Monthly Archives: September 2008

TIP – Indonesian visas

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Some of this will be repetition from the post where I arrived at Jakarta airport, but there’s some more to add hence the extra article.

The basics, as of the date above:

There are a handful of visa types, the most common being the 7-day transit and the 30-day tourist visas. The latter is US$25 and they’re strict about the limit. Overstay and it’s US$20 per day and a risk of jail if you go over even by a moderate amount.

I got the 30-day tourist visa at Jakarta airport and paid in Malaysian Ringgit. The cost was a standard MR100, and I assume they also take Indonesian Rupiah if you already have some, though I don’t know the exact amount. I also can’t promise that other airports accept Ringgit.

One major point of note is that at Jakarta and Denpasar (Bali) airports, there are no ATMs within the arrivals area. In both cases you have to pass security and immigration to get to a cashpoint. However, if you need to get cash to pay for the visa then they will let you just walk out to get it. It’s up to you whether you decide to go back in and collect the visa, I suppose, but I’d recommend you do!

Your entry stamp and the big sticker both state that the visa is non-extendable. If you want to add to the thirty days, you have to leave the country and re-enter. From Sumatra, Borneo, and to some extent Java this isn’t too difficult or expensive as various parts of Malaysia are nearby. In Timor you can enter East Timor (more about this later) and in Papua you can get to Papua New Guinea.

However, from the likes of Bali, Lombok, Flores and the popular holiday destinations it is a long and expensive trip to any border. I have seen one sign up advertising visa extensions and the staff at my hotel have told me they can organise it with three days’ notice. However, it’s not cheap at IDR1.5million – around £90, nine times the cost of the original visa. If you want to stay on you’ll just have to balance the cost against how much it’ll save you in transportation.

If you head into East Timor, there is no visa on arrival for your return if you go back by land. You’ll have to send your passport to the Indonesian embassy in Dili, or visit personally, to get a new visa at a cost of US$35. Note that flights from East Timor are quite infrequent and expensive.

Papua New Guinea I hear isn’t too easy to get into either, and I’m not sure of the procedures exiting it by land – you may be in the same situation as in East Timor.

Personally, I think Indonesia needs to get it’s backside in gear and offer either a longer tourist visa or make renewals cheaper and more “above board”. It’s a huge country and anyone really wanting to explore it will need far longer than a month. Given the reaction Maria and I got in Java, not many tourists go there so perhaps the visas were geared toward the holidaying brigade who regularly invade the beaches for a couple of weeks. With backpacking and more adventurous travel becoming more common, it would benefit Indonesia itself to allow longer stays.

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Divemaster day 4

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Putu, my Instructor, picked me up from my hotel at 10:00 so I had a nice lie in. We moto’d up to the dive shop where we spent a couple of hours going through all the material I’d covered the day before.

While we were plodding through it all, a young German couple came in and booked a dive up in Tulamben tomorrow, so I’ll be having another 6-hour return trip with them. It’s all experience, which is good, and counts towards my final grade.

I got to have a look at the Instructor Manual, and I think I’ll be trying to get an electronic copy… it’s huge! Putu’s printed his out and put it in a ring binder and it’s about 3″ thick. It’s also ridiculously expensive, but you have to have one for the Instructor or Assistant Instructor courses – no borrowing is allowed. The problem with manual fees is that they’re the same worldwide, allowing for taxes. So what’s considered “hefty” in the U.S. or U.K., for instance, is simply astronomical to someone living and working in Indonesia or Vietnam. Putu’s annual registration fee for PADI costs him a month’s wage! But without it, he can’t work.

After we finished, Putu kindly bought me lunch. We went to a nearby stall and had nasi… something. “Nasi” is rice, and it had shredded chicken, omelette, green beans and a stupidly spicy sauce on it, too. Tasty and I guess quite cheap, but even Putu said it was too spicy for him!

He then dropped me off back at my hotel with the Instructor Manual, Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving and one of the quarterly PADI magazines to leaf through. I’m developing quite a pile of books in my room!

It’s around 2pm as I write this and my plans are to laze around, read and then go and watch the Chelsea v Man U game this evening. No excessive beer with a 7am start tomorrow.

Divemaster day 3

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OK, for once this will actually be a genuine short post.

Woke up. Read lots. Filled lots of exercises in. All day.

Finished Divemaster handbook review.

Went to pub, watched very bad football results (I mean, come on – 3-1 away at West Ham… and the mackems won).

Went to bed.

Divemaster day 2

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A slightly earlier start today, but again the staff here ensured I had my breakfast before I left and was picked up by the van. Today I was joined by two Dutch guys and a German, Lars, who was to be my buddy for the day.

It was quite a mixed group. One of the Dutch guys had done about 8 dives and was starting his Advanced course. The other had been underwater once, for about five minutes, as part of a discovery course somewhere. Lars had about 25 dives to his name, but had decided to stick with Open Water as he was only interested in enjoying himself and photographing things.

