim.holafly.com/?ref=lloydmandy&amp;utm_source=lloydmandy_youtube&amp;utm_medium=affiliation&amp;utm_campaign=q5VehUXArYA  💳 Wise travel money card - Click the link for your first tran

Transcript

00:27And

00:28One iced chocolate

00:51That's okay, thank you

01:13Okay, so in today's video, we just wanted to give a quick update on why we decided to leave Tulum

01:21Being digital nomads with the baby is very different than being just digital nomads without a baby

01:27so

01:29We wanted to give a quick update

01:32And just explain a little bit further why we made this decision to come to bali instead

01:55What's happening?

02:01I think she's laughing because she woke us up at 3am

02:04Yeah, we've all just got to deal with it now

02:07That's a good joke

02:10Good one Lola, you don't have to do that one again

02:32So we left Canada with the intention of going to Tulum basically on an open ticket

02:38We'd been there before back in 2022

02:43But only for about five days, I believe

02:47And we loved it, we thought it was really cool

02:51But there was a lot of development going on and while we're in Canada and we were thinking about traveling

02:57again and being nomadic

02:59We watched a lot of videos on Tulum and it looked like things had really changed like things had picked

03:04up a lot

03:05And uh, you know, we'd seen videos about it being

03:09Basically the next big digital nomad hotspot

03:13And um, really kind of sold us on it and the combination was cheap

03:18So we booked a month accommodation there, which was actually great

03:22Uh, and honestly when we got there, I felt like it was everything we thought it was going to be

03:28It was um, really well set up

03:31The food there is obviously amazing

03:33Um, the combination was cheap as I said, there were great gyms

03:37Yoga, everything sort of available and those are the good points and also

03:42Not to mention like the Mexican culture

03:45It's just awesome. It's really fun. The music's cool. They love having a party. The people are really really nice

03:51We enjoyed it, I guess for the first maybe two to three weeks until we started running into some

03:56Issues as far as

03:58Mostly transportation was the first issue. It's really spread out in Tulum and uh, if you want to get anywhere

04:06you pretty much

04:07Either need to hire a car

04:09Or get taxis around both of which are really expensive like we planned this day out

04:15To go to a lake which was about a 15 minute drive from where we were staying and

04:21We got quoted something like 800

04:24Pesos one way just to get to this lake and then the entry fee was like another

04:29400 pesos each it was going to cost us like

04:32Over 100 bucks just to go and see this lake you have you even have to pay

04:36To bring a camera in for each camera you got to pay and that kind of was the the theme

04:41like with everything

04:42Not just in Tulum, but in mexico, which you know, it is a tourist hotspot and I think it's more

04:48Designed for tourists, but this is part of being digital nomad you don't really know what to expect

04:55When you go somewhere until you actually get there and uh

05:00Once we got there we realized yeah, there's a lot of

05:04Great things happening in Tulum. There's a lot of cool places to hang out bars cafes

05:09uh beach clubs but

05:12The cost of doing everything really got to us and it just felt like

05:17everything

05:19Was a cash trap if you if we wanted to leave the house

05:24We had to spend

05:26150 bucks

05:27Pretty much to do anything and I think i'd be remiss not to at least bring up the safety aspect

05:32I think the regular tourist and digital nomad in general it is mostly safe for us

05:38You're still aware of what's going on like there's a massive drug war going on there's cartels that run the

05:43country and

05:45I think even every time you get into

05:47A taxi you're kind of aware that

05:51They're cartel run there's something about that that just sits

05:55In your nervous system and um, I don't think you really realize it until you get out like once we

06:01Once we left we realized that we weren't

06:04Maybe fully relaxed

06:06Because of that and it just so happens that

06:09Like literally two days after we left Tulum

06:13There was news reports that in cabo which is over the other side the cartel put up

06:19Big signs in the main roads saying that they were going to start targeting american citizens and uh tourists

06:27Uh, if the us government basically didn't stop

06:32Messing with them, uh, it was a big warning sign which is something that's never happened. I don't think

06:37In mexico like usually they stay away from that sort of stuff. So

06:41I don't know. Maybe we got out at a really good time, but

06:45We we gave it a shot and I think tulum is a great place

06:50To visit for holiday

06:53And I think maybe it will be a great place for digital nomads if it keeps going the way it's

06:58going. It seems like they are gearing it

07:01Towards that. I just don't think it's there yet. You know, we'd floated ideas of traveling around different parts of

07:07mexico even going to

07:09other places in central america like uh

07:12costa rica and panama

07:14But at the end of the day it came down to like where do we actually feel like our nervous

07:18systems feel the most relaxed?

07:20we have all of our needs met and

07:22um

07:23That's why we made the decision to leave not only tulum

07:27But mexico in general and then as far as why we chose bali everything we needed was right here

07:34And especially with a baby like if you can make things as comfortable as possible

07:38You have to do it because it just makes life so much easier

07:53That street right there is where I learned how to ride a scooter for the first time

07:59Memories that was about four years ago. My goodness

08:02Time goes so quickly

08:05So much has changed here, but it feels like we never left

08:10Oh

08:38Do you want to walk?

08:44Do you want to walk?

08:45Do you want to walk in the sand?

08:47Yeah

08:55Do you want to walk in the sand so it turns out?

