Why visit Indonesia?

Indonesia remains to this day one of my undisputed favorites, even though I have only seen a very small part of it, the country is so vast.

The welcome and kindness of the people have a lot to do with it. It is a grandiose country, quite simply large, Indonesia being made up of more than 17 islands, which makes it the largest archipelago in the world, no more, no less. Only the main islands, namely Sumatra, Java, Bali (which is part of the Sunda Islands), Borneo, Sulawesi as well as part of Papua allow you to spend months if you want to travel through these regions.

And that's why we plan to go back. The country offers a range of fabulous landscapes. It is a land of adventure with its many volcanoes, ancient ruins, testimony to a rich past and its historic temples. including the world famous Borobudur temple.

It is a country full of surprises where even I learned a lot while writing this page. If I tell you that there are glaciers in Indonesia, are you surprised? Another example, we can find the hills at teletubbies (Hill Teletubbies), yes yes, a reference to small beings weird of the world of Tinky-Winky, a flagship children's program of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Here is a summary of some essential information to know before any stay in Indonesia.

No. Since 2016, holders of French, Belgian, Swiss or Canadian passports obtain a 30-day visa exemption upon arrival (as in Thailand). Just to keep a record, I'll leave this sentence here... but the rules have changed...

Yes... since June 2023, it is indeed necessary to acquire a visa to visit Indonesia. Covid has left some traces, the country having indefinitely suspended the visa exemption for practically all countries that benefited from it…

Visa on Arrival (VOA) for Indonesia

You can easily obtain a visa directly upon arrival in the country. You will have the choice of a large number of arrival points, including 16 airports (Jakarta, Yogyakarta or Bali to name just a few), 91 seaports et 7 border checkpoints (you have a list here, even if the latter is incomplete, it already gives an idea)

The Visa On Arrival gives you 30 days for a fee of €30 (approximately, the price is given in Indonesian rupiah, namely 500 Rp).

The advantage of this visa is the possibility of being able to extend your stay once you are there, if you decide that 30 days is not enough, which was not possible with the exemption previously in place.

Obtaining your visa through an agency

This is the small “partner” section but if you ever have the administrative phobia (or “syndrome of Thevenoud"), you can always simplify the process by letting an agency take care of it.

For an additional fee, this saves you the embarrassment or stress of having to deal with filling out a site in English if you are not comfortable with the language of Shakespeare. It costs €52 to obtain a visa within a standard time frame.

The agency I recommend allows you to obtain the visa in 5 days by default (if you pay more, you can have an express version in 3 days, or even in just 48 hours)

• https://www.ivisa.com/indonesia/electronic-customs-declaration

Renew visa at immigration

The application can be made in person and at least one week before the expiration of the current visa, by going to a local immigration service. The whole thing is done in three stages.

1st visit – submission of documents (between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.):

• Go to one of the country's immigration offices (see map below).
• Complete form 23
• Photocopy + passport (including name, address information page + entry stamp and visa page)
• Return plane ticket proving your exit from the territory

2nd visit – payment and fingerprints (between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.):

• Go to the counter to get an ID photo
• Get your appointment for the 3rd visit
• Pay the visa fee (€30)

3rd visit – passport collection (between 14 p.m. and 15 p.m.)

Renew visa online

The good news is that the extension can now be requested online, avoiding a potentially inconvenient trip. This is done via the official website: https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/

Electronic visa or e-Visa (before departure)

If you plan to stay more than 30 days, obtaining the new e-Visitor Visa (former eVOA), is the obvious solution since the latter will entitle you to stay 60 days in a row, thus avoiding having to go through immigration once there or having to think about doing your extension online.

This visa costs €90Its main interest therefore lies in the absence of having to worry about an extension because you can certainly stay 60 days with the simple Visa On Arrival, by doing 2x30 days, which is cheaper since it will be 2x30 € instead of the 90 € of this E-Visa.

