Personal Story

Close Call 😅

August 18, 2024

Personal story today.

As you may know…

I've blagged my way through multiple countries (Prague, New Zealand etc) illegally, never really had an issue, no scares, no nerves.

And so many people get into Bali illegally every day by this flight-ticket loophole.

To get a visa in Bali, you need proof of an exiting flight to get your visa accepted…

But there's a company called 'onwardticket' where you pay for a flight RESERVATION, rather than the entire ticket.

You get provided a barcode and a ticket reservation to get you through the electronic border gates.

Did it twice in 2023, worked fine.

When me and my girlfriend came this time, I got through as per, but Louise's kept red-flagging for some reason, so we went to the immigration desk, said we had an issue, and they asked to see the flight ticket.

So we both got them out on our e-mails, and the guy at the counter knew what they were in seconds, evidently not his first rodeo…

It wasn't worth us lying to try and claim innocence, so I just came straight out with it and said…

Yeah we did do this, tried to cheat the system. We were aware it was wrong.

If you want any sympathy/empathy from someone, lying to them to their face when they have the facts is quite possibly the worst thing you can do 🤣

He gave us 3 options:

Take it to court and risk 8 years jail time.

Be deported back to where we came from (Singapore).

Pay a fine of £25,000.

Obviously flying back to Singapore made the most sense so we just took that option…

Which is where the bloke then said 'how badly do you want to stay in Bali?'.

At this point I knew exactly what was going on, after bribing multiple police officers in Bali and flight check-in staff in Vietnam, this guy just wanted to make a few quid.

What we did might not have even been illegal honestly, that's how corrupt government officials are here but when they quote 8 years jail time to you, you don't question it 🤷🏼‍♂️

So I said we are DESPERATE to stay here, almost tried to push a tear out to really hammer down the point, but I found the situation more exciting than I did upsetting so couldn't fake cry at this point.

He then asked how much money we had…

So I looked at Lou and said to him we have about 2 grand between us (the bare minimum you need to have in your account to apply for the visa) but still had accommodation/food etc to pay for.

He then told us to go to the ATM just round the corner from security so government officials weren't watching, calmly take out 10 million Indonesian rupees (about £500), and then slowly walk back to the same immigration desk without getting the money out.

So we did everything step-by-step.

We then walked back, and he told me to follow him.

I did, to the men's toilets.

Then word-for-word, he wrote on an iPhone note:

Go into a cubicle, hide the money somewhere, come back out, and let me know the number of the cubicle. You're fucking lucky I'm doing this so don't say a fucking word to anyone.

I hid it in the bin in the toilet under some tissue, and that was it…

Man 😅

Situations like these really teach me that everything is fine.

You'll always be fine.

I've missed so many flights, been in legal trouble, had big problems with business, with relationships, with finances, major injuries etc, and it is ALWAYS fine.

Nothing is ever as bad as it seems, EVER.

So if you want to take anything from this;

Be honest to people who know the truth about you.

I mean be honest in general obviously but ygm..

Especially if they're asking about it. They're asking because they already know the answer!

Feel free to worry about things, worry is good because it promotes action.

But whenever you do, ask yourself about the last time you worried about something.

Was it as bad as you thought it was going to be?

No!

Because it never is.

….

Oh and make sure you actually have a return flight booked if you go to Bali.

🐑