I’m sitting on the ferry to Waisai writing this.
It’s Monday afternoon and we left home (Denmark) Friday at 1 pm.
Just wanted to share some observations we’ve done so far.
Travel route was: train from home city (Denmark) to Hamburg, then S-bahn to Hamburg airport, Emirates flight via Dxb to CGK, 1 night at FM7 hotel, then Garuda 12.10 am flight to SOQ.
Check in at Hamburg: very long queue, but moved along ok. As we’ve flown Emirates several times before and lived in the Emirates we thought we knew the airline…
When we finally reached the check-in counter the agent told us we can only carry 1 carryon each with a maximum of 7 kg. We each have a standard cabin trolley and I had my cross body bag, my husband a bag pack with our travel papers.
This happens sometimes, and usually, when we politely explain we’re travelling with dive gear (regs, camera etc), so are reluctant to check it in every other airline we’ve been flying with for the past 14 years have just acknowledged it and let us take the bags. But not this guy - and I saw the other agents weigh hand luggage as well.
He insists we need to be at maximum 8 kg to be able to bring the bags.
I tell him Emirates then have to take responsibility for the expensive stuff and we agree to check in my husband’s back pack (but taking out most of the stuff and put it in my hand bag), then we can bring the trolleys (even though they’re 9 kg each).
Never ever had this problem before. It might have to do with Hamburg airport though, as I saw several signs in the airport itself saying only 1 carryon at the moment. The check in agent even said we might have to pay at the gate - did not pay anything.
Flight to Dubai was ok, layover was 5 hours, but the first hour was landing, taxi and waiting for bus pick up + a 25 min drive to the gate (yes: 1 hour from touchdown to terminal, a first for us in DXB).
Marhaba lounge had a very long line (about 15-20 minutes wait), but once inside it was easy to find a seat and food was ok.
Flight to CGK was delayed a bit, so we arrived a bit late (10.45 pm instead of 10.15 pm), while I did fill out the e-cd and health pass online we did not get the e voa - big mistake! Definitely get it online before arrival. Queue for voa was maybe 20-30 minutes and then we had to queue for immigration (again 20-30 minutes). If we had gotten the e voa we could have used the smart gates (saw other tourists doing this) would have saved us a lot of time. After immigration we waited at the baggage belt only to discover our luggage was already taken off and standing on the other side. Passing through customs was easy with the qr code on my phone. (No one asked for the health pass) Have to say our experience at the airport was overall good: temperature was perfect, not too hot/cold and signage was good, I also used the WiFi, which worked well.
I saw an atm just before immigration, but we decided to wait and use atms in the arrival hall. There were 2 atms just after customs. The one with the 100.000 sign on it, had a line and I noticed the 2 ladies before us did not get any money out, (they tried several times with different cards) so I thought it may not work. Husband told me to try anyway, and we got 2.5 million without problems.
I prebooked the FM7 hotel, and kept in contact with their representative via WhatsApp. Once outside he was waiting right in front of the “point cellular”, but we still had to wait for another group.
The others arrive, but need to go back in to use the atm.
I decide to get an esim and make sure it’s good for RA. As I was tired I just said yes, when they said the only possible package was for 40 or 60 gb - 5-600 k I think? I just said ok and feel I paid way too much, since I’ll never use 60 gb in 3 weeks, but they set everything up and it looks like it’s working here.
The other family comes out from arrival hall very frustrated as they were not able to get any money out of the atm, we all continue towards the car and start chatting: turns out they have revolut, just like I have, yet they were not able to withdraw anything. I try helping them troubleshoot, and as we see another atm point my husband says we should withdraw more, just to be sure. The other family also want to withdraw of course.
I use the ATM first and quickly get another 2,5 million. They try next and get nothing.
Since we both have revolut I ask, if they have set up an account with IDR? They didn’t even know you could do that, so I show them how, they change money in the app, use the atm again and voila: money comes
They were so happy, and of course I was just happy to help. I’m wondering if this is something new - since we also saw the 2 ladies at the first atm not getting anything? We’ve previously used our Danish visa/mastercards without problems.
Bus to FM7 was only 10 minutes, arriving around 1 am so 2 hours from touch down to hotel- much more than I thought it would take.
Check in is slow, but eventually we get our room and settle in for some much needed sleep.
Wake up 8.30 am Sunday morning, have an ok breakfast - only thing really for us was the egg/omelette station and some bread, since rice and curry is not our preferred breakfast (I know it’s tradition here, so expected that, no problem). They do however have a great ginger tea.
Book for a 90 min massage at 10.30 am, massage was ok - at 375k, could have been better. Find the beauty salon outside and as husband wants a haircut and I want a pedicure we book for 2 pm and go for a little nap. Return and hairdresser is ready, but I have to wait 20 minutes for my treatment- haircut was good, pedicure was ok.