It is valid for three months (so you must apply less than 3 months before your arrival). The application is made via the same site as the VOA extension: https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/

The following documents will be required:

• Passport valid for at least six months
• Provide proof of at least $2000 (ensuring that you will have the necessary funds for your visit)
• Copy of your return ticket or, failing that, a ticket indicating an exit from the territory before 60 days
• A recent passport photo

There is also a distinction between two types of visa:

Single Entry Visa:

• • Single entry
  • $50 per person / visit
  • Validity of 90 days (after the date of issue of the visa)
  • 60 day stay and from what I read, can be renewed up to 4 times 30 days but I'm not sure if it's valid under a tourist visa
  • If you leave the country, it cancels your visa
  • Possible for visa in the tourism, business, socio-cultural and research categories.

Multiple Entry Visa:

Multiple entry allows, as its name suggests, to enter several times for stays of 60 consecutive days. Once the 60 days are up, you just leave the territory and can return the same day to stay another 60 days. It is unlikely that you will take this option because it is only valid for an official, professional or family visit, the famous social-cultural visa.

It is still possible to convert

• • Multiple entry
  • $110 per visa
  • Validity of one year (visa must be used within 90 days from the date of issue)
  • Stays of 60 days max per visit
  • If you leave the country, the visa remains valid

This information is for information purposes only, find out more in advance if you are planning a long stay. (mainly tourist).

In case of excess

Coming to Indonesia

Overall, you can find good prices around €500 return. If your default destination is the capital, Jakarta, you have good options with very good company Cathay Pacific from €550 with a stopover in Hong Kong (company headquarters).

With a stopover in Bangkok, you can test Thai Airways which also offers similar rates below €600. EVA Air also with a stopover in Taiwan.

Finally, Qatar Airways offers a flight for around €615 with a stopover in Doha, which has the advantage of better splitting up the flights, because a Paris – Hong Kong flight with Cathay, for example, is 11 hours straight.

Also be careful to look at the stopover times. Thai Airways and Qatar offer stopovers that are not too long.

In addition to all this, there are even cheaper options if you don't mind making 2 stopovers. For example, there is a SWISS + Singapore Airlines combo starting at €493, with stopovers in Zurich and Singapore.

If you are going directly to Bali (which I think will concern a majority of those who read this page), we find similar options in terms of stopover time and prices with Thai Airways, the cheapest from €593, and Qatar but also Singapore Airlines, from €640.

With two stopovers, it is also cheaper, still with the Swiss + Singapore Airlines combo from €500 but also with Lufthansa + Singapore in the €520 range.

Getting around Indonesia

We had the opportunity to test the train between Surabaya and Yogyakarta but overall, most of your travel will be by bus. The train is currently only available on the island of Java and to a lesser extent, on Sumatra (I will expand on this subject below).

Basically, you can reach several important islands through international airports namely:

• Jakarta on the island of Java
• Praya on Lombok
• Denpasar to Bali
• Medan on Sumatra

To navigate between the different islands, the country is obviously equipped with a network of ferries for the larger ones or speed boats for the smaller islands.

It is also possible to arrive via Malaysia or Singapore, two neighboring countries in the archipelago.

In larger cities you will find taxis or motorbike taxis. As the metro is still in its infancy, there is only a light rail in Palembang on Sumatra and a metro line in Jakarta which just opened in 2019.

Otherwise, there is always the option of renting cars or motorbikes to go exploring independently.

Road transport

What if I told you 480 kilometers? This is the total road network (of which only 743 kilometres are motorways), to which I should add that 1/3 are not paved. In short, it could be better, because it is below the average for Southeast Asian countries. But it certainly does not hinder visiting the essential part of the country (for comparison, France, a country 4x smaller, total 1 million kilometers).

The buses

Except for the Papua part of Indonesia and the Moluccas, the bus will probably be your mode of transport of choice.

On inter-city routes, you will only benefit from air-conditioned buses if the roads are wide, therefore mainly between large cities. Otherwise, it will be more like local buses, often narrow with little space for luggage that you will have to fit somewhere under your feet or knees.

Knowing that in Indonesia, people smoke everywhere, I hope that the idea of ​​traveling with the constant smell of cigarettes does not bother you. (I know not sure if this is also the case in air-conditioned buses, because we did not have the opportunity to test any).

Another peculiarity, hold on tight, Indonesia has quite the reputation of "fast & furious" for its bus "pilots".

