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If you are traveling from Australia, it is much closer to fly to Bali than to Jakarta. There are several airlines that you can use, for example Quantas or United Airlines. You may also want to check with Singapore airlines if you don’t mind stopping in Singapore first before arriving in Jakarta.

So what is this Police Certificate anyways?

In Indonesia, it is called Surat Tanda Melapor, better known as a Certificate of Police Registration which concerns any foreigner (tourist, visitor, resident, guest of resident, etc), though the foreigner himself is not forced to apply in person. This is a report to the police that states where a foreigner is living and for how long.

The regulation Chapter 10, Peraturan Pemerintah nomor 31 tahun 1994 says,

Setiap orang yang memberikan kesempatan orang asing menginap di tempat kediamannya wajib melaporkan kepada Kantor Kepolisian Republik Indonesia atau Pejabat Pemerintah Daerah setempat dalam jangka waktu 24 (dua puluh empat jam) sejak tanggal kedatangan orang asing tersebut.

Anyone who accommodates a foreigner is obligated to report to the local police office within 24 hours of the guest’s arrival.

This means that the person who gives the foreigner/s shelter (hotel, wife, friend, etc) has to report your residence within 24 hours after your arrival. Here there is no notion of type or duration of stay. The person who provides you accommodation reports to the police. This is a report about one person, giving shelter to a foreigner, to the police. This is not in any way an authorization asking to shelter someone to a particular date. This just means that you don’t have to be reported again as long as you don’t change your address. However, if one forgets to report your residence after 24 hours after your arrival, that person will receive the penalties listed in the Capter 60, undang undang nomor 9 tahun 1992:

Setiap orang yang memberi kesempatan menginap kepada orang asing dan tidak melaporkan kepada Pejabat Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia atau Pejabat Pemerintah Daerah setempat yang berwenang dalam 24 (dua puluh empat) jam sejak kedatangan orang asing tersebut, dipidana dengan pidana kurungan paling lama 1 (satu) tahun atau denda paling banyak Rp 5.000.000,- (lima juta rupiah).

Penalty is 1 year imprisonment or penalty fee of Rp.5,000,000.

None of the two laws quoted tie the length of the STM to the length of an Ijin Tinggal or Ijin Kunjungan. It is submitted to the length of stay reported. What some crooked police officials may try is to make you believe that the article 61 UU 9/1992 concerns STM and that you have to report every 30 days. This is totally not true. Article 61 concerns people with an Ijin Tinggal (residence visa), not those on a visit visa (Ijin Kunjungan).

To summarize:

- If you are a KITAS/KITAP holder (resident visa), report to the police for SKLD (30 days maximum after the issuance of your Ijin Tinggal) and report any change in your residency within 7 days of its occurrence. Make sure that the person who provides you accommodation (even if it your wife/son or whoever in the family) reports you within the 24 hours and has an STM remitted. You need to do it again only if you change to a new accommodation.

- If you are holder of an Ijin Kunjungan or VoA (visit visa), you are only concerned by the STM in the conditions defined above.

and in response I have received some great pictures of areas I have never even heard of.

Here are the pictures and the names of the areas alongside the Twitter accounts or websites of those who have provided me with them:

North Celebes Province. Where Bunaken is
Courtesty of iFairchild

Sunset in Gangga Island, North Sulawesi by EthnicGirl

Graceful Prambanan by @luthfianya

Santolo, Garut by @mrsnyamnyam

Nusa Tenggara Timur by The Best Photographer in Indonesia

Kakaban by @gitzgitz

Gunung Kerinci by @aquanakmama

Pulau Penyu (Turtle Island), Bali by @adistyanggraini

Indonesian food was nominated as well, I myself like Sate.

Kawah Putih, Ciwidey, Bandung

Airplane headed for Bali from Bisnis Ticketing

Kelor island

a dragon posing on Komodo Island, West Flores, Indonesia
by GOKOMODO

What has Obama accomplished to deserve the statue in Jakarta?

