Moving to Bali: What Aliaksei Korzh Learned

Moving to Bali works best when you test daily life before you commit and come with a plan to build something there. Aliaksei Korzh did both. He came as a tourist for two months, stayed, and opened four food spots in about a year and a half, including Draniki, which serves Belarusian food. On episode 1 of my podcast, CHANGES, he told me how it started: "I just came here for two months, like it is standard story here, you know, and just fell in love in the island." Below are the lessons from his move, for anyone thinking about the same step.

Our first episode was about reinvention and identity, and about the turning points where life gives you no choice. Aliaksei has had several. Guests speak for themselves, and this is his account.

Who is Aliaksei Korzh?

Aliaksei grew up in the 1990s in Orsha, a small town in Belarus near the Russian border. He studied international relations, did a summer internship in Šiauliai in Lithuania, and later moved there for work. A Lithuanian businessman who traded steel from a Belarusian mill taught him how trading works, and one sentence stayed with him: "the money, it's not the goal. The money is the instrument."

He spent four years in Šiauliai, then moved to Vilnius. In September 2017, with a newborn daughter, he says "I sat with zero in my pockets". He rebuilt, ran a trading company with seven or eight employees and lived in Lithuania for 12 years.

Then the ground moved. In March 2022, around the day his son was born, his manager called with the news: "We are under sanctions". His main products were now covered by sanctions. By then, Bali was already home.

1. Test the routine before moving to Bali

Aliaksei did not plan to stay. The first month was a holiday. In the second, daily life took over: "Every day, same time, we are waking up, same things we do so it's becoming a routine." So he compared that routine with the one at home. "This routine I like more." The family went back to Lithuania for two months to close open questions, then returned.

That is a better test than any list of pros and cons. Spend long enough somewhere that the holiday feeling wears off, then ask whether you like an ordinary Tuesday there.

2. Come with something to build

Aliaksei describes himself as "an old school guy". He does not work in IT or freelance, and he wanted to make something "not just uh watching sunsets and going to yoga". He warns about the other side of island life. He calls it the "Bali disease": "It's a lazy life." Heat, sunsets and an easy rhythm can swallow a year.

I recognised it. I had the same routine on the island: gym, a little work, sunsets.

3. Open a business the clean way

Aliaksei found Bali easier for business than home. Opening a company, he says, was easy because of "practically an absence of the bureaucracy". He opened his first spot two months after signing the lease: "in two months we already open". He adds conditions:

• Find the right person. "you just need to find the right person". He warns that the island also attracts people who try to manipulate newcomers.
• Get a lawyer. "you should have some good lawyer, for sure".
• Hold the licences. A restaurant needs its own licences, and an alcohol licence if you serve drinks. Do not build where zoning forbids it.
• Pay your taxes. "if you follow the rules, if you pay taxes, if you make everything good and clear here, everything will be fine".

4. Check your supply before you open

Before he opened Draniki, Aliaksei checked whether the ingredients existed on the island. "I always analyzed it." Dairy products like those at home, such as kefir and sour cream, were already made locally, so Belarusian dishes were possible at a fair price. Compare that with places where the same products come in by plane. If your idea depends on imports, price them before you sign a lease.

5. Bring your roots with you

Aliaksei had no restaurant experience. "I made it absolutely with no experience." He built the menu from his family's recipes and called his parents while he cooked: "oh, I made this, show me how to make it." He calls Draniki the first Belarusian cuisine spot in Bali, and it brought him more than customers. "So, and it works even better than I could expect, because this place brought me so many great people I know now."

The biggest night was Ivan Kupala, a Belarusian midsummer holiday. The small place filled far beyond its seats, they closed the road and lit a fire on the beach. Bali also changed how he sees home. He used to tell people he came from Lithuania. Now, he says, "I just stop to be ashamed", and adds: "I love my country".

6. Learn the language, even a little

When Aliaksei described his years in Lithuania, he spoke of how hard it was to feel at home without the language. I moved to Germany as a teenager without a word of German, and my advice in the episode was simple: "If you at least know a few words, like thank you, hello, how are you? That's very simple to learn." In Bali I learned some Balinese, and locals open up faster when I negotiate.

Aliaksei agrees and holds himself to it: "I have 40 people working on me here." Speaking their language is "my goal for this for this year to start somehow to speak it."

7. Protect what you build

Success attracts copies. Someone opened a cafe with the same name in another part of the island. Aliaksei was angry at first, then let it go: "I already know the value of my draniki." His lawyer advised him to register the brand, and he is doing that.

8. Don't follow the crowd into villas

When I asked which Bali business trend he dislikes, Aliaksei did not hesitate. Ask people what they do and many answer "I build villas". He sees the market as oversaturated with people who cannot explain why they build. If property is your plan, read my notes from the episode with Greg Grigoriev on buying a villa in Bali first.

What this means if you are starting over

Aliaksei rebuilt from zero more than once. His advice to anyone afraid to make the move: "you should never be afraid to step ahead". He accepts that some choices will be wrong: "But the life is the choices". And for his children, when they watch the episode one day: "just need to be yourself, never betray yourself."

If you are planning a move abroad, start with my guide on how to start over in life, and if you are founding something new with little money, read about bootstrapping a service business.

Watch the full episode

We recorded at Zip Zip, one of Aliaksei's places, and talked for well over an hour and a half: about growing up in the 1990s, first jobs, the queue for a Soviet car, and the Draniki dish I always order. Watch CHANGES episode 1 with Aliaksei Korzh on YouTube (opens in a new tab), or find every episode on the CHANGES podcast page.

I also run a small advisory company in Bali that introduces people entering the Indonesian market to local partners; it is on my ventures page. If you are planning your own move or business there, book a call.