A run for the border
A canceled visa, a very tight deadline, and high-altitude antics - oh my...
My apology for the delay in posting — April was an eventful month, and my silence certainly wasn’t intentional. This post is a way to catch you up with what’s been going on here on Lombok, noting that the results of the poll I ran in my First Substack-iversary post revealed that at least some readers wanted more information about our day-to-day lives:
Our busy month really began back in mid-February, when we had a meeting with our visa agent to discuss renewing our extended-stay visas here in Indonesia — and in particular our options if we decided to close down the travel company we had created in 2020, through which we had received our original visas during the pandemic lockdown. Indonesia completely revamped its visa regulations in late 2023, making this a less attractive path moving forward because of increased company expenses.
One possibility was to apply for the Indonesian retirement visa, the tried-and-true method for older expats to move to Indonesia, but in the visa revamp the minimum age had been increased from 55 (I hit this milestone in early April) to 60, so this was no longer an option. At the same time, though, they created a whole new category of visas that are collectively referred to under the heading of ‘Golden Visa’ — or in immigration department code, E33. Many of these are aimed at attracting global talent to work with the government on long-term projects or invest in/create large companies here (Sam Altman of OpenAI fame was famously given the first of these back in September), but the version that was attractive to us was the so-called ‘Second Home’ visa. Styled after the hugely popular ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H) visas popular among older expats and retirees there, this seemed like a perfect fit.
There was a small problem, though: our visa agent had never applied for one before, and knew nothing about the requirements. In fact, it turned out, no one on Lombok had ever applied for one, and the local immigration office also responded with a blank look and shrugged shoulders. Our agent reached out to a colleague in Jakarta, though, who confirmed that the visa program was open and ready for applications. Once we got the details, the process turned out to be very straightforward: uploading a short list of items that included a scan of my passport, a copy of my CV, and proof of a fixed deposit at an Indonesian bank. Once this was done all I had to do was receive an exit-only stamp on my current visa, thus canceling it, then leave the country for a while and return (via Jakarta) to receive the new visa stamp. Easy-peasy in theory.
This was a bit of a *gulp* moment, having spent a significant amount of money to get our original visas in the first place, then living with them here for nearly four years — and not knowing if the Golden Visa would come through on schedule, or at all. Confident in the confidence of our visa agent, though, I chose to head to Malaysia for a week, even though we had just been there a couple of weeks before on a quick trip through Singapore and Penang.
We were told that the emergency visa application approval takes 5 days, which was fine, except that we were up against two deadlines. The first was the expiration of my passport in mid-April 2027. This meant that at the time I was waiting for the new visa to come through I had just barely three years left on it — and the minimum required for the visa to be issued is a three-year remaining validity. It was still early April (I flew to Kuala Lumpur on April 2nd, and the application had gone in the previous Friday, March 29th), so no worries…except for the second deadline. The timing was not great, as we had now entered the mudik season around the end of Ramadan, leading up to Eid al Fitr (Idul Fitri in Indonesian). During this season one of the largest mass migrations on Earth takes place across Indonesia, when people head back to their home villages nationwide. A notice popped up on the immigration website early that week, informing everyone that nothing would be processed during that time — which meant that the actual last day for the visa to be issued was on April 5th, the last working day before the holiday. Gulp indeed.
Luckily the visa came through late in the afternoon on April 4th, right on schedule, so I could finally relax. I had booked a weekend trip to someplace I’d never visited in Malaysia, and on Friday afternoon I hopped on the flight relaxed and looking forward to exploring a new place: the island of Langkawi, off the far northwestern coast of the country tucked up against Thailand in the Andaman Sea.
Unlike Penang, a historic island 100km to the south (more on it in an upcoming post), Langkawi is a product of the Malaysian government’s concerted efforts to create a tourist destination in the north of the country — a destination for those who might otherwise head for Sentosa in Singapore, with its mix of theme parks and overdeveloped beach resorts, with the addition of a thriving duty-free candy and liquor trade. Not someplace I would normally visit TBH, but Langkawi does have two things going for it that are more up my alley: a nature reserve on its northwestern side with beautiful sandstone and limestone cliffs atop the oldest geological formation in Southeast Asia, and within that reserve a spectacular cable car to the top of the island’s second-highest mountain, with a gorgeous view of the Andaman Sea from a suspension walkway connecting two adjacent peaks.
I wasn’t really interested in exploring the tourist towns on the southern side of the island, and was only on Langkawi for two nights and one full day, so I booked a stay at a resort within walking distance of the cable car base station. After an early night, on Saturday morning I headed up to the cable car and hopped on board. The ride to the top took about 15 minutes, and provided a good view of the Machinchang rock formation, which dates back to the Cambrian around 500-550 million years ago.
The top was packed with tourists, especially by the time I wrapped up my visit and headed back down. The recent change to reciprocal visa-free entry between Malaysia and China seems to have worked, and there were several Chinese groups snapping selfies on the skybridge. The views were spectacular, so I can certainly understand the draw — I even snapped one myself to commemorate turning 55 that day.
Visa approved, and Langkawi seen, I headed back to KL and then onward to Jakarta, where the actual stamping of my passport with the visa was a non-event. Into Indonesia, then back home to Lombok and done for the next five years, when it can hopefully be renewed for another five — a huge relief.
It was Holly’s turn to repeat the process two weeks later, which went through without a hitch — although her visa wasn’t approved until 4pm the day before her return flight to Lombok. In the end we’re very pleased to have made the effort, despite the initial dead-ends and uncertainty, and can now close down the company and enjoy not having to deal with the associated accounting and reporting requirements. Cheers to downsizing and simplifying!
Glad to hear you'll be in this region for more years to come!
What an adventure just to sort out a visa, Spencer! That skybridge view looks like it was worth it!