We can distinguish 3 classes:

• Economy class (economy) : cIt is the cheapest, so the conditions are proportional to the rate. No air conditioning, no spaces (possibility to travel standing up), it's slow because it will stop to pick up people all along the way, but it's picturesque!
• Express (patas) : cIt's the same as in " Economic " except that theoretically, they don't stop at the side of the road recover people passing by, but only at city bus terminals, hence the more “express” aspect. Some journeys will even have the luxury of air conditioning.
• Air-con nozzles (executive): if you know Thailand, it's similar to the VIP buses. You can choose between different price categories, depending on whether the equipment includes reclining seats, toilets, TV, karaoke (better not have it working...) or small snacks. These buses must be booked in advance and you can choose your seat.

Economy fares are particularly "cheap". Even though my trip starts on that date (it was in 2011), we had local bus journeys costing no more than €2 per person. From what I've read, we always get away with quite low amounts (even if it's more than at the time of course).

What is common, however, is the change of buses. The tourist sites are far from the cities.

The guy on the roof is there to tie down luggage if needed.

An example, go from Dieng Plateau to Yogyakarta : you must first take a bus to go back down to Wonosobo, the nearest city (1h30, 20 Rp). The bus does not necessarily go to the city terminal, so it may be necessary to get dropped off at the nearest one and then take local transport (000 Rp) to the Wonosobo terminal, then reach Magelang (3h000, 2 Rp) and finally finish the journey to Yogyakarta (another 30h, ) i.e. 25 different buses and 000-1 hours of driving in total to cover barely 3 km.

Despite all these changes, the total cost is normally between 60 and 000 Rp (it depends on how you get ripped off, because that too is still common on the bus to pay for something extra than you knows not why), which is barely €5.

Afterwards we haven't tested it but in local transport, there is also the famous Bemo, a sort of rustic minivan.

An old Bemo who deserves his retirement.

Taxis

We didn't take many taxis during this stay, especially because when we could, we rented a scooter on site and also because we were really on a budget, so we preferred to walk if possible if the distances weren't too great (despite my 20 kg bag at the time).

From my calculation, I see that the rates were around 3 500 Rp per kilometer, according to the table below, I was right. While the pick-up and per km rates vary by city, my example is for Surabaya, which is 3 Rp the km.

To cite an example, to get from the airport (Juanda International Airport) to our hotel (The Family Guesthouse), there were 16 km, we paid 150 Rp…

If you do the math, we should actually have paid less than 60 Rp, or 2x less… But it was our second big trip so not yet well prepared… We didn't think too much about it, because we hadn't checked the distance and it was about 500 Baht at the time, which didn't seem huge to us either. (in Thailand, many people get scammed with airport-hotel trips for 600 or even 800 Baht when in reality it costs half as much have).

Taxis waiting for customers at Ubud market.

Conversely, to get to Surabaya station the next day, we had a little over 6 km and this time we paid 20 Rp, which is good.

In Indonesia too, transport applications are becoming more widespread and to make your taxi journeys easier, you can download:

1. Grave, popular in Thailand and also available in Indonesia
2. Duck, purely local app of the same style (link for the android version)

There is also the possibility, as everywhere, of renting a car with a driver. It is useful for simplifying part of the journey since it involves letting yourself be transported without worrying about the direction, but more quickly than by public transport.

It is rare that we use it for budgetary reasons, firstly, but also because we always prefer our independence. And to this day, Indonesia is one of the only countries where we tested part of the route with this method, in order to finalize our stay in Java. (to visit the volcano bromo et Ijen, to the ferry to Bali).

Our 4x4 taking a mechanical break as we descended from the Ijen volcano.

Becak (rickshaw) etc.

Local transport par excellence, still very present in small towns or certain districts of large cities. From our experience, it was still quite expensive compared to a taxi. On every journey (often around a kilometer) we paid around 20 Rp.

Becaks parked on the street in Yogyakarta.

More precisely, to give an example again, Poor, had paid 20 Rp to go from the bird market to a Chinese temple (Eng an Kiong Vihara, 1,2 km).

On the way back to our hotel (near the train station roundabout), we had 1,6 km and we paid 25 Rp (around €2).

