Hi

Airfare has gotten a lot more expensive after Covid. I had a relative in Costa Rica who wanted to visit Indonesia, and the pricing was ridiculous for coach.
 
Travel by air now has become so tedious with all the security checks, long shuffling queues, forms to fill in. And, unless you are one of the monied class, even when you get into the plane you are squashed into tight seats with barely room to move and have to pay for any snacks, tea or coffee. My son arrived in Bali a couple of days ago and it took an hour just to get the tourist tax paid. Ironically on Singapore news I saw an interview with a young woman saying she was going to Dubai where there were free visas and the airfares and package just so much cheaper. At a time when other countries are bending over backwards with free visas etc Indonesia just seems to make life more complicated. Incidentally, I went to take my son to Waterblow at Nusa Dua yesterday to find there is now a wall and gated entry to pay a fee so see waves blow out the hole. It seems Bali is being turned into Disneyland. Last night it took nearly an hour to travel about 2 ks from Goa Gong to Bukit Hijau.
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Of course for Australians the island is very close by and relatively cheap. For Americans or Europeans there are many many alternatives…
 
I saw an interview with a young woman saying she was going to Dubai where there were free visas and the airfares and package just so much cheaper. At a time when other countries are bending over backwards with free visas etc Indonesia just seems to make life more complicated.
One signifiant issue with Indonesia is that policymakers and enforcers often mislead the public, make terrible mistakes that cost the nation a lot of money and yet they show no shame or accountability. There is no requirement for them to resign. As a result, policies are often introduced without thorough assessment, and when there is public outcry, the rules, policies are simply withdrawn or replaced without any consequences for those responsible. Civil servants frequently behave like private consultants rather than genuine public servants.

In Indonesia, it is extremely difficult to fire civil servants or state owned enterprise employees. This stems from Suharto’s era, when he enforced a rule requiring all civil servants must join the political party Golkar (Functional Group Party) to ensure their loyalty and help him secure re-election.
 
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Of course for Australians the island is very close by and relatively cheap. For Americans or Europeans there are many many alternatives…
As far as air fares are concerned, Bali used to be cheap travel but since Covid it has become relatively expensive.
 
Everything to do with international air travel has become much more expensive though. I had to pay 30-40% more for our European trips now.
 
Welcome Marcus! Glad to see you're joining us from the old forum!
 

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