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where to start!
Well back from the honeymoon in Bali and BOY do I have some woppers to tell!
I'll start with the smaller stories and then onto the bigger ones.
Was out eating at a cafe minding my own business staring into my lovers eyes *gag LOL * when I hear a ruckus coming from behind me. This guy is screaming his head off at the lady at the front of the cafe who just greats and sits people down about how the server stuffed up his bill, and how it embarrassed him in front of the "whole" cafe (yes because a private bill that people don't see is sooo embarrassing) and how he wasn't going to pay and that the server was just going to have to swallow it. Then he stormed out. The people behind us had a good chuckle over it. Said rather loudly the guy needed to sit down shut up and have another beer.
I'm sitting on the beach, minding my own business taking photos of DH surfing. When a porter comes up to me, sits down and introduces herself to me. I say hi politely and turn down her offer to do my nails. She then insists on doing "one" for "free" to show me what it would look like. I say no politely and go about my business. She then grabs my foot and looks at my big toe which was all bruised and gross, and tut's . Says she'll fix it for me for "free" I say it's ok , that it hurts still and then no again. Nope not having it, she gets out her tools I try to get my foot back but she stabs in the tool to start cleaning out the toenail. I freak. But had no time to react as another lady sits down and says she'll do my hair, I say no but like the other lady says she'll do "one" for "free" to show me what it looks like. I say no but another lady sits down on my other side offering a massage. While turning her down I feel a tug on my hair and then realise the other lady has started on my hair.
I turn to say NO! and the new lady has grabbed my hand and is starting on the massage. I keep saying to these ladies NO NO NO ! I have no money! I can't pay you! But then I realise it's no longer three ladies it's friggen 10! Where the HELL did they come from! They were all chattering around me offering me bangles and to help with my hair, and my massage and so on! I'm freaking out! I can't get them to leave I start to shake.
DH sees me as he comes in on a wave and comes over to help. All the ladies stop and look at him, start telling him that it's ok, they are doing it for free now and will come and collect the payment later from the hotel. He roughly says NO! Leave her alone, we're not paying you, she doesn't want your business. Go! They do so, and tell me not to worry they will be back in an hour. I promptly get up and leave.
Next was when DH and I were having a look in one of the stores. Guy asked for 1.7 million rupee! for 4 shirts! we said NO way! and got him down to 500,000. But instead of just grabbing the close and leaving another man in the stall grabbed them and made DH and myself go into his stall. He refused to give DH his clothes and kept telling him to buy something from him. DH got really mad, repeatedly said NO, eventually the guy gave in, took a long time. We understood that he was desperate, that he'd probably not had any business for ages and had a family to feed. But you just don't do that. Not to mention after my incident on the beach, I was starting to feel closed in and panicky again.
Majority of Balinese people are REALLY honestly kind gentle people. They will all great you and say hello when you pass them. But I noticed so many tourists just outright ignoring them. I felt so bad! and ashamed! I made sure to say hello to as many as I could and stop and chat when they asked me something.
One last one. We hired a tour guide to take us around to a few places. We had HEAPS of fun. Guy was really nice and showed us a fantastic time! We decided that he had done so well that we were going to give him a big tip to say thank you. BUT then he went and did this....well a few little things. DH and I were more than happy to buy him lunch, we had both agreed to do it, but before we could tell the guy he just started to order stuff for himself and when time came to pay...guess who footed the bill? Yeah...us. As I said we were going to buy him lunch anyways but we were put off by him assuming it was ok before asking. Then when we went to fill up (we were on scooters) he went before us, he said something to the pump guy, we filled up and then went to pay. It was meant to be 13,000 for us, but the tour guy goes no no..30,000. He'd told the pump guy that we were paying for him. Another thing we didn't discuss.
Now before you say "well he took you out for the day you should be paying for his lunch and petrol" . In Bali you negotiate a set price and all the things you'll pay for before you leave. We had agreed on a price for the whole day. He had asked for a price we bargained, and we all came to an agreement on what we would pay him for the whole day. When he went and got us to pay for his petrol and lunch it wasn't part of the agreement, had we talked about it we would have been more than happy to pay, it was how he went about doing it that got us so mad. So the guy didn't get his tip as we figured paying for his full tank of petrol and his lunch was tip enough. we didn't use him again. Sad, he was nice, but I don't like people who are sneaky like that.
It is hard to explain because it's so different there. You even bargain with taxi's on what you'll pay them for the trip. Had one guy say 15, took us to where we wanted to go, then asked for 50! Went to a petrol station, filled up for 15,000 one day, 40,000 the same day (after a long trip) then 13,000 a few days later. It's annoying as you have to be constantly on guard, making sure you're not being cheated. All in all they ARE very VERY nice people. But money wise, it's one price for the tourists, and a completely different price for them.
Well back from the honeymoon in Bali and BOY do I have some woppers to tell!
