After a couple of flights via Singapore from Krabi on Tiger Airways, we arrived at Denpasar international airport. As per our previous experience (a lesson especially learned from our first visit in 2008), the entire immigration process is a zoo. First, one must line up to buy a Visa on Arrival at $25 a pop, then it's on to the next endless line to go through immigration proper.
This is where a little corruption comes in handy. Many firms and hotels offer VIP arrival services. For a nominal fee, there's a person waiting for you (with sign with our name on it in hand, natch) just outside the jetway. You hand over your passports, along with the visa fee, and he disappears for a few moments. While you wait, you look over the snaking immigration lines, wipe the sweat from your brow due to the severely lacking air conditioning, and before you know it, the guy returns with passports in hand, with tourists visas affixed to the passports.
Then, following our fine fellow, we bypass the immigration line altogether (as he waves to his buddies manning the immigration desk), and head straight to baggage claim. It's not a very secure practice for the country of Indonesia, but clearly widely accepted. Sure, the immigration officials see our passports as they issue our visas, but they never see our faces to match them to the passports. We could be terrorists for all they know! Frankly, I could care less. It's a handy service that decreases the stress of waiting 30 minutes to clear immigration.
Oh, but wait, it gets better. We paid for an additional option - a police escort for our car to our hotel (the Westin in Nusa Dua). Sure enough, as we pulled away from the curb, the cop was just in front of us, lights flashing, sirens blaring. Granted, the compliance rate of drivers to pull over isn't nearly as high as in western countries, but enough did (and his sirens allowed running a few red lights) to get us to the hotel in record time. My son loved it, and was transfixed by the experience.
Yes, I know, another example of corruption. Obviously, part of the fee we're paying for the service is being kicked to the cop, but it's harmless enough, and widely accepted. Spreading a few bucks (or Rupiah in this case) definitely greases the wheel.
This is where a little corruption comes in handy. Many firms and hotels offer VIP arrival services. For a nominal fee, there's a person waiting for you (with sign with our name on it in hand, natch) just outside the jetway. You hand over your passports, along with the visa fee, and he disappears for a few moments. While you wait, you look over the snaking immigration lines, wipe the sweat from your brow due to the severely lacking air conditioning, and before you know it, the guy returns with passports in hand, with tourists visas affixed to the passports.
Then, following our fine fellow, we bypass the immigration line altogether (as he waves to his buddies manning the immigration desk), and head straight to baggage claim. It's not a very secure practice for the country of Indonesia, but clearly widely accepted. Sure, the immigration officials see our passports as they issue our visas, but they never see our faces to match them to the passports. We could be terrorists for all they know! Frankly, I could care less. It's a handy service that decreases the stress of waiting 30 minutes to clear immigration.
Oh, but wait, it gets better. We paid for an additional option - a police escort for our car to our hotel (the Westin in Nusa Dua). Sure enough, as we pulled away from the curb, the cop was just in front of us, lights flashing, sirens blaring. Granted, the compliance rate of drivers to pull over isn't nearly as high as in western countries, but enough did (and his sirens allowed running a few red lights) to get us to the hotel in record time. My son loved it, and was transfixed by the experience.
Yes, I know, another example of corruption. Obviously, part of the fee we're paying for the service is being kicked to the cop, but it's harmless enough, and widely accepted. Spreading a few bucks (or Rupiah in this case) definitely greases the wheel.
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