In several cities in Java, we also came across horse-drawn carriages, this was the case in Yogyakarta and Borobudur in particular. No idea of ​​the prices, the only time we used them was to go from our hotel in Borobudur to the bus terminal next to the market, like barely 1 km, offered by the hotel.

Horse-drawn carriage parked next to Borobudur Market.

Vehicle rental (car or scooter)

True to my desire for independence, I tested driving two-wheelers in Dieng Plateau on Java and to gravitate around Bali.

Already used to driving in Thailand, I already had some experience in Asia, although at the time I was still a "beginner". As much as I had no particular worries on the Dieng plateau, I had a few scares on the mountainous roads of Bali, returning to Ubud at night on a poorly marked road with potholes.

Mountain road in the north of Bali, a few minutes later it was pitch black.

Be careful! Here are some rules regarding motorcycle and scooter rental :

• Small motorcycles and scooters can be rented for around 100 Rp per day (€000).
• Wearing a helmet is mandatory, don't let the "holiday" aspect tempt you to want to imitate the locals.
• In Bali in particular and other places suitable for surfing, you will often have a vehicle equipped to transport a board.
• A license is mandatory, although it is rarely required by rental companies, it is not necessarily required by the police and even less by the insurer.
• Some insurances simply do not cover you in the event of an accident involving a two-wheeler (as a driver) or do not cover you if you do not have the appropriate license, read the conditions carefully (yes, yes, the small print).

Gasoline is found everywhere along the roads, the small shops offering one-liter bottles (sold 10 000 Rp or,  about 60 cents).

An international license is required for all rentals., it is free and must be requested from the prefecture (requests are now made online). Be careful because the waiting times for obtaining it are sometimes very long (more than 2 months!).

On my “bolide” at Borobudur.

If you rent a scooter, the B license alone or the A1 is not enough, to my knowledge, just like in Thailand, it is a valid A license that is required to be legal in Indonesia.

For car rental, we find prices from 300 Rp per day (18 €) in tourist areas with limited insurance.

If you prefer not to drive yourself, it is possible to rent a car with driver from 600 Rp, it remains a good compromise in terms of freedom of movement and cost, especially if you are with family or in a group.

Rail transport

With only 5 km of rail network, it will not be your preferred means of transport (for comparison, France has more than 30 km of lines).

At the moment, 70% are located on the island of Java with more than 3 km, the rest being distributed mainly on Sumatra and to a lesser extent, on Borneo (Kalimantan). And it must be admitted that when there is one, the train remains very practical compared to the bus. Less crowded, safer and cheaper, we took it the day after our arrival in the country to go from Surabaya to Yogyakarta then in the other direction to go to Malang.

- Surabaya -> Yogyakarta route = 5 hours of travel for 330 km, from 70 Rp, more generally around 000 Rp (less than €88)

- Yogyakarta -> Malang route = 7 hours of travel for around 400 km, from 170 Rp (it’s a night train so more expensive)

The train is set to evolve quite a bit in Indonesia in the coming years. In addition to doubling the tracks (currently mainly single track), Indonesia plans to add at least 3 km of lines, notably by adding on the island of Sumatra (which has about 200 km), Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, shared with Malaysia) which currently only has 1 km of railway tracks (completed in 300).

Planned railway network (in red to be built, in black, the existing one).

The train would also appear on the island of Sulawesi, Papua and Bali.

To book in advanceThe site ticket.com is the reference. Reservations can be made up to 90 days in advance but sometimes only 30 depending on the destinations and the time of year.

It does exist an official website, but the latter is only in Indonesian and apparently only accepts Indonesian credit cards… Locally, you also have a train system between Yogyakarta and Solo whose train timetables and fares you can see on prameks.com.

You will see that there are 3 types of classes, Eksekutif, Bisnis and Ekonomi. But by default, many of the trains are actually just Eksekutif (reclining seats), even though the fare is marked according to several classes on the website.

Shipping

With over 17 islands making up the archipelago, we are entitled to assume that the country is equipped with a network of ferries and boats of all kinds to make the crossings.