Indri_ZS

@indonesiatogo #obamastatue is ridiculous pathetic idea. shame on indonesia as a nation,who can’t appreciate their own Hero.

nanavoila

@indonesiatogo yea, and he was just a kid, wasn’t he? Indonesians are too exaggerating things about Obama, I think. Hehehe…

alveta

@indonesiatogo like n dislike has nothing to do with it. beneficial? maybe.

susanholic

Yes,i don’t get it either (via@BenyYusron) RT @indonesiatogo:Question number 2:What has Obama accomplished to deserve the statue in Jakarta?

avigayildamm

@indonesiatogo @elishevadpw Yep, agree. What is the point of #obamastatue anyway? His nobel prize has nothing to do with having lived in ID

elishevadpw

#obamastatue @indonesiatogo @avigayildamm I bet Obama might not have even liked it here in Indo but now he has a statue here. Pathetic!

BenyYusron

Nothing at all RT @indonesiatogo: Question number 2: What has Obama accomplished to deserve the statue in Jakarta?

BenyYusron

Send 30000 more troops to Afghanistan RT @indonesiatogo: Question number 2: Wha

phemaw

RT @mrsnyamnyam: and for 2nd question @indonesiatogo, obama? its much better to build Soekarno or another Indonesian patriot/hero’s statue.

As you can see, overwhelming responses like:

NessaParamitha

@indonesiatogo nothing really. Maybe it’s a symbol that Indonesia longing for a leader like him. re: obama statue

Then finally I got the first positive one:

dear_connie

@indonesiatogo Personally, I rly don’t mind w that. I find Obama is inspiring, not just to Americans. Everyone deserves & can b a President.

I like that one. I mean, I think that Obama is a terrible choice to have as a President or a statue. But it shows our longing to connect and be a part of something important. Who cares that he spent 6 years as a child here. When the election was going on, Indonesians kept saying “We won! We Won!”
Newsflash: you won nothing. Obama won, you didn’t get anything out of it. You fell for the political game like every American who believed in “Yes we can!” over economical mathematics. Gimme a break, Indonesia.

If you copy something from another nation, that is good. All nations do. But please copy the positive. Do not copy the negative. Learn from it and prevent it.

God knows that there is more than enough to go around.

Mike Dammann
Indonesia To Go

Admittedly, the batik is found in several regions of the world, such as India, Malaysia and some Middle East countries, but Indonesia has specifically raised this textile process to perfection with its artistic approach. There are now various designs of batik in addition to the traditional patterns. On top of that, the use of batik is now not only  limited to traditional clothing such as the sarong and shirt, but also to various daily apparels and home decor.

If you’re interested to learn more about the variety of traditional batik patterns as well as the modern designs, click here and if you’re interested in purchasing some batik for resale, go here.

The website claims that 30% of their daily visitors are booking hotels through them for business purposes. They can find a lot of great deals and special discounted offer and it’s super easy to use.

Not only is the website user friendly, it offers a great wealth of information regarding all the cities in Europe you can possibly imagine. Besides hotel rates comparison, you will be able to find tips and reviews, as well as popular tourist spots recommendation.

If you are thinking of traveling to Europe, consider booking your hotel through http://www.cheaperthanhotels.co.uk.

In between meetings, my colleagues and I had a chance to talk to locals and dig a little deeper into their interesting culture and people. The name Palu literally means “hammer”. Although we couldn’t find out why it was named that way, the Christians there seem to be able to relate the name of the city to the situation that they are in.

Palu Bay

The majority of the population in Palu are Muslims. The city has a long history of violent clashes between the Muslims and the Christians, who are mostly not from the area. Stories of Christian and Muslim deaths, bombings, killings, executions and closing down of churches were slanted all over the media, picturing Palu as a violent, bloody and unsafe place. From our conversations with the locals, we found out that the natives of Palu, the Kaili tribe are very peaceful and friendly.

