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Seven Months in Bali
Mayumi and I decided to live in Bali for
a while. In May of 2002 we went there for two weeks to check out the
possibilities. We spent a lot of time looking for a house to rent and making
absolutely sure we could get our two Golden Retriever dogs into and out of Bali
– not a small consideration.
We removed all of the very personal items
from our home while leaving the place completely furnished and rented it to a
family awaiting military housing. We returned to Bali in early July of 2002 and
remained there until the beginning of February, 2003.
You can see a brief slide show of a few
(26) photos we took during this trip by going to
www.shutterfly.com. Once there
sign in using my e-mail address
(spengelm001@hawaii.rr.com) and a password of hocuspocus. Click on
Bali 2002 and on the next page on View as Slideshow.
Toward the end of our stay I was
contacted by a Brit who, with his Japanese girlfriend, was considering moving to
Bali. He plied me with lots of questions and I did my best to answer them.
Eventually, he compiled our e-mail exchanges and posted them on a web site
dedicated to expatriates living in Bali. The following is his compilation. He
and Akari eventually moved to Bali.
At the time this was written the U.S.
dollar was very roughly worth 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah.
“I have been exchanging
emails with an expat based in Candi Dasa, Karangasem Regency. He has given me
lot of practical and useful guidance about relocating to Bali. At his
suggestion, I am posting this advice as it might be of use to others
contemplating a similar move. These are one person’s views and opinions, based
on his experiences. Please don’t get uptight if you disagree or if they don’t
work for you. Doubtless, some others will have different views and they can post
them if they wish. Like Akari & me, he is a diver so apologies if the stuff at
the end about scuba and boats is not of interest.
OK, in no particular order ……………
House Rental
Rented an attractive modern furnished house with a pool
close to Candi Dasa at US$1,000/month.
You can pay a lot more or a lot less. A nearby place
goes for $4,000/month and have heard of an expat who pays Rp 5M/year
($600/year).
Why He Chose Candi Dasa To Live
It is reasonably close to the eastern scuba sites on
Bali but isn’t as isolated as Tulamben, Amed, etc. There are places to fill
scuba tanks, decent restaurants, and what passes locally for a supermarket
(you’ll laugh when you see it). Padang Bai would have been OK except that it’s
something of a congested backpacker’s town with too many transients. That sort
of setting makes the local vendors too aggressive.
Living in a Remote Location
Tulamben and Amed are about three hours from the nearest
real supermarket. Menjangan even farther. Items you commonly find in a drug
store at home are unknown outside the tourist areas and sometimes even hard to
find there. I went to five apotiks in Kuta before finding hydrogen peroxide.
Think real seriously about living in the boondocks. And no matter where you
live, even in Denpasar, ensure ahead of time that the place has an operative
telephone line and adequate electrical service. Some homes have a mere 2000
Watt capacity – that’s about one TV and one hair dryer. Before shaking hands
find out about the nature and adequacy of the water supply and what happens to
the waste water. How frequently does the power fail? Don’t ask the guy renting
the place to you. If you get much more remote than Candi Dasa you’d better buy
a generator and forget about telephone service.
Domestic Staff
Our maid earns Rp 300,000/mo (roughly $32)
The cook gets 600,000 (about $64)
The gardener/pool man gets 300,000
The young man who brushes each of our dogs for 30
minutes/day and bathes them weekly gets 100,000/month ($11)
Before working for us our maid and the dog groomer had
never tasted beef – too expensive.
You’ll probably have to pay a premium to get a cook who
is actually willing and able to learn other types of cooking (e.g.
Japanese/Thai/Chinese ) regardless of what they say about their willingness and
ability.
I had considered a driver and security. Drivers get
about Rp 700,000/month ($75) to drive a car you supply and their day runs to around
eight hours.
I don’t know of anyone who has a dedicated security
staff although I’m sure there must be some. We haven’t felt the need. But with
our existing staff and ourselves it’s unusual that the house is empty. When we
take overnight or longer trips our maid stays in the house overnight and we give
her about RP 20,000 (2.15) per day. That includes feeding the dogs as well.