I don't know much about prices, as my experience is limited to our crossing between Java and Bali, the ferry ticket for which was included in our package since Poor. From what I've read, a regular ferry Java – Bali costs only 6 Rp per person.

Most of the larger islands, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi or even Nusa Tenggara are connected by ferries that can accommodate vehicles.

Depending on the islands, you will have daily connections or at least several weekly ones. Conversely, on the "highways" between Java – Bali – Lombok – Sumbawa, there are several ferries per day (every hour roughly).

You can book and get information on the government company website PT Pelni, but it's quite confusing about the possible connections (not knowing the names of the ports), so you might as well see on site.

On the other hand, some boats can quickly become full and people can spread out everywhere, because the seats are gear full. Also, be sure to check the weather and the type of vessel being used. If the sea is choppy, it is better to take a decent ferry than a small shack that will guarantee you seasickness. 

Air transport

Given the aspectt sometimes chaotic roads, it may be advantageous to prefer the plane depending on the distance and your destinations rather than buses combined with ferries if you change islands.

Note that when searching on airline websites, it is necessary to know the name of the airport, as this will be the one that appears in the list and not the city where it is located. To cite an example, if you are planning to go to Makassaron the island of Sulawesi, you have to look for Ujung Pandang (UPG). A simple Google search combining “ airport + city name » gives you the answer.

Also be careful, because some cities, I am thinking especially of the capital Jakarta, have 2 airports. You can find a complete list of airports in indonesia with name + city here.

Among the local companies offering domestic transfers you have:

• Garuda Airlines, la national company. In addition to domestic connections, you also have connections throughout theAsia (including Thailand). Included in the fare, 20 kg checked baggage + 7 kg cabin baggage.
  • Citilink, a local low-cost airline, a subsidiary of Garuda. I have seen many connections in the 40-50 € range for flights of one to two hours, in addition the company offers by default the possibility of taking 20 kg of luggage in the hold. It also operates regionally with flights to Malaysia, Cambodia, Burma to name a few.
  • Sriwijaya air, formerly the 3rd largest private company in terms of number of passengers, this company has accumulated bad reviews, it is today taken over by Garuda via its subsidiary Citilink.
  • NAM Air, à the subsidiary base of Sriwijaya Air I I don't really understand the usefulness of this because when I do a search test, it sends me back to the site of Sriwijaya... But I want to put everything on the available offers.
• Lion Air, the country's main low-cost airline (created before Citilink), the latter takes up more the low-cost code, that is to say really cheaper but no hold luggage included by default. It is the main competitor of Air Asia (Malaysian low-cost airline).
  • Batik Air, a new company (created in 2012) whose parent company is none other than Lion Air. Based in Manado, in the north of Celebes on the island of Sulawesi, this company aims to be a platform to connect Indonesia with Northeast Asia and Asia-Pacific in general.
  • Malindo Air, another company of the Lion Air group, it even takes its logo. It is a subsidiary intended for the Malaysian market since it was created in partnership with a company from the neighboring country. For the record, its name MALINDO is just the combination of the two countries MAlaysia and INDOnesia.
  • Wings Air (Wings Abadi Airlines), wholly owned by Lion Air, this subsidiary has a fleet of ATR only, operating between the islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali and the Riau Islands mainly.

It was still our early days as travelers. So we were content with small, simple guesthouses, even very basic. And apart from the first hotel when we arrived and the last one before leaving the country, we had not booked anything. It is easy to find on site, just take a look and if the price is right, hop it's done.

We take away from it some nice addresses even in these small budgets.

To start with our hotel in Borobudur, well located and an excellent welcome. Even though the years have passed, the Guesthouse maintains a very good reputation.

Our great host at the Lotus II guesthouse in Borobudur.

We also tested some nice homestays, a bit by chance like the Duta Homestay during our stay in Wonosobo. And we had some more shabby places like the hotel on the Dieng plateau, taken by laziness to walk since it was next to where the bus dropped us off, and because well, it was really cheap (80 Rp or €000).

As much as it was a rotten room, the restaurant was super good and the welcome too. It still exists but fortunately has since undergone a little facelift to freshen things up (it was the Bu Djono).

The Bu Djono room in 2011.

