This is my first trip to Asia and first time to Raja Ampat (RA). I’m going to try to do this as a live report to the extent I have an internet connection. This was a complicated trip to plan and execute because I’m doing a 10-night stay at Sorido Bay Resort (SBR) (as an individual booking) followed by a 12-day liveaboard with Damai II (Bluewater Travel group trip), and I needed to stay within the 30-day visa limit for Indonesia. I did most of the planning myself, but my agent at Bluewater guided me through the process.
Getting to Indonesia. As everyone knows, this is a long, long haul across the world even from the West Coast, where I’m at in Portland, Oregon. For months, I searched fervently to use award miles so that I could fly in first class to have the lay-flat seat. I’m just getting too old to tolerate sitting upright for that many hours. I had flexibility in my dates, so I nailed an award first class ticket, and I’m here in Indo six days before the dive trip actually starts.
I left from Portland on November 7th for the 35-minute flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines and spent the night in an airport hotel to catch the 7 a.m. flight to San Diego, layover for 2 hours, then connect with Japan Airlines for the 12-hour flight to Narita, Japan. The layover was 18 hours, so I spent the night at an airport hotel. Losing a day in transit, I arrived in Japan on November 9th. I then flew for 8 hours to Jakarta, arriving on November 10th. It took about 50 hours to get here, and I’m grateful that my luggage made it. This part of the air travel cost me 70,000 American Airlines miles and $26 in taxes. The Japan Crowne Plaza was $69.
ATM Disaster. I read lots of recommendations from my fellow SB members here, so I was ready to use my CharIes Schwab debit card. I called to alert them of my travels, so I wouldn’t have a fraud issue. Out of six ATMs at the airport, two of them gave me money, while the other three would not. The first one gave me 500,000 IDR but refused any further transactions. The next three machines showed “transaction pending” or “processing request” but then would show a message to check my transaction history (whatever that means) and spit my card out. Within seconds I received a text message that my account had been debited, but I HAVE NO MONEY!! Now I’m panicked and pissed, but I still needed more money, so my pickup driver took me to another machine in the airport where I was able to get the money with no other issues. All in all, I had 12 transactions with the ATMs, which did flag a fraud alert with multiple text messages from my bank.
On the way to the hotel, I was on the phone with Charles Schwab to try and figure out next steps. After an hour on the phone, the rep told me that all the transactions where I did not get the money, the ATM refunded the account. The problem was that the ATM did not show that the transaction was canceled in real time.
I’ve attached pictures of the machines and the ATM screen message. Just be careful with these machines. It’s a PITA to do so many transactions for just a couple hundred bucks, and it was very time consuming.
Phone Use. I decided not to get a local SIM card. I have T-Mobile and it’s working here, although not the strongest signal, but with the hotel wifi, it’s working fine.
The Visa and Customs. The Indonesian visa is good for 30 days from the day you arrive in the country, not the day you applied for it. And you cannot apply for it earlier than 3 days prior to your arrival date. The fee was about $33 USD. One thing that was difficult with the application is that you have to take a photo of your passport and a photo of yourself to upload. The passport photo has strict criteria to meet to be uploaded and that took me about 30 minutes because each shot I took was rejected, i.e., a number was blurry, off center, too much glare, etc. When I’ve done this with European countries, they just want you to scan the numbers on the bottom of the passport for uploading and it’s quick and easy.
The customs process is a simple, online form with a QR code. The officer needs only to scan the code and off you go. The questions are the standard questions you find on all other customs forms for other countries.
There are no longer any COVID protocols, either with forms, vaccination cards, or masking.
FM7 Hotel at Jakarta Airport. I spent 4 nights at the FM7 Hotel 2 kilometers from the Jakarta airport, costing $53 per night. The traffic was every bit as bad as I had read about. It took 40 minutes to get to the hotel, and it was chaotic. There was no observance of lanes and motorcycles going in every direction and people driving in the dirt to get moving. The hotel was quite nice with four restaurants onsite, a rooftop bar, a spa, hair salon, and enormous swimming pool and hot tub, sauna and steam room. There’s also a billiard room with a theater-size TV screen to watch movies, though nothing in English. The included breakfast was a huge buffet with many varieties of food, a salad bar, and a mix of Western (eggs, omelets, potatoes, waffles) and Indonesian choices. The bread items, croissants, waffles, pancakes, were a solid effort but fell below the mark. It tasted like they used the same batter for all bready-type products.
Knowing that I’d be here for longer than the typical transit stay, I chose FM7 based on my Bluewater travel agent’s recommendation, and I just wanted to decompress after so much travel. Everything is shockingly cheap here. My one-hour foot massage was the same cost as my dinner of pad thai, $4.80. My 2 ½ hour spa service was a mere $41.
The Toilet/Toilet Paper. I’m happy to say that there’s a traditional Western toilet here. There’s a weird spray nozzle attached to the back wall, and I’m guessing that’s a style of bidet. I can’t imagine that would work in any way except to cause a big mess. The amount of toilet paper they give you was a LOL moment. Attached is a picture of their version of a roll of toilet paper and a roll I brought from home. (I’ve read it’s good to have your own TP, just in case.) They were pretty stingy with the TP when I asked for more, but the housekeeper grudgingly gave me extra.
It is not safe to drink the water here, so I’m treating it like Mexico….don’t brush your teeth with the water and don’t open your eyes or mouth and pinch your nose shut while taking a shower. They have a laundry service here with prices I've never seen: $.64 for a pair of socks or underwear or $2.00 for a pair of shorts or a shirt.
