Advice when visiting Indonesia

Introduction #

This is a letter of advice sent to us by some North American friends who have lived in Senggigi, Lombok for a couple of years.

Getting to Senggigi from North America: #

The airport on our island is called LOP (Lombok Praya). There are a few direct flights from
Singapore, but usually you will have to fly to either Bali or Jakarta and take an internal flight
to get here. There are MANY very cheap flights from Bali and Jakarta, most of them are in
the mornings and early afternoon, so you should try to get to Bali or Jakarta early in the
day.

If you go to a travel site like Kayak and put in LOP as your destination for a flight from the
USA it usually won’t work because it’s just too many connections for the system to figure
out, and most of the tiny, rinky-dink airlines aren’t included in the international travel sites.
The best thing to do is to play around with flights to Jakarta, Bali, or Singapore. Then buy
your connecting ticket from there to us. An okay site for seeing the internal flight options is
Traveloka.com. It’s similar to kayak.com, but with an asian focus. If you identify a flight on
Traveloka, you can then choose to go to that airline’s own site to book or book through
Traveloka, or eDreams.com. The best airline to fly is Garuda, but the Airline group with the
most flights is the Lion Group, it is Lion Air, Air Asia, Wings Air, Batik Air.
Always print out your tickets and boarding passes rather than rely on e-tickets or boarding
passes on your phone. Some of the airlines here dont take e-tickets.

Arrival #

Usually you will fly into Jakarta.
You will need to complete arrival forms. Depending on your flights, you might be able to do
this at your international airport, when you’re about to board your flight there.
Alternatively, while you are waiting for your luggage, go to the machines in the luggage area
and complete your arrival forms. It’s all electronic, you have to answer a bunch of questions
and the machine will show you a QR code. You need to take a PHOTO/screenshot of the QR
code and show it later.

Once you get your luggage you follow the signs for Customs and Immigration. There are
some desks where they check people for COVID vaccine documents. This seems to be
loosely enforced, you might want to just play dumb and try to walk past them to save time.
You need to have a visa to get into the country. Best thing to do is to get the visa ahead of
time online. There is a visa on arrival process/desk you can get the visa when you arrive,
but it can take a while, you will be tired, etc etc.

Getting an Indonesian tourist visa #

You have to pay for the Visa on arrival not sure if they take cards or US dollars. If you get a visa
online bring a printout of it, they might not accept a picture on your phone.
You will also see signs about “registering” your cellphone. It will take forever and cost a
bunch of money. Do NOT do this; see phones below.

Jakarta Airport: You will be spat out basically on the street where taxis and what
not are. If you are continuing on to Lombok, you will need to transfer. International
flights come into Terminal 3. If your connecting flight goes out of Terminal 3 (i.e. on
Garuda airline), you just need to go upstairs to get into the departure area of the
airport. Signage is vague but poke around to find the elevator or ask someone how
to get up there.

If you are on the cheapo airlines you will need to go to Terminal 2 or Terminal 1. It is
a long way, you must find the “Sky Train” to get over to the other terminals. Don’t
try and walk, that doesn’t seem possible. You want the “Sky Train” NOT the subway
or commuter train into the city center.

Bali Airport: If you go into Bali you will take a wined-y route with your luggage and
emerge onto the street. You will either need to check in in the same terminal or,
more likely, walk to the terminal next door for local airlines. Turn left. It’s a 5-10
min walk. Follow the road as it veers to the left. The signs are poor. Ask someone
for reassurance. You can just tell them your airline name and they’ll point you in the
right direction. Don’t get in a taxi to go between terminals. After you’ve passed
through security, you’re in a nice terminal with good food options and shopping. On
the left is a shop that sells Eiger products (bags and camping equipment) which are
decent quality for a lowish price (compared with US brands).

Phones #

Everyone, including businesses in Indonesia uses Whats App, you will see numbers posted
for businesses that say “WA”. Many businesses don’t even have regular phone numbers, just
Whats App. Download and install WA before you leave and test it out

Like most everywhere, a USA phone will work in Indonesia if you have a roaming plan. You
MUST have a data plan since WA runs over data.
If you try to use a phone that was not purchased in Indonesia with an Indonesian SIM card,
it will work fine for 90 days and then get detected as illegal unless you pay a large tax (several hundred dollars) to the Indonesian government (and they will unlock
it for use in-country). Dealing with the tax authorities takes hours, is really complicated,
and the price will be very high if you have a fancy phone. It can be $400 or more. It is not
worth it.

There are 3 cellphone carriers in Indonesia:
Telkomsel
SmartFren
XL

All three work on Lombok, but we have noticed that in more remote provinces only
Telkomsel works. Telkomsel is older so if you buy a SIM card get that, if you are traveling to
other parts of Indonesia. Prices seem about the same. Like everything, except booze,
cellphone service is very inexpensive in Indonesia.

