Living off coconuts, collecting rain water, and no phone signal – welcome to island life.
Surfers Marjolein and her partner An star in a documentary where they discuss how they ditched modern day conveniences to live off grid on a tropical outcrop in Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands.
In the short film from Exploring Alternatives, they reveal what their daily routine is really like and how they survive by living off the land.
Marjolein, who is originally from Belgium, explains in the introduction: ‘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.
‘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.’
Surfers Marjolein and her partner An star in a documentary where they talk about how they ditched modern day conveniences to live off grid on a tropical outcrop in Indonesia
Marjolein, who is originally from Belgium, explains in the introduction: ‘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’
The couple says one of the things they love most about island life is a ‘sense of independence’
The couple met while they were working at a surf resort on another island.
But in a bid to try something different, they quite their jobs at the end of 2020 and bought the piece of land where they currently live.
Luckily, An is a skilled woodworker and builder and he went about building a small wooden house for them to live in.
In the film, Marjolein explains that the biggest challenge of building on the island is the logistics, as everything has to be transported there by boat, ‘even materials that are sourced locally.’
She adds: ‘Then, all the other [building materials] that need to come from the mainland, have to come with a ferry that comes once a week.
‘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.
‘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.
‘[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.’
The couple met while they were working at a surf resort on another island
The couple built a small well on their property which they use for showering and doing dishes
To power their tools for building, the couple have a small generator and they also have a small solar panel with a battery to charge their devices and for lights at night.
But Marjolein notes that ‘very soon,’ they will have a ‘bigger setup’ on the island, with more solar panels installed on an outbuilding.
When it comes to food supplies, the duo get some groceries from a store on a nearby island and they also forage for fruit and vegetables, with bananas, mangoes and durian among the seasonal produce.
For protein, Marjolein says that they ‘rely heavily on the ocean.’
She adds: ‘We go out fishing about twice a week. We usually spear fish. We also have a throwing net and a handline.
‘Since we don’t have a fridge, we usually smoke the fish in our traditional Mentawai kitchen which is an important part of our setup and that way it lasts much longer.
‘We also have chickens for their eggs.’
For protein, they ‘rely heavily on the ocean’ and they go fishing twice a week
For drinking water, the couple collect rain water which they put through a filter, while for showering and doing the dishes they dug a well on their property
When it comes to food supplies, the duo get some groceries from a store on a nearby island and they also forage for fruit and vegetables
For drinking water, the couple collect rain water which they put through a filter, while for showering and doing the dishes, they dug a well on their property.
To make island life more comfortable, the couple are currently in the process of building a bigger home complete with a terrace, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathroom.
Touching on the house build project while offering viewers a tour, Marjolein says: ‘Well, at the moment we’re putting all of our time and savings into this house.
‘We’re very close to moving in now, we just need to finish like painting one or two walls and then we need to still get all our furniture which is quite hard to get around here.
‘There are no furniture shops or anything, so either we’re going to make furniture ourselves or have local craftsmen make it for us.’
While she loves island life, Marjoein says some of the toughest things include the unpredictable weather, threat of deadly snakes and lack of people
In a bid to connect with other people, Marjolein recently started documenting her and An’s journey and adventures via YouTube
While she loves island life, Marjolein says some of the toughest things about it include the unpredictable weather, threat of deadly snakes and lack of people.
She muses: ‘Since we live so remotely it can definitely get a bit lonely at times and that’s not always easy.
‘I would say for me that’s definitely one of the biggest challenges of living here.’
In a bid to connect with other people, Marjolein recently started documenting her and An’s journey and adventures via YouTube, on their channel called @OurIslandLife.
She concludes: ‘To be able to share this lifestyle with people all around the world and connect with people has been really amazing.’
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