Life Begins In Bali

When his midlife crisis hit, Miguel didn’t buy a motorbike. Instead, he left his home in Portugal and made a new start – in an abandoned warehouse in Indonesia.

Did I want to be working from morning to night, not seeing enough of my children? I’d always loved Bali, coming every year to surf and soak up the atmosphere. So, I decided to live here full time and spend my holidays in Portugal instead,’ says Miguel Lacerda Leitão, who packed up his life and arrived with his then-wife and two daughters Carminho and Luz, trading a home in Lisbon for sun and surf in the tropics. ‘We came here when Carminho was just three months old, giving it six months to see if we could adapt,’ says Miguel. Eight years later, he’s still here, having built a business (he’s the owner of two hotels on Bali), as well as a beachfront home that’s balm to any midlife crisis.