The state of the corridor.

Quite a few GHs didn't have water heaters and well, if it wasn't cold during the day, the water stayed a bit cool to enjoy a good shower. I guess it's evolved since then and it's not the most restrictive thing.

One of our hotels was included in the package for the visit to Mount Bromo and so I had no choice but given the brief passage it was not dramatic.

The one we took in Malang for practical reasons (near the station) is now closed but as it was not memorable it is not a big loss...

Our room in Wonosobo, one of the best of our stay (but also the most expensive, which is logical after all).

In Bali, we hadn't anticipated that it would be so crowded, we ended up asking lots of hotels, all full, before finding a decent one, but one that was under construction... So we ended up moving after two nights before finding another nice place, but that made us lose a day.

So basically it is best to book in advance in Bali. If I didn't do it Ubud, I did it for Jimbaran, in order to take a hotel not too far from the beach, with a swimming pool to conclude this trip in a “beautiful” hotel… Unfortunately, my limited budget made me make a disappointing choice and do not recommend the hotel to you question (The Puri God Bharatha Jimbaran Hotel).

Do I need travel insurance?

Taking out insurance is often overlooked. The often tight budget has something to do with it, but we tend to think we are sufficiently covered thanks to our credit card. But travel insurance, especially if you are going to Asia for several months, can be more than welcome in the event of a problem, because credit card insurance is limited.

The maximum amount for healthcare costs covered by traditional credit cards may prove insufficient (around €10 compared to €000 for dedicated travel insurance) and does not cover civil liability.

I advise you ACS Travel & Expatriation Insurance Solutions.

I would like to point out that if you subscribe to the insurance via the link, I will receive a small commission. This is a simple way to help keep the site running, because insurance is preferable anyway and it will therefore be beneficial for both you and me.

What vaccines and what do I need to know for my health?

We find the same recommendations as for many Asian countries, with the idea, no compulsory vaccination, but a whole series remains recommended. In addition of course to being up to date with your classic vaccines (DTP for adults, MMR for children).

Recommended vaccines:

• HEPATITIS A
• HEPATITIS B
• RAGE
• TYPHOID
• ANTITUBERCULOSIS

Typhoid (another name for typhoid fever) is a contagious bacterial infection that thrives in environments with poor hygiene conditions. This infectious disease is caused by the ingestion of contaminated food or water, so in cases of questionable hygiene, refrain from consuming either.

The Japanese encephalitis vaccine is especially necessary in the event of a prolonged stay in rural areas. Since the latter is transmitted by mosquitoes, protection against them is particularly vital, because there are many other not-so-great diseases to catch in these regions.

Against mosquitoes

The most important thing is to protect yourself with a good mosquito repellent, because in Indonesia, there is a risk of several diseases transmitted by these creatures. Starting with malaria, particularly during the rainy season from January to April, which is conducive to the proliferation of these invaders.

The risk is greater all year round on the islands of Papua, East Tenggara and the Moluccas. On the islands of Sumatra, Java, Lombok, West Tenggara, Celebes or Borneo (Kalimantan), it is mainly in rural areas that there may be a risk.

On the other hand, little or no risk if you only stay in Bali and big cities like Jakarta.

Apart from malaria, it is dengue fever, chikungunya or even the zika virus that can hang around. In short, mosquitoes are not our friends, protect yourself, your skin but also your clothes, by also impregnating them with repellents and preferring light colors.

Hygiene conditions are not up to the same standards as in France, so if you are sensitive, it is better to take some precautions.

• Wash your hands frequently before each meal (possibly with an antimicrobial solution since it is used without water).
• Tap water is not drinkable. Drink only capped bottled water or, if this is not possible, water boiled for 30 minutes and then filtered (Lifestraw straws can be an alternative).
• Avoid drinking fruit juices squeezed in the street. Avoid eating food from street stalls (well, this is an official recommendation, but if you are used to traveling, it is not necessarily worse than elsewhere).
• Meat and fish/shellfish must be thoroughly cooked before consumption.

