In Reply to: Porters and money? posted by Barbs on Thursday, 7. April 2005 at 08:00 Bali Time:
I don't need porters when I arrive in Bali - I usually have a carry on and one suitcase so I can manage just fine. Coming home though, is a completely different story, lol. Usually have 2 bags, carry on bag, backpack and one or two stuffed full large shopping bags. Travelling alone makes this basically impossible to manage alone so I use porters. Usually there's 2 or 3 of them and I give Rp10,000 each.
I think the official rate is Rp1500 per bag - but accepted is Rp5000 per bag.
Some suggest that the porters "just love" to get gold coins as payment. You'll find out this isn't quite true when you're leaving and you get hounded to try and change the coins to rupiah for them! Tell you what though, some of those buggers are shocking about the exchange rate. One time I thought I'd do one of them a favour and change some notes for $20 in coins last time I was there - even though the last thing I wanted was a pocket full of golds. At that time the street rate was about Rp6000/$1 (Rp120K for the $20 in coins) and I offered him Rp110K as it was all the money I had left. He was insisting I give him Rp130K and wouldn't budge on that. So I told him to bugger off - and he did, lol.