Raja Ampat/Lembeh in Dec?

[Centrals]

Yeah the move to Singapore is basically confirmed, I think fastest we can go is in 2-3 months, Nov was a conservative target. We have family in Singapore so will have lots of help / not much pain settling in.

I'm not really banking on travel bubble status - having seen HK/SG fall through twice already. I've accepted I'll need to do the quarantine on the way back, but SG is home quarantine and I can work from home no issues. So the goal is just to find a place that doesn't require quarantine on the way in. Phuket/Thailand is probably where we'll end up if Indonesia doesn't open.
...

1. That should be your top priority.
2. The travel bubble between HK/SIN may be resumed in July. Third time lucky?
3. Thailand is regarding HK as low risk country but not china! It is a "lose of face" for the central gov if we can travel freely, no quarantine required after returning, to the Kingdom while they are NOT welcomed! Love the idea.
4. Once moved to Singapore your option to travel to the rest of ASEAN members could be a lot easier.

Good luck

 

[Dan]

Keep us posted on your trip to Raja Ampat. A group of 8 of us, mostly from SB plan to be there on Blue Manta in February 2022.

We gave up waiting for Indonesia to open (other than those 3 specific places in Bali) by August. So we rescheduled another SB group trip to Sangalaki on White Manta for August this year to August next year.

 

[Scuba Client]

You know nothing about anything except B Shixxing.
OP is likely to move to Singapore in Nov.

It looks like someone wants to play Ping Pong with me.

 

[chillyinCanada]

It is possible I would live to dive Raja Ampat as well but I need to wait for a good friend from the UK as we had planned on doing that together. However Bali is a 5 hour direct flight from Taiwan so when that eventuates I may find myself going alone.

Better alone than not at all.

Besides, once it's open and you've been, you'll return again and probably again and again.

Your friend will eventually get the chance to join you. A true friend wouldn't begrudge you the opportunity.

 

[Dan]

Better alone than not at all.

Besides, once it's open and you've been, you'll return again and probably again and again.

Your friend will eventually get the chance to join you. A true friend wouldn't begrudge you the opportunity.

My 9th time to R4 8 months away. Can’t wait.

 

[chillyinCanada]

My 9th time to R4 8 months away. Can’t wait.

My 4th through 9th times are not yet booked. I can't wait!

 

[Centrals]

It looks like someone wants to play Ping Pong with me.

You know nothing!
How many ways can you hold the bat? LOL.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Better alone than not at all.
Besides, once it's open and you've been, you'll return again and probably again and again.
Your friend will eventually get the chance to join you. A true friend wouldn't begrudge you the opportunity.

My friend he would not begrudge me as he has done it already. We had it planned before some virus came along and ruined it all.

You never know if one day we end up on the same tour to Raja Ampat? lol

 

[Indah]

Sorry, this will be a quite long comment. For now the Indonesian government is not prioritizing tourism around Lembeh or for the R4 area. Indonesia Finalizes Safe Travel Bubble Plan with 5 Countries

But indeed anybody working in tourism could get a vaccination and many of us did. I am very happy to get my second AstraZeneca shot next Monday. However, the hard reality is that until now only 6% of the Indonesian population has been fully vaccinated. The target is to vaccinate 180 million out of the 270 million people here. So, a total of 360 million shots. Until now the daily number seldom reaches 360.000, although the aim is 1 million daily. The numbers of daily infections are on the rise, as expected because of the holidays which ended 3 weeks ago. Further there is much concern within the government that the Delta variant is spreading here. Most of our schools are (trying to) teach online now since last year March. The plan is that next month some sort of face to face school will be limited possible again. For this reason all teachers also have been vaccinated. By the time international tourism starts again many resorts, restaurants and boats have been completely out of business for some years. Fortunately many of their (ex) employees found other jobs in the meantime. There is no help from the government at all. Nothing. Actually the opposite is happening and the tax offices are looking in all ways to get some more taxes out of the almost bankrupt businesses. Opening a resort again after being hardly or not active for some years will take a huge investment.
I can not guess what will happen with international tourism into Indonesia. Maybe people fully vaccinated will be allowed to enter soon? If this happens, it will be first at Bali. Maybe it will be with testing upon arrival and some sort of quarantine. But what will be the policy of the home countries of those tourists? The largest numbers of tourists used to come from Singapore, Malaysia and China. Will travel insurances from Europe cover trips to Indonesia anytime soon? How afraid will visitors be to come across and new variant here? Sorry, many questions to which I do not know the answers as well. But I do know that for Indonesia this pandemic is far from over.

 

[jjmochi]

Thanks everyone, I decided to rebook Komodo (Mermaid I) in August 2022, and Raja Ampat (Papua Explorers, Carpe Diem) in Dec 2022. I was originally booked on Mermaid for Raja Ampat and Carpe Diem for Komodo but figured flying in/out of Bali and avoiding the LBJ flight was better in post-COVID times so swapped them around.

Bastianos said if Lembeh is still not open to tourists by the end of the year they will allow me to extend my credit to 2022, so I've exercised some discipline (thanks to the sense in the comments here) and held off.

Still need to reschedule the White Manta trips - originally had Derawan in June 2021 and Banda sea in Oct 2021, which I would need to reschedule by June/Oct 2023 respectively.