In Reply to: Just got back today...very tired posted by Paul on Sunday, 4. April 1999 at 13:30 Bali Time:
Great report Paul !
I take it you shoped at Matahari on Legian Street and bumped into a few British Hawkers !! One day we sat in McDonalds at the top of the stairs there, where these 2 guys hang out and if they see any westerners coming along the street they run inbetween the traffic to get to you and try and convince you to be part of thier party things !! very annoying. I stayed at the Bounty Hotel and we also had them knock at our room door each week (not the type of thing you like while on vacation)!!
We also got accosted by the Royal Bali Beach Club wanting us to spend 90 minutes of our time to invest in some accommodation thing (which turned into 3hours), this all seemed so good, but really it's all pressure selling, they offer you this deal for something like $12,000 and if you walk out the door and change your mind you will not get it at the discounted price, you'll have to pay an extra $3,000 or something like that, they want you to sign up there and then, while your on holidays having a great time and holidays is all your thinking about. But they assured us this was not pressure selling!!
Beware these people are all over the place and at the entrances to the Matahari stores telling you they are not a competition. You get the chance to win a weeks free accommodation (which if you read the fine print is not real (you have to pay an admin fee), a video camera (yeah sure) and t-shirts which are lousey and made out of cheaper material than the poor stall vendors are selling.
So if the Bali Beach Club people try giving you this little yellow, green and white card say no thanks and keep walking, unless your genuinely interested that is !!
These people where so nice and friendly to us, until we said no thanks at the end of the presentation as we had bad vibes from all the pressure they tried to put us under, then it was like they'd never been speaking to us, boy how people soon change !!