Utility Costs
Phone, fuel and electrical prices all went up an average
of 22% on 1 January of 2002. There has been rioting and the government may back
down. The IMF is really pushing these increases as
Indonesia needs a further $2B to get through this fiscal year. Electricity Is
quite high here. Our electric bill is about 800,000/month ($86)
Internet Costs
The phone bill is quite high. All calls I make to
connect to the internet are “interlocal” to Denpasar cost about Rp. 100,000/hour
($11) during business hours. Most homes don’t have telephones. I’m not sure of the
satellite service cost, but it is quite expensive. Further, I think you only
receive from the satellite and send via phone lines. I use the Centrin Internet
Service Provider, and they’re reasonably reliable. There’s a free service from
the phone company but I never figured out how to use Outlook to send e-mail that
way. It’s also less reliable than Centrin. Centrin is cheap enough, it’s the
phone charges that eat you alive.
US$400 Satellite TV System
Excludes the cost of the TV and will pull in over 100
channels. Most will not be useful to you if you don’t speak some dialect of
Chinese, Arabic, Indonesian, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, etc. But
there are about a dozen with some or all English language programming including
BBC, ABC Australia, Channel News Asia, Central China TV and some others. No
monthly charges.
Dharma Yasa Service
Denpasar
0812 3968311
Wayan - English is quite workable
Indosat Satellite TV System
A little more you can buy an Indosat system. Has fewer
but better selection of channels But monthly subscription fees.
Automobile Rental
Wirasana
Tel 0361 286066
No e-mail
A ’96 Kijang cost 2,400,000 Rp/Mo ($265)
Treated us pretty well. They are on the main road
coming through Sanur on the left side about 30 meters before the Kentucky Fried
Chicken intersection.
A car was necessary for several reasons
1. Weekly shopping runs to Sanur and Kuta
2. It would be impractical to carry all our purchases on
bikes.
3. The rain is daily and heavy right now until about
April
Buying a car may be the way to go for long term
residence, but I’d wait until having been here for several months before getting
the hook set that firmly.
For our weekly trips to shop in Sanur & Kuta I struck a
deal with hotels in each town. In Kuta we stayed at the beautiful Santika
Beach Hotel for US $70/night and in Sanur in the equally attractive but much
smaller Parigata for $50. It isn’t absolutely necessary
to remain overnight, but the church my wife likes
to attend only has mass in English at 6 P.M. on Sundays. I’m not enamored of driving at night
here (and bet you won’t be, either), so we stay overnight.
Drivers License
Come equipped with an international driver’s license
endorsed for a motorbike. It makes life much simpler. The police regularly
have checkpoints to check motorbike drivers for licenses because there are so
many unlicensed drivers.
Bikers (Motorbikes)
I have frequent urges to run over some of the bikers.
They have no concept of rules of the road, basic physics (cars can’t stop on a
dime when a bike pulls in front of them), or self-preservation (pulling onto a
road with not even a glance at oncoming traffic). I’ve run like hell after
witnessing two accidents and my wife is still fussing at me about that. If you
actually are involved in a personal injury or death accident DON’T STOP!!! Go to
the nearest police station. Stopping can get you killed by an angry mob. This
happens to locals from time to time, too.
Driver
If you need a driver for anything I highly recommend
I Nyoman Sundra (Tommy)
08123628019
We’ve used him for many things since arriving here.
He’s a great guy with a good command of English. He’s the sort of guy you can
give a large wad of cash to, say please go to such and such a place and pick up
so-and-so for me, and expect the job to be done correctly and with integrity and
he returns with the correct change.
