I am living in the north of Bali, near Lovina. Lovina is quite dry compared with southern Bali and is described as a sub-tropical region.

The rainy season is supposedly late starting this year and for the past couple of days it has been raining quite a bit. It’s actually a bit of a new experience having to think about the weather when trying to make plans to go out.

Not that I am complaining though, the area badly needs water. For having so little rain, throughout most of the year, the vegetation is still fairly rich and with the extra water now, the landscape is a beautiful, lush green.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been without power once every four days, just for the evening. It was a little frustrating at the beginning. It seems to go off just as you are watching something good on television or working on something on the internet.

After a few blackouts though, you get used to it and it is actually a good chance to have a quiet candle lit dinner and just sit outside in the peace and quiet. As long as you don’t look at the clock, it somehow feels much later just using candles for light and it surprisingly easy having an early night.

Tanah lots, Bali, Indonesia adalah salah satu tempat wisata yang sangat menarik dimana di tempat ini kamu dapat melihat keindahan bali yang masih natural. Di tanah lots ini, selain kamu bisa melihat keindahan alam bali dengan pantai yang indah dan ombak yang menerjang karang di sekitaran tanah lots, kamu juga akan melihat pura yang tepat berada di atas bukit. Pura yang besar dan masih aktif hingga saat ini. Di tanah lots ini juga kamu bisa melihat tarian bali yaitu tarian kecak. Tarian dari seni kebudayaan bali yang di gunakan untuk acara – acara khusus di bali.

Electricity supply has not been able to handle the growth in new development in Bali.

Electricity supply in Bali has once again been disrupted. The supply from the Gilimanuk Gas and Steam Power Plant had to be reduced by 130 megawatt due to maintenance operations.

The Gilimanuk Power Plant will be under maintenance from October 10 until December 6 and could lead to further power shortages.

Bali governor, Made Mangku Pastika, said he will seek alternative sources of energy, such as constructing a high-voltage electricity network that stretches across the Bali Strait.

It would be nice if they would consider “greener” electricity supplies, like wind or solar. Or even if they required hotels to use solar power for their outside lighting, which would at least be seen as a positive move.

I have lived in Japan and China and have now been living in Indonesia for most of this year. It is still taking me time to try and understand how people think here. The longer you stay and the more different experiences you have, the more things you pick up everyday.

The pace of life is slow here in Bali, which is one of the attractions for me to live here. Balinese people spend most of their time meeting their friends, attending ceremonies, talking, cooking and eating. When they get on a motorbike however, it’s as though they can’t spare a minute and just have to get to their destination in a heart beat. The result is some very nasty accidents. I am sure many of them are due to speed and reckless overtaking more than anything else. Once people get to their destination they are more than likely only going to be sitting around drinking coffee and smoking, so I am always wondering what could the rush be?

I am now interested in buying a house here. The house I am interested in, is only small but it had a vacant block of land next door which was included in the price. The land would have been good for a swimming pool, extending the existing house, or even building a brand new house to live in or rent out.

The seller explained that it was on a separate title, which was fine with me. We had a meeting with the seller and the notaris this morning and discovered that the seller didn’t even own the vacant land and it was his “friend’s” land. His friend is currently working on a cruise ship and it would be some time before he got back to Bali.

The seller has bought and sold properties before, so I wondered how he thought he would be able to sell off a piece of land that wasn’t even his and didn’t have the title for the land. The house by itself is nice enough. A foreigner had been renting it up until now and it is a comfortable enough place to live and I am sure can be rented out fairly easily.

I just can’t work out why the seller wasn’t upfront about who owned the land. He said he had his “friend’s” permission to sell the land. Yeah, right! I have seen the house a couple of times now and the owner keeps dropping the price, because he says he really needs money. I am still interested in the house, so I made an offer much lower than what the seller wants.

I wonder now how he will react. I imagine most people would just walk away from the deal. What do you think you would you have done?

The visa on arrival only allows for a maximum stay of one month and a two month tourist visa can also be applied for in advance. For longer stays however, you will need to apply for a social visa otherwise known as the Sosial Budaya visa.

The social visa needs to be applied for in advance at your local Indonesian embassy or consulate. The visa is good for 60 days and can be extended on a monthly basis, for a maximum stay of six months. As the name implies that visa is for people wishing to visit friends and family in Indonesia, but does not allow you to undertake any form of work, paid or unpaid.

To apply for a Social Visa, you need an Indonesian sponsor. This can be any friend you have in Indonesia. Your sponsor is required to vouch for you should you get into any trouble in Indonesia and while the person can be anyone you know, if you can, choose someone with a steady job or business in the country.

Where can I find a sponsor?

