Tourist Trap n DangerDark Magic - Money ChangerAs said by Traveler in the earlier post, the money changer will give you many many many many small note of IDR 20K....
BE EXTRA CAREFUL!!!!!!!!............... Why? here are what happened...
During the last night in Bali, 3 of my friends changed money at Legian Street near the bombing site. The rate given was much more better than other places! They wanted to changed together, but were told to change separately... What they got was all in IDR 20K note...
On the last day in Bali, i found out i was running out of money and decided to change for USD 25 and another USD 25 together with my friend. We came across a money changer at Legian street, right at the corner where you can turn into Poppies I Lane. The rate given was much more higher than what the other 2 money changers gave right across the road. I went into the shop which sells other stuff n there was a table for money changing. I told him that i wanted to change USD 50, so he pressed his calculate by himself n then re-pressed again infront of me using the rate written on the board outside of the shop (value was IDR +-452K)... To double confirm, i calculated again using the SAME calculator with the SAME rate, but the result was NOT THE SAME (value was IDR +-459)!! Thinking that maybe he pressed wrongly, i didn't suspect anything. So he just say "OK OK... you're right..."
Then he started to take out the whole stack of IDR 20K note and counting the money infront of me. Putting 5 pieces of 20K note in each stack, with about 5 stacks, plus additional 60K at a side. Then he took all the money and passed to me. I thought 5 stacks will be 500K and i should only be getting 400K ++...
Luckily i wasn't greedy
, I re-counted the money again and put 5 pieces in 1 stack, and another 5 pieces on top of the previous stack, horizontally n vertically to make it easier for me to count. The suspicious came when he started to touched the money stack i just made up of. And toward the end, i found out there was a short of 20K. Then he acted like i miscounted the money and out of nowhere, suddenly a brand new 20K note appeared at the stack where the 20K was short of.
Then i bundle all the money again, counting one by one. Still, not enough... so i passed back to him and he like blur blur, re-pressed the calculate again n again because the calculator itself was a trick, giving different result every time! He said "pening, pening..." Then again he counted the money infront of me, my friend n my gf, putting 5 pieces in a stack, this time it seems like alright, 4 stacks X 5 pieces of 20K note, added up 20 pieces == IDR 400K. I was very fed up counting the money again n again, so i passed the money to my friend, and preparing to take out the balance of 1K from my wallet which i should give him. My friend counted n counted, the total was only
15 pieces!!!!!! There was only IDR 300K in his hand. I looked at the person and at last he said "
10% Commission"...
Saying nothing, i just put back whatever he passed us and take back my USD 50 and walked away....
On the way to airport, my other friends who exchanged money night before all asking "Did you notice that you're running out of money very fast?" When we told them about the story... they were all very angry, found out roughly they lost 1 stack of 5 x 20K notes... what do to?.... Luckily i remembered what Traveler said in the earlier post of making sure you count your money right...
Thanks you Traveler!
So if you want to see free Magic, you can go to this place. Along Legian street from bombing site, walk down the street until you can turn into the narrow Poppies I Lane, you will see the "Un's Cafe/Hotel (can't really remember)" signboard at the turning. The money changer was at the right hand site, just before the turning. Or you can just go to any money changer which give a suspiciously much better rate than others around. But becareful, dont fall into the trap. If feeling not right, just walk away with your own money!
AccommodationWhen look for room, make sure you check for the light n everything. We looked at a room at Ayu Beach Inn during the day time, and the room looks fine. But when we moved in during night time, one of the light wasn't working. Ended up the room was very dark. Then when I wanted to take shower, I found out the hose was broken, then suddenly, there was a blackout at our row of rooms... We called the person in-charge, came in after a while and switched back the electricity... i asked him to change for a white bulb, and replace the one which was not working, together with the shower hose. Didn't want to waste anymore time, i went for a walk at the Poppies I Lane hoping he can fix my problem while i was away....
I passed thru a DVD shop, then it started to rain... so i decided to buy some DVDs... in less than 5min, there was another blackout. This time it was the whole area... OMG... what a bad day... With a dark street, n no where to go, we went back to our room and were given only 1 candle, no more no less... my friend asked for mosquito coils coz might need to open the windows... the person in charge just said "You can get it at the store across the street..."
... The electricity came back only at 1.30am, and we found out the bulb wasn't change to white bulb as promised... dissapointed...
Next day, we checkout and moved to Pesona Beach Inn which was right opposite the road, with a much more cleaner room, better rate of only IDR 100K for room with fan. Luckily that night, it was raining heavily and we wasn't really need any air-cond afterall...
BargainingBargain only if you wanted to buy. Don't offer a price and then walk away when they gave you the price you're asking. Just like Petaling Street, they will scold you (at some area, not all though). And at some place like Tegalalang, out of nowhere, someone will cover you with sarong and said nice nice, and ask you to buy. And some place like Tampak Siring, some selling will just grab your arm and asking you to buy their stuff... What i can say is only that most if not all the sellers in Bali are very desperate to do business for living. If can, buy some from a stall and some from other stalls. Give chance for everybody...
TransportationI didn't drive in Bali... but from what i observed, it was NOT EASY! The roads were narrow, full of pedestrian, dog, motorcycle, etc... And most of all, the signboard are not complete. Some places like town area like Denpasar, Kuta, Ubud have many one way street. So it might further confuse you. If you really wanna drive, maybe you can get some tips n advised from Stimix as he used to drive there according to his previous thread...
This post has been edited by ...PS...: Feb 23 2008, 06:12 PM 
Jan 29 2008, 06:09 PM
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, checkout and fly back to home at 8.15pm
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