The backpacker's guide.

Renting a motorbike for your holiday

Many companies sell this idea, and some expat publications push it, but you have to be very careful.
A few main issues come to mind:

It's very likely to be illegal as most western licences are not valid in Indonesia

If you have an accident it's probably your fault regardless of what happened, especially if you don't have a valid licence.

An accident causing serious injury to anyone is likely to get very expensive as there is unlikely to be any insurance that covers you. Don't even think about an accident that causes death.
My odd visits to Indonesian prisons was easily enough to strongly suggest you don't do anything to be a resident in one.

Your holiday medical insurance probably won't cover injuries from a motorcycle crash as you were probably riding illegally.

HOTELS

Reviews of a few hotels can be found here.
https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 28#3282278

Unmarried couples living together can, on rare occasions, face problems.
I saw a couple, Indonesian man with foreign girlfriend check into a hotel, the policeman I was with asked me if I thought they were married.
I asked him if he really wanted to know the answer.
The police (in general) aren't interested in upsetting tourists but it's something to keep in mind.

On another occasion, after a very long hard trip, we checked into the first hotel we saw, intending to move the next day when we weren't so tired.
About midnight, the Sat PP were hammering at a the door, looking for men with prostitutes.
When he saw my kid in bed with us, he buggered off, all apologetic.
However, I wandered out and noticed a lot of empty rooms with the doors left open.
I suspect that trade was common in that hotel.
The moral of the story is, single men don't bother, and everyone else be a little careful as to the hotel you choose.

Most hotels ask you to leave a form of identification when you check in, but I would strongly advise you not to leave your passport as they are of great value on the black market.
For tourists, I strongly suggest keeping your passport hidden away and giving a photocopy to the hotel.

No one has ever asked me for a credit card when booking a room.

Added - I've stayed in a wide variety of hotel rooms from very basic backpacker style to several of the very nice Aston hotels (and they are very, very nice - terrific breakfasts - I strongly recommend Aston hotels).

There are many booking sites on the net, but I've only ever used Agoda and Traveloka.
My preference has always been Agoda but others prefer one of the many other sites. The reason I stick with Agoda is they were extremely helpful the one occasion I had a problem. As I know they were so good, I tend to stick with them.
If you're out and about, google maps will display all local hotels for you, and link directly to booking sites, usually listing the price offered by each one.

Alcohol - Advice that could save your life.

Alcohol is quite expensive in Indonesia but don't let that tempt you into buying cheap stuff from local shops.
The chains, Alfamart, Indomaret, and so on, are no longer legal outlets, but it is legally available in supermarkets and many other shops.

Some areas now have a total ban on alcohol sales. Whilst this is often unpopular with expats, it's very popular with most locals (or they simply don't care) as they don't drink anyway.

Many small shops sell cheap gin, whisky or whatever but the stuff is laced with methanol, bleach and various other nasties that'll likely put you in hospital or a morgue.

Locals sometimes die of it as two lads in Wonosobo did when I lived there but it's also been known to kill tourists.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article … drink.html

The father of a young British backpacker who died after drinking poisonous gin has flown around the world in a bid to catch the people who sold her the lethal substance.
Brenton Emmons, 47, has travelled more than 8,000 miles to Indonesia after his daughter, Cheznye, tragically died there in April.

This stuff is common all over Indonesia so, to be safe, NEVER buy alcoholic drinks except in known shops.

indostocks wrote:

RE: Alcohol consumption. Very good advice, Mas Fred!

Just my extra 2 sen...

Western spirit are extremely expensive in Indonesia so if you can find a local source for safe alcohol then treat them well. Manado and environs are sources for palm wine. Flores and the Batak region of Northern Sumatra are also places where locally sourced distillates can be encountered.

Again unless you are buying properly sealed western liquor or beer make sure of your source.

I live in Yogyakarta so I don't drink except for the occasional can or bottle of San Miguel.

Ubudian wrote:

Booze in Bali:

Locally made arak is the high octane spirit of choice among the Balinese, and it is indeed potent.   Various arak cocktails are served in many bars and restaurants, arak madu being probably the most popular.  Arak madu is made with honey and lemon and its quite good.

Most Balinese will agree that the very best arak is made in the Amed, East Bali area.  It is illegal to produce it without a license, but bootlegging is popular here and thus you can find arak at a great many warungs being sold in re-cycled glass bottles.

As previously mentioned, local made stuff is always a drink at your own risk proposition and there are periodic articles in the local papers of a local dying from consuming poisoned arak.  Some idiots think that adding ground down mosquito coils to the arak increases its potency even more. 

There is a licensed local distillery operation in Bali called Bali Moon.  They recently came out with a very high quality vodka which rivals the best and in taste competitions regularly beats Stoli, Absolute and Sky.  Its called Bali 9not after the famed criminals in our prison, but rather to reflect the number of times it is charcoal filtered.  Retail runs about 180k for a 700 ml bottle and I think its only available now on Bali and nowhere on Javabut I could be wrong on that as their intention is to market this in Java eventually.

Bali is also home to a great micro-brewery called Storm Beer.  This is a great quality brewery and they produce five varieties from a hearty stout to a light pale ale.  They are having some problems as of late and production recently stopped.  Hopefully their issues will be resolved soon and production resumed as it is the best beer available on Baliall imports included.