Beware of Mass Tourist Trap Areas in Bali, Here's Our Advice for You
Beware of Mass Tourist Trap Areas in Bali, Here's Our Advice for You. Bali is known as the "Island of the Gods", "A Heaven on Earth" also known as a "Paradise Island". Bali as a famed destination for relaxation and culture by travellers worldwide, Bali is home to many new sights and experiences to discover. But as the saying goes, “behind every shiny glow, lies a shadow”.
1. Scam commission drivers & taxi rides in Bali
Aside from taking taxi rides, some people may choose to hire a personal driver to take them around Bali. Getting a driver in Bali is cheap and reliable, while the cost of getting a driver and a huge passenger car will most probably set you back by $40 to $50 for a trip to certain places. If you do hire a personal driver, you may want to keep an eye out for bogus commissioned drivers.
These drivers will bring you to restaurants or shops where they have an on-going deal with the owners, where they bring tourists over to get their commission. These places where you are brought to will most probably try to rip you off by both the price and quality of products/service that you will get.
Taking a taxi. Taxis are a convenient way to travel across Bali to visit the many places of interests in comfort. However, some unscrupulous drivers may take advantage of unfamiliar travellers and impose exorbitant surcharges and rates. For example: if you are travelling long distances, such as from Kuta to Ubud or Amed, some taxi drivers will try to charge you a “surcharge”. This is because they may be based in Kuta, and would have to travel from Kuta to Ubud and back to Kuta again (which will take at least three hours in total), and hence may request for a surcharge from passengers.
Advice: buy a local sim number is a good way of thinking, its a cheaper internet access and help you out to use Gojek (blue texts are links) Android app based for your smartphone, but there are someplace forbid online transportation based service in Bali, so just walk away a little bit from the area, consult better pick up spot area with the driver and then you can ride in a fair price. You can choose motorbike or car taxi service in the app, also you can choose to pay in cash. You also can use an alternative fun way to explore Denpasar for your social media pictures such as Instagram and the like, just use an Airbnb convenient photographer covers from your transport, a set of Balinese traditional dress, foods, drinks, also got the pictures you need all in unbelievably affordable price than all in combined cost by yourself. You can rent a motorbike around 100-200 thousand rupiahs also but please use a helmet, because the police will notice you and you will get fined and pay for at least 500 thousand rupiahs or more.
2. Be careful with money changers scam
Some of the money changers will indicate a high exchange rate on their whiteboard to attract victims. Once the victims pop in, they will deliberately pretend to be trustworthy by using a calculator to calculate the actual amount of rupiahs, according to the exchange rate. And here’s the trick they will usually employ–they will claim that they only have 10,000 rupiah notes and do not have any bigger notes. However, after showing the stack of notes to you, a scam money changer will lower it behind the counter and drop a few notes before handing it back to you, imagine counting a stack of a few hundred 10,000 rupiah notes.
Advice: before you go to a money changer, better find an atm first, the atm will give you more accurate value than money changers. But when you really want to go to a money changer, make sure to count the money by yourself first and never leave the money changer area once you have done it right, take your time, never mind if it takes time to finish it.
3. Tourist Trap Areas
Ubud, Kuta, Sanur, Jimbaran, Canggu, Seminyak, and Nusa Dua are tourist trap areas. The tourist traps area market has long been a popular go-to location for tourists looking to experience the "fake" lifestyle of the Balinese people, as well as shop for interesting souvenirs and knick-knacks. The nice compy seats at the beach are not free, you need to buy some food or drink to seat on it. The shops sell overpriced items like wooden trinkets and t-shirts that can be found in every other shop. Expect this when you shop at the tourist trap area markets. Also, you hardly find a genuine traditional Balinese food and drink in tourist trap area, restaurants in Ubud, Kuta, Jimbaran, Pantai Pandawa, Nusa Dua, and Sanur mostly serve popular global food, just like sausages, burgers, pizzas, steaks, pasta, sushi and such. Be careful with seafood, the price usually will robe you up.
Advice: never shop souvenirs at tourist trap area markets, better go somewhere else like in Denpasar, Badung Market where the price is affordable. For seafood, avoid any price counted in kilos or grams and for an authentic Balinese traditional food and drink you can use Airbnb online app-based tour guide at day time or at night tour.
At the end of the day, it helps to be prepared and vigilant in any situation, to prevent being caught off guard in an unfavourable situation. The best way to enjoy your trip is to practise good travelling habits, and be friendly with the locals also join Facebook Bali community group or attend a local drawing class, painting class, animation class or just for fun walk in the morning to make a friend and have some street food. After all, Bali is a beautiful place on earth, with many sights and cultures to enjoy and experiences to talk about.
references:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/
https://indonesia.tripcanvas.co
https://www.airbnb.com/
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