When we flew we had none of the above, except I guess the airplane. And each plane was 10% filled or less.Right now I think everyone should just stay put. I can't imagine going to a crowded departure gate, baggage claim, or being in a confined airplane.
I flew back from Hawaii to Jakarta and arrived on March 18th, only two days before they started requesting a health certificate for entry into Indoensia. I found out about the new requirement much later while reading about the additional lock-down measures this week. I basically live in Indonesia and would have been in a world of hurt if I was denied entry. My backup place to stay in Malaysia is now unreachable with their country wide lock-down. Hopefully with 6 more weeks to go on my multi entry social cultural visa. I'll be able to get an visa emergency extension or perhaps Malaysia will be available for me to stay or do a visa run back to Indonesia.It went ok for us on Friday-Saturday, other than the confusing regulations put out by the government. We got refused boarding at LAX because the Indonesian embassy said all foreigners, including permanent residents, needed a doctors certificate to be able to enter.
I had been to my doctor only 2 days before, and could have easily gotten a letter then. So, in a panic, call my doctor and ask for a letter. After calling the Washington DC Indonesian embassy, I guess they finally figured out that I would just need the 30 second screening at CGK upon arrival, that everyone does. Afterwards my doctor emailed a letter, but not quite word for word what the embassy requested. Luckily, I never had to test it out.
Did the Indonesian government require you to self quarantine in Jakarta or could you have gone home to Bandung to do it?We finished our 14 day self quarantine at our hotel in Jakarta, and rented a 16 passenger van for the 3 of us, plus lots of luggage to get us home to Bandung.
We had too much luggage for an Innova, an Alphard would work, but they wanted 2.3 jt. We paid 1.5 jt, including driver, tolls and gas. Just over 2 hours from Cikini to Pondok Hijau.
It‘s nice to be home.
No government requirement at all. Other than a temperature check at the airport, and a form to fill out, it was negligible.Did the Indonesian government require you to self quarantine in Jakarta or could you have gone home to Bandung to do it?
Yes that makes sense to self isolate in a hotel away from co-living companions.No government requirement at all. Other than a temperature check at the airport, and a form to fill out, it was negligible.
We originally booked 5 nights at the hotel in Jakarta, but extended it to 14 days, as a safety precaution. My wife‘s parents, who live with us in Bandung are in their mid 60’s, and Opa had a brain aneurysm a few years ago and is wheelchair bound.
The flights were quite sparsely populated on the way to CGK, but I’d rather play it safe.Yes that makes sense to self isolate in a hotel away from co-living companions.
How would you compare the Covid situation in Indonesia and the US? Would you say it's safer here in Indonesia?We just returned to the US on Monday.
Even though people on FB expat group said we needed Covid testing to fly out of CGK through Japan, it was not the case.
Flights were sparsely loaded in Asia. Maybe 15% in business class to NRT, and I had my first class award seat, and the whole section to myself.
My US short connection flight was 90% full.
While the long quarantine wasn’t always fun in Indonesia, I’m glad we got to spend 7 months with close relatives. Very likely, Indonesia is a lower Covid risk than the US. If things keep up like this, perhaps we’ll return in the spring.
Yeah, at this point generalizations aren't much good. To really determine your personal risk between two locations, you would have to take into account not only relative rates of infection, but also your own health status, how much you will interact with others, whether people in the community are generally wearing masks, what the hospital care is likely to be if you do get sick ... the list goes on and on. And now you might also want to factor in the likelihood of being vaccinated in the near(ish) future with a properly stored, safe, definitely-not-counterfeit vaccine.It probably very much depends upon which part of the US or Indonesia you are staying and in big city or country town. As for the general question.... who knows?
To be honest, and maybe shock a few, I live in Bali and continue my live nearly as before. I dont bother about all the doom and gloom in the West, I pull my mask up when necessary like entering a supermarket, if not it hangs on my chin.Yeah, at this point generalizations aren't much good. To really determine your personal risk between two locations, you would have to take into account not only relative rates of infection, but also your own health status, how much you will interact with others, whether people in the community are generally wearing masks, what the hospital care is likely to be if you do get sick ... the list goes on and on. And now you might also want to factor in the likelihood of being vaccinated in the near(ish) future with a properly stored, safe, definitely-not-counterfeit vaccine.
The issue I would take with that attitude is the extent to which it could be harmful to innocent others. Until very recently, mask wearing has not been advocated by health professionals as a way to protect the wearer (although evidence is now coming out that yes, it DOES protect the wearer a little).This are my last years anyway, so I am not gonna spend them locked up.
We just returned to the US on Monday.
Even though people on FB expat group said we needed Covid testing to fly out of CGK through Japan, it was not the case.
Flights were sparsely loaded in Asia. Maybe 15% in business class to NRT, and I had my first class award seat, and the whole section to myself.
My US short connection flight was 90% full.
It's exactly the point Puspa and kudos to you to remember it, even though after 9 months in the pandemic you would think that people would have understood it. It's start to be really tiring to see people displaying so much selfishness and to hear people not caring to put others at risk.In short, it's not about narcissistic little old me. It's about something bigger than my selfish interests.
If we hypothetically filled jumbo jets with all the dead from covid & classed them as airliner crashes there would be absolute horror at the numbers, a while back I did some calculations & it was equivalent to 13 in a day (& that was early on in the pandemic) I haven't done that again since as it was heartbreaking.The death numbers today in the USA surpassed the numbers killed on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001.