Visas
You can avoid some of the costs of visa runs to
Singapore by getting a
Sosial Budaya visa. This visa is good for 60 days (just like a regular tourist
visa) but may be extended as many as four times for 30 days each by a trip to
the immigration office. Hint: go to the immigration office near the airport
rather than in Denpasar – less crowded. You cannot obtain a Sosial Budaya visa
once you’re in country. You need a sponsor who must be engaged in business The
sponsor completes a form and sends it to you along with a copy of their national
identity card. You take/send these items along with your passport and a couple
of passport photos plus about US$60 to the nearest Indonesian embassy or
consulate and they issue the visa. The visa issued this way is good for 60 days
beginning with the date of your entry into Indonesia. We didn’t know anyone
here when we went this route and so relied on a commercial “visa broker” who
charged us US$300 each for her services which included the four runs to
immigration for extensions. The service was spotty as the agent wasn’t too
bright and had no sense of urgency. Asri (see below) told us she’d have been
glad to do it for us. I expect she’d be very pleased with $100 each. You could
make your own extension runs or at least those following the first. After this
thing dies its natural death at the end of six months, you then leave the
country armed with a new sponsor’s letter, etc. and go to a consulate in
Singapore or wherever. Singapore is now taking three days to turn these things
around but I’ve read there are agents who can get it done in a half day. You’ll
be ready for a taste of high-rise buildings, neon lights and clean restaurant
kitchens each six months anyway. You can also find tons of food items there
which are unavailable in Bali.
Customs
By the government’s own admission, the most corrupt part
of officialdom. They held us up for US$460 to bring our dogs in. People
bringing or shipping books in to donate to schools have had to pay exorbitant
customs duties. They tried to tell Customs, “OK, you can just dump the books,”
but that didn’t work either. Pay up or leave. Having said that, I’ve been in
and out of the country half a dozen times since arrival and have had no further
problems with customs.
What To Bring - Clothing
Don’t’ bother with many extra clothes as you can
purchase clothing here more cheaply than you can ship it. You can have anything
made to order quite cheaply from knockabout clothing to formal wear
Alus Tailor & Boutique
Jl Raya Kuta No. 408
Phone 0361-753646
alusasri@yahoo.com.
Operated by a charming woman named Asri Mara. Asri
speaks English excellently. My wife has had a ton of clothing made in Asri’s
shop. Asri can be a big help in guiding you to other things you may need
What To Bring - CD’s
In any quantity might be a problem with customs, but why
bother? You can buy all the CD’s you want here as copies for practically
nothing. The exception is classical music. When I ask for that in music shops
I’m offered The Beatles or Elvis Presley. Non-pirated CDs cost the same here as
in the
US.
What To Bring - Kitchen Utensils
No need.
What To Bring – Conclusion
In short, bring only a change of clothes and your scuba
gear. And a computer if you’re bent that way.
Books
There’s a book exchange shop in Candi Dasa. Pretty old
stuff and mostly romance novels, but the exceptions will help fill idle hours.
There are two bookshops in the Galleria in Kuta that are fairly good.
Makro
A poor man’s WalMart. On the bypass road between Kuta
and Sanur. Membership costs about US$2.50. All the kitchen stuff you might
need. Electrical appliances ranging from crap to fairly good.
Food
Clothing
Office supplies, etc
Even if you only went there once each six months it
would be worth the $2.50 membership fee.
Also, part of your orientation should be to find out
what’s available there and elsewhere before driving yourself nuts looking for
some little electrical adapter that’s readily available. Lots of common little
things like that aren’t available in the hinterlands. For me to drive from Candi
Dasa to Sanur takes about 90 minutes. Macro is perhaps ten minutes farther.
Other Shops
Pepito Supermarket, Kuta,
Matahari Supermarket in the Galleria at the big traffic
circle going out of Kuta
Lotus for delicatessen items located just south of the
airport
Food
Has been a significant expense for us. Produce in the
local markets is not of very good quality.
Local beef is pretty poor. Western packaged/canned food
items only available to a limited extent in the supermarkets cited above at a
pretty stiff markup.
Japanese Food
My wife bought so much Japanese food on our first trip
to
Singapore we had to buy an
additional bag.
