General Info

[XXL]

Has anyone tried out the Vivo 0.01 non-latex condoms? They're sold at Watson's. ChatGTP tells me they're available in Indonesia and nothing is known about their actual thickness. The "0.01" sounds good but it may just be a marketing ploy.

[XXL]

You do realize there are no ATM fees at all in Indonesia right?

Only one ATM inside an indomaret tried to charge me a 30 k fee on cap one (but not with Fidelity). But all the other bsnkd had no fee whatsoever for cap one or Fidelity cards. BRI BMI Link Mandiri the ones at classic all fee free withdrawals.

Ok thanks, that's certainly good news! However I'm more paranoid about my credit card(s) being retained by an ATM than about fees. I wish banks would set-up swipe/dip ATMs, like the HSBC ATMs in Jakarta in the good old days. It only takes a power cut lasting a fraction of a second for the card to stay inside. I'm bringing a substantial amount of cash and I'll try to pay with my phone as often as I can.

When I bought my Sim card at the shop in the arrival hall of the airport, the girls took photos of my 2 IMEI. It looked very much like they would register them. Maybe this was already enough? Until now, my SIM card is working fine.

Indeed, the screenshot below is what I get when filling in the customs form today. Note that I answered "do you have a phone with unregistered EMEI?" with "YES". It didn't ask me to enter any EMEI.

[Gabacho]

According to this blogger it is possible to get 15 million against a fee of 75 k at BCA card centers (not at BCA bank branches as not all branches have card centers!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6q0DNQLOvk

The interesting part is at 0:27. He doesn't really say how this is performed except you need to bring your passport and credit card. So I guess this is like the old "cash on credit card" procedure.

You do realize there are no ATM fees at all in Indonesia right?

Only one ATM inside an indomaret tried to charge me a 30 k fee on cap one (but not with Fidelity). But all the other bsnkd had no fee whatsoever for cap one or Fidelity cards. BRI BMI Link Mandiri the ones at classic all fee free withdrawals.

[XXL]

According to this blogger it is possible to get 15 million against a fee of 75 k at BCA card centers (not at BCA bank branches as not all branches have card centers!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6q0DNQLOvk

The interesting part is at 0:27. He doesn't really say how this is performed except you need to bring your passport and credit card. So I guess this is like the old "cash on credit card" procedure.

[Gabacho]

Thanks for the heads-up!

I've read somewhere that Grab will only work with a foreign SIM on a roaming package if you have the Grab app already installed with the foreign SIM before arriving in Indonesia. For registering into the Grab app in Indonesia you would need an operational indo SIM card. So many stupid things to watch out for. Note that these and other hassles may be what keeps the hordes of Indians and Chinese away from Jakarta.

I can confirm that this is not the case. When I arrived I was able to get on my grab app (which I had already been using in Thailand and Philippines) thru the airport wifi and successfully book a grab car to the sparks life hotel and pay with my already linked credit card.

OH wait maybe I misread what you wrote. Yea if you don't already have the grab and gojek apps I suggest downloading them before you arrive. Many apps ask for a phone number to send an sms verification code in order to register the app so if you didn't have the app already installed before you arrive that could be another problem. For me I had installed both grab and gojek before I ever even left the US. And grab worked fine in Thailand Philippines and Indonesia but I only used it once or twice in Indonesia and then I switched to using gojek bikes to get around because it was cheaper.

Gabacho.

[Safado70]

When I bought my Sim card at the shop in the arrival hall of the airport, the girls took photos of my 2 IMEI. It looked very much like they would register them. Maybe this was already enough? Until now, my SIM card is working fine.

[XXL]

Y


Also your phone won't work in Indonesia unless you let customs register your Imei at the telkomcel store by the ATM that is always out of cash on the lower level of the airport (the level where you grab your luggage). Even if you try to buy a cheap simcard at a store and just pop it into your phone as you can do in many other countries, it won't work in Indonesia, your phone will just show no service. I didn't know this at first so I was without data at first, but the airport wifi reaches all the way outside to the grab pickup area so you you can actually order a grab or gojek thru the Wi-Fi and make it to your hotel without any data. Then you can go to any cell phone shop in a mall or wherever and they sell this little Wi-Fi box thing that you can put a telkomcel simcard into the box and turn it on and it grabs service and puts out a Wi-Fi signal which you then just connect your phone to that Wi-Fi network and viola you are now good to go without having to register your Imei with customs. However the signal was hit and miss, I would often use it to book gojek motos when I was out and about so for stuff like that or just using WhatsApp it would work pretty good, if you don't have good signal inside a building just have to go outside and walk around a bit until it works.

