Indonesia Travel Guide: Things To Know About Visiting Indonesia 2024

What's going on everybody to Silent Hopper TV and today we're going to talk about things to know when visiting Indonesia. Let's do it. So first thing you need to know about Indonesia is the geography and the information associated with that. So there's around 17,000 islands even more than that. There's a lot of inlets and smaller islands off the big islands. The bigger islands are going to be Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, which is the most populated island. Then you have parts of Borneo, which are Kalimantan towards the South of Borneo, which is going to be Indonesia to the North is shared with Malaysia and Brunei. And then you have parts of Papua, Papua New Guinea, which is a separate country. And then you have Papua, which is known as West Papua, which belongs to Indonesia. Now in the actual country of Indonesia, there is around 275 million people living in the country with Java being the largest, most populated island with around 145 million people. It's actually the most populated island in the world in terms of population density. Now, Indonesia does sit in the ring of fire and there are around 116 volcanoes with over half of those being active volcanoes across Indonesia. So you can expect there to possibly be earthquakes or possible tsunamis at some point in the near future. But generally speaking, you're going to be safe when you visit. And the capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, which is the second largest urban area in the entire world. So this is a mega city, right? So let's talk about the arrival process in Indonesia. So you need to make sure that your expiration date on your passport isn't up until six months. So make sure you have six months left until the expiration. Then when you arrive, you need to get a visa at the airport or you go online and it costs around 500,000 Indonesian rupiah, which is about $40. So you want to make sure you verify both of those things before you even get on the plane because they're going to ask you that. But if you forget to do the visa, you can still get that at the airport. Just means you've got to wait an additional line on top of the line that you have to wait in to get the actual process into the country. So that visa on arrival is really a visa that you should get online beforehand. Just in the worst case scenario is you can get it at the booth at the airport. And if you want to extend your visa, you can actually do that online. You don't even have to go to the immigration office as of right now. So you can go on the website. It's going to cost you another 500,000. If you don't want to do it yourself, you can pay a company to do it. And the typical cost would be about 800,000 Indonesian rupiah or about $60. But if you do it yourself on the website, it's going to cost you about $40. And that's another 30 day extension on top of the 30 days they give you. But they also have longterm visas for those of you who want to stay in Bali or Jakarta or another place a little bit longer. Now let's talk about the currency here in Indonesia. So they use the Indonesian rupiah IDR. So one USD equals 15,697 IDR at the time of making this video. As far as transacting across Indonesia, you will want to carry with yourself petty cash. You want to have cash on hand pretty often because cash is widely accepted, especially among the street vendors. You need it for paying the taxis or Gojeks. You can use the app and you can pay by card if you use Grab or Gojek, but you want to make sure that you have cash on you. Probably around a million IDR seems to be the usual carrying amount that you should have on you. Obviously 500,000 to a million, you should be fine, especially if you plan on doing tours or going around. You just want to have that cash on hand in case you need to use it for any reason. But cards are also accepted. MasterCard, Visa. I have used American Express, especially at the chain hotels or at the chain restaurants, but usually it's Visa or American Express. I would suggest bringing with you two debit cards because I have known people who have gotten their debit cards eaten by the ATM machines. ATM machines here are a bit tricky. They're not always available and they don't always work. The uptime is kind of iffy. So take that into consideration. That's why I say try to have a million rupee on you at all times so that you're prepared in case you can't find an ATM. You still have some cash left over. Because you've been prepared with the amount of Indonesian rupiah you carried with you. Now let's talk about the actual weather. So rainy season is from about November until March. I'm here right now in August in Bali and the weather is really nice. Haven't seen rain except for the very first day I got here. It rained in the evening time. Every other day has been blue skies for the most part. A little bit of clouds you can see today, but nothing too bad. It depends if you like a little bit of rain to cool off or if you want to just have nothing but blue skies. So plan accordingly depending on where you're coming from. Also the islands do experience different weather patterns. For example, up in North Sumatra, maybe by Banda Aceh right now, it's rainy season even though here in Java or in Bali area or even towards Komodo, it's going to be a dry season. Also Borneo right now