Nice to be back in Indonesia after 18 months

Jaime C

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I can tell you that it’s so nice to be back in Indonesia after 18 months. We had tickets to return last summer, but airlines were canceling 80% of the flights. Of course ours was one of those canceled.

Luckily, no quarantine or PCR test since we’ve all gotten our vaccines. Now, to just recover from the 35 hour journey.

I can tell you that our hotel in Jakarta is way better than any hotel we stayed at in the US.
 
Welcome back! You missed all the semi-empty roads in the past 18 months!
 
The only time I’ve ever seen really empty roads was when leaving Bandung at 5am on Christmas day on a shuttle. We also had the 20 person shuttle to ourself, and got them to drop us off at the lobby of the Hyatt.

Our quickest trip from Bandung to Jakarta ever. You know how crazy those shuttle drivers are. 90 minutes, I recall. The look of the hotel bellman was priceless.
 
Speaking of the roads, the surfaces seem to be unusually well maintained as if all were recently resurfaced; the buildings you pass by, on the other hand are more run down that ever. Maybe its just me; will have to get out of Jaktim, perhaps its just a local condition.
 
I can tell you that it’s so nice to be back in Indonesia after 18 months. We had tickets to return last summer, but airlines were canceling 80% of the flights. Of course ours was one of those canceled.

Luckily, no quarantine or PCR test since we’ve all gotten our vaccines. Now, to just recover from the 35 hour journey.

I can tell you that our hotel in Jakarta is way better than any hotel we stayed at in the US.
Hi welcome back @Jaime C ! Enjoy ;)
 
I can tell you that it’s so nice to be back in Indonesia after 18 months. We had tickets to return last summer, but airlines were canceling 80% of the flights. Of course ours was one of those canceled.

Luckily, no quarantine or PCR test since we’ve all gotten our vaccines. Now, to just recover from the 35 hour journey.

I can tell you that our hotel in Jakarta is way better than any hotel we stayed at in the US.
I planned to go back last year but could not get a visa in time. Wife went mudik without me last year and this year, will be back in the US a week from now. I hope to go next summer with no hassles. Haven't been in RI since December 2018. Enjoy your time, Jaime.
 
Returned to Melbourne in November and the "summer". So damn cold. Now it is freezing and unaffordable with rent taking up 80% of my pension. My Indonesian wife is so looking forward to returning later this month. Though born in Melbourne and spent much of my life there, before living in Bali for four years I had spent 14 years in north Queensland. So, great to get back to Bali within the month.
 
Great to hear that you are back home in Indonesia.

I don't know if I will ever be back ... I love where I am now (Hawai'i) but I do miss Tanah Air Kita very much.
Home is a moving target, but we have a gaggle of relatives here that make the grueling flight worth the discomfort. Indonesia, besides family, has a certain lack of complacency that I, for one, find refreshing. Shortly after we arrived the hot water pump fractured an elbow, or rather a knee in these parts, and flooded the bedroom below the attic water tank/pump room. Made for a new, unexpected, way to spend part of our holiday.
 
It was announce this morning that travelers will no longer (as of Sunday -- tomorrow) be required to present proof of a negative Covid test taken within 24 of touch down to enter the States. Our return is still about 6 weeks in the future, but I am wondering, since we transit through Narita in Tokyo, if we still need to get a test to satisfy the Japanese health police.

Insights anyone?
 
It was announce this morning that travelers will no longer (as of Sunday -- tomorrow) be required to present proof of a negative Covid test taken within 24 of touch down to enter the States. Our return is still about 6 weeks in the future, but I am wondering, since we transit through Narita in Tokyo, if we still need to get a test to satisfy the Japanese health police.

Insights anyone?
Pretty doubtful. We’ve never had any required covid tests during our last 3 times through Narita. Not in March, 2020, November, 2020 or May 2022.
 
It was announce this morning that travelers will no longer (as of Sunday -- tomorrow) be required to present proof of a negative Covid test taken within 24 of touch down to enter the States. Our return is still about 6 weeks in the future, but I am wondering, since we transit through Narita in Tokyo, if we still need to get a test to satisfy the Japanese health police.

Insights anyone?

The only thing I have had to show at Narita was the signed declaration saying that I had tested negative/recovered from covid. Only place I had to show the pcr test was at Soekarno.
 
Thanks for the heads-up on your Narita experiences guys. As of now, unless we hear of a definite requirement that transiting passengers must present proof of recent a negative Covid test, we are not planning to get tested.

That brings up another question: are we going to be allowed to board at CGK w/o proof of a negative test?
 
I am guessing you will be. Unless you are planning on exploring Japan for a few days on the way back home, there is no need. I would still have proof that a negative test isn't needed just in case. Still if you are going back in roughly 6 weeks, you should be good by then.
 
My guess, as well....but I hope something more definitive is available before we depart for our Stateside home. Relying on the common sense and good graces of one or both of the Indonesian or Japanese immigration bureaucracies makes me nervous.
 
There’s such a thing as being “too” Chicken Littleist. If there is a requirement, your airline will make it pretty obvious.
 
My wife returned from RI through Narita on the 10th of June. She was asked to show her negative test there, and of course at CGK. She arrived at DFW two days before the US officially lifted the testing requirement, but was not asked to show her proof of negative test at DFW (neither was I when arriving last month at Atlanta from Peru).

I am pretty sure that Japan has been requiring a transit visa, only in one of the following circumstances:

1) changing airports in Tokyo (Narita to Haneda or vice versa)

2) transit to flight leaving the following day of arrival in Japan
 
Having a concern about bureau-crappic surprises is born out of experience; a Chick Little mentality does not govern our decisions.

We do not have a long layover i.e. not over-nighting, and no bussed between airports. We are not anticipating problems, but I will nevertheless be relived when when Narita is in the rearview mirror.
 

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