Indonesia News/Updates
Cheers, argh damn 14 day quarantine in Singapore too....i guess to be expected.
These quarantines are a real debbie downer aren’t they
Well the Oz/NZ travel bubble is open now. Better than nothing.
Looking forward to swarms of rabid Aussies taking over the lineup, Spud?
Ya reckon it'll work ^ ??
They’ll move to shut that down for sure.
Maybe two weeks in French Polynesia then two weeks in NZ before coming home could work. Would be an epic surf trip that one and appears to be available to us in 3 weeks time
Good to see they are thinking ahead, they actually already have lots of quarantine hotels in Java and Bali, but expect gearing that up for when they reopen further.
BTW. I did read yesterday like Australia they media is reporting Indonesia is well behind where they predicated on vaccination roll out and just read this too, which all sucks, as will mean longer until they open up.
"Indonesia’s plan to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population against COVID-19 by the end of this year is in tatters after a promised supply of more than 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine was slashed by a half because of a third wave of infection across Europe and India."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/indonesian-rollout-left-in-tatter...
Posted this in I love bali thread , probably belongs here. https://seminyaktimes.com/inexpensive-and-quick-genose-testing-starts-at...
Haha. If those quarantine hotels are run anything like the rest of Indo it will be an absolute clusterfuck.
RLZ open for business
See the Submarine that has gone missing?...
"Fears grow for missing Indonesian submarine crew, Australian Defence force to help with rescue mission
Concerns are growing for the crew of an Indonesian submarine that has been missing in waters off Bali for over 24 hours, with fears it may have sunk well below its safe operating depth."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/australia-defence-help-rescue-mis...
The straight between bali and nusa penida ranges from 200 - 800 meters and parts of the Lombok trench go to 2000 meters. I took a Australian navy officer who was stationed in Jakarta fishing years ago , he was a ex sub mariner and told me off some wild stories of some manoeuvre’s he had been on with US & OZ war games in that area . The speeds these subs could reach in the underwater currents were incredible. I feel for those indo sailors and their families who have been lost in this mishap.
You’d at least hope the sub imploded under pressure for the poor sailors. There wouldn’t be too many worse ways to end your days than sitting in darkness trapped in a tiny tin can at the bottom of the ocean with 50 other doomed men. I can’t even imagine the shit that would go down in that situation.
Apparently they have enough oxygen until Saturday, think it went missing North of Bali
Yeah indo 3am tomorrow morning
So 5am Bali time
Oh that's early poor crew and poor families of crew.
Ive got those times back to front , 5am OZ 3am indo https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100089532
Sadly they found the Sub on the bottom deeper than it can go, cracked by the pressure, obviously no one survived :(
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-25/missing-indonesian-submarine-foun...
To deep to survive even if wearing a Seie suit.
This is pretty crazy even by Indo standards "At least 9,000 people swabbed with reused test kits at Kualanamu Airport: police"
Basically staff reused swab test and somehow made big money from doing it, most surfers that go to Nias, Banyaks & Simeulue go through Medan airport too.
https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/at-least-9000-people-swabbed-with-reuse...
A mates flying back to perth from Bali in July, one way was $1200 AUD , he has had his first jab of AZ and will have had both by the time he flys . Be interesting to see what happens with quarantine , like full 14 days or let out after a few days if testing negative . Only coming back as funds getting low and was semi retired just doing 4-5 shuts a year to top up bank , hasn’t worked for 2 years. Never got covid but dengue flawed him for a month. Said there are only 23 allowed on flight.
@Indo the latest C19 figures coming out of Bali are really impressive, is it a coincidence that the govt said if figures come down by june/july they would open up to tourism?. ie do you trust these figures? also does it cost the locals to get tested or it free like here in Aus?
@amb , I know you were posting to indo d and Im not answering your question to him but here is a link to a Indonesian invention, I first saw this in one of the local publications seminyak times or coconuts I think . Anyway it was for all travelers and cost 40,000 rp with quick results. The testing that was done in bali previously was not that flash with false positives and negatives so hard to tell true numbers . Overall though their hospitals were not overrun and most tried doing the right thing as far as what was asked of them . Local friends that I’m in regular contact with still think covid is BS and most I know have had their first jab . https://unitingaviation.com/news/safety/a-game-change-for-air-travel-ind...
