Beautiful Bali Trip in May - Preparation for Departure

Booked an 8-day, 6-night trip on Ctrip from May 10 to May 17, staying at the Melia Bali Villas & Spa Resort (Melia Bali Villas & Spa Resort) in Nusa Dua Beach in a superior room, plus Ctrip's hotel beach shuttle bus.

Hotel + airfare + insurance + beach shuttle bus = 12,676 RMB. Each person brought $450 USD + 1,000 RMB.

Preparation before departure:

1. Currency exchange: It is recommended to bring USD. Only US dollars issued in 2001 or later are accepted, and they must not have serial numbers starting with C, B, or D.

For $100 bills, we brought those without these letters to avoid any issues. We also prepared $20 in small $1 bills for tips. Credit cards are necessary; they can be used at high-end hotels, restaurants, and large stores. Hotels require credit card registration at check-in. Cash is also essential, and a little RMB should be prepared just in case. Haha!

2. Chargers: DV and DC charger adapter plugs. The local plugs and sockets are European standard (two round pins). You can buy them at Carrefour for about 29 RMB. The adapter is a German standard round two-pin plug.

At the Melia Bali resort where we stayed, there were adapters, but only one power outlet, which was not enough for the two of us to charge countless electronic devices simultaneously. Fortunately, I was smart enough to bring a power strip.

3. Items to bring:

Toiletries: toothpaste, toothbrush, comb (hotels usually don't provide them), shampoo, conditioner, body wash. (Melia Bali provides them, but we have personal preferences, so we brought a full set.)

Sunscreen and skincare: sunscreen, after-sun repair lotion, face mask, travel-sized skincare set. (After all, we are two girls: apply sunscreen every morning, after-sun repair every evening, whitening mask every day, but we still got quite tanned.)

Personal items: umbrella, sunglasses, hat, summer clothes (prepare a slightly thicker jacket because it gets cold when watching dolphins early in the morning), swimsuit, sandals, slippers.

Electronics: digital camera, camcorder, mobile phone.

4. Others: hotel booking confirmation, air tickets, travel itinerary, maps printed from the internet.

Basic information about Bali:

1. Consulate information

Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia: Lan Lijun

Address: JL. MEGA KUNINGAN NO.2 JAKARTA SELATAN 12950 INDONESIA

006-221-5761039

006-221-5761037

006-221-5761025

006-221-5761027

006-221-5761021

006-221-5761032

006-221-5761047

2. Bali emergency numbers

Police (Police)

Fire Department (Fire Dept.)

Ambulance (Ambulance)

3. Exchange rate: The local currency is the Indonesian Rupiah, usually denoted as Rp. Exchanging in $100 USD is more favorable, generally between 8,500 and 9,200. You can check Bali's exchange rate websites before departure:

**Exchanging $100 bills gives a better rate than smaller denominations. Only US dollars issued in 2001 or later are accepted, and they must not have serial numbers starting with C, B, or D.

At Singapore Airport, we exchanged a small amount. We thought the RMB exchange rate was slightly better there, so we exchanged 500 RMB, about Rp 600,000. (Personally, I think it would have been fine not to exchange, or to exchange a little at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport for emergency use that day.)

Exchange rates over the next few days: (After research, exchanging RMB locally in Bali is not worth it.)

USD to IDR exchange rates:

1: 9175

1: 9230

1: 9225

1: 9275

4. Tipping: Avoid giving coins as tips.

(1) Restaurants: According to netizens, in Bali, regular restaurants charge 21% tax and service fee, so no extra tip is needed.

**Basically, no tip is required because hotels and restaurants generally charge a total of about 21% (5%-11% tax and 5%-10% service fee). However, note that it is customary to forgo small change.

Basically, after paying at large restaurants, if we saw tax or service fee on the bill, we did not leave a tip. Generally, amounts below Rp 500 are not returned; at large restaurants, we usually did not take change below Rp 5,000.

(2) Hotels: According to netizens, hotel porters get 2,000 Rp per piece of luggage, housekeeping gets 10,000 Rp per day, and a bedside tip of 5,000 Rp or $1 USD. When arriving and leaving, porters will handle your luggage; give $1 USD.

Ctrip arranged airport pickup and drop-off. Since we were two girls with one large suitcase each, the bags were fine on the way there but were so heavy on the way back that the driver helped us with the luggage. So we gave $1 USD to the driver for both pickup and drop-off.

The same for hotel porters: we gave $1 USD each upon arrival and departure.

For the bedside tip, on the first day we had no small Rp, so we gave $1 USD directly. On the following days, we left Rp 5,000.

(3) Private driver: According to netizens, generally give the driver $1 USD at lunchtime and another $1 USD at dinner. If you return late, exceeding 10 hours, give an extra $1 USD.

We had pre-booked a car in Bali; the driver was Wayan, who is quite famous on Ctrip. We rented the car for 3 days with no time limit. The car rental + spider boat (for dolphin watching) was confirmed via email. We gave the driver $1 USD per day as tip. However, on the day we went dolphin watching, we gave him $2 USD because that day was really hard. Wayan worked really hard!

The water quality there is poor; do not drink tap water, even boiled. On the first day, we gave the driver a large bottle of mineral water; after all, driving is hard. Netizens say to give a bottle every day, which is a bit exaggerated; at least it's a 1.5L AQUA mineral water.

5. Bali mobile phone communication rates reference:

07:00 - 22:59:59

23:00 - 06:59:59

Local calls (mobile to mobile):

Rp 1,500/min

Rp 300/min

Local calls (mobile to landline):

Rp 4,500/min

Rp 4,000/min

Rp 8,000/min

Rp 7,500/min

It is the Jempol card from Indonesia's XL company. You can send text messages in Chinese. Dial *123# to check balance.

Top-up cards are easy to buy; there is a shop opposite Sun Plaza selling them. A top-up card with a face value of 10,000 IDR is sold for 12,000 IDR. The signal of this company's card is not very good because it is GSM 900 single-band, so the phone sometimes shows 'Emergency calls only'.

To make international calls from a Chinese mobile phone in Bali, dial 001 + 86 + area code + landline or mobile number. For example, to call a landline in Shanghai, dial 0018621-12345678. To call a local Bali number, dial 00162361-1236547.

However, if you use a local SIM card to call a local number, you don't need to add 00162; just dial 0361-1234567 (e.g., Cindra's number is 0361-7928585) or mobile number 08-0123456789 (e.g., Leon's number is 08-1558100568).

The SIM card provided by Ctrip is basically sufficient for ordering food, contacting the driver, etc.

6. Taxis: Always take taxis that are light blue with 'BLUE BIRD' on the windows, and the driver wears a light blue uniform. Use the meter. (According to netizens, they are very nice, but prepare small change to avoid trouble if they don't have change.)

This taxi company is good and has a good reputation locally. When we went to Jari Menari Dancing Fingers for a massage, the staff specifically called to tell us to take this taxi. But be careful: there are many blue taxis of different shades. Make sure it's BLUE BIRD.

7. Drinking water: The water quality in Bali is poor. Do not drink tap water, even boiled, as it may cause illness. Even in five-star hotels, do not do this. Buy 1.5L large bottles of water, usually named AQUA, for Rp 3,000 per bottle. The hotel provides two bottles of water per day, about 500ml each, but it's not enough. :)