[wanderernomad]

Excellent pictures and narration. The transit visa for collecting bags seems to be out of place for a tourist destination country like Malaysia. You should write to Air Asia people on this issue since they were the carriers all along for the entire journey. You can also try and complain to DGCA here as Air Asia operates as a registered airline in our country and see if something happens. Who knows a couple of stinky emails might get you the 13K back.

[behaln]

Nice travelogue, I was in Bali in 2011 for my official assignment for 3 months. You could have hired a moto for your sight seeing. My wife did that quite often. Refreshed my memories. Bali indeed is a tourist friendly place.

[Shekhar2509]

A very beautifully narrated travelogue with awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing this experience with us!

Originally Posted by nandita_bayan21

Day 7 – 18th August
So now our biggest nightmare for this entire ‘otherwise awesome trip’ started. .

Let not such experiences add bitterness to your otherwise fantastic trip. Incidents like this indeed add an experience to learn, for you as well as people who plan to take this trip further on!

Cheers!

[Aditya2703]

Excellent travelogue and lovely pictures and this comes just at the right time, as I have planned my visit next week, so a great reference before we fly.

Can you share some more about the Indonesia visa (I am told it is on arrival), about your local currency experience (cash/card), tips, etc.?

I will be going via Malaysia too, but we have a stopover there for 3 nights hence already acquired a multiple entry visa, so I believe we will not face transit issue on the return journey.

[hiran77]

Amazing Pictures! well shot! Have seen the photographs you have clicked in other threads as well. I use a Nikon too. Nice. Great to see such travel pics.

Can you share the lens details please?

[vw19d]

Brilliant pics! You almost took us through to Bali for a few minutes

[aroonanand]

Amazing pics and a very well written travelogue. I vividly recall most of these places, having been to Bali for my honeymoon in 2011. We stayed at Seminyak and visited most of these places (Kuta beach, Tanah Lot, Uluwatu, some of the other beaches you mentioned) apart from Ubud. Looks like the USD has skyrocketed against the IDR, the exchange rate was around 10000 when we went.

Out of curiosity, was your Bali - KL - Kochi ticket issued on a single itinerary on Air Asia? If so, they have no business to not check in your bags (and yourself) to Kochi as transit time is less than 24 hours. Coincidentally, I had to take a Thailand visa on my way back for this very purpose, just to collect bags. However, I was aware I had to do it as my flights from Bali - BKK and BKK - Blr were different airlines (Air Asia / Bangkok Airways) !

[ayazhajimalang]

Originally Posted by nandita_bayan21

Day 7 – 18th August

As soon as we wanted to clear the immigration check and head towards the baggage claim we were stopped by the officials saying we don’t have valid Malaysian visa to enter the baggage claim section and need to apply for transit visa.

Excellent travelogue! As far as I know, Air Asia is a point-to-point carrier and hence they can check baggage only to the next immediate destination. They can never check through baggage to the final destination of arrival. We have to claim and recheck baggage for each sector we are flying. So, what the counter guy told is true that he cannot check-in baggage from Bali to Cochin. But he can give you boarding passes for both the legs. That doesn't make any difference anyway.

I'm wondering how you were able to transit on your onward journey from Chennai to Bali. May be you had only hand luggage with you or Air Asia's 'Fly-Thru' addon was included in your onward ticket.

[dsnaveen21]

Great travelogue nandita!!

Thanks for sharing, the Pictures are awesome!

Never been to Bali, will plan then.

[V.Narayan]

Nandita, Thank you for the well written write up and all those eye catching photos. I am delighted to see a thread by a lady member and that too on the home page. May your tribe increase.

- Narayan

[changaez]

Atul, Nandita,

Beautiful pics and thanks for sharing the details.

I liked the practical details you have added. One of my friend is planning to travel alone next month to Bali, I shared your blog with her.

You think Bali is suitable to travel with a small kid or its a backpacker or couple destination ?

If i may take the liberty to say.. Nandita what a smile on the pics .. perhaps Atul can replicate next time

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by nandita_bayan21

Day 7 – 18th August

So now our biggest nightmare for this entire ‘otherwise awesome trip’ started. As soon as we wanted to clear the immigration check and head towards the baggage claim we were stopped by the officials saying we don’t have valid Malaysian visa to enter the baggage claim section and need to apply for transit visa.

It is quite an unpleasant and annoying twist in the last leg of a wonderful vacation.

