I have been reading through the JBR's in the archives for the last couple of days and came across one warning all about this 'Julie' in Poppies 2 and the friendship band scam. We were in Bali last Oct. with our then 4 and 10 year old daughters. On our first day there we were walking down Poppies 2 and seems this 'Julie' approached my 10year daughter and I re braiding etc. Before I knew it she had tied one of these bands around my daughters wrist. My husband and other daughter were lagging behind a little bit. I just told this woman that we were not braiding hair or anything that day as we had only just arrived. She insisted that when we did that we return to her and this bracelet was a gift of friendship. Dont know why but when we did get the girls hair done we didnt go back there. A few days later we were again walking down Poppies 2 and 'Julie' became very nasty towards me as she noticed that the girls hair was done. She obviously uses the bands to identify her unwitting victims. I just ignored her and we kept walking. After reading the warnings about her and this scam I am sitting hear thanking my lucky stars that somehow we didnt end up being ripped off by her. Not even sure how we got out of being taken down the alley etc. Only thing I can think of was that perhaps she noticed that my husband was also there. Dont know what it was but am very thankful myself and my daughter did not become one of her unwitting victims.
I am so glad I found this site before this visit as I didnt even know till now how close we had come and am not so confident she wouldnt have got me this time. Not now however.
Thanks to all that post the good and the bad of Bali so that niave people like myself have a chance of not being conned by people like this.
Cheers
Balibabe