It will not come a surprise to anyone who has travelled through Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport that Travel and Leisure magazine has named it one of the “12 Ugliest Airports in the World”.
The magazine's Karrie Jacobs contends that Bali's air gateway has "gone out of (its) way to acquire the uncanny placelessness that typifies the modern airport”.
And according to Bali Update (www.balidiscovery.com) Bisnis Bali reports that despite a total of 26 visa-on-arrival counters at Ngurah Rai International Airport, delays of as much as two hours are being encountered by those landing during peak traffic hours.
The longest queues are between the hours of 2pm and 5pm when as many as 1,200 passengers arrive.
A local political leader complained, “This is like a bad dream, not in keeping with the happiness the tourists seek."
Still, it seems not everyone has to queue. When the Moles were waiting to clear immigration at Ngurah Rai airport recently, an attractive young lady called someone in the immigration office on her mobile phone. She said he was “a friend”.
The man duly appeared and guided her to the front of the queue, stamped her passport and waved her on her way.
Goes to show it’s useful to have friends in Bali Immigration.
Monday, February 22, 2010
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It is true, i have been quite surprised when i landed to see how ugly and small it is because Bali receives a lot of visitors the authorities should invest a little more in upgrading it.
ReplyDeletetotally agree ! it is an absolute nightmare for tourists arriving at the bali airport in the evenings with young children,the long wait is really bad .....visas are expensive and the amount of tax we paid for departing the airport is a shame ! Every passenger had to pay about 15 euros to get out of the airport ....where is this logic? and where is all the money ??? ask the officers and all you get is a sorry and a big smile.......i guess there won't be any upgrading of the immigration system there !
ReplyDeletewe love Bali and their people , but being treated like ATM machines at the airport is sickening and we are also really disgusted by the fact that tourists get "cheated" innocently by people in uniforms. We had to pay 5 euros for a small lock because " for security reasons" we had to buy a lock from one of the airport souvenir shops which charged a fortune for a tiny lock , or else we cannot check-in our bags....one of our bags did not have a lock and it was in perfect condition when it arrived........
yes,it is one of the ugliest airport in the world, both in terms of look and efficiency, and the shameless way tourists get treated for creating work for the balinese people in the tourism sector...