In Reply to: Beware near Hardrock... posted by love holidays on Monday, 15. April 2013 at 10:42 Bali Time:
There seems to be 10 times the number of crooks then 12 yrs ago when I first went. Unfortunatley the kids are being taught from a young age it's ok to lie to and cheat foreigners. There's thieving kids everywhere, and when you ignore them or tell them no, they very rudely will say "F*** You" and give you the finger. Store holders are teaching their kids to rip off tourists also. I've just spent 3 weeks in bali and Lombok and Gili Islands and it's not limited to bali or kuta. Gili meno we were negotiating prices with a store holder and agreed upon 100,000 when a little 7yr old girl chimed in rudely and said no 150,000, and then started calling us Bule's and spoke rudely. Lombok we hired motorbikes for 2 days, 3 of them. We took photo's of 2 of the bikes in the presence of the owners. Upon returning them, the only bike we didn't take pictures of, because it seemed rather new and good condition, was the one bike they decided to pick out every little scratch and crack and demand money, especially for a very small crack in the headlight that can only be noticed upon close examining. They blamed us for stacking the bike and demanded a ton of money. This certainly was not the case. In kuta, I accepted a double on a bike home about 5 minutes up the road after agreeing to 10,000rp, which is about what a taxi would have cost, and upon arrival I gave him 15,000 and he demanded 50,000 and quickly became rude and aggressive when I refused to pay the extra. The list goes on. It's quickly becoming an horrifically racist island. Stealing money off one of their own will land them 2yrs in hell without parole. Stealing from a tourist however is considered good, and police quickly turn a blind eye.