The day was spent assisting Kadek, the Instructor who was taking myself and the Advanced student out. There was a long drive ahead of us to Tulamben over on the east coast – about three hours. I’d had an offer the day before to stay over there and I wish I’d taken it! We got on well, though, and the van was full of chatter for most of the journey.

Rather than whinge about how long the drive was, we took it as an opportunity to get a glimpse of Bali away from the tourist resorts. I’ll tell you, the prices drop a bit. We stopped at one garage and I picker up a Powerade. I misheard the woman when she charged me and handed her IDR12k – she only wanted four! That’s around 25p. The former is what I’d expect to pay at an Indonesian petrol station based on the price-hike fuel stops usually charge. Only I’m used to Kuta/tourist prices. Outside of these areas, things are even cheaper. So if you’re ever in Bali for a while, stock up on this stuff by taking a trip out of town.

Finally we arrived at the resort, which was quite swish. We pre-ordered lunch and got down to sorting equipment out. Porters – women with folded towels on their heads – carried all the gear down to the rocky beach. Amazingly, they stacked two tanks and BCDs on their head for each trip. Pretty impressive.

I took my camera on our first dive which was onto the Liberty wreck. It’s the remains of an old US freighter torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942. It was towed as far as Bali and beached rather than sunk. The locals pretty much tore it apart, then a volcanic eruption in 1963 caused it to tilt and slide into the sea, finally being put to rest. It’s a great wreck dive as it’s in such shallow water, making it ideal even for those with Open Water.

Wreck Dive is one of the optional courses for the Advanced certification, which was one of the reasons we were doing it. There were huge shoals of fish everywhere, from the bright yellow to the dull grey. Some enormous species were spotted near the bottom, and Kadek located a very elusive stone fish. As in Lembongan, I found the fish less “shy” than anywhere else. They would all come up and stare you right in the mask before zipping off again.

All too soon, the dive was over and we staggered back up the rocks for lunch. I made sure to coat myself in suntan lotion as my back was pretty scorched from forgetting the day before. Owies. More chat as we chowed down and then got ready for the second dive. I spent a bit of time with Lars and the Dutch chap (I wish I could remember his name – I think it was Chris…!) going over some stuff. Chris had been having problems equalising, particularly his right ear. I’d had something similar when I started diving, only I think it was my left for some reason. He did say it got a little easier with each dive and I sympathised, so at least he knew he wasn’t alone and that it would eventually sort itself out.

Both he and Lars had had problems sinking on the first dive, so we made sure the extra weights they’d been given were transferred to their weight belts. A short distance the opposite direction from the wreck was the Drop Off where we geared up and plunged in.

The visibility here wasn’t a patch on the earlier dive, but the scenery was vastly different. Chris used this dive to do his Navigation, one of the compulsory components which he passed no problem. We then swam gently over some sandy plains for a hundred metres or so until we started to find signs of life.

The fish here certainly weren’t as numerous as at the wreck, but there were still some sights to see. Some spiny fish that would jump out of their coral and “kiss” you if you blew bubbles at them. Pygmy seahorses that looked like tiny lumpy clay models. Some very rare fish that look like leaves.

The last ones we only really spotted as a diver with some serious looking photographic equipment was poised in front of them for ages. The really looked like two thin leaves, or perhaps some kind of grass just sticking up from the ocean floor. But look close enough and they were, indeed, fish.

Chris suffered one of the problems I used to have when I was learning to dive – get to 3m or so and up he popped like a cork. I gave him a hand staying submerged and when we were out I handed on some advice. It’s something I did until fairly recently, and it’s largely an experience thing. Make sure you dump all your air from the BCD by the time you hit 5m or so, and if you do keep rising, don’t panic. You’ll breathe in a lot more which makes you more buoyant and just increases the problem. Instead, breathe out fairly quickly then in slowly so that you sink again.

Back on shore, I haggled a t-shirt off a local for IDR50k. I need a new one as my Blue Dragon one seems to have gone missing in a wash somewhere. I’m gutted as I don’t think it’s replaceable. Ah well, worse things happen etc etc.

We sorted out all our equipment and I had a word with the other ProDive staff about what was coming up. As I wasn’t staying over, tomorrow will be a study day for me to work through the entire Dive Master manual and exercises. On Sunday morning, I’m to take the book to the office and get the rest of the texts I need, and perhaps do some more diving. Essentially, I’m at the mercy of customers – if there are any then I’m to assist the Instructors.

I do have a huge amount to get through to pass the course, though. Exercises, stamina tests, rescue scenarios, knowledge of Open Water technique to demonstration standard as well as all the theory and dive experience to get in.

It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Oh, dinner at the usual place. Chicken steak which was – need I say it – utterly delicious.

