Travellers to Bali have to be careful as of the first minute they arrive on the island. It is indeed a beautiful place on earth, as soon as you get north of the caital Denpasar. But before getting there, the first hurdles appear already before you even set foot outside the airport. Let's begin with the immigration officials, who work unusually slow, often place (not so) funny remarks. Well, after you finally have your stamp in your passport, the next problem occurs: the porters. The porters are a total unnecessary fact at the Indonesian airports. Seeing tourists, either white or yellow or black skinned, they start hassling them and in some events act rude, overcharge for their service, if you want to call it service at all.... Simple warning: if you are able to carry your own luggage to the car that awaits you, or to the taxi, please do so. Especially elder people however are often victims of the porter-mob. A taxi is easy to get, just use the airport taxi, you pay a set rate, no problems. Hawkers are all over the place, and in their most irritating way try to sell you a trip to your destination for way too much money. Just don't let you get trapped.
Balinese have a special way of treating their visitors. It all goes with a smile and sometimes they appear way to humble, especially when they start calling you, the tourist, "boss" ....!!! Be careful, a lot of the locals just want your money, if they don't stand a chance, they are not that friendly and smiling anymore. Ok, there are also honest and reliable people, but it is unheard of what a large percentage of the locals (mainly in Kuta, Denpasar, Sanur, Nusa Dua and other places in the spoiled south of the island's area) are telling you to finally make money from you. The stories of ill fallen family members, tough economic situation, no money for school for their 6 kids and so on and on just to play with the emotions of good willing tourists is often very sickening. I know for a fact that also little kids are being sent on the road to beg. They learn how to look desparate, but in fact they are part of organisations who make people pay to beg on an intersection or near traffic lights. You should see them counting the money by the end of their "day work"......
Make always sure when you drive on your rented motorbike or in your rented car that you have all the required documents, such as the rental agreement, the international drivers license and the registration papers of the car as well as the complete name and address of the person or company who you rented from. Then there is absolutely no reason for the greedy police men to fine you. Greedy they are, and their targets are not the people who drive in expensive cars, but their targets are the locals on motorbikes and you, the tourist or foreigner. They will make up any story to make you pay, but don't ever pay when you know for sure you are in your right.
Public transport is pretty easy to get, but be aware of the risk you paying up to 10 times the regular fee for a trip on a so called bemo (minbus). Just to give you an idea: a kilometer costs around 1,000 to 1,500 rupiah, not more. Taxi's will be honking all the time when they see a tourist. Once you are brave enough to conquer the bad walkways (totally unfriendly to handicapped people by the way) and you want to go for a walk, every minute there will be a taxi driver stopping alongside you and ask you if you want "transport" ..... and even when you have told them 10 times over they still bug you sometimes. Just take the Bluebird taxi, call them from your hotel ( 0361 701111 ) and they will bring you without hassling you at all.
In these difficult times, be careful for pick pockets, there are numerous. Also make sure that in case you want to change your foreign currency, you don't get ripped of. Even when the money changers count money in front of you, they have ugly tricks (like dropping part of the money they already counted behind their counter) and many people end up getting a lot less than they should. Better is to use your ATM card or go to a bank with your credit card to make a cash advance. And if you really have to change foreign currencies, don't change large amounts and calculate the exchange rate carefully before you actually change into rupiahs. After receiving, count it again in front of the counter, so you make sure you end up not being ripped of.
The island is in some areas like Kuta, Legian, Sanur also loaded with prostitutes. Girls and women who sometimes choose to do this themselves, but more often they are forced to do so by their boyfriends or even their husbands. The tricks they have are numerous. Talking to consulates one can hear the awful stories that happened to the customers of these women.... well, be warned. Older men who fall in love with a girl, here is one direct warning: a young beautiful girl, whether she is from Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, India, Filippines or whereever else, is NOT in love the first night or week or month with a complete stranger that is 2 to 3 times her age. She loves the money, her own boyfriend or husband, her family and nothing else. Sorry for that, I just had to mention.
Again, Bali is a beautiful island, but it could be so much better a place to stay when the people would change their attitude and the (local) governement would educate their own people a bit better and teach them to be honest. But what can one expect anyway??
Bobbie.