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Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to this episode of the Pete George

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Experience. And today we're going to talk about travel and

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if you didn't know or haven't read my bio, I've worked in

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travel for many a year, over various different periods, and

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I'd like to share what I have learnt, what I know, what I

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enjoy. And, to start it all off, we're going to talk about how to

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get out of Australia and to our favourite place, bali. So the

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nuts and bolts of it is Bali is six hours from where we are in

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Brisbane. There's multiple airlines that fly from Brisbane

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to Denpasar, which is where the main well, it's not technically

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Denpasar, it's more Lagian White . So to get there, there's

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Bartik, air Virgin and Jetstar, and out of Melbourne and Sydney

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there's also Garuda and I think there's AirAsia out of Western

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Australia. But most of the mainland states have the three.

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So that's pretty cool. This time we've chosen Jetstar,

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to much of people's dismay. Why are we flying? They've just

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released some new times. They normally fly at 7.30 in the

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morning and that's when Bartik, which is who we normally fly

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with, fly as well. But they've got a 4 o'clock in the afternoon

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flight that gets in at 9 and they've got on the return flight

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, they've got a 1 o'clock flight in the afternoon that gets you

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back at 8.30 at night, back at 8.30 at night, so it's a bit

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better than arriving at 5.30 in the morning. So booking direct

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with the airlines is pretty cool . There's also Webjet

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webjetcomau so you can book through those places. But

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they're all pretty good, despite some of the things that have

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happened since they've come back from COVID. But I think they're

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getting better and better. So we'll only wait and see. We use

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bookingcom for our Uber bookings , but we stay at a homestay, so

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that's what we do there. Now, before you leave, let's

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take a step back. As soon as you make a booking, I suggest that

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you take out travel insurance. Now there's a few around

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Passport and Covermore, both Australian call centres, so

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that's pretty cool. So not here to talk about travel insurance

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too much other than once. You've made a booking and paid some

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money, take it out and, as I always tell people when I worked

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in the travel industry, if you can't afford travel insurance,

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you can't afford to travel, and I still stick by that.

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So the next part to the journey is to check your passport.

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Bali's pretty strict and I think a lot of countries are getting a

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little bit more strict on how your passport is in the way of

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condition and any little tears, watermarks, anything that looks

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like it's been defaced, and you are going to be in a little bit

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of trouble. Just recently, an Australian woman was refused the

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outbound flight here in Australia because there was a

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small tear in her passport and immigration knew here that she

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wouldn't make it through immigration in Bali. So she was

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refused a flight and then had to go and get a new passport. The

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other thing, too, is that most countries require you to have a

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minimum of six months. Entries require you to have a minimum of

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six months past the expiration, or whatever. The word is that

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your passport expires whilst you're overseas. So if you take

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your end date, the safest way is to take your end date of travel

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at six months, and if your passport falls within that

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period, you will need a new one or you will be refused entry or

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exit. So, um, that's another part, so

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that'll get you out of the country. Then what we normally

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do is we actually add or we do the visa on arrival. So you need

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a visa to enter Bali. It's around about $50 Australian, so

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500 rupiah per person, and it can be done online, which

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I'll leave the official link because there's a lot of

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immigration agencies that will try to do it for you and they'll

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charge you more. So, yeah, the link will be in the show notes

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for you that you'll be able to click on and you just fill it

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out. It's quite simple. Yes, you have to upload your passport and

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photos and things like that, but it's pretty much instant that

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you or a couple of days, I think , at worst, depending whether

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they've got holidays or not over in Bali, which will hold things

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up a little bit. So that gets you your visa. And there's also

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now a 14 140 000 so 14 tourist tax, which I am still learning a

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little bit about, um, so hopefully I can tack that on.

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I'll find out a little bit more. It's paid on arrival there, I'm

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assuming, but I'll check with my mate occy at what's Up Parley, a

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good little channel to watch. So that gets you from here to there

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. Another bit of advice that I will give don't take too much

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cash or change your money here You'll get more. Take your

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Australian dollars, because you'll get more over there than

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you will here for your dollar and most of the money. Changes

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at the airport are very reputable and there and there we

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go. So that's roughly getting from here to there. Now, once

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you get to Bali, hopefully they've upgraded them a bit more

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and you now don't have to go and stand at immigration and have

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them look up and down like I get every time I go there and

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they're sort of a bit grumpy. So now they've got automated gates.

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So basically you scan your passport, scan your visa on

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arrival, and then wait a minute and you'll get another

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confirmation to show and then you just go to luggage, grab

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your bags and out through immigration. So they're

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improving all the time and, yeah , so this is the first in the

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little snippets to get you into Bali safe.

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The next episode will be how to get out and about in the

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cheapest way possible. So thanks for listening to this episode of

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the Pete George Experience and make sure that you subscribe on

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Spotify and all of those wonderful things Apple Podcast.

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So if you go to petergeorgecomau , there's a whole list there

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that you can actually join up or sign up to, and also there

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should be a little flag come up on the website where you can

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join the mailing list. So we'll do that once a fortnight and

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then you'll be up to date with everything that we do, because

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we don't just talk about travel, we talk about everything that

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affects us in today's world, and especially for people over 50.

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So, as I always say in my shows, wake up and be the best version

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of yourself.

travel

Mastering the Balinese Getaway from Australia - Tips for the 50+ Traveler or Anyone