08:57whoop

09:02Huh

09:12huh

09:28also i should mention that um traveling from tulum to here was really hard you might have seen our

09:33last video which was 48 hours of traveling with a baby that was pretty tough we did four flights

09:40in total we flew from tulum to a quick stopover in atlanta then we went to la where we spent

09:48the

09:48night then we flew from la to manila manila to bali but one hack that i found worked really well

09:55for us was um having mobile phone data the whole time so that we could keep track of our flights

10:01and our hotels we had an airport shuttle and luckily i'd already bought a north america e-sim

10:07from olafly so i didn't have to worry about getting a new e-sim when we left mexico and landed

10:12in atlanta which was awesome and that's actually today's video sponsor olafly if you've never heard

10:19of them they're an e-sim company they've been sponsoring our channel for about four years now

10:24so when we landed in atlanta i automatically had data which was amazing because we had a pretty

10:30quick turnaround to get our flight to la and then when we were in la i realized that first of

10:36all

10:36i wanted to have data as soon as we got to bali but our flight from la to manila was

10:41actually

10:41delayed and meant we basically had to sprint from one flight to another so i wanted to make sure that

10:47i could have access to phone data when we landed in manila just so i could keep track of whether

10:52or

10:53not we were going to be able to make our flight and so i bought the asia region e-sim

10:57i literally did

10:58it over breakfast in la right before we got on the shuttle to go to the airport it sent me

11:03an email

11:04within like two minutes i had my phone set up within five minutes and then as soon as we landed

11:09in manila i was able to switch my phone on it got service and i could see that our plane

11:14hadn't left

11:15yet we weren't going to miss it and that just made everything so much easier so guys if you're

11:20traveling anywhere in the world especially if you're doing a big travel like from mexico to bali and you

11:26have a bunch of stopovers check out all flight e-sims because they offer regional plans so you don't have

11:32to get all separate sims wherever you go and we landed here at 2 a.m in the morning and

11:38the last

11:39thing i felt like doing at 2 a.m in the morning was buying a sim card so check out

11:44olify we'll leave

11:45the link down below in the description and also the pin comment and if you use our code loiter mandy

11:50you'll get five percent off at checkout

11:54well i was loving this mud so much this this is one of the big reasons i wanted to choose

12:02bali it's

12:02very very baby friendly not only are there people very baby friendly not that they weren't in mexico

12:08they're great um but there's just a vibe here i can't explain it but there's an energy there's a vibe

12:14that makes you want to have kids here um she's throwing mud mud all over me

12:26yeah there's just an energy here and um we've spent extensive we've we've spent extensive time

12:33in mexico and bali so we have like a pretty good like comparison of both there's pros and cons to

12:40both

12:40and even with thailand as well i don't know what it is there's an energy in bali that you can't

12:45explain you kind of have to be here to feel it to know what it is and what it's like

12:50um but ultimately

12:51like my heart just felt like it was being called back here and since we've been here i've just felt

12:58so much more calm riding a scooter with lila also is like really normal here we were able to get

13:04an

13:04actual helmet that like is made for scooters that actually fits her we got matching ones

13:10um just just things like that um it feels like more like the lifestyle that i wanted

13:15to live than in mexico so this is just personal preferences i think for me i also think that

13:24tulum is maybe set up more as a holiday destination not so much yet as somewhere to live long term

13:30yeah i think those are the biggest reasons and um i'm just i'm so happy to be back here like

13:36i just

13:36feel like my soul uh my soul belongs in bali i don't know why i don't know what it is

13:42but even you

13:43know i feel like we're just like repeating from four years ago we're just sort of like repeating our past

13:50but with lila it's even a hundred times better so i think we've made the right decision

14:00we're gonna make it be just stay in there

14:16stay in

14:17stay in

14:32stay in

14:35stay in

14:37stay in

14:39stay in

14:46stay in

14:50stay in

14:52stay in

14:54stay in

14:55stay in

14:56stay in

15:11Be you my baby, be you my baby

15:24I'm gonna get a coconut

15:26Did you say hello?

15:30I don't know

15:32Hello

15:41And then she can play in the sand or we can sit on one of these

15:44One of these couches

16:31I don't know, it's already cold

16:32It's cold, okay, thank you

16:34My phone already put yesterday

16:52Oh my goodness

16:53I just have like a peace in my heart that I have not felt

16:57in a very very long time

17:00Feels ironic that this was like our original plan moving here

17:05and living exactly like this

17:08And yeah, like pretty much exactly four years later

17:11We find ourselves back doing that

17:16Which is kind of cool

17:19But I feel really good

17:21And happy

17:23Thank you guys for following along

17:24I hope you have found our videos

17:28I hope you found some value in our videos

17:31That's always our goal is to provide value and just honest

17:35Insight into our decision making and why we are living where we are

17:40And what we're doing

17:44Drop us a comment down below

17:45Hit the like button

17:46Hit the hype button

17:49Apparently that's meant to really help channels reach new audiences

17:53So if you can do that, that would help us also

17:56Subscribe if you haven't already

17:58And as always, we will see you in the next video

18:01Which will be here from Bali

18:03Bye

18:04Run away, run away, run away

18:07To your escape

18:10Run away, run away, run away

18:12You're never too far to run

18:16Run away, run away, run away

18:18To your escape

18:21Run away, run away, run away

18:24Run away, run away, run away

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