In a few hours, I will board my midnight flight on Garuda from Jakarta to Sorong and stay there for a couple of days before going to SBR. It was recommended that I get to Sorong at least a day before the pickup for SBR in case of flight problems. And with a midnight flight, four hours long with a two-hour time change, it’ll be a long night.
To be continued…
Getting to Indonesia. As everyone knows, this is a long, long haul across the world even from the West Coast, where I’m at in Portland, Oregon. For months, I searched fervently to use award miles so that I could fly in first class to have the lay-flat seat. I’m just getting too old to tolerate sitting upright for that many hours. I had flexibility in my dates, so I nailed an award first class ticket, and I’m here in Indo six days before the dive trip actually starts.
I left from Portland on November 7th for the 35-minute flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines and spent the night in an airport hotel to catch the 7 a.m. flight to San Diego, layover for 2 hours, then connect with Japan Airlines for the 12-hour flight to Narita, Japan. The layover was 18 hours, so I spent the night at an airport hotel. Losing a day in transit, I arrived in Japan on November 9th. I then flew for 8 hours to Jakarta, arriving on November 10th. It took about 50 hours to get here, and I’m grateful that my luggage made it. This part of the air travel cost me 70,000 American Airlines miles and $26 in taxes. The Japan Crowne Plaza was $69.
ATM Disaster. I read lots of recommendations from my fellow SB members here, so I was ready to use my CharIes Schwab debit card. I called to alert them of my travels, so I wouldn’t have a fraud issue. Out of six ATMs at the airport, two of them gave me money, while the other three would not. The first one gave me 500,000 IDR but refused any further transactions. The next three machines showed “transaction pending” or “processing request” but then would show a message to check my transaction history (whatever that means) and spit my card out. Within seconds I received a text message that my account had been debited, but I HAVE NO MONEY!! Now I’m panicked and pissed, but I still needed more money, so my pickup driver took me to another machine in the airport where I was able to get the money with no other issues. All in all, I had 12 transactions with the ATMs, which did flag a fraud alert with multiple text messages from my bank.
On the way to the hotel, I was on the phone with Charles Schwab to try and figure out next steps. After an hour on the phone, the rep told me that all the transactions where I did not get the money, the ATM refunded the account. The problem was that the ATM did not show that the transaction was canceled in real time.
I’ve attached pictures of the machines and the ATM screen message. Just be careful with these machines. It’s a PITA to do so many transactions for just a couple hundred bucks, and it was very time consuming.
Phone Use. I decided not to get a local SIM card. I have T-Mobile and it’s working here, although not the strongest signal, but with the hotel wifi, it’s working fine.
The Visa and Customs. The Indonesian visa is good for 30 days from the day you arrive in the country, not the day you applied for it. And you cannot apply for it earlier than 3 days prior to your arrival date. The fee was about $33 USD. One thing that was difficult with the application is that you have to take a photo of your passport and a photo of yourself to upload. The passport photo has strict criteria to meet to be uploaded and that took me about 30 minutes because each shot I took was rejected, i.e., a number was blurry, off center, too much glare, etc. When I’ve done this with European countries, they just want you to scan the numbers on the bottom of the passport for uploading and it’s quick and easy.
The customs process is a simple, online form with a QR code. The officer needs only to scan the code and off you go. The questions are the standard questions you find on all other customs forms for other countries.
There are no longer any COVID protocols, either with forms, vaccination cards, or masking.
FM7 Hotel at Jakarta Airport. I spent 4 nights at the FM7 Hotel 2 kilometers from the Jakarta airport, costing $53 per night. The traffic was every bit as bad as I had read about. It took 40 minutes to get to the hotel, and it was chaotic. There was no observance of lanes and motorcycles going in every direction and people driving in the dirt to get moving. The hotel was quite nice with four restaurants onsite, a rooftop bar, a spa, hair salon, and enormous swimming pool and hot tub, sauna and steam room. There’s also a billiard room with a theater-size TV screen to watch movies, though nothing in English. The included breakfast was a huge buffet with many varieties of food, a salad bar, and a mix of Western (eggs, omelets, potatoes, waffles) and Indonesian choices. The bread items, croissants, waffles, pancakes, were a solid effort but fell below the mark. It tasted like they used the same batter for all bready-type products.
Knowing that I’d be here for longer than the typical transit stay, I chose FM7 based on my Bluewater travel agent’s recommendation, and I just wanted to decompress after so much travel. Everything is shockingly cheap here. My one-hour foot massage was the same cost as my dinner of pad thai, $4.80. My 2 ½ hour spa service was a mere $41.
The Toilet/Toilet Paper. I’m happy to say that there’s a traditional Western toilet here. There’s a weird spray nozzle attached to the back wall, and I’m guessing that’s a style of bidet. I can’t imagine that would work in any way except to cause a big mess. The amount of toilet paper they give you was a LOL moment. Attached is a picture of their version of a roll of toilet paper and a roll I brought from home. (I’ve read it’s good to have your own TP, just in case.) They were pretty stingy with the TP when I asked for more, but the housekeeper grudgingly gave me extra.
It is not safe to drink the water here, so I’m treating it like Mexico….don’t brush your teeth with the water and don’t open your eyes or mouth and pinch your nose shut while taking a shower. They have a laundry service here with prices I've never seen: $.64 for a pair of socks or underwear or $2.00 for a pair of shorts or a shirt.
In a few hours, I will board my midnight flight on Garuda from Jakarta to Sorong and stay there for a couple of days before going to SBR. It was recommended that I get to Sorong at least a day before the pickup for SBR in case of flight problems. And with a midnight flight, four hours long with a two-hour time change, it’ll be a long night.
To be continued…