@amb
Sorry i have no idea, I've given up watching things...not sure about testing either.
@Supafreak thanks info.
Indo how are Andreas and family travelling...plenty of bookings for the season ?
udo wrote:Indo how are Andreas and family travelling...plenty of bookings for the season ?
Been pretty hard they got a letter from Telo government saying they weren't allowed to have guest just after Covid really hit last year, and only just got the okay a few weeks ago to open again. (applied for permission to reopen once we saw the odd resort open again) had a few enquires from guys in Nias in the last week but none have come over yet even with heavily discounted deals.
Kind of sucks as last year once closed we were still getting a few enquires from foreigners still in Indonesia and even expats in Bali and Lombok, but now most foreigners have gone home or even expats that we're keen last year are now strapped for cash so staying put.
Booking wise most have moved bookings to 2022 or even 2023 so 2022 is pretty much full for most of the year, so once borders open they will be busy, but its more just a get by thing at the moment..
Probably harder for Andreas and family now because they have had a taste of having money, so a bit harder to live without it again, i did have some money saved for the business that id put aside from deposits, so I've been sending a bit ever few months, but what I've had put aside is getting low.
Place will be packed by the time Ozzies can get there. https://coconuts.co/bali/lifestyle/do-you-want-to-work-from-bali-these-h...
I'll have a dig amb, but much of my dig is going off fb gossip, both credible and questionable...
if anyone wants to travel to another island, or sometimes regency, they must have a covid test. the tests have changed between antigen, pcr, and recently genose. generally it's been antigen - apparently a somewhat questionable test, it seems some bigwigs backed way early in the pandemic, and needed to use up to get return on their investment from what I can gather
pcr was introduced over recent holiday periods, after the christmas new year debacle, that saw the numbers blow out from crew coming from java. now it's all going genose, which I don't know much about, aside from it being cheap, easy, and locally developed in jogja. I'm guessing these factors influenced its introduction over any reliability of testing...
antigen testing spots sprung up everywhere, around 200k a shot, with drive in clinics around bali
from what I've read, corona treatment is free for locals, so Im guessing testing too. but this hasn't been without controversy... oh the controversies!
I religiously watched the corona numbers early on as I was planning on going. they've gone up, down, and all around... definitely blew out over christmas / new year, and now seem to have settled on some pretty low numbers for bali
are they reliable?
bule numbers have been suspiciously non existent to low, causing much speculation... probably fair speculation... because I've heard of canggu and party crew running into troubles that clearly don't show up in the numbers
possibly they use the private clinics that possibly don't report properly to the reporting bodies. they probably don't want to get caught in the system... it seems locals don't want to get caught in the system too... hear plenty of stories of crew toughing it out at home, bule and locals...
one district suspiciously just stopped reporting numbers altogether overnight, and has continued to do so, after apparently having one of the best reporting regimes. make of that what you will...
the whole reporting thing seems a bit of a joke, and like any country, is only as good as the public is compliant, and the data is quality... which for indo seems to be a big problem...
then there's heaps of crew that just bypassed quarrantine with cash, heaps of euro crew it seems, which is a bit of a dog act considering the situation there
the numbers seem to reflect something, but I'd take it all with a pinch of salt
This is interesting. "Total Number of Foreigners in Bali"
"As reported by NusaBali, the 109,801 foreign nationals living in Bali can be broken down by the type of visa they hold as follows:
KITAS – Temporary Stay Permit 29,070
ITAP – Permanent Stay Permit 2,246
Visitor Visa 78,485"
https://balidiscovery.com/total-number-of-foreigners-in-bali/amp/?fbclid...
"Visitor Visa 78,485"
is that the newly revamped business and investor visa?
a large chunk of it must be, if so, indonesia is on the verge of a boom
if they all meet the traditional investment requirements, bali will be unrecognisable by the time the borders are open for aussies to return...
It'll be like a gold coast / california wally world theme park... (with just a hint of corporate yoga anti vax murfer retreat...)
yeh, its kinda that already... maybe an upmarket version of the above, ...without the broken gaping hole that could swallow a scooter footpaths and scent de sewer in the air...
and, if you've ever had the feeling bali is over run with russians... it's probably because bali is over run with russians...
https://www.balipost.com/news/2021/05/10/191295/78-Ribu-WNA-Kantongi-Izi...
it's in indonesian, but pretty easy to make out the numbers
speaking of bali wally world...
how's this monstrosity that's going up in canggu?
https://m.
another ill placed jakarta fatcat laundry uang?
the new 'new kuta beach'?
or destined for huge success now canggu is overrun with tossers?
looks well out of place from my perspective...
the 500 odd comments on canggu community fb group are worth reading just for comedy factor
sypkan wrote:how's this monstrosity that's going up in canggu?
