Almost rejected from Bali?
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2011
1
14
17
Trip End
Nov 05, 2011
Legian, Bali, Indonesia
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
We managed to get out of Bangkok without drama,.. but getting into Bali was another story. When you get off the plane you buy a USD$25 visa. They give you a little visa sticker and then you move on to the Immigration and Customs counter where someone sticks the sticker in your passport. The guy looked and looked at my passport and finally said 'Sorry I cannot put this visa sticker in your passport - you don't have any pages left".
Now I knew that my passport was running low on pages... but I pointed out the 2 or 3 blank ones in the back. But those are apparently for endorsements - NOT for visas. "What's the difference?" I asked. “Just put them there.” But no, he said he had to take me to speak to his supervisor. Sigh… so here we go! Alan had already cleared customs so I called him over to explain the situation. I could see the dilemma in his eyes… stay with me at the airport to witness me being hauled off to a Bali jail, or to head for the beckoning swimming pool at the hotel!!
The supervisor guy was actually quite nice about the situation – but he said that some law (US or Bali? I don't know) says that you must put the sticker on a visa page, not an endorsement page. Now this sticker isn’t a big sticker – maybe 1/6th or 1/8th of a page. So he starts going through all my passport pages one by one to see if he could find a space for it. (Damn those customs people who previously put their stamps in random places rather than nice and neat to maximise space efficiently!) He would find a spot, and just about put the sticker down, only to raise it again, and say “No, not here.” It’s like he was tormenting me. The problem was that the sticker could not in any way be laid across an existing stamp. There was once space that I swear the sticker overlaid the stamp by only 1mm – but he wouldn’t do it. I finally suggested that he trim the sticker slightly, but nope, he souldn’t do that either.
He asked about my return flights – and of course, my on-going ticket is in my luggage, on the other side of Customs. I could see that he wanted to help me, but the case was building up against my favour! He said that there was a chance that they might have to send me back. No, not to NZ, but to Thailand. So now I have this picture of being bounced from airport to airport because no one would let me in as there isn’t enough space in my passport for their bloody stickers and stamps. I could see a Hollywood movie on the horizon - maybe featuring Tom Hanks. Oh wait a minute, it's already been done. (The Terminal).
He let me get my luggage to show my return ticket. Meanwhile, he spoke to HIS supervisor, and they agreed that they would overlay the visa sticker across the previous Thailand one (by 1mm, don’t forget!) – but I would not be able to use my passport to return to Thailand. No worries there, mate! I guess I'll be getting a new one as soon as I get home. That’s if the Aussies let me in on the way through….
Sigh….
Never mind – I made it, and have celebrated by enjoying some fine Indonesian food, and a few swims in the pool. And that’s about all we have done!
Tomorrow we will hire a car and travel up the west coast t then along the northern coast for the next few days, and finish up in Amed, a small coastal resort town we stayed in previously. We’re trying to explore some of the less touristy areas and areas that we haven’t been to before, but with the goal of getting in as much snorkelling as we can.
No photos to share for Bali yet - just this one that I did while we were having dinner tonight!
Comments
Oh dear...it would REALLY have made a good movie...!!!, better than The Terminal I think...Im sure it wasnt to humerous at the time...but kinda of sounds funny now...I guess we dont really check the pages left, just make sure you have a valid passport...Im sure it made the yummy food and nice swim all the more nicer....:)
I would have been freaked out. I like your sense of humor about it all and your ingenuity of trying to get them to overlay the stickers. I would have needed a couple of Xanax!
The thing that you learn when tra velling is Asia is that you need to remain calm, polite and respectful. Anger and frustration will get you nowhere. I managed to talk my way out of this situation, and have previously talked my way out of two traffic infringements. (It's not always easy mind you, especfially with the street hawkers).
Funnily enough, I actually felt quite calm during the immigration process - I guess I just assumed it would all work out OK. And I guess I didn't want to think about the alternatives!
You must have inherited Chuck's knack for dealing with unaccommodating authority. The situation would have irritated me to the point of having to bite my tongue to keep from getting in worse trouble.