I recollect enduring a similar experience a long time back in 1999 in Singapore airport. My wife and I were flying back from San Fransisco to Bangalore on Singapore Airlines. Our flight from SFO landed late evening and BLR flight was past noon the following day. We were not told at SFO that our baggage would be tagged only till Singapore so we were not expecting anything funny. Imagine our plight when we were directed to baggage claim by the SA ground staff. I remember a conversation with one of their staff with repeated usage of "transit" from us and "claim baggage" from her. Finally she got help from someone senior who clarified that baggage have to be claimed and dropped back at check-in for all transits through Singapore with more than 6 hours (or some such interval) between flights and crossing midnight. So we joined the herd heading towards baggage claim and found ourselves in the long immigration queue. Well, we then had the pleasure of
- having a casual conversation with the immigration officials Us: We just need a visa to collect our baggage and Them: Oh! sure, it is our pleasure. Always glad to assist random walk in visa requests with such clear purpose
- getting a 24 hour transit visa (no fees in our case)
- collecting fully loaded 4 check-in bags and pushing them on very smooth trolleys looking for baggage storage
- waiting wide eyed and eager for sunrise with full energy to explore the city
- taking a 4 hour city tour by taxi
- collecting the bags
- checking in and finally flying out.

Phew, an ordeal that is still etched in memory though specific details have started fading away.

Wondering if some similar quirky rule applied in your case too. I doubt it, since it would be quite appalling if things have not changed much at all in 18 years!

[ayadalam]

Good write up Nandita, excellent pictures. Wish you folks a great life together and many more of such memorable trips.

[bb8778]

Hey big shout out to you for the awesome clicks!
Really good pics. Now tempted to head to Bali for our next abroad trip.

[nandita_bayan21]

Originally Posted by DrVjy

Awesome trip, Folks. That last event at KL airport must have hurt somewhat though, especially having to shell out 13000/- for just walking to the baggage claim!. Great photos of the safari. Hope you enjoyed it on the whole. Post more photos and forget the rest.

Thank you so much. Overall, the trip was really great...Bali is just amazing!

Originally Posted by grkonweb

Beautifully narrated and amazing pictures. I'm sure the memories are of a lifetime! Your travelogue gives me ideas for my next annual vacation.

All trips aren't perfect, however meticulously planned and the transit visit issue was an unexpected googly. We only get wiser with such experiences.

Keep sharing your travel experiences!

Thank you so much. Absolutely, Bali will always remain as one of the precious memories of our life. And true, not all plans are perfect, things to learn from every experience.

Originally Posted by dhruvwali

Great photos guys!

My wife and I were also in Bali from 5th-3th August this year

And did a lot of similar activities as you

Bali is awesome this time of the year!

Thanks! Hope you guys had amazing fun too. Bali, indeed is magnificent at this point of time

Originally Posted by murillo

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Our family as a group of 8 are planning to go to Bali in mid January, 2018. I had the same doubt on transit visa at KL. I wrote to Malindo Air regarding this, and they replied that a transit visa is not required at KL for onward journey to Denpasar, even if flight is operated by Batik Air.

Can anyone here recently gone to Bali via KL throw some color on this issue, especially whether access between KLIA and KLIA2 is immigration-free? Thanks.

My understanding is if I am transiting within terminal area, then I don't need to do immigration or need a visa. I would need a transit visa if I have to do immigration in order to collect baggage and then check-in the baggage again for the onward journey. From your experience, it seems that we should get fly-through ticket to final destination so that baggage gets transferred automatically and immigration is not required.

Thanks! We did get fly-through tickets during our onward journey to Bali, hence baggage were tagged till Bali (via KL and no transit visa required) but while coming back we didn't get fly through tickets and so bags were tagged only till KL, in order to pick up the bags we had to shell out those extra monies. Please see/confirm if you get fly-through tickets during both in/on-ward journey.

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Excellent pictures and narration. The transit visa for collecting bags seems to be out of place for a tourist destination country like Malaysia. You should write to Air Asia people on this issue since they were the carriers all along for the entire journey. You can also try and complain to DGCA here as Air Asia operates as a registered airline in our country and see if something happens. Who knows a couple of stinky emails might get you the 13K back.

Thank you. Have written to Air Asia authorities a month back, no response yet. Never gonna use Air Asia ever again!!

Originally Posted by behaln

Nice travelogue, I was in Bali in 2011 for my official assignment for 3 months. You could have hired a moto for your sight seeing. My wife did that quite often. Refreshed my memories. Bali indeed is a tourist friendly place.

Thank you. Bali is truly mesmerizing, will plan to visit sometime later again.