Right next to this one by the looks
geez, i thought that finns club was just another bar and restaurant building, done reasonably tastefully from the outside, fitting in with the local theme... with a bit of local chic...
but that's a spawling mega-complex, pretty tasteless beach club by the looks, pumping the tackyest and most average of commercial dj's judging by the crap music on their promo vid...
holywings is going to be the same sprawling mega-complex beach club, which already has an iron and concrete colloseum at least 3 x higher and bigger than finns... pumping a jakarta theme... with a bit of lawyer hotman paris hotpants gaudy chic...
canggu is cooked
bring back the double six, sun rising, pumping tunes, while the fitness set start to jog by, recovery sessions!
benchongs, pimps and prossies sprawling onto the footpaths, as the joggers pass their way through... weird and wacky scenes...
those were the days, ...gawd Im old...
@sypkan i think the label of visitor visa does cover those visas but im guessing would mostly be made up those that were already in indonesia at time borders shut
They all basically hit a free pass to stay and got given similar visas.
I'm guessing the majjority normally live in Bali on social and tourist type visas, either retired or live off investments or work online etc
There is retirement visas too, but they are not that attractive, expensive with little benefit.
oh yeh, forgot about those hangers on...
they all had to convert to social visas recently from what I read online. so no more freebie visa... some very lucky people in that group, you can't imagine they can stay forever... must be a heap of crew scared to leave because they'll never get back in / have it as good...
I've read heaps of crew getting deported for working illegally, seen russian 'surf instructors' get publicly named and shamed, photos, vids, the full bit, and slammed by locals in the comments
I honestly cannot believe how the locals have let this business model develope in the first place. it's so blatant and wrong what some bule get away with in indo, and it's not just russians!
I dunno if it's ignorance on the locals part, the 'tidak apa apa' culture, or that the warungs are happy to just sell a few cokes and nasi gorengs to the surf coach and their students, over getting the big bule bucks surf lessons money themselves... because it's so bloody obvious what's going on, and apparently all the russian rubles stay in russia, as it's all done online...
makes me angry to watch such blatant ripping off in a country that needs all the coin and good jobs they can get, maybe i should just mind my own business and be more tidak apa apa...
I've heard they are also cracking down on online workers, with many getting deported, which is a curious one for me, whilst they pay no local taxes, they do bring in a lot of coin from outside the country, by way of paying for accomodation, transport, and living costs
but this might be part of their plan to encourage legit. online workers and visas, and investor visas... but from what I've read, it all sounds a bit classsic indo pie in the sky stuff...
Covid is going crazy in Indo again, less than 10% of the population vaccinated.
Read 30 doctors alone have died of covid this month in Indo.
Seen pics of the hospital at my wife's city, they have run out of beds so now carparks etc are set up with tents to house patients, already poor hospital system is now collapsing
@indo , probably why they have rolled the dice with ivermectin. Its big on social media so I’ve been told.
pretty dire picture on the indonesian news...
as indod says, hospitals full, waiting lists, and tents in carparks. now they're reporting oxygen has run out. all looking at bit india version 2 atm
surely oz is in a position to help with things like oxygen etc.?
all a bit sad there's not already some sorf of aid plan in place... you know, just over the water there and all...
Sypkan- The way Australia is run these days, I don’t think we’d fare that much better ourselves in any kind of genuinely demanding scenario ourselves. Be it medical, industrial etc. Hopefully I’m wrong but I sort of get the feeling that Australia has taken a few steps backwards as a secure society. Three weeks fuel reserves at very best if something disturbs imports speaks volumes.
Yep
certainly embraced that JIT principle...
got shocked into reality about supply chains 18 months ago, blew more cash per head than probably anywhere in the world in 'emergency relief'... but seems not much has changed...
ol scomo and co. just bumbling along
Hey guys,
Wondering what the go-to website is for Indonesian news/updates in English?
I'm mostly interested in Covid and international border related news. What's out there?