I Spent 4 Weeks at Network School: My Honest Review as a Builder

I spent a month at Network School V1, Balaji Srinivasan's experiment in building a "network state" campus. It sits in a ghost town called Forest City in Johor, Malaysia. A lot of people have asked me if it is worth it, what it actually costs, and how to even get there from India.

This is the complete answer. Everything is on this one page: the costs, the exact travel route from India, the daily routine, the honest pros and cons, and my final verdict. If you want the day by day narrative instead, my chapter-wise logs are linked at the bottom.

What is Network School? (The V1 Reality)

Network School is Balaji's attempt at answering a simple question. What if ambitious people from around the world lived together in one place to learn, build, and stay fit?

V1 is the first physical version of that idea. The campus is the Forest City Marina Hotel, a full 5 star property in the middle of what genuinely feels like nowhere. Forest City was built as a massive Chinese real estate project that never filled up. So you get skyscrapers, a beach, and empty streets. Then you walk into the hotel lobby and there is a robot dog saluting new arrivals.

The crowd is the real product. Founders, developers, doctors, and builders from India, the US, Europe, Australia, the Philippines. Extremely open minded, ambitious, and curated well by the NS team.

How Much Does Network School Cost?

NS is extremely affordable for what you get. Pricing is flat and all inclusive:

• Sharing room: $1,500 USD/month
• Private room: $3,000 USD/month

That covers your room, all meals, and the gym. There are no hidden costs on campus.

My honest advice? Get the sharing room. Roommates are assigned randomly, and you end up becoming close friends with yours. That relationship alone is worth the difference.

How Do You Apply?

Honestly, it is not that hard. Almost everyone with a normal X or LinkedIn profile and a good reason for wanting to come gets in. Apply on the NS website and wait for the confirmation email.

The Travel Blueprint: Going from India to Forest City

This is the part none of the other Network School reviews cover properly. I travelled from Bangalore, and you have two options:

Option 1, via Singapore (what I did). Fly into Singapore's Changi Airport, then cross the border into Malaysia by road.

Option 2, via Kuala Lumpur. Fly into KL, then take a connecting flight to Senai International Airport in Johor.

Should You Get a Singapore Visa?

Yes, 100% get one, and make it multi-entry. You need it if you enter via Singapore, and you will want to visit Singapore at least once during your month anyway. It is like New York: skyscrapers, walkable streets, and Michelin star food everywhere. The visa costs around SGD 30. I paid 6K rupees through an agent and got a multi-entry visa without any issues.

The good news for the Malaysia side: Indians get 30 days of visa-free stay in Malaysia, so there is nothing to apply for there.

Changi to Forest City: What Actually Happens

NS runs a free bus service on the 1st of every month. Jakson (a core NS team member) is at Changi Airport at 9AM. Everyone gathers near the exit by Baggage Claim 19, Terminal 1. The networking starts right there, standing with complete strangers from four continents.

The bus takes about 1.5 hours across Singapore, then crosses into Malaysia at the Tuas Second Link checkpoint into Johor Bahru. You get off, wait in a fast moving immigration line, show your passport, and you are through.

Another 15 to 20 minutes and you are in Forest City, pulling up to a 5 star hotel in the middle of nowhere. For a moment, you genuinely feel like you have arrived at a utopia.

Day in the Life: The Learn, Burn, Earn Routine

NS days are built around a simple loop: learn, burn, earn.

• 7:00 AM, the fitness combine. Mornings start at the gym. On Day 1 you go through the NS Combine, a fitness test that measures your biomarkers (stamina, strength, the works) so you can see your transformation after a month. It tests you to your absolute limit. It is also when you see the very fit guys from around the world and start questioning your own fitness levels, in a healthy way.
• Deep work blocks. The middle of the day is for building. People lock in. My roommate ran three monitors and multiple Claude instances in parallel, dictating tasks all day.
• Evening keynotes and dinners. Evenings bring technical talks, and then dinner at the 14th floor terrace dining. The food is bland, meaty, and extremely healthy. The unwritten rule: sit across from new people every meal. Nothing about the networking is transactional. You just talk, and that is exactly why it works.

The Honest Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The people. NS curates some of the best folks in their intake. Ambitious, open minded, and from incredibly diverse backgrounds. You make real friends from Day 1.
• Non-transactional networking. The dinner table culture produces better connections than any conference I have attended.
• All inclusive and genuinely affordable. $1,500/month for a 5 star room, all meals, and a gym is hard to beat anywhere.
• The fitness culture. The combine and the 7AM routine actually change your baseline in a month.

Cons:

• Forest City is a ghost town. There is nothing outside the campus. If you need city energy, you will be taking weekend trips to Singapore.
• The food gets repetitive. Healthy, yes. Exciting, no.

Final Verdict: Is Network School Worth It?

Worth it, if you are a builder. If you are a founder, developer, or remote worker who wants to lock in for a month alongside genuinely ambitious people, and you miss that post-college feeling of co-living and learning with new people, NS is one of the highest ROI months you can buy at $1,500.

Skip it, if you need polish. If you want a resort holiday, a curated retreat experience, or a city buzzing around you, you will be frustrated. NS rewards people who show up to build, not to be catered to.

The Day-by-Day Logs

If you want the full narrative of the month, I keep chapter-wise diary entries:

• Chapter 1, Getting There: Bangalore to Forest City covers the application, the visa run, and the bus ride in.
• Chapter 2, Day 1: The Combine and the First Dinner covers the robot dog, random roommates, and the 14th floor terrace.
• Chapter 3, final weeks and the verdict, is coming soon.