A Day in the Life: SA Intern in Bali
What a typical Thursday looks like doing a digital marketing internship in Canggu — from morning yoga at the villa to a photoshoot on the beach to sunset at Echo Beach with the surf crowd.
Ayasha is a 3rd-year Communications Science student from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She spent 3 months doing a digital marketing internship with a surf brand in Canggu, Bali. This is based on her account of a typical Thursday in her third week.
7:30 AM — Yoga at the Villa
The villa has a small garden. My housemate — a Dutch architecture student who's been here two months longer than me — started a morning yoga routine in week one and I got pulled into it by week two. It's become the thing I look forward to most. Thirty minutes, no phone, no email. Just the sound of a rooster somewhere over the rice paddy behind the wall and the smell of incense from the small offering the landlord leaves at the gate every morning.
We share a three-bedroom villa in Canggu. My share of the rent is R4,200/month. For a private room in a place with a pool, a garden, and a kitchen — in a neighbourhood that functions like a small creative village — that's exceptional value. In Durban or Johannesburg, R4,200 buys you a bachelor flat in a suburb you'd rather not live in.
8:15 AM — Breakfast at the Warung
There's a warung two minutes from the villa. I've been going every morning since week one. A full breakfast — nasi goreng, fried egg, sambal, sweet tea — costs R40. The owner knows my order. We've started attempting Indonesian/English small talk. It's not elegant but it's something.
I tried cooking at the villa for the first two weeks. Then I did the maths: breakfast at the warung costs less per day than the gas I was using to cook. And the food is better. Bali warung culture is genuinely one of the best aspects of living here.
9:00 AM — Scooter to the Co-Working Space
I rent a scooter for R500/month. It took me two days to get comfortable riding it. Now it's the most liberating thing I've ever owned. Fifteen minutes through Canggu's back roads — past rice fields, family temples, surfboard shops — and I'm at the co-working space where my company has a shared desk arrangement.
The co-working space is open-plan, fast Wi-Fi, two espresso machines, and a rooftop area where you can work outside. About forty people use it daily — interns, freelancers, founders, a few remote workers from tech companies in Europe and the US. It's the kind of environment where you can't help but get things done.
9:30 AM — Working on the Instagram Campaign
My company is a surf brand — boardshorts, rash guards, accessories — that sells primarily through Instagram and a Shopify store. It's a real business with real revenue and a team of eight. I'm not making coffee. I'm running their Instagram content calendar, writing captions, briefing photographers, analysing reel performance, and reporting to the marketing lead every Friday.
This week I'm building out a campaign for a new collection drop. I've scheduled twelve posts, written all the copy, and briefed the photographer (a French freelancer who shoots for surf brands full-time) for today's beach session. The campaign has a hard deadline — the collection launches in ten days.
This is what surprised me most about Bali internships: I expected lifestyle content and digital nomad vibes. What I got was a real job with real deliverables and a manager who expects quality work. The destination is Bali. The work itself is professional.
1:00 PM — Nasi Goreng at Echo Park
Lunch is a 10-minute ride to a warung near Echo Beach. Nasi goreng with grilled chicken and a cold water: R45. Every time I eat lunch here I think about what R45 buys you at a Cape Town mall food court. Nothing. In Bali it's a proper meal, eaten outside, looking at a wall of plants, surrounded by people from twelve different countries all doing the same thing.
The affordability of food is the single biggest practical advantage of Bali over European destinations. My monthly food budget is R2,200. That includes daily warung breakfasts, lunches, and most dinners. I spend more on a single dinner in Durban.
3:00 PM — Beach Photoshoot
This is the part I didn't expect on a communications science internship: I'm directing a beach photoshoot for product content. The photographer, the model (a sponsored local surfer), and me on the beach at Berawa. I'm calling shots, checking composition on my phone, referencing the mood board I put together earlier this week.
By 5pm we have 300+ images to edit down to the twelve we'll use for the campaign. The photographer sends raws overnight, I'll cull them tomorrow morning. This is work I'll put in my portfolio. It's real, it's visible, and it happened because I was here instead of doing a generic admin internship back home.
5:00 PM — Surfing Lesson
Twice a week I book a group surf lesson at Batu Bolong beach. R250 per session including board rental and an instructor. I could not stand up on a board in week one. By week three I'm catching small waves and staying upright for three to four seconds, which feels enormous when you're doing it.
The surf community in Canggu is mixed — locals who've been surfing since childhood, visiting surfers from Australia and Europe, and then people like me who have no business being on a surfboard but are doing it anyway. Everyone's friendly. Nobody cares that you're terrible.
7:00 PM — Sunset at Echo Beach
Echo Beach faces west. On a clear evening the sunset is one of those things that genuinely doesn't photograph well because the light is too good. There are warungs right on the sand with plastic chairs and cold Bintang (Indonesian beer, R30). The local surf community gathers here every evening. You end up in conversations you wouldn't plan — tonight it's a Balinese surf instructor, a Singapore-based brand consultant, and a South African guy from Cape Town who's been here for eight months and keeps saying he's leaving soon.
What I Was Wrong About Before Coming
What I found: a genuine professional company running real campaigns with real deadlines, an international community of people who take their work seriously, and the most affordable quality of life I've experienced in any city.
The international community surprised me most. Within the first week I'd had substantive conversations with people working in fintech in Singapore, sustainable fashion in Amsterdam, and brand development in Sydney. That network building happens because everyone here is away from home, slightly outside their comfort zone, and therefore more open to talking to strangers than they would be at home.
What I Miss About SA
The braai. I miss the braai with a physical ache. There is no equivalent. Also: Cape Town mountains on a clear day. Family Sunday lunches. The specific feeling of Joburg at golden hour from the right hill.
What I Don't Miss
Load shedding. Joburg traffic at 7am. The low-grade anxiety of everyday safety considerations that becomes so normal at home you don't realise it's there until it lifts. Bali is not without complexity — the traffic is real, the humidity in the wet season is brutal — but I walk to the warung at 8am and back at 9pm and I don't think about safety. That absence is noticed.
Visa: Get the B211A Before You Arrive
The B211A Social/Cultural Visa is what you need for an internship in Bali. Apply online before you travel at evisa.imigrasi.go.id. Cost is approximately USD 35 (R650). Processing took me 3 days. It grants 60 days, extendable to 180 days.
Do not rely on the standard visa-on-arrival for an internship. The B211A is the clean option and it's simple to get. Sort it two weeks before you fly.
The Numbers
My total monthly spend in Bali: R9,200. That includes rent (R4,200), food (R2,200), scooter rental (R500), surfing lessons (R2,000/month for 8 lessons), and social activities. Flights from Joburg to Bali cost me R14,000 return (booked 6 weeks out). My 3-month all-in total was approximately R41,600. That's R13,800/month — less than student accommodation at UCT.
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