Keep your wits about you when travelling in Indonesia
Travelling in Indonesia can be a real pleasure, new sights, sounds, people and the chance to explore a different culture. As with many places in the world, Indonesia has its share of hustlers, especially around major airports. You have to keep your wits about you, and be one step ahead of the situation. Here is an account from the Jakarta Post, of one traveller’s experience.
Traveling saga
I recently had the pleasure of visiting some Indonesian friends living in a small village near Kebumen, Central Java. In my previous visits, I arrived from Bali but this time, I decided to travel via Jakarta. Unfortunately, my experiences at both the international and domestic airports in Jakarta left me most unhappy.On my arrival at the international airport, I went to use the toilet. A male cleaner saw me approaching and beckoned me inside. “This way, this way”, he said. I entered the toilet, used the facilities and noticed that he was inside the toilet area and appeared to be waiting for me. He put out his hand and said “Money, money”.
I thought this was unusual but gave him Rp 10,000 and thought it must be normal to provide a tip to use the facilities but have since thought about it and consider this practice to be most improper.
I then left the airport to obtain a Blue Bird (or Silver Bird) taxi as recommended on the Qantas Flight and on many Internet sites. I was confronted with many people trying to sell me a taxi ride which for a traveler is most distressing. Anyway, I settled for a taxi driver who claimed he was a Blue Bird taxi driver. The vehicle did not have a meter or any signs apart from a piece of paper on the dash saying Blue Bird Taxi.
A second man who did less than one minute’s work by pushing my luggage laden trolley to the taxi seemed most upset with the Rp 10,000 tip I gave him. I then had difficulty obtaining a price from the driver for the trip to the Meridien Hotel and was eventually told it would be Rp 350,000 which I agreed to pay for the trip. I later discovered that this price was far in excess of what it should have been.
The next day, I traveled to the domestic airport for my trip to Yogyakarta. The taxi I had obtained from the hotel was metered and provided good service. I had prebooked my return air travel to Yogyakarta on the Internet with Lion Air two weeks before and arranged for my friends to pay for the fare at a Yogyakarta Bank when I discovered that payment could not be made online.
When I went to collect my ticket at the Lion Air counter, I had to pay for the return airfare again as I did not have the receipt from the bank confirming my payment for the fare. There appears to be no confirmation between the bank and Lion Air that payment has been made.
After moving inside I checked in and went to the waiting area which changed on four occasions before boarding the aircraft. My friend was waiting for me at Yogyakarta but my baggage (unknown to me) had arrived on an earlier flight and was left in the far corner of the arrival area which left me standing around waiting for my baggage on the now empty conveyer belt.
NATHAN CAMPBELL
Queensland, Australia
Its easy to let your guard down and end up looking like a sucker. Happened to me in the Philippines some years ago.
source : www.baliblog.com
Add comment August 28th, 2006