There
is a Japanese food wholesaler located just two or three doors away from the Bali
Plaza Duty Free shop in Kuta (not the same as the Duty Free Shoppers at the Kuta
traffic circle). They will sell to individuals and even gave us a list of all
the items they carry complete with prices. The prices weren’t bargains.
Security
We have had no incidents of theft or vandalism. I’ve
even gotten so careless as to leave the car unlocked with items of no very great
value inside.
Sponsoring Local Families
Contributions of an intellectual nature or in the form
of physical assistance would serve better than cash contributions. You might
want to consider trying to remain a little aloof from your neighbors. They will
view you as unspeakably wealthy and will (not totally unreasonably) feel that
you have a social obligation to share your wealth with them. Their idea of
sharing fairly may well not coincide with your idea of fairness and that could
lead to some enduring hard feelings. A common occurrence here is for locals to
invite you into their home and make a great and sincere effort at showing
hospitality. But somewhere in the course of events they will begin telling you
their very real list of hardships and you’ll find it quite difficult to extract
yourself without making some sort of contribution. Once the hook is set you
will be reeled in continuously.
Lots of expats here find themselves in the role of
sponsors of local families and aren’t too sure of how it came about. We made a
policy of not accepting invitations into homes of locals by saying that we are
very uncomfortable in imposing on their hospitality. The few exceptions we’ve
made were to visit the homes of acquaintances who are more well to do.
Corruption
I have been stopped a few times by police who made no
bones about wanting me to contribute to their family’s welfare right in front of
several of their fellow police. Bribes are acceptable at all levels of
officialdom. Usually they needn’t be very large. If you apply for an
Indonesian driver’s license, for example, you will be charged an “administrative
fee” that can not be found on the books. There is usually a long line to apply
for the driver’s license, but a little tip in the right place will get you to
the head of the line.
In order to enter Bali a
foreigner must have a ticket for onward travel. I made a business trip out of
Bali and failed to take my Bali-Honolulu ticket along. On my return from this
trip the immigration police gave me a hard time. I explained that my return
ticket was in Candi Dasa, but this didn’t satisfy them…smell a shakedown? I got
my back up and said I’d be happy to leave the country on the next flight back to
Singapore. At that point the police decided that a $5.00 “administrative fee”
would resolve the problem.
And so life goes on.
The
Jakarta Post
Reading the only available daily English language newspaper, the
Jakarta Post, will either make you laugh or cry.
An unsuccessful candidate for the governorship of
Jakarta sued members of the
city council because they didn’t vote for him after he had paid them heavy money
in bribes.
Bank
officials who stole and misappropriated many millions of dollars were let off
because they “made restitution.”
In January of 2002 there was a big splash in the news
about the heroic customs department confiscating three ultra-light aircraft
being smuggled in from
Germany. In July the
aircraft couldn’t’ be found.
In an unrelated story, the head of the customs
department learned from the newspaper that his assistant was replacing him.
Editorials asked, tongue only partly in cheek, if the assistant were really qualified for
the job as he only had a single conviction for corruption.
It’s a rare day when there isn’t some such nonsense in
the paper.
Bargaining
Be sure to bargain for EVERYTHING in
Bali. This applies to anything you buy and especially to personal services.
Paying 1/3 of original asking price is quite normal if you bargain well.
But don’t get confrontational in your bargaining or the
sellers just refuse to play the game with you.
Exchange Rates
Are better in the Kuta/Sanur area than elsewhere.
Street exchange rates are much better than bank rates and far superior to hotel
rates, but be cautious. The most trustworthy places to exchange are called PT
Central and are usually collocated with Kodak photo shops. Last Saturday I got
Rp 9,050/US$1. Since we arrived the rate has fluctuated from a high of 9,900
down to 8,600. Older
U.S. bills, those with ANY
markings on them, or bills with any fading or tears are not accepted in
exchange.
Mail
During our reconnaissance trip here in May of ’02 I
mailed a letter from
Bali to our home in Hawaii.