It seems that resistance against the Christian immigrants does not come from the native people of Palu or Central Celebes but rather from fellow immigrants that come from the south of the Celebes island – the tribe of the Bugis. The ancestors of the Bugis’ people were known in the Caribbeans and Madagaskar as vicious pirates from the far east, feared so much by white westerners in Europe that they named them the Boogey men, which became also the frightening character to terrify children in the west who refuse to go to bed. Nowadays the Bugis people are still skillful sailors but no longer pirates. But the violent traits inherited by their ancestors are now taken out on the Christian immigrants, so it seems.

For our Christian friends that we met there, the name Palu (“hammer”) was a perfect description of their constantly  “hammered” situation. On the other side, we also found out, that the government of Palu itself is very much open to and welcoming Christian mission organization such as the Salvation Army. A local church even admitted that they receive quite a lot of support to implement their programs for the society. So it seems that it is only one group of people “hammering” the Christians there.

Despite that all, Palu seemed to be a very peaceful and laid back city. Wherever we went, my western colleagues were greeted and waved to. Short, friendly hellos and “Hellow Mister!” or “How are you?” can be heard several times as we walk down a street.

As we walked to have dinner the first night, we found some construction jokes that we felt we had to stop, discuss them and take pictures of our funny discovery. The first one is the brigde that was built for pedestrians to use to cross the street. Have a look at the picture below and try and figure out what is wrong with it.

Crossing Bridge in Palu

We found another funny thing in the mall. Look at the picture below and find something hilarious of Palu construction.

Escalator engineering

If you are looking to stay longer than just a few weeks holiday, in order to find business opportunities, exporting opportunities, language studies and cultural exchanges and so on, you could apply for a social cultural visa from your home country. The visa is known as “Visa Sosial Budaya” and you will have to give yourself at least 3 working days before your visa can be approved. If approved, you will receive a visa for 60 days that can be extended every month up to 6 months.

Find the consulate or embassy of Indonesia in your own home country and see if they can issue a social cultural visa. People usually have a hard time finding one through the internet because they would type the wrong keyword into the search engine. You would naturally type “Indonesian embassy in (your city)” but the correct keyword would be “KBRI in (your city). KBRI stands for Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia which is the Indonesian term for Indonesian embassy.

The application fee would be $45 and it will take about 3 working days to get approval. However, if you are in a hurry or your budget is tight, you can easily just fly to Singapore and apply there. With the help of Mr. Gan in Singapore (+6596158622) you will be able to get your visa in 1 day. You will need to have a sponsor (who can be a friend or a family or a company) and your sponsor will have to write a sponsorship letter that states you have been invited by them, and your stay and expenses will be their responsibilities. Ask your sponsor to give you a copy of their National ID card (KTP) or their passport.

The day of Eid is celebrated amongst family and friends. They would visit each other and ask for forgiveness for past mistakes so they can start fresh and turn over a new leaf. The normal greetings on Eid is “Selamat Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir dan batin” which basically means “Happy Eid al-Fitr, please forgive my (physical and emotional) mistakes”.

Eid is also marked by the special meal which normally consists of ketupat (rice cake cooked in coconut leaves), opor ayam (chicken in coconut milk), gulai kambing (lamb curry), sambal goreng daging (minced meat in spicy sauce), and so on. It varies between families, but one thing is for sure: the ketupat will always be there.

This year’s Eid al-Fitr (or locally known as Idul Fitri) falls on Sunday, 20 September 2009. This is the first time in many years that the actual celebration falls one day earlier than predicted and printed by various companies in their annual calendar. The Indonesian were ready to celebrate it nevertheless.

The team of Indonesia To Go would like to wish you a very happy Eid al-Fitr, may the spirit of peace and forgiveness remain with you and your dearest ones throughout your whole life.