Many people have asked me in the past few weeks how my planned trip to Bali is going. So I’ll show you where I’m at and what I’ve already accomplished.
First, let’s see the checklist!
✅ organizing a trip to Surat Thani,
✅ buying a flight to Bali,
✅ booking accommodation in Bangkok,
✅ arranging an Indonesian visa,
✅ choosing a place in Bali,
✅ booking accommodation in Bali,
✅ buying a flight to Thailand.
If you don’t want to read any further, you can see from the ticks that I have nothing further to do. If you’re interested in the exciting details: go ahead!
So, everything is ready on paper. But paper doesn’t always show the exciting details: I’m telling you those now.
1. Surat Thani
In the blog “I bought my flight ticket – next act” I wrote that I had my flight ticket and that – since it is cheaper – I am not flying from Koh Samui airport, but from Surat Thani.
I booked a trip from here to Surat Thani – relatively – easily using the 12GO website. I say relatively easy because I had to sweat before I could choose a transfer with the right details.
The information is not very detailed for the providers, so figuring out where the given transfer leaves from was not easy. This island is big enough that a 30-kilometer walk in the morning would be strenuous before departure… I had to exclude unsuitable companies from the search, because when I checked the options for the given day, I got about 10 600 results appeared on the site… Finally, I found the right ride, after having a hard time understanding (or thinking I understood) that the meeting point they named Fisherman’s Village Hotel is not a specific hotel (because I couldn’t find a hotel with that name), but that this expression means that they pick you up in front of the hotels on that street…
The trip consists of two parts: first I leave the island by boat, then I arrive in the next town by minibus. I am forced to do all this on November 20th, because even if I choose the earliest option of the daily flights, I wouldn’t be able to get to the airport by 5:45 on the 21st. So I will leave my current place of residence on the 20th. I will be in Surat Thani by three in the afternoon, so I will have a chance to wander around the town a bit.
I don’t want to spend any more money on accommodation there, so I’ll go to the airport in the evening and spend the night there so I can fly to Bangkok early in the morning.
2. Bangkok: accommodation and departure
In the aforementioned “I bought my plane ticket – next act article“, I told you how my second plane was delayed 2-3 hours after I bought it.
I will have accommodation during the 27 hours I spent there, which I had already booked.
The point is that I will have a great day to explore Bangkok. I am looking forward to that too.
3. Indonesian visa
Seriously, I got a few falls while applying for the visa, and for a few moments I thought I was cursed.
I didn’t want to make the same mistake I made on the way here, so I read the relevant information on the appropriate Hungarian website.
Here it is: Citizens of 97 countries, including Hungarian citizens, have the opportunity to enter the country with a Visa on Arrival (VoA) visa for 30 days for tourism, business or official purposes (which can be extended for another 30 days at the local immigration office) by meeting the following requirements:
- passport (diplomatic / official / regular) valid for at least 6 (six) months,
- return flight ticket,
- payment of visa fee of IDR 500,000 upon arrival.
Here is the short story: I first looked at this information a few weeks ago. I also saw that the price of the Visa was 500,000 IDR, i.e. Indonesian Rupiah. I quickly checked the exchange rate for this currency. I had a minor heart attack when I saw the multiplier of 4.3. 2,150,000 HUF seemed a bit excessive for a visa. After the systolic attack, I realized my mistake: 4.3 is the exchange rate for the Indian Rupee. An Indonesian Rupiah costs 2 fillér, i.e. 0.02 HUF. The visa, calculated in this way, costs 10,000 HUF.
My parents and I were talking about currencies back in the summer. Then I asked ChatGPT, “Is there a currency that is weaker than the forint?” AI listed six currencies in total, so Hungary is not particularly high on the list of currency strengths.
To begin with, I couldn’t access the Indonesian visa page. Based on the error message, I assumed it was my VPN connection. I turned it off, logged in, but I didn’t understand the situation.
A passport and a self-portrait photo are required for registration. I have both. The system didn’t accept my excellent quality scanned passport photo. Again, I didn’t understand what the problem was. The photos shown as samples were of much lower quality than the one I had. As a solution, I quickly took a photo with my phone. It turned out pretty crappy. The system accepted it.