Went for a lovely, though a bit expensive lunch (422k) for 2 sandwiches with fries, 2 beers and 1 Coke Zero.
Still tired we take another nap and wake up in time for drinks at the rooftop bar - top tip: the mai tai is extremely sweet, the Long island ice tea is ok. The spaghetti bolognese was good and it’s almost time to leave for the airport- 10 pm bus for 12.10 am departure.
We decide to take out another 5 mill (2 transactions) - some of the atms show a “user fee” one is 75k the other 35k, I decline both a finally get the money from the third - sorry I don’t remember the names of the ones with/without fees, but when you press the amount and ok, it shows up on the screen, it’s possible to just decline and get your card back.
No queue for check in with Garuda. As I booked my ticket to SOQ with Airmiles (thanks to advice on this forum) and husband paid in full, our tickets were not connected, so fully anticipated to sit apart, was pleasantly surprised when the agent said we could get seats at exit - not next to each other, but very happy to have extra legroom, since my husband is quite tall. Let me tell you: don’t accept the seats in row 30 - it was torture. Not able to recline at all, cut off blood circulation to legs and arriving into SOQ we were just extremely exhausted.
From the “Stay Raja Ampat travellers” fb group I found a lady (Lily), who we booked transfer with - since the ferry schedule changed and there’s only a 2 pm ferry, she organised a taxi to the Swiss Belhotel, then another from the hotel to port at 1 pm (2 x 100.000) She also bought ferry tickets (VIP 262.k each) and visitor fee (300k - already got the marine park fee online).
Lily had a sign with our names so was easy to spot. But when she sent for the driver hell broke loose - other taxi drivers were yelling at Lily and their whole attitude shifted from friendly “need a taxi?” to yelling and obviously threatening Lily (not so much us, but it felt a bit unsafe).
The driver came and quickly got our luggage in the car, we followed him and Lily said she’d meet us at the hotel.
At the Swiss Bellhotel we got a room and breakfast(795 k). Had a great omelette and very nice croissants. Good coffee according to my husband.
Went for some much needed sleep and woke up for pick up at 1. It was very nice to have Lily arrange all the tickets and we did not pay extra for this. She also arranged for porters at the port (100k for 2 very heavy bags and our 2 trolleys), everything was very fast paced, but Lily made sure we got our assigned seats. And told us to monitor our belongings- especially phones.
It’s Monday afternoon and we left home (Denmark) Friday at 1 pm.
Just wanted to share some observations we’ve done so far.
Travel route was: train from home city (Denmark) to Hamburg, then S-bahn to Hamburg airport, Emirates flight via Dxb to CGK, 1 night at FM7 hotel, then Garuda 12.10 am flight to SOQ.
Check in at Hamburg: very long queue, but moved along ok. As we’ve flown Emirates several times before and lived in the Emirates we thought we knew the airline…
When we finally reached the check-in counter the agent told us we can only carry 1 carryon each with a maximum of 7 kg. We each have a standard cabin trolley and I had my cross body bag, my husband a bag pack with our travel papers.
This happens sometimes, and usually, when we politely explain we’re travelling with dive gear (regs, camera etc), so are reluctant to check it in every other airline we’ve been flying with for the past 14 years have just acknowledged it and let us take the bags. But not this guy - and I saw the other agents weigh hand luggage as well.
He insists we need to be at maximum 8 kg to be able to bring the bags.
I tell him Emirates then have to take responsibility for the expensive stuff and we agree to check in my husband’s back pack (but taking out most of the stuff and put it in my hand bag), then we can bring the trolleys (even though they’re 9 kg each).
Never ever had this problem before. It might have to do with Hamburg airport though, as I saw several signs in the airport itself saying only 1 carryon at the moment. The check in agent even said we might have to pay at the gate - did not pay anything.
Flight to Dubai was ok, layover was 5 hours, but the first hour was landing, taxi and waiting for bus pick up + a 25 min drive to the gate (yes: 1 hour from touchdown to terminal, a first for us in DXB).
Marhaba lounge had a very long line (about 15-20 minutes wait), but once inside it was easy to find a seat and food was ok.
Flight to CGK was delayed a bit, so we arrived a bit late (10.45 pm instead of 10.15 pm), while I did fill out the e-cd and health pass online we did not get the e voa - big mistake! Definitely get it online before arrival. Queue for voa was maybe 20-30 minutes and then we had to queue for immigration (again 20-30 minutes). If we had gotten the e voa we could have used the smart gates (saw other tourists doing this) would have saved us a lot of time. After immigration we waited at the baggage belt only to discover our luggage was already taken off and standing on the other side. Passing through customs was easy with the qr code on my phone. (No one asked for the health pass) Have to say our experience at the airport was overall good: temperature was perfect, not too hot/cold and signage was good, I also used the WiFi, which worked well.