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Divemaster day 1

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Large ocean sunfish (Mola mola) at Monterey Ba...

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day spent chilling out and relaxing as I prepared for the regular sleeps I’d need for the next two weeks. Sadly, despite being in a complete party capital, there’s no way I can go out on the ale of an evening and then do 2-3 dives while in charge of other people the next day!

I didn’t quite get the sleep I intended. My alarm set for 6am, I was woken up by noise from next door. Not that I’m saying my neighbour is noisy. But the girl he brought home was – *ahem*. I thought it was a bit of a giggle and only an hour ahead of when I planned to wake anyway. The girl opposite, however, went banging on his door shouting “maybe you should get a place with windows!” The rooms here just have mosquito-proof mesh behind carved wooden pillars – no glass – so sound does leak from rooms easily.

When I woke early, the staff asked if I wanted breakfast which was great as I was actually kicking about half an hour before it’s meant to be served. I had my usual banana and jam jaffle (kind of a toastie) and some sweet tea then made my way around the corner where the ProDive staff were waiting for me.

Today was to be an easy introduction, to say the least. Not that I’m complaining. We picked up two Thai girls who’d been diving all week and headed for the dock where we loaded the boat and jetted off around to the other side of the little peninsula that Kuta’s on. There we were joined with three Japanese tourists staying at a posh resort. Around the resort were “fun boats”, large vessels with water slides and so on hanging off them – they looked great fun!

Our first dive site was just around the corner and we all jumped in off the back of the boat. And I swear it’s the coldest water I’ve ever dived into! Unbelievable given the surface temperature but that’s the sea for you. Deeper down, there were occasional “wafts” of warm water but that could have been one of the other divers having a pee. All it really succeeded in doing was making the water seem oily – a strange effect you get when cold and warm water mixes. The other thing I found out was that I need an extra weight when diving with a full-length wetsuit… thankfully my buddy had a spare or I’d have been sitting on the surface for forty minutes.

The quality of the dives here seems superb. Vast expanses of coral and a huge number of very brazen fish. I don’t recall ever getting so close to so many individual fish without them darting off. Playing with clown fish is a giggle – go up to the anemone they’re protecting and wiggle at it with your fingers. As it dashes towards you, put your arms into a ring and you’ll find the fish will often “climb” up to your shoulder before realising that home’s about two feet away.

Highlight of the dive was an unexpected sighing of a medium-sized (I was told) mola (or Ocean Sunfish – the heaviest bony fish in the world). We were around 20m down and it was nearer ten, but it was a sight to behold. I also like the diving sign-language symbol for it – a fist with the thumb up and little finger down. It really does look like the fish in question. The photo above isn’t one of mine (obviously, as it’s from an aquarium), but does give an idea of the size of these things.

Back on the surface, I wasn’t feeling too great as we had lunch. I’ve been good on boats recently and don’t think I was that close to being ill, but it took me ages to eat my sandwich and orange. I gave my cake (delicious though the nibble I had was) to another couple who boarded for an afternoon dive. They’d not eaten since 7am, so I took pity.

The second dive was also superb, but subject to a lot of current. I was pleased on this one to spot a huge stone fish. Unfortunately, I’d not taken my camera with me on this trip so didn’t get any photos. One of the Thai girls went snap-happy and I hope they’ll email me so I can ask for copies. Stone fish (hand symbol – clenched fist as in the rock/hammer/scissors game) are damn hard to see. After I spotted it, I was trying to get my Divemaster‘s attention. Every time I glanced away, I lost it and had to find the thing again.

After this dive, the newer couple and the Japanese left is and the girls tanked up for a third dive. I was only doing the two, but after missing sleep I was quite happy to lie on one of the comfy padded benches and snatch a bit of a kip in the sun. Of course, I’ll regret it when the sunburn comes up.

Then back to shore, a meeting with a cute dog at the equipment store and paying my bill at the office. I picked up my Divemaster manual and DVD as well. Got those to start studying this evening. $750 for this course is a bargain. If I was doing 2 dives a day over 14 days, the least it would cost me would be $840 and much more if I chose anything other than the cheapest dive sites. Having said that, they get another Divemaster on their crew for the duration of the course (and perhaps for a short time after depending on my plans).

I did find out I can renew my visa here, regardless of what it says on my passport stamp. Thing is, it costs IDR1.5million – around £90. Given that the original visa is US$25, this is pretty steep but still far cheaper than going anywhere else outside of Indonesia and re-entering. I also think it’s slightly dodgy!

Dinner was at my now-regular Gong Corner 2 hangout where I went for the pork steak. Which was – and this is no surprise – bloody delicious. And just over a quid. No wonder I’ve gone there three nights in a row. Every time I order fruit salad for dessert, it gets a little bigger as well. I wonder how much they’ll be cramming on my plate by the end of next week?

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