Hope this helps.

Gabacho.

Thanks for the heads-up!

I think I'll declare my phone's EMEI in the custom declaration form. My phone actually has 2 EMEIs as it's a dual-SIM phone (another thing to watch for once the indo SIM is inside if only one of the EMEIs was registered). I'll buy a small roaming package from Thailand (AIS) so that I'm not stranded without data for days in case the local SIM doesn't work.

I've read somewhere that Grab will only work with a foreign SIM on a roaming package if you have the Grab app already installed with the foreign SIM before arriving in Indonesia. For registering into the Grab app in Indonesia you would need an operational indo SIM card. So many stupid things to watch out for. Note that these and other hassles may be what keeps the hordes of Indians and Chinese away from Jakarta.

[Gabacho]

I just managed to get some aknowledgement of receipt from the immigration department after hours of trial and error. They want jpeg pics of your passport on the first page, then on the next page they want a PDF passport pic of the same passport. You get a pop up that the "province" of your hotel is missing but when you want to fill in a province the field for filling it it doesn't allow any entry. When you check your entries you find out the system screwed some of the entries behind your back (like the date of issue of your passport). You fill everyting in in the browser then at the end it freezes when you click "submit" and you need to start from scratch on another browser or on your smartphone. It is a nightmare.

I assume payment is effected only after you get the go-ahead from immigration. They didn't ask me my travel dates, is that normal? I read here that you could only apply 5 days in advance, now how do they know I'm 5 days in advance if they don't ask for my travel dates? They only required a (PDF!) copy of my flight.


P.S. I now see in the mail they sent me there's a link to the "status of my application", and on the latter there's a link for payment. Ok, there we go.

Yea it took me 3 times to get it right. And if you have to fix something it would mess up other fields so you always have to double check everything. Also the payment page was an issue for me having to use different bank cards to get them to take my payment. Same thing on the extension too.

The good thing though, atleast for me, was once I did the first EVOA and successfully made the payment, they emailed me the visa right away within like 2 seconds I think it was literally in my email.

But with the extension it took like 9 days.

And no on the EVOA it doesn't ask your dates of travel but it gives you the visa which must be used within 90 days so your arrival has to be within a 90 day window from when the EVOA is approved.

The other documents such as the customs declaration and health questioneer have to be filled out within a few days of your arrival.

And thanks for the link in your other post but that's from 3 months ago, I already figured it out when I went. I was there November and December.

Also your phone won't work in Indonesia unless you let customs register your Imei at the telkomcel store by the ATM that is always out of cash on the lower level of the airport (the level where you grab your luggage). Even if you try to buy a cheap simcard at a store and just pop it into your phone as you can do in many other countries, it won't work in Indonesia, your phone will just show no service. I didn't know this at first so I was without data at first, but the airport wifi reaches all the way outside to the grab pickup area so you you can actually order a grab or gojek thru the Wi-Fi and make it to your hotel without any data. Then you can go to any cell phone shop in a mall or wherever and they sell this little Wi-Fi box thing that you can put a telkomcel simcard into the box and turn it on and it grabs service and puts out a Wi-Fi signal which you then just connect your phone to that Wi-Fi network and viola you are now good to go without having to register your Imei with customs. However the signal was hit and miss, I would often use it to book gojek motos when I was out and about so for stuff like that or just using WhatsApp it would work pretty good, if you don't have good signal inside a building just have to go outside and walk around a bit until it works.

Hope this helps.

Gabacho.

[XXL]

Can you elaborate more on the online electronic customs form you filled out while the plane was taxing? Do you have any links for that?

...

Gabacho.