When we left Hawaii to come back to Bali on July 10th, the letter still had not
arrived. Before leaving
Hawaii on July 10th I
mailed a letter to myself at our Bali address. It hasn’t come yet.
‘Nuff said on that subject.
Bank Accounts
If you anticipate the need to have funds transferred to
Bali, open an account here
in your currency. Otherwise the bank will eat you up with the exchange rate if
you have a Rupiah denominated account, a mistake I made. Get your money from
the bank here in your currency and go to a good money changer. Be selective in
the bank you use – many of them are about to collapse.
That’s another Indonesian scandal. Because of the theft
and misappropriations mentioned above, the government created the Indonesian
Bank Redevelopment Board (IBRA) to merge some of the insolvent banks. The
members of this board have also dipped into the till.
We used BCA which is the largest privately owned bank in
Indonesia, but I’m not sure
it was a particularly safe choice. At any rate, don’t use the small, local
banks. Seems simpler to just continue with your current account and arrange
with your present bank to do a wire transfer to an account you establish here
when you request them to do so. That worked well for us.
Massage In Candi Dasa
Of paramount importance:
Dewi Spa and Salon
Jalan Raya Candidasa, Candidasa, Tel. 0363 41982
Rp 40,000 for 1 hour
Ngungah does a great job. She and Wayan came to
our house regularly for this price.
Phones
Calling us in
Indonesia is pretty iffy. My wife’s friends call her from Hawaii and Japan.
Have to try for days to get through.
Scuba
On our reconnaissance trip here last May we made the
acquaintance of a really neat guy who owns a scuba business in Candi Dasa:
He’s Japanese
Hiro
DiveLite
0363 41660
http://www.divelite.com
go@divelite.com
Hiro also has another Japanese instructor named Noriko
Fukuda working for him.
Noriko is a hoot to dive with. She lived in the
US for a while and gets
along with English reasonably well.
I told Hiro I’d like to dive with him for a while after
coming here in July until I learned the dive sites and how best to exploit them
after which I’d dive on my own. That worked out very well.
Hiro took me to the dive sites and gave me a good run
down on them as well as telling me how much I should pay and to whom.
You'll be a little surprised about who gets paid although its only a few cents
for some. Subsequently I dived alone (my wife only snorkels) at these sites and paid
reasonable prices for boats to take me out. A jukung (outrigger canoe with
motor) for a dive close to the point of departure will cost about Rp 70,000 for
two dives on average. Many dives may be made as shore dives.
A superb guide to the dive sites including good charts
of each is
Diving
Bali by David Pickell and Wally Siagain
published by Periplus.
Hiro’s wife Ime is an Indonesian from
Sumatra and she speaks English pretty well. She’s been of invaluable assistance
to us several times and they have both become our friends. Hiro’s business as
well as all others was hurt severely in the aftermath of the Bali bombing.
Scuba Gear
The best shop for scuba gear I’ve found considering
price as well as selection is
Divemasters
Sanur Bypass
0361 289028
sales@aquasport.co.id.
Ask for Diah.
There are no shops in the CD area selling gear although
Hiro can usually help out with a short-term fix.
Scuba Air Fills
I’ve been asked to pay as much as Rp 50,000 for air
fills but have never had to pay more than 20,000.
Boats
I had thought about leasing/buying/renting a boat
while here but changed my mind soon after arrival. There’s no way to moor or
slip a boat of any size except at Padang Bai or Benoa.
All boats here are dragged up on the beach when not in
use. Next, it’s really rare to see a boat here suitable for personal use other
than a jukung unless you’re interested in something of the live-aboard size.
That is to say, almost NO fiberglass or aluminum runabouts. Then there’s the
matter of mobility: if you have a boat in Padang Bai, what will you do when you
go to Tulamben? That’s a 75 minute drive but would be a full day boat trip.
I’ve never seen a boat being hauled over the road here and for that matter
haven’t seen any trailers at all. I sure wouldn’t want to drive under
local conditions with a trailer."
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