in the north nearby Malaysia is going to be a little bit more rainy right now. So take into consideration what island you're going to when planning the weather. But Bali and Java right now in the summertime here in August, definitely dry season. Now, as far as the language spoken here, the official language of Indonesia is Bahasa, although it's not commonly spoken by most people. Most people typically speak Sudanese or Javanese here in Bali. They have another dialect called Balinese. There's over 720 dialects in Indonesia. And to be honest with you, outside of Bali and Jakarta, you're not going to have much English spoken very widely across Indonesia. So make sure you bring the translator app if you're going to places like Jogja, if you're going to Surabaya, if you're going to Sumatra or Kalimantan, English is not widely spoken outside of Bali. Even in Bali, it's 50 50. Most people in Bali do speak English. I guess you could say that, but still you're going to come across that language barrier. So Google translate is going to be your friend when in Indonesia. Now let's talk about the subject of safety. I know this is something that's very important to people and I can understand why I've gone all across Java. I've been in Bali. I haven't had any issues with safety, but I will say one thing that is known and I've experienced this personally after about 10 p.m. the streets all around you are going to get more dangerous. So after 10 p.m. there is known incidents for petty theft, even in some cases violent crimes. So after 10 p.m. even in Bali or Jakarta, wherever you're at, be careful after 10 p.m because there will be motorbikes trying to snatch things coming up with knives. People trying to do stuff like that. It doesn't typically happen until about after nine or 10 as it starts to get dark. People tend to go indoors for safety reasons. Those of you who like to party, I know you're going to want to have fun after hours. It's just after 10 o'clock you're taking, you're taking things into your own hands because there are going to be bad actors out there. As far as other dangers that exist, riding the motorbikes seems to be the most common injury that I've seen in Indonesia with among tourists. Motorbikes can be quite dang dangerous and with all the traffic people get impatient and they try to go around. You'll see a lot of stories about people getting into motorbike accidents. Even surfing can be a bit dangerous. Although here in Kuta it's very safe. But overall I've had no real problems with Indonesia as far as safety. People have been very friendly. So I just want to point that out. Let's talk about food here in Indonesia. This here is satay, but let's show you some more. Satay with peanut butter sauce is my go-to jam for a snack. Then there's barbecue, lots of different barbecue satays and kebabs that you'll have here. Then you have nasi goreng, which is a fried rice. You also have mee goreng, which is a fried noodle. They both come with an egg or eggs mixed in, I should say. Pork belly. This here is nasi tampur. Thank you. Well, I just got to my room and they gave me this, uh, fruit platter. Can't forget the fresh coconut. Plenty of seafood options, including shrimp. They also have barracuda, mahi-mahi and other types of tuna. So get ready to eat a lot of fish. All right, so here's a look at the breakfast. Beef bacon, eggs, but really expect rice with some sort of side dish like meat, uh, whether that's chicken or beef or seafood. Then you have some wraps like you can see right here. Again, served with rice. Talk about places to visit when you come to Indonesia. So most people go to Bali. That's the most famous. And then from Bali, they have Lombok, they have Gili T. Those are some popular areas that you can also explore from Bali. Or you could go over towards Java. East Java actually has Bromo volcano, which is probably the most scenic volcano as well as several waterfalls. Some of the most popular cities in Indonesia are going to be Jakarta of course, which is the capital right now, but they're building a new capital called Nusantara on Borneo's Island and the province of Kalimantan. If you go towards the area where they have the Komodo dragon, they have Labuan Bajo, which is nearby Komodo Island. So that's where they have the largest reptile lizard, uh, in the world, the Komodo dragon. And then you have the orangutans. Those are on Borneo in Kalimantan. Also they have those in Sumatra in some areas, uh, Sulawesi. They also have Flores Island. That's a popular place in Timor. And then you have Raja Ampat, which is considered the last Eden on earth. And then they have the Spice Islands, which are also very famous. So you've got a lot of options in these 17,000 different Indonesian islands. So lots of places to explore for you. And what a great country. They say it's one of the most beautiful on earth. And now for the final review of Indonesia. I do think this is a great country with very friendly people. Lots of culture. Java can be a bit overwhelming, honestly. So can Bali and the traffic, but Bali is obviously a very beautiful, natural place to visit. But the rest of Indonesia has so much to uncover for those of you who are looking to explore, whether it's Sulawesi or Timor or Papua, or even Sumatra and the islands around there. Again, 17,000 islands. So I hope you guys enjoy your trip and see you guys on the next one.