This seems to be the link for the customs declaration:

https://ecd.beacukai.go.id/

Available dates of arrival in the form are : yesterday (!), today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow.

[XXL]

I just managed to get some aknowledgement of receipt from the immigration department after hours of trial and error. They want jpeg pics of your passport on the first page, then on the next page they want a PDF passport pic of the same passport. You get a pop up that the "province" of your hotel is missing but when you want to fill in a province the field for filling it it doesn't allow any entry. When you check your entries you find out the system screwed some of the entries behind your back (like the date of issue of your passport). You fill everyting in in the browser then at the end it freezes when you click "submit" and you need to start from scratch on another browser or on your smartphone. It is a nightmare.

I assume payment is effected only after you get the go-ahead from immigration. They didn't ask me my travel dates, is that normal? I read here that you could only apply 5 days in advance, now how do they know I'm 5 days in advance if they don't ask for my travel dates? They only required a (PDF!) copy of my flight.


P.S. I now see in the mail they sent me there's a link to the "status of my application", and on the latter there's a link for payment. Ok, there we go.

[SubCmdr]

I see the Grab app has the option to set up a "wallet". This could be useful to minimize the number of charges to the credit card. A single say 300-dollar transfer from your credit card to the wallet and you're good to go for one or two weeks without having to monitor a string of charges to your credit card. I see though that Grab now has an email from the Philippines and shows an address in "Marikina City" in the Philippines. Not the best place to inspire confidence. According to Wikipedia they were seated in Singapore. Or is the following webpage just a phishing site?

https://www.grab.com/ph/pay/

On another page (not the above link) Grab offer the possibility of topping up your Grab Wallet by entering your online banking data (!!!!!) into the Grab app. Never in a million years would I give my online banking credentials to a third party!

Agreed.

It could easily be done using a ACH.

Or you can do what do to protect all my accounts. Debit card I keep less than 500 USD in an account I use just for purchases. All accounts that need a credit / debt card gets this one.

[XXL]

I see the Grab app has the option to set up a "wallet". This could be useful to minimize the number of charges to the credit card. A single say 300-dollar transfer from your credit card to the wallet and you're good to go for one or two weeks without having to monitor a string of charges to your credit card. I see though that Grab now has an email from the Philippines and shows an address in "Marikina City" in the Philippines. Not the best place to inspire confidence. According to Wikipedia they were seated in Singapore. Or is the following webpage just a phishing site?

https://www.grab.com/ph/pay/

On another page (not the above link) Grab offer the possibility of topping up your Grab Wallet by entering your online banking data (!!!!!) into the Grab app. Never in a million years would I give my online banking credentials to a third party!

[Gaijin Gigolo]

There is a different visa besides the EVOA that you can choose and it costs about $100 usd instead of $32 usd but it give you up to 6 months I believe. You can check on the same imigrasi website that LoveItHere69 mentioned in his post.

I think the $100 visa allows you to stay 60 days at first and can be extended two additional times for 60 days each, allowing for a total stay of 6 months without having to leave the country.

Hope this helps.

Gabacho.

Was looking at that. Wasn't sure if I'd need an Indonesian sponsor to extend that long or not. Thanks for the intel.

[Gabacho]

Any issues with doing via runs out of Indo and then back in a few days later? I know I can get an extension for a second 30 days but I'd like to say 90 or perhaps 120 days. Can anybody advise?

There is a different visa besides the EVOA that you can choose and it costs about $100 usd instead of $32 usd but it give you up to 6 months I believe. You can check on the same imigrasi website that LoveItHere69 mentioned in his post.

I think the $100 visa allows you to stay 60 days at first and can be extended two additional times for 60 days each, allowing for a total stay of 6 months without having to leave the country.

Hope this helps.

Gabacho.

[Gabacho]

New requirement due to monkey pox:

https://khiri.com/important-update-n...-to-monkeypox/

It seems the website for filling in the form is the following:

https://sshp.kemkes.go.id/

Here too, can only be filled out 2 days in advance (only "today" + tomorrow + day after tomorrow). I wish they would allow more days for any paperwork.

Now that I think about it, I think I only did the EVOA 5 days before and the rest of everything else I completed 2 days before my flight.

Gabacho.