Ocky Misa “What’s Up Bali”
A few months ago I stumbled upon a YouTube channel called “What’s Up Bali” which was so informative about the rules and regulations to get into Bali that I started watching each new episode as things changed almost daily after Bali opened up in February.
The channel is presented by a wonderfully charismatic man named Ocky Misa. Now when I started watching Ocky’s channel my motivation was all about the information that he was disseminating in regard to the government rules and regulations to do with visas, vaccination protocol and general Covid stuff. He was pretty thorough and matter of fact in his presentation so I decided to subscribe to his channel. As time went by I started enjoying new clips more and more for the information but also because I liked Ocky. As I said, he is very charismatic and has a great sense of humour, he’s fast and informative and always uses the Indonesian and balinese government policy and documentation to base his presentation on.Before I knew it the rules were changing almost daily. One day you had to get a sponsor and pay a fortune to get a visa to get in and then before you could say “Jimmy Cricket” this had changed back to a $50 Aust visa on arrival.
Oh, I forgot to say that we were booked to return to Bali after being marooned in Australia for more than 2 Covid years.
The more I watched his YouTube clips the more he endeared himself to me and I loved that his 11 year old son was always sitting in the background apparently studying and looking very cute. Before I knew it I felt like I knew him and decided that I would go to Taman Sakti Villas when I arrived back in Ubud in late April (2022). Ocky’s villas are located in Jalan Suweta a road which begins at the Royal palace in the unique town of Ubud where I had been going since 1983 when I made my first trip to Bali.
When we arrived I sent Ocky a message on Instagram and asked some advice for my daughter who is arriving in a week or so. Ocky was fast to answer my communication in an equally friendly manner to which I had become accustomed to on his YouTube channel. I was pretty impressed.
So this morning after having been in Ubud for one week preparing our newly renovated villa in Penestanan Georgie and I decided to make the pilgrimage to Taman Sakti Villas which are 40 minutes walk from our villa.
The funny thing was that as I had only known him through YouTube the closer we got the more he took on a star like quality in my mind and when we finally arrived I was quite excited about meeting him. We walked through an empty reception area into the property and just kept walking along the pathway until I saw his son in the window of one of the rooms and then Ocky appeared at his door and greeted us profusely. I instantly felt like I had known him for years and that we were long lost friends.
A Great Story .....
After introductions we were invited to sit near the pool at Taman Sakti. The villas are built overlooking a jungle ravine and have the feel that they have been here for some time. We spoke about different things and then Ocky told us the story of how he became the owner of Taman Sakti.
I may not have all the details perfectly as he told them to me so please forgive me in advance. Ocky was born in Sumatra around 1969. His dad was an architect and it appears that the family was quite well off. At some point they moved to Jakarta which was when Ocky’s larger than life personality started to shine. When he was 17 his Mum organised for him to move to Belgium where he has 3 aunts. I’m not certain how long he lived there but it was at least several years. Ocky’s wife is from Bandung in Java. Sometime around 2012 he talked her into coming to live in Bali. His earlier experience had been in event management and hospitality so when he arrived in Bali he set up a warung (food shop) preparing and selling Sumatran meals. This became a success. Other projects followed until the family finally arrived in Ubud around 2017.
Ocky was looking for employment and came across Taman Sakti which is north from Ubud up a road that starts at the Ubud Royal Palace called Jalan Suweta. He met an Australian lady named Heather who appeared to be the manager of the Villas. She was so impressed with him that she offered him the job of assistant manager. Ocky was excited. He was in Ubud with his wife and 6 year old son, he had a job and the future looked bright. This is where things became interesting. He turned up for work the next day and there was no sign of Heather. There were guests at the hotel so Ocky took the reins while scratching his head wondering where the hell Heather had got to. After frantically trying to contact his new boss for around 10 days he finally discovered that she had absconded to Australia at the behest of her daughter who insisted that she return for medical reasons. Ocky’s problem was that even though the villas had guests Heather had the money. So there he was in his new place of work with guests, a potential future but no money.
The next discovery turned his world upside down. Heather didn’t own Taman Sakti! She was looking after it for a wealthy Australian man named David who had built it for his wife who was now his ex wife. The plot thickens.
Ocky finally started communicating with David who turned out not to be interested in any active involvement with the villas. David offered Ocky the role of manager but being the entrepreneur that he truly is Ocky blurted out that he would like to buy Taman Sakti from David and pay in instalments. Amazingly David agreed and Ocky became the proud owner of his own villas in Ubud, Bali. There is another twist to the story. At some point a Dutch guy turned up and told Ocky that he owned all of the furniture in the lobby, including his desk and other major pieces. He pulled out an agreement that he had drawn up with Heather which validated his story. So there he was with no furniture.
The best news is that Taman Sakti has been booked out solid since last August (2021) even during the dark days of the pandemic and is booked well into the future.
Ocky is a living example of a person who looks at life’s possibilities and is brave and intelligent enough the take a leap into unknown territory. He is a true entrepreneur who has a good heart and cares about his fellow man. The universe seems to adore people like Ocky and tends to return the same energy that he puts out.
I see a huge future for Ocky and his family and he deserves everything that comes his way. His YouTube channel What’s Up Bali is living testimony to his force of personality and his good flows towards his fellow man.
