I know you can only judge a company by how they handle a problem. I am loathe to bad mouth a tour company...but here it goes.
I have white water rafted many times in Bali with quite a few different companies. The last few times I have used Alam Amazing Adventures and I have even recommended them on this forum.
I had emailed them a few times before arriving and received back emails assuring me of different things (in excellent english with no misspelt words)
Yesterday was BAD
We have our adults kids up here and wanted them to go rafting. Pick up from the hotel was arranged at 7am......driver shows up at 8.15. We think "so what, its Bali time".
A trip from the hotel to the rafting start point normally takes 1.5 hours (remember we have done this quite a few times before).
4 hours and 10 mins later we arrive at the start point.....Just in time for the afternoon rafting....we had booked the morning rafting. The driver took back alleys and side streets. We started to plot our route on GPS because we thought we had gone past the same statue 3 times....yes we were going around in circles.
SO, over 4 hours in a tiny van, 7 adults PLUS the driver, no water, no food. We asked the driver if he could stop so we could get some food or water at "hour 3"....he no speak English???
He says only 1 and half hour to go.
We get to the rafting....ok, we ask for the boss - the MR Jones that I have been emailing.....no one knows who the boss is.... so I ask who the boss today...no one is the boss today.
Too bad. Do the rafting,, which by this time had lost is lustre. The trip back to the hotel was 1.5 hours which is the normal time.
Get back to the hotel. I ring Mr Jones on number that is in the email.
"no mr Jones here".
This may not seem important but this is where I see it from.
People only to come to Bali for a week or few days. In our case the Kids were here for two full days. One of those days was spent in a van with 8 adults (including driver). So in essence, half of their Bali trip was robbed.
Tour operator (MBA) told me that it usually takes 4 hours to get to rafting (which I know is wrong)
There were no ceremonies, etc. No roads were closed.
Not happy and not recommending them EVER.