In Reply to: Taking medication/supplements to Bali ?? posted by emmac on Tuesday, 13. February 2007 at 06:30 Bali Time:
In regard to prescription medicines, get a covering letter from your doctor, also bring photo copies of the scripts. If your doctor knows about and approves of your supplements, then it would be a good idea to get him/her to state this approval in a letter.
Things like multi-vitamins and anti-oxidants are known about in Bali and should not arouse suspicion. I always take my own, so don't know what is available in Bali, or at what price. If you take what could be regarded as unusual supplements, then if the packs are unopened and the supplements are listed by the Australian TGA, then that shouldn't be a problem.
As you are going for three months, you will presumably be carrying quite a quantity and this may attract attention. I always declare my supplements and on every occasion but one, the customs officer hasn't even wanted to check them. But one time I got an officer who accused me of carrying travellers' samples for business purposes and told me I would have to pay "import duty" [a "donation" for him!]. He was just trying it on and got nothing from me, so after a while he decided that he was wasting his time and waived me through.
If you are prone to cystitis, here's a tip. Don't spend too long sitting around in wet bathers. If you're not frequently going in and out of the water, get dry and change. Or maybe you already know about this.