There are companies that will help organize a sponsor, but if it is your first time to Indonesia, it could be a good idea to come on a tourist visa, make some friends and ask one of them to be your sponsor. I have heard of some people asking for money to be your sponsor and while I don’t think there is a problem giving a gift to someone for going to the trouble of sponsoring you, I don’t think it is a good idea to encourage people to ask for payment.

What do I need from my sponsor?

You need a copy of your sponsor’s KTP (ID card) and a letter from them inviting you to Indonesia. Other websites I have read, said you also need a copy of your sponsor’s family register and a copy of your sponsor’s bank account statement.

I only needed a copy of the KTP and letter of invitation when I applied for my visa in Malaysia.

Where should I apply for the visa?

The visa is reportedly easiest to get at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur or in Singapore. It might take longer or you might need more documents if you apply in your own country. Your passport can be dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon.

Address and telephone number of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur

233, Jalan Tun Razak
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan 50400, Malaysia
+60 3 2116-4000
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Address and telephone number of the Indonesian embassy in Singapore

Embassy Of Republic Of Indonesia, 7 Chatsworth Road (S)249761
Singapore
+65 6737 7422


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The visa takes a whole page in your passport and when you get the visa, check that your sponsor’s name appears on the visa.

Should I do it myself or use an agent?

Everyone has their own opinion as to whether you should do the renewals yourself or to use an agent. If you do it yourself, you need to visit the immigration office in person three times for each renewal. The first time to submit your application, the second time to get notified when it will be ready and the third time to pick up your completed visa, over the course of about a week, or sometimes more. Since you need to do this every month and you need to apply for the visa at least one week before your visa expires, you will have to visit immigration almost every week.

This is fine if you are near an immigration office, but if you have to travel a bit to get to the office, you could be wasting nearly a day each time.

It is not surprising that people use agents for their renewals. A renewal costs about 250,000 rupiah each extension if you do it yourself and around 500,000 in total if you use an agent. Some expats just leave their passport with the agent for their whole time in Bali, so they don’t have to worry about dropping off and picking up their passport every month.

If you travel in the country, a photocopy is usually enough to check into a hotel. So, usually this is not a problem. You should make sure your agent is a reliable person, because if you overstay your visa, you will have to pay a fine for each day and long overstays could cause serious trouble with immigration.

On the second renewal, you need to visit the immigration office in person to get finger printed and photographed, even if you are using an agent.

Where to renew your social visa

You need to apply for an extension at least one week before your visa expires. There are three offices in Bali.

Kuta, near the airport:

Jalan Gusti Ngurah Rai Tuban Kuta

Denpasar:

Jl. Jalan D.I. Panjaitan
Desa Sumerta Klod, Denpasar Timur

Singaraja:

If you have any questions about applying for visas or living in Bali, I would suggest joining the Bali Expat Forum.

A friend’s mother passed away here in Bali and we were invited to the funeral, or cremation to be more precise. The cremation ground was in Seririt a few kilometers west of Lovina.

I didn’t really know what to expect as I had heard Balinese funerals were spectacular events. We got there late and the body was already being cremated. The cremation grounds are on a hill with nice views to the Bali Sea.

The body was put in some kind of iron casing, which had open ends. Some kind of fuel was pumped into the flames. The fuel was stored up a tree and carried to the fire in a pipe. The whole set up looked kind of dangerous. People took turns prodding the body with a bamboo stick.

There was a Gamelan orchestra playing the whole time. The attendees just sat around chatting, smoking and eating nasi goreng. No one cried, people seemed happy. The men wore their usual shorts, sandals and tshirts with just a sarong around their legs.

It was a somewhat surreal experience. I had just been searching on the internet for pictures and information on Balinese funerals and most of those pictures were fairly elaborate affairs.

Just another weird and wonderful day in Bali.

Living in Bali, you see many things that you wouldn’t normally see, living in Australia, Europe or America. One thing which was a bit of a mystery to me was seeing people cutting down banana trees and then trying to lug the trunks around, usually on the back of a motorbike.

It’s also amazing seeing 70 year old, tiny Balinese women cutting down these trees and then carrying them around. I have seen people chewing on sticks of sugar cane around Asia, but the trees didn’t look too tasty. I thought that maybe they were used in some kind of Hindu religious ceremony, as Balinese often use bits of bamboo and other vegetation to decorate their temples.

I noticed that our neighbor had one cut up, so I couldn’t help asking what they were using them for. What they do is cut and mash up the trunk, mix it with rice and use it for feed to their pigs. So there you have it. Mystery solved.

We tried signing up with Speedy internet at our house in Lovina, but there’s no telephone available. I tried the 3G service here and it was extremely slow.

Our last option was to use Spicelink. They attached an antennae to our roof to get the internet and I pay around US$100 for the service. The service is ok, but not great. It seems at least once a week there is some kind of trouble. I understand that telecommunication infrastructure is not great here, but it is very frustrating.

