This couple is riding the wave of their new life.
Surfers Marjolein and her partner An ditched their regular jobs and homes to move to a remote tropical island, live off the land and surf any time they wanted.
They’ve shared a sneak peek into their daily lives in a documentary from Exploring Alternatives descriptively titled “Couple’s Impressive Self Reliant Life on a Remote Tropical Island – Off Grid Living.”
“We live on a tiny island in Indonesia. The island we’re on is about 5km in diameter and there’s no villages or roads… so all the transport is done by boat with wooden boats handmade locally,” Marjolein explains in the opening of the short film.
“We are completely off-grid. What I love most about living here is the sense of independence. We can provide our own electricity, our own water, our own food and that’s pretty cool.”
The couple met while working at a surf resort and eventually decided to quit their jobs and bought the piece of land where they live to fulfill their surfer dreams.
Marjolein has been putting her woodworking skills to good use building the couple’s home and everything they need to survive off the land.
While the couple enjoy their remote home and use as many locally sourced products as possible, some things just can’t be homegrown — there are no power tool trees on the island.
“All the other [building materials] that need to come from the mainland, have to come with a ferry that comes once a week,” Marjolein said.
“Then we have to pick it up from the ferry but the problem is that we don’t have any internet or 4G or phone reception here.”
Trying to get cell service is a task on its own that keep projects on island time.
“To actually order stuff from the mainland, we have to drive out with our small boat, find some better signal try and send a message to the shop on the mainland,” Marjolein said.
“[Then we] hope that they’re online wait for a reply and yeah… that can take days just to order one little thing. So that’s why things don’t really go so quickly here.”
Along with the struggle to get some of the supplies they need, Marjolein also noted that the unpredictable weather, threat of deadly snakes and lack of people can make life a bit more difficult at times.
“Since we live so remotely it can definitely get a bit lonely at times and that’s not always easy,” she admitted.
“I would say for me that’s definitely one of the biggest challenges of living here.”
