It's even more difficult here in Indonesia because the currency is so much different. An American dollar is worth over ten thousand of the local currency. So it's hard to know if 10% is reasonable or not. With taxi drivers we've tended to be a lot more generous because after seeing how they are forced to navigate the tiny streets here, a tip is really a thank you for getting us there alive and with all of our pieces still attached. We did learn though that sometimes, maybe most times, the taxi drivers have incentive to stop at certain places that tourists like. For instance a view point overlooking much of the hills and rice fields will have someone there with exotic animals or trinkets. The driver stops, you get your picture, maybe the guy at the stand gets a few dollars, and the taxi driver might get a split. I'm not sure, but I've seen money changing hands so something is going on. Most of the time this has been all very casual, with the option to politely refuse if you don't want something. The closer we got to one of the main holy temples in Bali, the more requests for money we got. Some of which didn't feel like requests either. As we stood on the side of a road taking a picture of the mountains, a man in a camouflage jacket rode up on a scooter and told us that we have to pay. When we asked what for, he simply said that lots of tourists come through here and we have to pay. He said this as cars and motorcycles kept whizzing by, more full of locals than of tourists. The taxi driver handed us some money and we paid the guy, who then hopped on his scooter and drove off. Apparently we were on some kind of toll road and didn't even know it. Our second toll came when we were stopped on the way to the temple. A woman asked our names and gave us a blessing. She then immediately held out your hands and said 'Now gimme money'. I'm not even kidding about that part. We both saw it coming, but were disappointed just the same. I don't think blessings can be contingent on payment. Either way, we gave her some money and were on our way.
Finally we arrived at the largest temple on Bali and were greeted by guides, who insisted we had to 'donate' in order to be accompanied by a local guide. We had read in our travel book that it simply wasn't true, but we had been riding in a car for nearly four hours and were exhausted. We 'donated' some money and walked with a guide into the holy temple so we could get some very expensive photographs. And at the end of the little field trip our seemingly nice guide held out his hand to ask for more money, to which we responded that we already donated and that he should take up his collection from the guy who had our holy offering. With that we left and decided that the other temple we had planned on seeing was off the list.
I get that people need to make money and I get that some people will run a scam if they think it will work. The part that bothered me was that they used what is supposed to be a holy place as a way to guilt people into paying. Maybe in the past tourists had come and treated the place like garbage by filling it with garbage. The locals, seeing a chance to earn some money from the loud tourists decided it's best to overcharge just in case because they will get money from both the good and the bad. Either way, it was the first part of the trip where it felt like we were being taken advantage of and it kept us on guard for a long while after that.
After all that, we managed to arrive at a small town that is built a reputation around scuba diving to a somewhat famous US Naval ship, the USS Liberty, which is sunk just off the shore. Never having done scuba before, it was kind of amazing having my first trip be to a sunken ship filled with tropical fish, barracudas, sea slugs, and manta rays. Granted I spent the first half of my dive focused on my breathing and simply not dying, but once I had gotten the hang of things, it was really amazing being in a place that the human body wasn't really supposed to be.
We've entered the last couple of weeks before we leave SE Asia and start making our way back home. I'm not sure what to expect. I am excited for what comes next though.
Finally we arrived at the largest temple on Bali and were greeted by guides, who insisted we had to 'donate' in order to be accompanied by a local guide. We had read in our travel book that it simply wasn't true, but we had been riding in a car for nearly four hours and were exhausted. We 'donated' some money and walked with a guide into the holy temple so we could get some very expensive photographs. And at the end of the little field trip our seemingly nice guide held out his hand to ask for more money, to which we responded that we already donated and that he should take up his collection from the guy who had our holy offering. With that we left and decided that the other temple we had planned on seeing was off the list.
I get that people need to make money and I get that some people will run a scam if they think it will work. The part that bothered me was that they used what is supposed to be a holy place as a way to guilt people into paying. Maybe in the past tourists had come and treated the place like garbage by filling it with garbage. The locals, seeing a chance to earn some money from the loud tourists decided it's best to overcharge just in case because they will get money from both the good and the bad. Either way, it was the first part of the trip where it felt like we were being taken advantage of and it kept us on guard for a long while after that.
After all that, we managed to arrive at a small town that is built a reputation around scuba diving to a somewhat famous US Naval ship, the USS Liberty, which is sunk just off the shore. Never having done scuba before, it was kind of amazing having my first trip be to a sunken ship filled with tropical fish, barracudas, sea slugs, and manta rays. Granted I spent the first half of my dive focused on my breathing and simply not dying, but once I had gotten the hang of things, it was really amazing being in a place that the human body wasn't really supposed to be.
We've entered the last couple of weeks before we leave SE Asia and start making our way back home. I'm not sure what to expect. I am excited for what comes next though.
