Anything I Should Consider Bringing?

I'll bet you're pretty excited about your move to Bali next month.  Here's wishing you the best of luck with your move.

If you enjoy top quality bed linens and towels, then yes, you would be better off bringing those with you.  They can be found here in Bali, but they are more expensive than what you would pay back in OZ simply because the duty on imported textiles is very high (40% last I checked).

Other things you might consider bringing with you are tools and cutlery.  I have to say that Indonesian made tools are flat out junk and the same goes for cutlery.  Once again, you can find top quality imported cutlery and tools here (Ace is the place) but also again, the prices are insane.

Cheers and once again, good luck with your move.

Thanks. Always appreciate your help.

I have found pretty much everything you might need here except this very small thing. A garlic press. Oh a friend back home willing to send stuff you miss eating at different times of the year.

Over the years I've transported lots of cheese from Australia. Is it still appreciated?

Being English, Australian cheese is not the best but its cheese and cheese here to so expensive. It cheese made from milk, how can they charge the earth for that?
Bring all the cheese you can and pile it high and sell it fairly cheaply. If I was in Bali I would buy it.

Food can be a bit dicey at Ngurah Rai, but of course nothing like going into OZ with food.   

If vacuum sealed, no matter what it is, no problems.  Some friends from Paris brought me a whole wheel of Brie de Meaux when visiting last year and that wasn't an issue, but shortly after that other friends from San Francisco brought me six very thick butcher cut and butcher wrapped rib eye steaks.  That was initially an issue, but customs eventually let them in.   

Carrefour generally has a pretty good selection of imported cheeses, but then again, it is expensive, so I would suggest you go for it and bring whatever you can carry.

Luke, do you remember the "old days" when you couldn't even find that American sliced processed cheese junk? 

Boy, a lot of things improved since then!   

I remember buying sliced cheese that would char and go black and not melt when faced with fire. I think that has since improved buy the range is so limited here (price wise). I guess its not a cheese loving nation.

DL390 wrote:

The clock is counting down for my move to Bali next month. I figure Carrefour will be OK for anything major I need but are there things best brought from home? How do local prices stack up for bedlinen, towels, etc?

Hi DL,

I think you can find pretty much everything in Bali now, but that's true that some good product kinda pricy.
For the towels, carrefour sells also per Kg,, it was cheap and was really good quality.

From my experience, brought back 2 liters of wine or any favorite alcohol every time back from Oz to Bali kinda worthed because it's a lot cheaper there, and brought the medication from Bali to Oz because the pain killer is cheaper in Bali.

I may include a couple of garlic presses in my luggage. Sounds like a good way to make new friends. Thanks to everybody for their thoughts.

Bringing food into indonesia, fresh or processed, is not allowed by customs regulations. You have to verify it on a certain form to be presented to the customs officer upon landing. In case you have to open your baggage and not have declared those goods, you might be charged the tax + penalty, So think twice, before you pack loads of this stuff into you suitcase. It might turn out to be the most expensive cheese of your life. :-)

"Bringing food into indonesia, fresh or processed, is not allowed by customs regulations."

It's not quite as simple as that.  It depends on the food, how it's packaged and the quantity you're trying to bring in.  It might also depend on where one is going to enter Indonesia, viz Jakarta versus Ngurah Rai. 

Here in Bali we've all had various degrees of complete success bringing in food items, including cheese.

Bali actually has manufacturers of hotel quality bed linens and towels so perhaps you can still find good quality linens at reasonable prices. A few years back as an agent I supplied a number of hotels in France and Guadeloupe for everything from furniture to crockery including curtains, paintings, bedlinen, curtain rails, lamps etc. Everything sourced in Bali.