Would you travel to Indonesia now? Should I stay, or should I go now...

I’m in South Bend. There are 3 large hospitals within 30 minutes drive, so I’m sure we got at least 100 ventilators each.
 
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.
When we flew we had none of the above, except I guess the airplane. And each plane was 10% filled or less.
 
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.
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.
 
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.
 
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.
Did the Indonesian government require you to self quarantine in Jakarta or could you have gone home to Bandung to do it?
 
Did the Indonesian government require you to self quarantine in Jakarta or could you have gone home to Bandung to do it?
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.
 
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.
Yes that makes sense to self isolate in a hotel away from co-living companions.
 
Yes that makes sense to self isolate in a hotel away from co-living companions.
The flights were quite sparsely populated on the way to CGK, but I’d rather play it safe.
 
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.
 
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.
How would you compare the Covid situation in Indonesia and the US? Would you say it's safer here in Indonesia?
 
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?
 
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?
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.
 
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.
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.
Never bought or used the "magic soap".
Now having lunch at a beach restaurant, life as normal.
And I am 67, but why would I worry ? This are my last years anyway, so I am not gonna spend them locked up.
 
This are my last years anyway, so I am not gonna spend them locked up.
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).

The point of wearing a mask is to protect other people. In public health terms, if we all pull together and wear masks, the population at large will experience lower infection rates - meaning society as a whole is better off, because there are fewer premature deaths, less stress on health care workers, less likelihood that hospitals will be filled beyond capacity, and so on.

I wear a mask whenever I'm out and about, and it isn't because I'm worried about myself. I'm probably wrong, but I don't see the risk of me getting sick as all that great, and I'm also deluded enough to think I'd probably get through it okay if I did get sick.

But my own sense of invincibility is not the point. I care about the people around me and my community as a whole. I want all of us to stay as healthy as possible, because I want good health outcomes and a return to an economically viable world. The way to achieve that is by pulling together and all of us wearing masks, socially distancing, and washing hands.

In short, it's not about narcissistic little old me. It's about something bigger than my selfish interests.
 
I also wear a mask because I think it is the right thing to do. It isn't even that I think I might infect others, I'm too much of an idiot for the possibility of my own infection to sink into my brain, even 9 months in to the pandemic. It's more that I want every other asshole to wear his mask, and I would be a hypocrite if I didn't also wear one.

It is similar to the self righteous sneer I assume when some idiot flies past on his motorbike, helmet-less and centimeters from using my car to commit suicide.
 
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.

I can confirm there wasn't a need to produce a covid test to anyone last Saturday. I did see a table where you could get a test done, but no one was there.

Tokyo Narita seems to have the best system/organization between the 3 airports I was at. They would have one plane disembark at a time starting with transit passengers first. Then they would count to make sure they had all the transit passengers ready before we went through the transit security. They used a different type of body scanner than what they use in the US.

Dallas was old school and had you present your passport to an immigration officer and I was only asked if I had anything to declare.

The two flights I was on appeared to be about 50% full.
 
In short, it's not about narcissistic little old me. It's about something bigger than my selfish interests.
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.

For the past 9 months I have been forced to put myself at risk for professional reasons. One of our many activities is to purchase fresh products for our clients in wet market. We do so at night when commodities arrive by truck from the Minahasa and Bolmong area. In doing so we are permanently exposed to people who cough, people who spit, people who have obvious sign of fever and of course people who wear no mask due to the lack of education and understanding.

With Covid we have reduced this activity from 6 times a week to twice a week but this is always a few hours when we put ourselves at risk. I know that I may be infected in the process. I am even surprised that it didn't happen yet. We take great care of wearing a mask, practice social distancing the best we can and carry handsanitizer but it seems a bit like going at war with a slingshot.

However, and even if it pisses me off no end to have to wear a damn mask which is anything but comfortable, I wouldn't go out of our compound without one. If I get infected I have the financial ressource to get to the best hospital, I can afford to self isolate for a long period of time without working and without my wife and kids suffering financially from it...etc.
My staff, and many of the people around me and who interact with me daily don't have this chance. The kaki lima I get my bakso from, the koki at the rumah makan I may crack a joke with, the cashier at the shop, the people I come accross while walking in the street, may not have this chance and out of basic respect for them I wear my damn mask because it is undisputed that it is a key measure to suppress transmission and save lives.

I can excuse a guy who doesn't wear a mask due to a lack of education and understanding, but what to say about someone who allegedly is educated and keeps on trumpetting that s/he wears no mask and don't care about putting others at risk while doing so?
 
The death numbers today in the USA surpassed the numbers killed on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001.
 
The death numbers today in the USA surpassed the numbers killed on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001.
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.
Maybe the govts should put something like that out as public information- a 747 can hold 366 passengers, so every day that 3-4 thousand people die from Covid, that is 10 hypothetical JJs falling out of the sky without survivors.
 

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