Arriving at Denpasar airport at around 8.20pm (Bali is the same time as Singapore, but 1 hour ahead of Jakarta), we alighted, and the plane basically split into Visa On Arrival (VOA) and Long Stay Visas (including KITAS and Business).
My line was extremely slow, a lady was having stress with her 2 campur kids. They were misbehaving, running all over the place, in and out of the immigration area, the officer was not happy with their paperwork. Out of the office came a senior officer, it was like old friends meeting. The lady greeted him said ‘Hello Pak’, he asked how the kids were doing, and it was all good. One guy behind me asked if I knew the name of a local hotel, as he didn’t know where to put on his arrival form. I told him to write Hotel Bounty, in Kuta.
Seeing that the officer in my line, was being a bit of a stickler for detail, I toyed with the idea of putting a ‘little something’ in the passport. I’m not saying whether I did or not, but he still wanted to quiz me…’where you work, who is your wife, where you live, who handles your paperwork and for how much?’ The last question seemed strange, and when I told him, he said, ‘No problem, I just wondering if you had a ‘friend’. Yeah, I’ve got a friend.
After thanking me for my kindness, he stamped the passport and I was out looking for a taxi. The taxi office at the airport charged 55,000rp to Seminyak, 60,000rp to Dhyana Pura. In 3 minutes I was in a car and heading home.
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{ 3 comments }
Interesting. Just curious, of course you didnt, but what do you reckon would be the going rate for a bit of oil to grease things in line? RP50,000?
Rich, I’d say 50,000rp would be a nice tip. Depends on what you’re situation is. I had nothing wrong with my paperwork, it was all in order. I want to avoid, delays, questions, trips to their office and a drawn out quiz, designed to get money out of me. I’d rather pay a ‘tip’ and get out straight away.
One situation this could help you in, is if you are coming to Bali, without an onward ticket.
I’ve heard of people giving 50,000rp-100,000rp.
Sounds reasonable, if it gets you on the rock hassle-free. The quicker I’m pool-side with a cold Bintang the better!
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