Bali airport set to open for international travel

spicyayam

spicyayam

Well-Known Member
Indonesia’s tourist spot Bali will start allowing direct arrivals from China, Japan and South Korea as a receding Covid-19 outbreak lets the country ease restrictions further.

Foreign visitors from New Zealand, Qatar and United Arab Emirates can also enter the country through the island’s Ngurah Rai International Airport starting from Oct. 14, said Luhut Panjaitan, coordinating minister for investment and maritime affairs who’s overseeing the pandemic response. Only Jakarta and Manado airports are currently open to international arrivals.

Bali’s reopening has been delayed several times when Southeast Asia’s largest economy struggled to contain its coronavirus outbreak. As the government boosted testing and quickened vaccination, the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths have now eased to the lowest levels in more than a year.

Indonesia has already resumed offshore visa applications and allowed more types of entry permits into the country, while requiring proof of full vaccination. International travelers will need to quarantine for eight days before they can go out on the streets.

The government’s food and drug regulator, known as BPOM, and the health ministry are reviewing the antiviral drug molnupiravir developed by Merck & Co. and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP to treat Covid, and it is expecting the result at the end of the year, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in the same event.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com
 
spicyayam said:
Indonesia’s tourist spot Bali will start allowing direct arrivals from China, Japan and South Korea as a receding Covid-19 outbreak lets the country ease restrictions further.

Foreign visitors from New Zealand, Qatar and United Arab Emirates can also enter

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com
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What happened to America, Germany, UK and Australia - last I heard they were going to be allowed to come. Now it's the bunch above??! Not sure why I still expect joined up thinking here but I guess hope is eternal...
 
We will soon find out if the Chinese Sinovac is any good. I wonder how many Arabs actually visit Bali? I suppose you could call it “a soft opening“?
 
Markit said:
What happened to America, Germany, UK and Australia - last I heard they were going to be allowed to come. Now it's the bunch above??! Not sure why I still expect joined up thinking here but I guess hope is eternal...
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Been helping a friend get here from Canada - you can find news articles with all varying countries if you look (or the other variation just the border is open without specifics):

Having half resided in Australia for many years, might as well cross them off the list, they'll go through the motions with Bali as "unsafe" or "red zone" and low on their priorities for re opening. Still requires a travel exemption to get out and no real assurance of getting back (it can be done but it's expensive and a hassle). Current pathway is still via Jakarta other than very few repatriation flights so far.

There is flights advertised at close to the old prices Australia to Bali for around March/April next year. Would be nice.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...-submarines-announcement-20210917-p58slj.html if you want to throw a political edge in to the mix.

As much as I love Bali starting to get small island syndrome again, happy for all the merchants their business can finally pick back up but living in the city, the reality is it's traffic jams and all that goes with foreigners (yes I realise I am one) everywhere. Thankful I didn't choose Canngu there was a time I nearly moved to that side of Bali.
 
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tel522 said:
With an 8 day quarantine ,I doubt we will see many arrivals .
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I think people have accepted it I can think of plenty on another forum that are flocking back in droves (or first timers), but a much younger crowd than here.

Having already done 14 days quarantine in Australia (that sucked), I would have no problem to do 8 days to get back in here. The grab/go gek ban on quarantine hotels kind of sucks though.
 
tel522 said:
With an 8 day quarantine ,I doubt we will see many arrivals .
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Indeed, and apart from the fact that there are no holiday visas available yet anyway the Swiss Belhotel, Tuban is charging IDR 9,120,000 for a single person quarantine package then New Zealanders for example face another 14 days of quarantine upon return costing NZ $3,100 so with a total cost of around NZ $4,000 for a single visitor (add about another 65% for couples with no children) and 22 days of their holiday spent in quarantine I don't think there will be a big flight of Kiwis darkening the sky over Bali.
 
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John M said:
Indeed, and apart from the fact that there are no holiday visas available yet anyway the Swiss Belhotel, Tuban is charging IDR 9,120,000 for a single person quarantine package then New Zealanders for example face another 14 days of quarantine upon return costing NZ $3,100 so with a total cost of around NZ $4,000 for a single visitor (add about another 65% for couples with no children) and 22 days of their holiday spent in quarantine I don't think there will be a big flight of Kiwis darkening the sky over Bali.
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Got some friends from Syndey coming via Jakarta cheapest option is $800 they're saying Styles (Novatel group), I'm sure it's a shoebox room, I haven't looked but don't need to. A few youtubers uploaded the food in those budget hotels, considering what's available in Jakarta it's total shit.

That said, if I'd been locked out this long, I'd be seriously considering doing all this to get in here. Though not happy about it. I'm seeing a generation thinking "I'll move to Bali for six months" rather than a holiday though.

Still I do agree with you, the prices are ridiculous and make me reluctant to go out.
 
B
PERtoDPS said:
Got some friends from Syndey coming via Jakarta cheapest option is $800 they're saying Styles (Novatel group), I'm sure it's a shoebox room, I haven't looked but don't need to. A few youtubers uploaded the food in those budget hotels, considering what's available in Jakarta it's total shit.