Grab and Gojek #

There are two services Grab and GoJek that are kind of like super services that support car
service, food delivery, package delivery, and in the case of GoJek a payment service. You
should install and configure both apps before you come here. To put money on Gojek you can bring cash to an
AlphaMart store. Alpha Mart is like 7-11.
The bank links to Gojek only work for Indonesian banks.
These services are most useful for car travel, basically they are just like Uber. Pay attention
to what you order. The cheapest way to travel is on the back of a scooter or motor cycle.
This is pretty dangerous and uncomfortable its best to take a car. It is very cheap, usually
cheaper than a taxi and you are less likely to get ripped off by the driver taking a weird
route than you will in a Taxi.
For Grab you can sometimes link a credit card to your account so you dont have to fool with
cash. When you book a car you can then decide to either have it go to the credit card or pay
in cash.

Taxi #

The most prevalent Taxi service in Indonesia is called BlueBird. These are in Jakarta, Bali,
and Lombok, probably other places too. They are fairly reputable and in Lombok very
honest. In Bali they are a little shady and might drive you around to run up the meter or
come-up with extra fees. Just pay attention if you use them.

Money #

The money in Indonesia is the Rupia called IDR, for Indonesian Rupia. Its a bit confusing
because of the high amounts:
1,000 IDR = 7 us cents
100,000 IDR = $7
1,000,000 IDR = $70
Lots of places in Indonesia dont take credit cards, so you should get a pile of cash as soon
as you can. There are ATM machines in the airport. There are many Indonesian banks.
Your US debit card should work in some of the ATM’s, If you have multiple bank accounts at
different banks bring all your debit cards. It appears to be a bit of crap shoot. Sometimes
your card will work on one bank’s machine but not another. Sometimes the same machine
that gave you money yesterday won't work today. If your card doesn't work, don't panic just
try a different machine. Often there will be 3 or 4 ATMs all from different banks right next to
each other. Or just walk down the street and try again.
They will list the highest amount you can get. Usually it's between 2,000,000 and
3,000,000. We had a problem where we did 2 or 3 withdrawals in a row for the max amount
and his US bank freaked out and thought it was a mistake like the machine had double
charged us. If you are going to use the same machine a couple of times use slightly
different amounts.
The biggest note is 100,000. Sometimes people have trouble making change because they
don't have a lot of money laying around, so try and hoard your change a bit and get some
smaller notes. Pay with a 100,000 note at big stores where they will have change.

Stuff to Bring #

It’s very warm here so the coldest you will be is on your international flight over. A single
light, long sleeved fleece will support you.
It rains, A LOT, so definitely bring a good raincoat, with a hood.
We get around on Scooters so bring some long pants, closed toed shoes, and a long sleeve
shirt. Even a minor wipe out on a scooter in flip flops, shorts, and short sleeve shirt can
really mess you up. If you have a lightweight Balaclava bring that so that if you get a nasty
sweaty helmet from a rental place, or Tim, you will have a layer in between your head and
the helmet. If you rent a scooter you usually have to ask for a helmet, but they should have
one, and it should not cost extra. Just like a bike helmet it's critical that the helmet have a
strap that you can cinch down tight. Also try and get one with a plastic face shield that goes
across your face. If you want to be super safe then bring a fancy motorcycle helmet from
the USA. Here in Lombok we have a goto scooter guy who will drop one off and pick it up at
our place and knows us. He rents to us for 40,000 IDR a day, the normal price is 50,000 -
60,000 a day. Less than $5.
Bring a mask, and snorkel if you have one.
Many of the beaches are rocky or have sharp coral, so it's a good idea to bring some kind of
water shoes. Keens work really well. Crocs give less protection, and might wash off in the
surf, but they are easy to slip on and off.
BE CAREFUL in the surf. Around our house there are beautiful sandy beaches, but when you
get out 10 feet from shore there are sharp rocks or coral heads sticking up. The local people
assume you know this and might not warn you. If you run down to the water and just dive
into the waves you could get really hurt.

Diving #

If you are into Scuba Diving, or think you want to try it, Indonesia is a good place for it!
There are a bunch of dive shops in our town, and there are some resort areas with excellent
boat and beach diving just a few hours away. The diving and snorkeling right in Senggigi
where we live is not great, but it's a short trip to clear calm water.
You must be certified to dive safely. You can find some sleazy operators who will take you
without certification, but that's pretty dangerous so don't do it.

Blue Whales
https://www.nilatanzil.com/blue-whales-in-komodo-national-park/

There are 3 parts of getting certified:
● Bookwork Classroom. Now done online at your own pace.
● Pool exercises where you learn how to use the equipment in shallow, warm, clear
swimming pool
● Openwater checkout. A few dives in the ocean with the instructor.
You could do the bookwork part of getting certified online before you come here, then just
hire a local place to do the in-water part of the certification process. You could also do the
bookwork and pool part in the USA.
Unlike in the US you can get a private instructor and do it really quickly and cheaply here. If
you take a class in the US its usually with a bunch of people and it takes a long time
because the instructor is working with everyone one by one, and there is a lot of waiting
around both on the surface and underwater.
There is a place just 10 minutes up the road with a pool where you can do the pool portion,
then they can take you out in a boat for the checkout dive. If you do this, use PADI that is
by far the most popular agency here and throughout the world.
Go to the PADI website and check it out. You just want the basic package. Dont let them
upsell you on advanced courses, take the classroom part online, and you can do the pool
and checkout dive here quickly with a private instructor.

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