Indonesia Tips
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Indonesia Tips |
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Late 2007
Bali |
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| Last year, the Indonesian government has introduced a fee of US$25 for the visa on arrival. At a time when Australian tourists are favouring Malaysia or Thailand because of perceived safety threats, this probably isn't a good move. All of the guide books said it was payable by credit card. It isn't, and they would only accept US or Australian dollars. If you don't have US$25 exactly, they give you the change in Indonesian currency, but won't allow you to pay it in Indonesian currency. One way of getting hard currency. |
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| Vodka is cheaper in the supermarkets. Honestly. Cigarettes too, unless you HAVE to get Marlborough and CAN'T drink anything but Smirnoff. Locally produced vodka and cigarettes are quite a bit cheaper than the premium brand names you buy in duty free, but if you must buy before you arrive, buy it at your end. The airport is shockingly expensive. In any case, check out the price of anything you want to take home with you in duty free before you leave your country and then check out the price in Bali before you clear customs to compare. |
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| Watch out for them, they're buggers. They grab your suitcase off the carousel and guard it (from other porters) then when they see you approach they start carrying or wheeling it and ushering you towards the door, talking very fast to distract you. The walk is only a few meters, less than a minute. You don't need a porter. You probably don't have any small Indonesian notes for a tip and you've put all of your own currency away because you don't need it until you get home. They harangue, as if they have to get back for something really important, and I've seen people intimidated into giving them a note rather than a small coin. For a few meters. They are also very insistent once they get their hands onto your luggage - I once stamped my foot and told one very sternly to get his hands OFF my case. Of course it worked. I'm me. I tried being polite, but it just didn't do it for him. |
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| If you're coming on a package, tell the travel agent you don't want the transfer. A taxi will cost significantly less because you are cutting the commissions. They may say it's included, but if you ask them to take it out your overall package price should drop. The airport has a taxi desk with fixed prices to all points on the island. You buy a voucher so there's no argument with the driver. Of course he'll put the hard word on you for tours and probably give you his phone number. Don't agree to anything until you've checked others out. If you want to take things a step further, you can walk out of the airport (turn right when you get outside, about 100 meters) and flag a metered taxi down, which is about 25% cheaper than the vouchers. If you're going a long way it may be worth it. There's also a bus, but it isn't recommended unless you've been before and know where you're going. Don't get into a car with someone offering transport - they won't rob you, they're probably just unlicensed, which means they're not insured to carry paying passengers. Always use official taxis, stick to those with a meter and insisted he uses it. Once you know the metered price from A to B, you can negotiate with an unmetered driver if you can be bothered. Don't negotiate more than the metered price - there'll be another taxi along in 20 seconds or so. As I write this in late 2007, the going price for a full day tour including driver and petrol costs IDR300,000. That price has barely changed in the 7 years that we've been coming here, although our taxi driver from the airport gave us his phone number and the special price of IDR700,000. |
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| The food is fantastic, and most people stick to the hotels or tourist restaurants. Be brave and try a canteen or warung. It won't kill you (unless you are very, very unlucky), will be cheap, tasty and could lead to a conversation with a fellow diner. If eating in the tourist restaurants or hotels, the ++ you see after the price means plus government tax (10%) plus service charge (10%), which the mathematically gifted will have worked out puts an extra 21% onto your bill - a fair amount whatever the price. Putting things into perspective, the average waiter or hotel cleaner or similar earns US$50 per month. That's US$12.50 per week. The cost of a meal including tax and service in a tourist restaurant is about US$12.50. Each. Without drinks. Canteens and warungs don't charge tax (or include it in the price) or service, so a sensible tip is a nice thing to do - only if you get good service of course. I'll leave my rant on tipping for another time. |