Then came the choice of visa type. This is where I started to sweat. It’s not like you choose “I kiss you, I want a Visa on Arrival type visa”. That would be too easy.
You have to choose from the “The main purpose of my visit to Indonesia is” option. If you have that, another option will open called “The sub purpose of my visit to Indonesia is”. If you have also selected that, then the “I want to explore & choose a visa” option will appear. Maybe for the third time I managed to set the bits so that I could choose the type of document I needed.
This is what it says. It’s worth going through because you can see that I’m not just entering the country “doing what I feel like doing in Bali”.
B1 – Tourist (Visa on Arrival): A person who is a national of visa on arrival country/special entity who will be visiting Indonesia for: ✓ Visiting certain places for the purpose of recreation, personal development, or studying the uniqueness of tourist attractions including but not limited to traveling by yacht, or attending as a participant in meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions activities; ✓ Discussion, negotiation, and/or signing of business agreements including but not limited to offices, factories, or places of production of goods; ✓ Conduct field observations of offices, factories, places to produce goods, places to be invested, and or mining facilities; and ✓ Medical related activities.
I’m a little nervous about whether this visa allows you to take photos, for example. And if so, where…
The somewhat lengthy visa part is not over yet. Believe me, I really sweated!
In order to apply for this visa, I had to upload a picture of another official document. It couldn’t be easier, because I have everything! I took my ID card and casually pushed it in next to the upload button. Then I gasped when it said that this wouldn’t work, in .pdf format please…
Pfff.
After converting the file, I had to enter the address where I would be living. I was already scratching my head here. I hadn’t even decided where I wanted to go. At the same time, I also noticed that I had to fill in the flight number leaving the country and the relevant flight ticket.
After I had these (see next points), I wanted to finish the visa application, but I spent so much time buying the flight ticket and booking the accommodation that the page cut off when I continued.
No problem! The second time the process went smoothly and after paying the visa fee, after maybe two minutes of waiting, I finally received the desired document.
After all this struggle, when the e-visa finally arrived, I honestly felt like a small victory. Bali had officially given me the green light!
4. Choosing a location in Bali
I could have flipped a coin, but I wanted to look around a little more. I don’t know why, but I chose Denpasar. It’s the capital of Bali province. The name of the city means “northern city.” I’ll tell you the rest when I get there.
I’m going to live here. The marker shows my accommodation.
5. Accommodation in Bali
I booked my accommodation on Booking. I had to make a lot of choices because the city is big (650,000 people live there). I wanted accommodation that was close to the sea. Wifi was also important. So I chose this accommodation.
The only thing missing from the room is a table. I will look for a solution for that there. This accommodation was available at such a good price that I booked it for the entire duration of my stay. Now I was able to buy it with a 56% discount.
Booking was so smart that after my multiple purchases, I got a free taxi from the airport to the accommodation. The hotel is only 5 km from the airport, which I usually do on foot, getting to know the city. But this time I gladly accepted the taxi.
As a special request, I asked the taxi company to have the driver wait with a sign that says STEVE. Jesus! Well, we’ve made it to this point! I’ve only seen this in movies…
6. Buy a flight ticket to Thailand
Since there are two digital nomad events here in Asia that I want to attend, I had to pull myself together to plan ahead. Bring on the spontaneous digital nomad life!
This is the program I planned until March:
With this table, I was able to accurately define how long I can stay in Indonesia, when I need to be back in Thailand, and how I will be able to go to Vietnam. Plus, I don’t have to think about the settlement during my next visit to Thailand and Vietnam!
From Bali, I will be coming back to Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand, on the first Monday of next year, on three flights.
There is an interesting thing about the first flight. The flight leaves at 10:35 and arrives at 10:35. This is not because it travels at the speed of light, but because I will be traveling back one time zone.
By the way, since Hungary switched to winter time, and Thailand does not have such a thing, I am now +6 hours away in the far distance instead of +5 hours. In Indonesia, it will be +7 hours.
As I look at the schedule, I feel: this trip will not only take me to Bali, but also to a new chapter.
In my backpack, I see not only clothes and tools, but also all the decisions I have made so far. Each city I have left has made a little space for the next. Now comes Bali. And that’s good!Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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Short introduction