That said, if I'd been locked out this long, I'd be seriously considering doing all this to get in here. Though not happy about it. I'm seeing a generation thinking "I'll move to Bali for six months" rather than a holiday though.

Still I do agree with you, the prices are ridiculous and make me reluctant to go out.
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Back in April I stayed at the FM7 Resort Hotel near the airport and it cost IDR 643,500 per night (it was at the 5 night stage then) inclusive of airport transfers, 2 x PCR tests and breakfast. I chose the breakfast only package (I always had the American breakfast but there were other choices) and ordered room service meals as and when required as I too had checked out YouTube and saw that other meals were usually not what most westerners would normally choose and there was no choice of delivery time. The room was modern, quite big and the wifi was good too so I would stay there again if I had to but I have no plans of leaving Bali for the foreseeable future.
 
John M said:
B

Back in April I stayed at the FM7 Resort Hotel near the airport and it cost IDR 643,500 per night (it was at the 5 night stage then) inclusive of airport transfers, 2 x PCR tests and breakfast. I chose the breakfast only package (I always had the American breakfast but there were other choices) and ordered room service meals as and when required as I too had checked out YouTube and saw that other meals were usually not what most westerners would normally choose and there was no choice of delivery time. The room was modern, quite big and the wifi was good too so I would stay there again if I had to but I have no plans of leaving Bali for the foreseeable future.
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Thanks yeah a few minutes after I posted that I became aware there are better deals, though some sites don't have wifi. Would you be able to tell me on your way from Jakarta airport to quarantine if someone booked a pre paid service like klook.com to bring a sim to the passenger would that work? Or is the passenger totally isolated until quarantine done?
 
PERtoDPS said:
Thanks yeah a few minutes after I posted that I became aware there are better deals, though some sites don't have wifi. Would you be able to tell me on your way from Jakarta airport to quarantine if someone booked a pre paid service like klook.com to bring a sim to the passenger would that work? Or is the passenger totally isolated until quarantine done?
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I just used my Australian SIM, and WhatsApp on WiFi at the hotel, until I ultimately got to Bali but I'm sure that anyone arriving could buy a local SIM at one of the many vendors around the airport exit. Perhaps things have changed now post-COVID Delta but security was pretty lax and certainly not totally isolated. At the final exit door I just had to tell a guard that I had an FM7 quarantine booking and he waved over the driver who was nearby. I sat unsupervised for half an hour outside while the driver waited on another customer from a different flight so I could easily have either bought a SIM myself or got the driver to buy one or even collected one if someone was there outside to deliver it to me.
Note that local SIMs will no longer work in phones that were not purchased in Indonesia or previously used in Indonesia before April 2020 (which mine was) because the IMEI number isn't registered - this legislation was apparently introduced to break the black market in smuggled (no import duty paid) Chinese phones.
Tourists either need to use their existing international roaming service, pay import duty on their phone (40%) at the airport and have the IMEI registered or buy a cheap local phone. There was talk of allowing tourists' phones to work for a few weeks but I've never been able to find any information on that and would doubt if the technology exists to track it but who knows. https://baliscoop.com/register-imei-number-indonesia/.
 
John M said:
I just used my Australian SIM, and WhatsApp on WiFi at the hotel, until I ultimately got to Bali but I'm sure that anyone arriving could buy a local SIM at one of the many vendors around the airport exit. Perhaps things have changed now post-COVID Delta but security was pretty lax and certainly not totally isolated. At the final exit door I just had to tell a guard that I had an FM7 quarantine booking and he waved over the driver who was nearby. I sat unsupervised for half an hour outside while the driver waited on another customer from a different flight so I could easily have either bought a SIM myself or got the driver to buy one or even collected one if someone was there outside to deliver it to me.
Note that local SIMs will no longer work in phones that were not purchased in Indonesia or previously used in Indonesia before April 2020 (which mine was) because the IMEI number isn't registered - this legislation was apparently introduced to break the black market in smuggled (no import duty paid) Chinese phones.
Tourists either need to use their existing international roaming service, pay import duty on their phone (40%) at the airport and have the IMEI registered or buy a cheap local phone. There was talk of allowing tourists' phones to work for a few weeks but I've never been able to find any information on that and would doubt if the technology exists to track it but who knows. https://baliscoop.com/register-imei-number-indonesia/.
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Hi there, friends say thanks so much for the reply checking if that hotel is on the official list still and going to book it.

Note sure exactly what the story is with the phones because mine technically should not work but the criteria you posted, I got my sim brought to Denpasar airport by this company https://www.klook.com/ and it worked fine. I suspect they probably have some way to register it as tourist some or something the street vendors don't, my friends will have the same issue I will update the post if I remember for others.
 
Imam so sorry for xxxthousands of Balinese employees who have been jobless for many months! The politicians obviously don’t care
 
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