“For someone who’s not experienced in traveling, I would rather recommend staying at home. You need to have the nerves and be persistent,” Juergen Alsbach told The Jakarta Post earlier this week. The 56-year-old real estate developer had just returned from Germany to Ubud in Gianyar regency, Bali, where he has lived for 2.5 years.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the resort island last year, Alsbach has been able to make three return trips to visit his children back in Koblenz, Germany. As an experienced traveler, the nitty-gritty of the coronavirus-era travel requirements did not bother him; at least, not until his latest trip back to Bali.

“I think this time [the government] were overdoing it a little bit,” said Alsbach, who arrived last week in Jakarta, where he completed the mandatory quarantine before flying to Bali.

“They’re always changing the rules, so there’s always something new. But it was never as strict as it was this time,” he added.

Alsbach did not expect the five hours it took for him to complete all the health procedures before he could leave Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for the quarantine hotel. He took a PCR test on the day he departed Frankfurt and took a second test when he arrived in Jakarta.

The results of the second PCR test took at least two hours and after that, he tried to log in to the Indonesia Health Alert Card (eHAC) system, just as he had done on previous trips. He then found out that it had been replaced with PeduliLindungi, the official COVID-19 tracking app.

After that, he had to present his health documents at “10 to 15 checkpoints”, some with police officers.

“Kind of strange now that more and more people [are] getting fully vaccinated. They make the rules even tougher for somebody coming here,” Alsbach noted.

“If you take the [PCR] test before flying and then take another one once you arrive and you are fully vaccinated, I don’t see the reason for being quarantined afterward.”

Still, Alsbach was able to look at the bright side, saying that all of the officials that he met were friendly and helpful.

“You need to have a sense of humor,” he said.

Challenges, uncertainty

Indonesia announced on [DATE] that Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport would reopen on Oct. 14 to visitors from 19 countries with low COVID-19 positivity rates and caseloads. All potential travelers must be fully vaccinated, take a PCR test before departure and on arrival, and quarantine for five days at a designated hotel.

The 19 countries are: Bahrain, China, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Alsbach said that he had not noticed any scheduled flights to Bali from Doha or Dubai.

“If [tourists] only come here for two weeks or one week, it doesn’t make sense. As long as there’s quarantine, there’s no place for average tourists,” he said, expressing his concern about the rising unemployment in Bali since the pandemic hit.

Others shared similar concerns.

Forty-year-old Indira, who lives in Ghent, Belgium, longs to visit her sister, Shanti, 41, who lives in the Canggu area of southern Bali. The two sisters, who asked to be referred to by their given names only, have not seen each other in person since 2018.

“We actually planned to meet each other last year, but then everybody knows what happened. I already booked my flight in July [2021] to meet her in September this year,” said Indira. But her flight was canceled because the European Union’s COVID-19 travel restrictions still applied to Indonesia.

Better Ttogether: Shanti (left) with her sister Indira. The two sisters have not met since 2018 - and then the pandemic happened. (Personal collection/Indira) (Personal collection/Indira)

Indira, a part-time employee at a travel agency, was aware that many travelers from European countries, such the Netherlands, had visited Bali this year on a business visa, which she described as a “side road”. But the costs were too high, so she postponed her trip until Indonesia allowed visitors from Belgium.

She noted the lack of official communication from the Indonesian government on updated travel regulations and requirements for Bali.

“Even the [Indonesian] embassy in Belgium is not fully aware of the changes and regulations, because they change quite a lot,” she said.

Indira said she did not mind the PCR tests and she was fully vaccinated. She was also prepared to endure the mandatory quarantine for the sake of being able to see her sister after nearly three years.

“I have a sister who lives [in Bali], so I have a different motivation,” she said, stressing that otherwise, she wouldn’t waste her time trying to plan a visit to Bali. “I would choose another destination.”

Around 12,200 kilometers from Ghent, Shanti said that the uncertainty over when Indira might be able to visit was something she had “learned to live with”.

“I think we’ve all learned not to plan too big, too far in the future,” she said. For now, Shanti said that she was simply looking forward to spending quality time with her sister, joining workshops and traveling around the island.

Long flight: Tourist sleeping at the Bali airport. (Unsplash/Joyce Romero) (Unsplash/Joyce Romero)

See you in 2023?

Local businesses have expressed concern about both the visa and the quarantine requirements. Gaya Bali Travel CEO Rio Maryono said that the high cost of obtaining an Indonesian business would discourage people from traveling to Bali.

“If there are too many requirements, even with the airport reopened, [Bali] will only be a retirement island, only affordable for those who have plenty of time for vacation. Before this, Bali always had all kinds of tourists,” he said.

According to a Balinese travel agency, the business visa costs between Rp 3 million (US$210) and Rp 4.5 million to process, while the five-day quarantine would cost from Rp 7 million to Rp 14 million, even up to Rp 25 million ($ 1,765). Many of the designated quarantine hotels were three- to five-star establishments.

Bali Tourism Agency head I Putu Astawa said separately that many travel and tourist businesses had spoken to him to express their concerns. They also expressed their hope that the mandatory quarantine would be lifted for or fully vaccinated tourists, like the policies in Thailand and the UAE.

“Hopefully, the central government can introduce a no-quarantine policy in the future,” said Putu.

Photographer Derek Garcia, 34, who lives in Colorado, the United States, said that while he and his wife were “excited” that Bali had reopened, their earliest possible visit would most likely be in 2023.

“I think [that] by then, some restrictions will have been eased or removed completely. It’s best to be wise and allow for the world to stabilize again,” he said.