I saw an atm just before immigration, but we decided to wait and use atms in the arrival hall. There were 2 atms just after customs. The one with the 100.000 sign on it, had a line and I noticed the 2 ladies before us did not get any money out, (they tried several times with different cards) so I thought it may not work. Husband told me to try anyway, and we got 2.5 million without problems.
I prebooked the FM7 hotel, and kept in contact with their representative via WhatsApp. Once outside he was waiting right in front of the “point cellular”, but we still had to wait for another group.
The others arrive, but need to go back in to use the atm.
I decide to get an esim and make sure it’s good for RA. As I was tired I just said yes, when they said the only possible package was for 40 or 60 gb - 5-600 k I think? I just said ok and feel I paid way too much, since I’ll never use 60 gb in 3 weeks, but they set everything up and it looks like it’s working here.
The other family comes out from arrival hall very frustrated as they were not able to get any money out of the atm, we all continue towards the car and start chatting: turns out they have revolut, just like I have, yet they were not able to withdraw anything. I try helping them troubleshoot, and as we see another atm point my husband says we should withdraw more, just to be sure. The other family also want to withdraw of course.
I use the ATM first and quickly get another 2,5 million. They try next and get nothing.
Since we both have revolut I ask, if they have set up an account with IDR? They didn’t even know you could do that, so I show them how, they change money in the app, use the atm again and voila: money comes
They were so happy, and of course I was just happy to help. I’m wondering if this is something new - since we also saw the 2 ladies at the first atm not getting anything? We’ve previously used our Danish visa/mastercards without problems.Bus to FM7 was only 10 minutes, arriving around 1 am so 2 hours from touch down to hotel- much more than I thought it would take.
Check in is slow, but eventually we get our room and settle in for some much needed sleep.
Wake up 8.30 am Sunday morning, have an ok breakfast - only thing really for us was the egg/omelette station and some bread, since rice and curry is not our preferred breakfast (I know it’s tradition here, so expected that, no problem). They do however have a great ginger tea.
Book for a 90 min massage at 10.30 am, massage was ok - at 375k, could have been better. Find the beauty salon outside and as husband wants a haircut and I want a pedicure we book for 2 pm and go for a little nap. Return and hairdresser is ready, but I have to wait 20 minutes for my treatment- haircut was good, pedicure was ok.
Went for a lovely, though a bit expensive lunch (422k) for 2 sandwiches with fries, 2 beers and 1 Coke Zero.
Still tired we take another nap and wake up in time for drinks at the rooftop bar - top tip: the mai tai is extremely sweet, the Long island ice tea is ok. The spaghetti bolognese was good and it’s almost time to leave for the airport- 10 pm bus for 12.10 am departure.
We decide to take out another 5 mill (2 transactions) - some of the atms show a “user fee” one is 75k the other 35k, I decline both a finally get the money from the third - sorry I don’t remember the names of the ones with/without fees, but when you press the amount and ok, it shows up on the screen, it’s possible to just decline and get your card back.
No queue for check in with Garuda. As I booked my ticket to SOQ with Airmiles (thanks to advice on this forum) and husband paid in full, our tickets were not connected, so fully anticipated to sit apart, was pleasantly surprised when the agent said we could get seats at exit - not next to each other, but very happy to have extra legroom, since my husband is quite tall. Let me tell you: don’t accept the seats in row 30 - it was torture. Not able to recline at all, cut off blood circulation to legs and arriving into SOQ we were just extremely exhausted.
From the “Stay Raja Ampat travellers” fb group I found a lady (Lily), who we booked transfer with - since the ferry schedule changed and there’s only a 2 pm ferry, she organised a taxi to the Swiss Belhotel, then another from the hotel to port at 1 pm (2 x 100.000) She also bought ferry tickets (VIP 262.k each) and visitor fee (300k - already got the marine park fee online).
Lily had a sign with our names so was easy to spot. But when she sent for the driver hell broke loose - other taxi drivers were yelling at Lily and their whole attitude shifted from friendly “need a taxi?” to yelling and obviously threatening Lily (not so much us, but it felt a bit unsafe).
The driver came and quickly got our luggage in the car, we followed him and Lily said she’d meet us at the hotel.
At the Swiss Bellhotel we got a room and breakfast(795 k). Had a great omelette and very nice croissants. Good coffee according to my husband.
Went for some much needed sleep and woke up for pick up at 1. It was very nice to have Lily arrange all the tickets and we did not pay extra for this. She also arranged for porters at the port (100k for 2 very heavy bags and our 2 trolleys), everything was very fast paced, but Lily made sure we got our assigned seats. And told us to monitor our belongings- especially phones.