Today, the internet is working fine, but for some reason Google is not work working. It’s amazing how reliant I have become on Google search, Gmail, Analysitcs and Adsense. When I called their customer support, they tried to tell me it was a problem with Google itself! I know Gmail sometimes have some outages, but I don’t I can recall the Google home page to have ever been down. They then said it was a problem with their proxy server.

It would make feel so much better if they just told me that from the start.

Ada beberapa hal yang perlu di perhatikan apabila anda ingin menikah dengan orang asing. Pernikahan dengan orang asing ini biasa di kenal dengan Pernikahan Campuran. Pernikahan Campuran ini terdapat pada pasal 57 UU No. 1 tahun 1974. Beberapa Hal yang perlu di persiapkan sebelum menikah ( terdapat pada Pasal 6 UU Pernikahan ) adalah Persetujuan dari kedua mempelai, Ijin dari orang tua apabila anda ingin menikah di usia Muda atau di bawah umur 21 tahun.
Selain persyaratan tersebut anda ( kedua Mempelai ) juga harus meminta Surat Keterangan dari Pegawai Pencatat Perkawinan yang menyatakan bahwa anda ( kedua Mempelai ) telah memenuhi syarat untuk melangsungkan pernikahan tanpa ada rintangan.
Beberapa berkas yang harus di persiapkan kedua mempelai selanjutnya :

Untuk anda ( berkebangsaan Indonesia ) sebagai calon Suami atau Istri :
1. Copy KTP, Akte Kelahiran
2. Surat Keterangan Dari RT/RW yang menyatakan tidak ada halangan untuk melakukan perkawinan
3. Data Orang Tua calon Pembelai

Sedangakan untuk Calon Suami atau Istri yang berkebangsaan Asing harus menyiapkan :
1. Copy KTP/Passport, Akte kelahiran
2. Surat Keterangan dari Instansi yang berwenang di Negara ( calon Suami/Istri ) yang menyatakan bahwa calon Suamin/Istri dapat menikah tanpa rintangan apapun & akan menikah dengan WNI.
3. Surat Keterangan bahwa Calon Suami/Istri tidak dalam status Kawin atau Memiliki Istri/Suami.
Sebagai Catatan :
Apabila calon Suami/Istri sudah pernah menikah maka ia harus menyerahkan Akte Cerai ( Jika Bercerai ) atau Akte Kematian ( Jika mantan Suami/Istri yang sebelumnya telah meninggal dunia )
4. Seluruh surat akan di terjemahkan oleh Penterjemah yang akan di sumpah terlebih dahulu untuk memberikan hasil terjemahan yang sesungguhnya
5. Melegalisir surat – surat tersebut di Kedutaan Negara WNA yang berada di Indonesia.
Langkah selanjutnya yang harus di lakukan oleh kedua Pembelai adalah melakukan Pencatatan Perkawinan. Menurut pasal 60 ayat 1 UU perkawinan, Pencatatan Perkawinan ini wajib di lakukan untuk mendapatkan Akte Perkawinan ( Buku Nikah ) dari instansi yang berwenang yaitu di kantor Catatan Sipil ( Nasrani ) atau kantor Pencatat Nikah, Talak, Rujuk.
6. Surat Nikah ( akta Perkawinan ) di legalisir Departemen Kehakiman
7. Kemudian di legarisir di Departemen HAM
8. Lalu di legalisir di Departemen Luar Negeri
9. Kemudian surat – surat tersebut wajib di daftar di kantor Kedutaan Negara Suami/Istri berasal.

catatan tambahan :
1. Apabila Pegawai Pencatat Perkawinan menolak untuk memberi surat keterangan untuk menikah, Anda berhak mengajukan tuntutan ke pengadilan yang menyatakan bahwa Penolakan tidak beralasan dan anda berhak meminta Surat Pengganti keterangan yang hanay berlaku selama lebih kurang 6 bulan. Surat ini harus di gunakan dalam jangka waktu yang telah di tentukan atau anda tidak akan dapat menggunakannya lagi.
2. Setiap surat yang telah di legalisir baik di HAM, Departemen Kehakiman, Departemen Luar Negeri juga di kantor Kedutaan Negara Suami/Istri berasal sangatlah bermanfaat sebagai bukti Sah anda telah menikah dengan Suami/Istri berkebangsaan asing dan di terima secara Internasional di Indonesia juga di Negara Suami/Istri berasal.
3. Anak dari hasil Perkawinan Campur akan mengikuti kewarganegaraan Asing sama seperti Suami/Istri Anda.
4. Anak anda harus memiliki KITAS ( Kartu Ijin Tinggal terbatas ) yaitu selama 1 tahun dan perpanjang selama 2 tahun dengan mengurus Kartu Ijin tinggal menetap ( KITAP )