Woman living on remote tropical island with no roads or villages reveals the toughest part

Since the pandemic, remote work has grown in popularity. Whether it's working from home or the local library, people seem to enjoy the idea of not having to be tied to one location to carry out their work.

Well, couple Marjolein and An have fully embraced what it means to live a remote life as they live on a completely remote island in the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia.

Marjolein lives on an Indonesian island with her partner (Exploring Alternatives Youtube)

In a documentary by YouTube channel Exploring Alternatives, Marjolein explains that the island she is living on is: “about 5 km in diameter and there’s no villages or roads on the island so all the transport is done by boats.”

The serene scenes in the video are exactly what you would picture when you imagine a dream island. And Marjolein also likes the benefits to living in a completely off-grid location.

Explaining more about the Mentawai Islands, she says: “the Mentawai Islands are a chain of around seventy islands”.

The remote nature of the island means that the couple can surf and swim pretty much anytime they want.

Touching on the perks she likes about living on the island, Marjolein says: “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."

The couple are living what many would describe as their dream life (Exploring Alternatives Youtube)

What connected the two is their love for surfing as they met at a surfing resort. However whilst they may be living what many would dub as #dreamlife on a remote island, Marjolein does honestly admit that the lifestyle choice isn’t without its challenges.

Some of this includes trying to find a cell phone service. This makes it difficult for the couple to keep in touch with family and friends who live on the mainland.

"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,” Marjolein said.

"[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."

Another obstacle the islanders face includes if the weather is unpredictable and there’s a threat of deadly snakes and lack of people making it difficult.

Another struggle is something that many of us may forget when thinking about the dream life of living on an island.

Marjolein says that although they have each other: ““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."