I'll start with the smaller stories and then onto the bigger ones.
Was out eating at a cafe minding my own business staring into my lovers eyes *gag LOL * when I hear a ruckus coming from behind me. This guy is screaming his head off at the lady at the front of the cafe who just greats and sits people down about how the server stuffed up his bill, and how it embarrassed him in front of the "whole" cafe (yes because a private bill that people don't see is sooo embarrassing) and how he wasn't going to pay and that the server was just going to have to swallow it. Then he stormed out. The people behind us had a good chuckle over it. Said rather loudly the guy needed to sit down shut up and have another beer.
I'm sitting on the beach, minding my own business taking photos of DH surfing. When a porter comes up to me, sits down and introduces herself to me. I say hi politely and turn down her offer to do my nails. She then insists on doing "one" for "free" to show me what it would look like. I say no politely and go about my business. She then grabs my foot and looks at my big toe which was all bruised and gross, and tut's . Says she'll fix it for me for "free" I say it's ok , that it hurts still and then no again. Nope not having it, she gets out her tools I try to get my foot back but she stabs in the tool to start cleaning out the toenail. I freak. But had no time to react as another lady sits down and says she'll do my hair, I say no but like the other lady says she'll do "one" for "free" to show me what it looks like. I say no but another lady sits down on my other side offering a massage. While turning her down I feel a tug on my hair and then realise the other lady has started on my hair.
I turn to say NO! and the new lady has grabbed my hand and is starting on the massage. I keep saying to these ladies NO NO NO ! I have no money! I can't pay you! But then I realise it's no longer three ladies it's friggen 10! Where the HELL did they come from! They were all chattering around me offering me bangles and to help with my hair, and my massage and so on! I'm freaking out! I can't get them to leave I start to shake.
DH sees me as he comes in on a wave and comes over to help. All the ladies stop and look at him, start telling him that it's ok, they are doing it for free now and will come and collect the payment later from the hotel. He roughly says NO! Leave her alone, we're not paying you, she doesn't want your business. Go! They do so, and tell me not to worry they will be back in an hour. I promptly get up and leave.
Next was when DH and I were having a look in one of the stores. Guy asked for 1.7 million rupee! for 4 shirts! we said NO way! and got him down to 500,000. But instead of just grabbing the close and leaving another man in the stall grabbed them and made DH and myself go into his stall. He refused to give DH his clothes and kept telling him to buy something from him. DH got really mad, repeatedly said NO, eventually the guy gave in, took a long time. We understood that he was desperate, that he'd probably not had any business for ages and had a family to feed. But you just don't do that. Not to mention after my incident on the beach, I was starting to feel closed in and panicky again.
Majority of Balinese people are REALLY honestly kind gentle people. They will all great you and say hello when you pass them. But I noticed so many tourists just outright ignoring them. I felt so bad! and ashamed! I made sure to say hello to as many as I could and stop and chat when they asked me something.
One last one. We hired a tour guide to take us around to a few places. We had HEAPS of fun. Guy was really nice and showed us a fantastic time! We decided that he had done so well that we were going to give him a big tip to say thank you. BUT then he went and did this....well a few little things. DH and I were more than happy to buy him lunch, we had both agreed to do it, but before we could tell the guy he just started to order stuff for himself and when time came to pay...guess who footed the bill? Yeah...us. As I said we were going to buy him lunch anyways but we were put off by him assuming it was ok before asking. Then when we went to fill up (we were on scooters) he went before us, he said something to the pump guy, we filled up and then went to pay. It was meant to be 13,000 for us, but the tour guy goes no no..30,000. He'd told the pump guy that we were paying for him. Another thing we didn't discuss.
Now before you say "well he took you out for the day you should be paying for his lunch and petrol" . In Bali you negotiate a set price and all the things you'll pay for before you leave. We had agreed on a price for the whole day. He had asked for a price we bargained, and we all came to an agreement on what we would pay him for the whole day. When he went and got us to pay for his petrol and lunch it wasn't part of the agreement, had we talked about it we would have been more than happy to pay, it was how he went about doing it that got us so mad. So the guy didn't get his tip as we figured paying for his full tank of petrol and his lunch was tip enough. we didn't use him again. Sad, he was nice, but I don't like people who are sneaky like that.
It is hard to explain because it's so different there. You even bargain with taxi's on what you'll pay them for the trip. Had one guy say 15, took us to where we wanted to go, then asked for 50! Went to a petrol station, filled up for 15,000 one day, 40,000 the same day (after a long trip) then 13,000 a few days later. It's annoying as you have to be constantly on guard, making sure you're not being cheated. All in all they ARE very VERY nice people. But money wise, it's one price for the tourists, and a completely different price for them.
but it looks so so ugly! I think when she took it I was so stunned that I didn't know what to do. When I panic I tend to lose all ability to move, I just freeze. 
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