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| Yeah, you can get a massage on the beach from a woman with more dirt in her fingernails than in a plant pot (not to mention the audience), but you can get one in a professional place with comfortable bed and someone who has at least done a short training course and has clean hands for oly a little more. The going rate in late 2007 is IRD50,000, unless you're in Nusa Dua where it's closer to IRD100,000 or Benoa at IDR65,000. Can't understand why anyone would choose the beach, unless they have it on good authority that a particular person is really good. |
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| Even with my very short hair, the calls for hair braiding are constant. A tip for anyone over the age of, lets say, 19. DON'T DO IT. It looks cute on little girls, and even (some) teenagers can get away with it. Other than that, it's a bit sad. |
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| As ubiquitous as hair braiding, temporary tattoos look awful. They're a yucky brown colour and have been known on occasion to have something horrid in them which unwittingly makes them a bit more permanent than you'd planned on. Also, if you get a tan, when the henna wears off you're going to look pretty silly with your interesting tan lines. |
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| You're most likely to come into contact with the constabulary if you hire a motorbike or self drive car. If you hire a bike, you MUST have an international drivers licence endorsed with BIKE. If you don't you are breaking the law, and if you break the law your travel insurance company have every right not to honor your policy. It isn't worth it. Of course, the police don't care. They fine you. And of course it all goes to the government. We were on the bike for less than 10 minutes this time before being pulled over. First question, Licence? You could see the disappointment in his face when he saw the licence. Then where you from/what you do? Peter said he didn't do anything, not working. Again disappointment. He was saying something about the headlight. We just insisted we didn't understand him or know what he was talking about. After about 5 minutes of telling us we had to pay a fine, and me saying "but I don't understand why" he gave up and let us go on our way. If this happens to you, don't be paranoid - the locals have to pay police "fines" all the time. Tourists have more money so the fine is higher, but everybody cops it. Except us. I've always said I'd rather go to jail than pay a bribe, and I really, REALLY mean it. If he'd persisted, I would have asked for a receipt - at least I'd know it wasn't going into his pocket. A local was impressed that we'd gotten away without paying anything. She suggested that, as we were game, we could ask to see the official document or list of fines with the one we were paying pointed out. She also suggested, as a couple of other people since have, that Peter tell them that he's a federal Police Officer. There are still a lot of ties between the AFP and Balinese officialdom. I've stored that one away for next time. A policeman is less likely to try to get a bung from a fellow officer. Pretty much the same thing happens in Thailand, but the police don't bother the tourists as hardly any of them speak English. The locals who can't afford it supplement their wages. |
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| Make sure you don't lose the departure card they leave in your passport when you arrive. Of course, if you're so inclined you can pay a "fine" to make any problem go away, but it's hassle you can do without when you're going home. One clever way of avoiding paying a "fine" is to pretend you don't understand and pull a passer-by up to help you understand. Nobody is going to ask you for a bribe with an in dependant witness listening in. If you want to eat before leaving, the domestic terminal has good and relatively cheap canteens. Unless you have a pass for the airport lounge, DON'T clear customs until the last minute. We've never spent any quality time in Denpasar departure area before, usually wiling away the hours courtesy of Qantas, but this time we were on Air Asia and couldn't get into the lounge. We had a small amount of Indonesian money left over, and Peter said he fancied a burger. I'd seen the prices at the McDonalds near the check in desks and figured we had enough. The prices at the airside McDonalds were almost exactly DOUBLE. Forget the burger, we'll get some crisps and chocolate. The prices were worse. Tubs of Pringles, which cost IDR13,500 in local mini-marts were going for between IDR45,000 and 60,000. Small bags of crisps, IDR4,000 in the real world were going for anything between IDR16,000 and 22,000. I didn't even bother looking at the chocolate, but I did see some Crocs flip flops, exactly the same as the pair Peter had been going to buy in Australia for A$45, but he wanted to wait and see if there was a sale on before we left (there wasn't) because they had been selling for $30 in the New Year sales. The exact same pair were being sold duty free at IDR480,000. That would be A$59.66. The Werribee Plaza shop, paying high rent, Australian minimum wages, sick and annual leave and taxes were making a profit at half that amount or they wouldn't be selling them, and the price included 10% GST! Don't buy anything from the airport - it'll only encourage them. |
If you're heading to Bali enjoy, and email me with any questions. I might not be able to help, but you never know.
