Bali Phone Tips

 Bali Phone Tips

Please read this page for phoning to and from Bali, it maybe at the end of this blog that you will not need a mobile phone at all and remember you are on holiday to get away from it all.

* Land line phone calls.

The sounds that the phone makes when dialing Bali is different to ours and there is a time delay before the phone connects so wait a bit for the connection. There is a time delay while talking to the other party so allow for that or you will talk over each other.

* To ring a land line in Bali from Australia dial: 0011 +62 + area code + telephone number. Example: To ring  the All Seasons Resort Legian, the area code for Bali is 361 and the hotel phone number  is 756203, making the dial number 0011 62 361 756203.

To ring a land line number from a land line in Bali i will use the hotel as a example. You dial the area code + telephone number. That makes the number 361 756203.                                 To ring a mobile from a land line in Bali just ring the number as is. I use G’days number as a example  081338760074.

To ring a land line in Australia from Bali using a land line dial: 001 + 61 + area code +  telephone number. Here we run into problems because the ring out code in Indonesia could be 001 or 008, { try both or if you use a hotel phone ask them } the area codes in Aus start with a zero, Western Australia is 08 , NSW 02 , QLD 07 : etc – you need to drop the zero.   Example: to phone Western Australia dial 001  61 8 12345678 or to phone NSW dial 001 61 2 12345678. (If you are behind a switchboard you may have to dial ’0′ or ’9′ (or another number) to get an external line.)

* Mobile phone calls.                                                                              If you want to ring Bali from a mobile phone you can ring the same number as the land line or you can change the 0011 to the plus sign + { the plus sign replaces 0011 } thus making the All Seasons Resort Legian hotel number + 62 361 756203.   I can not tell you the codes to ring Aus from Bali as i could not get my mobile to work with the local sim card, i think that as my phone was a older Nokia  it was not suitable. It is cheaper to ring Aus with a Bali sim card so take a unlocked phone with you or buy one over there. In some places you will need your passport to get a phone or a sim card. Click on this link for a web blog on mobile phones in Bali and what type. *  Mobile Phone Link *

Do not pay to much for a sim card, be wary of the prices from the little kiosks.  If you pay to much for a sim card you may as well take you own phone and do not use it very much. If you do bring your mobile phone do not forget to activate international roaming. When buying a sim card get the salesman to fit it to your phone and activate it, then have him ring from his phone to test and get the dial out codes from him. As i do not speak Indonesian i had to go back to the sim card salesman to recharge.

Do you wish to phone Aus mobile to Aus mobile whilst in Bali?  don’t do it! It means you are phoning Australia first and then the person you are phoning pays for the call from Aus to Bali! You pay double whammy and calls to Aus are hugely expensive from Bali. If you need to contact someone on an Aus phone in Bali – send an sms, don’t phone. If you have to do this then dial +61 etc. Click the link for all * International Phone Codes *  

On my last trip to Bali  ( the end of July and August 2011 ) i did not buy a sim card and mainly used the hotel phone and when i checked out of the hotel the phone bill was very reasonable. When i was away from the hotel i used my own mobile ( HTC Desire ) with Telstra roaming turned on, the cost of calling Australia was $2.42 per minute and this saved all the hassle of buying a local sim, which will not work in Australia.

Better hotels have a computer that you can use free of charge or hire at cheap rates and all most all hotels have WiFi  so if you take your smart phone or Tablet you can check your emails and keep up to date with out the expense of a telephone and if you use Skype you may not need a phone at all.