And general hygiene rules:

• Avoid swimming in stagnant water (risk of parasitic infection).
• Avoid walking barefoot on sand and wet ground.
• Do not pet animals you meet on the street, even if they do not seem aggressive.
• Remember to wear a seat belt (if possible), wear a helmet on two wheels, this is valid everywhere in the world.

For your safety

Indonesia being on the Ring of Fire, the risk of earthquakes is particularly present. There are also many active volcanoes, around twenty of which are subject to increased surveillance. Be sure to educate yourself about the risks of hiking near a volcano.

Risks in transport

Like many countries in Asia, driving is quite chaotic, even more so given the general state of the road network, which still has a lot to improve, but especially the mentality of the drivers (especially buses).

My great look on my pink scooter at the Dieng plateau.

Avoid driving at night, on two wheels, wear a helmet at all times. In case of heavy rain, even if you have a parka, prefer to stop and wait for it to calm down, in addition to reduced visibility, the road will be slippery, do not take unnecessary risks.

Also remember that in Indonesia (like in Thailand), we drive on the left!

Scams, fraud and crime 

In terms of crime, it is a fairly safe country. After all, as everywhere, there are snatch thefts, possible scams in tourist places, there are also some bank card scams, just be careful.

Don't carry all your important stuff in a bag, in case of theft it is more complicated to manage. Divide your money and leave your passports in hotel safes if there are any. Always have a photocopy of your important papers, it can always be useful.

Risk areas

Piracy is reported in the border areas with Singapore (Strait of Malacca), Malaysia and the Philippines. Caution is also advised in internal waters (Banda, Java and Celebes Seas).

The only area in Indonesia that is particularly at risk is Papua. (and again, not the western part). The latter tends to be plagued by independence movements, particularly in the central mountainous regions.

Practical information

– Emergency numbers –

• NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER: 112
• POLICE: 110
• FIRE: 113
• AMBULANCE: 118
• Tourist line: 911 in Bali

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on Indonesia

I know that everything written above is a bit indigestible, but it is above all to give you a substantial sample of all that Indonesia has to offer in terms of regions to explore.

With all these place names, it's easy to get confused, so I'll try to summarize it all on a map:

Hotel - Tourism in Indonesia varies greatly from one island to another, so the types of hotels and prices vary accordingly. But overall, the hotel industry offers very good value for money, even more so in recent years with the evolution of tourism.

If I tell you a large room in a cottage in Ubud with a swimming pool for €35? Well, it's possible at Chili Ubud Cottage, a good example of the incredible deals that can be found in Indonesia.

SOME POINTS OF REFERENCE:

• For dormitory guesthouses, possible from 60 Rp off season (000 €) – more common in the 3 Rp range
• For guesthouses with rooms and basic hotels, it varies between 150 – 000 Rp (300-000 €)
• For decent and mid-range hotels, expect to pay around 350 – 000 Rp (450-000 €)
• For the highest end, possible from 550 Rp (000 €), many offers around 40 Rp (1 €)

Meals – food – Food in Indonesia is certainly not what will weigh down your budget on this trip. A basic dish does not cost more than €2 and if a restaurant with a slightly more elaborate cuisine, expect no more than €10. Paradoxically, it will cost you more to taste a good local beer (around 35 Rp, or a little more than €000). Bottles of water were at 2 Rp, or barely 5 cents.

SOME POINTS OF REFERENCE:

• A bottle of water costs on average 5 Rp (000 €)
• A meal costs on average 20-30 Rp (000€) per person
• A local beer 35 Rp (000 liter)

Transport - Transport is very accessible for small budgets, almost more on long journeys than locally. With taxi fares averaging 80 Rp, it’s as much as doing 300 km by train. But it remains really reasonable. (even in Bali, we paid 150 Rp, or €000 to do 5 km). In some cities you can still find horse-drawn carriages like in Yogyakarta but it will most certainly be the beak, a kind of bicycle rickshaw which will be the local transport par excellence.

SOME POINTS OF REFERENCE:

• Motorbike rental: usually 100 Rp per day (€000) + 6 Rp per liter
• Local bus: depending on distance but often around 30 Rp (000€) per person
• For taxi rides, expect to pay an average of Rp 6 per kilometer

Any opinions, suggestions? Leave me a comment!