Here is my second post aimed at families visiting Bali for the first time-
With regards to T-shirts in Bali (specifically the Kuta and Legian areas) we have discovered the following:
Firstly, you get the typical souvenir-type T-shirts - made of some thinnish polyester/cotton mix, with the Bintang logo, or a dragon, or some other Bali motiff on it. You shouldn't pay more than 10,000 -15,000 rp /ea for them.
Then you get the obviously fake surf-brand T-shirts - Billabong, QuickSilver, Rusty, etc. They are a thicker type material, the label says 100% cotton, which is probably true. They look real at a first glance (and they'll fetch them secretively from the back as they're not allowed to hang them on display, real or fake). On closer inspection you'll see the following (this my wife had to point out to me, as I'm hopeless with this sort of stuff): Firstly the label inside the collar is a plain white label, stating "made in Indonesia". Secondly the handiwork is not that great and you can pick this up easily once pointed out to you the first time. They'll be willing to sell these for 20,000 rp, which is not bad, considering the material is quite good, but it is obviously not the real thing.
And then you get as close to the real thing as you can get, and I think they might very well be real. They're either very, very good fakes, or they are stolen (probably a combination of both). They have the authentic name labels inside the collar, sometimes even the little label on the one side of the T-shirt, and also the real carton label hanging off the shirt. The handiwork is flawless and identical to the real thing. You can't see the difference, so what does it matter how they do it? You have to drive a hard bargain, but you can get these for 30,000 to 35,000 rp, absolutely worth it. We only found two shops in Kuta and three in Legian that sell these, but there are probably quite a few more. It helps a lot to wear a real surf T-shirt when you hit the streets, you'll soon attract the guys offering you the real thing.
One tip though, say straight away that you want the real type of shirt, and once you're happy with what you see, make an offer of around 20,000 rp for one. They'll appear astounded and hurt that you offer so little, but then you can eventually settle on 35,000 (or 30,000 rp if you buy around 10 at one go). On the other hand, if you ask them for their price, they'll start at around 300,000 for one ('cause they know what they cost in the surf shops) and then you'll feel ridiculous to offer only 30,000 for one, and you'll end up paying around 100,000 for one (I know, this happenned to me the first day!). You'll find excellent Billabong, QuickSilver and Rusty shirts, and Echo they just hang out in plain view.
And then there's the fixed-price surf shops in Kuta Square, in my view just not worth it, not much cheaper from what you can buy in Aus on special.
That's it for my second installment.
One more thing on DVD's: We bought the latest Harry Potter from Star Disc, and then another copy as a last thought as a gift from a little shop across the street from our hotel. The Star Disc copy is nearly perfect (even with DTS sound), but the other copy unwatchable (poor sound, freeze up all the time, etc.) My advice: stick with the larger shops as I mentioned in my previous post.