Getting to Bali from India.
There are no direct flights. You can choose between Air Asia, Malaysian Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Thai Air, which would mean stopping over or connecting flights from/at Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand.
Air Asia has the cheapest tickets, especially if you manage to book one of those promo tickets, which are being heavily advertised at about Rs.5000 one way for one person. But for Air Asia, apparently you need to get the Malaysian visa even if it is a connecting flight, or so I was told. Plus you cannot cancel the tickets booked on the promo rates.
We travelled by Malaysian Airlines, and the flight from Bangalore to KL was extremely small and congested with hardly any legspace. Even the intercity flights in India seem to be more spacious. From KL to Denpasar Bali it was a comfortable flight with much better service as well.
Clubbing the Bali trip with a short break at KL/Singapore or Bangkok is also a good option, considering the fact that you are anyway paying for tickets up and down and will be getting off there atleast for a connecting flight. If you space out the travel properly, this is totally worth it.
The Bali airport is called Ngurah Rai International Airport and in air ticketing sites you need to search for Denpasar Bali.
Visa
Bali has a visa on arrival for Indians, and it is by far the easiest process. You need to pay USD 25 per person as visa fee, show your return tickets, and sometimes your stay confirmation details.
Airport Tax
While departing from Bali, they charge an airport tax service charge of IDR 150,000 per person or USD 20 per person. You could keep just this amount in IDR while leaving and convert the rest of the IDR back to USD while leaving.
Currency Exchange
You can change the currency at the airport or in the main streets of Bali. The buying rate varied from 9300 to 10300 IDR for 1 USD.
Local Simcards
You can buy local simcards for your phone at the airport itself. Ind Telkomsel seemed to be a good service provider there. It is also ok not to get a local sim if you are not making any local calls. You can manage without a sim as the taxi drivers stand right in front of the places you get off at, and the restaurants are ok making calls to your resorts if you need the hotel pickup, plus you can make local calls from your resorts at a negligible price.
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