In Reply to: More Questions about Driver-Guides posted by Wayne on Friday, 16. April 1999 at 00:13 Bali Time:
When we went to Bali in January, we made arrangments with Wayan Purya in advance. We were in Bali for 16 days and relocated into 3 areas.
Because we were a large group, we needed a separate car to take our luggage from place to place. A separate rate was agreed upon for this 'service'. The latter places were two hours away from Wayan's home. What we did was have him come up on alternating days so that he would have a bit of a rest in between. We would also start out later in the day (10 am) so that he could drive out to where we were. We would tour the surrounding area with him and try and keep our days shorter so that he could return home to see his family. On alternate days we relaxed on our own.
We always paid for his lunch, which was quite inexpensive anyway, relatively speaking. Because he is so congenial, it was never a problem. We would let him know when we were getting hungry and he always knew of some little restaurant that was clean where we could sit for an hour and relax. I suppose if you were so remote, you would be expected to pay for his overnight accomodations, but we tried to work it out so that we would all benefit. I'd suggest to arrange it all beforehand so you understand each other's needs.
Wayan charged us $30 US per day. We kept it at that regardless if it was a longer or shorter day. Some days we just wanted to end early and swim.
When moving on, he would send our luggage up with another car and we would tour on the way. The luggage was always waiting for us. We paid him an additional $20 for this each time. We always tipped him because his services are exceptional.
Hope all this helps,
Linda
lcr@istar.ca