The more you travel, the more you come to the realization that wherever you go the vast majority of people are kind. We have met some great friends from around the world and have been continuously amazed at how good most people are wherever we go.
Unfortunately, there is a very tiny percentage of people who are not so nice. For whatever reason they take advantage of other people and when travelling in a foreign land you are sometimes more vulnerable to these shady characters. From getting overcharged on cab rides to fake police, travel scams exist the world over.
Some things can be done to reduce the risks while travelling. For us these things include trying to travel as lightly as possible. That way our covered backpacks can be attached to us at all times and leave our hands free. We make a practice of separating our valuables and having copies of important documents like our passports.
We try to do research on our new destination and mentally prepare ourselves for places known to have higher levels of hassle. We always try to arrive in a new city midday and have a set plan on how we will get where we are going. When we do get lost, we try our best to still walk with confidence until we find a good place to stop.
We also try to blend in as much as possible or at least not stand out too much and we never accept any free offers of anything on the street. Usually they are timeshare schemes and are a sure way to waste valuable time.
By practicing these habits along with keeping in regular contact with family and friends you can reduce some of the risks and scams associated with travel. Reducing risks and scams is the key since there is no way to completely eliminate them.
On Friday March 10th we got ripped off at a so called "authorized" currency exchange place in Seminyak. Changing money is a necessary part of travel and the process can vary as much as the countries. Generally it is fairly straightforward but not always. Nations like Loas, Vietnam and Indonesia have very low value currencies and that fact alone makes the process a little more challenging. A Canadian loonie won't buy you much these days but it sure goes a lot further than some monetary units.
In Indonesia, we were getting an exchange rate of 13,360 Indonesian Rupiah to $1.00 US Dollar in Ubud. On the Gili Islands we got 13,000 IDR which was acceptable considering where we were. Once arriving in the Bali hub area of Kuta and Seminyak we were seeing rates from 13,200 IDR to as high as 14,000 IDR.
We decided to change $300 USD at a place near our hotel that had a good rate of 13,790 IDR. We went into the small shop, which happened to be tucked in between a massage parlor and small store selling knick-knacks.
The man made a few jokes and proceeded to take out bundles of 50,000 IDR notes. A 50,000 note is equal to about $5.00 CDN.
He started counting 50,000 IDR notes in stacks consisting of one million IDR per stack, which he laid on the counter. Both Jueun and I counted after him and placed the piles in cross stacks. As you can tell we were being pretty careful or at least we thought we were.
At this stage there were 4 stacks of 50,000 IDR equaling 4 million IDR. He then proceeded to count out some smaller bills which worked out to an amount slightly higher than what we should have received. He asked if we had change to make up the difference. While I looked for a couple of small notes, a woman from the massage parlor next door spoke to us from behind, "After.. change money...you have massage." We replied, "No thank-you" as the guy restacked our money in what was now a sizeable pile which we put away and went on our merry way.
It was only after getting back to our hotel did we realize that sizeable pile was not the size it should be. At some point when I was making change or the decoy lady from behind spoke he must have taken back some of the money equaling about $100 CDN. Now you would think that any idiot would notice if a hundred dollars was missing , but remember it was a pile of cash made of bills that equalled $5 each and we had just counted it. Anyway, we had been scammed. He got us good but we couldn't quite narrow it down to exactly how he did it.
We tried to replay the events over and over in our minds. We knew there was nothing that could be done about getting our money back. Reporting it was pointless and would only waste our time. The event did leave us feeling both annoyed and embarrassed, not to mention short on money.
According to trip adviser and other sites on line these dodgy money changers have been operating for years. They use distractions by asking the customer to make change or look at the calculator away from his hands, and it gets more confusing when dealing with smaller denominations. People get mesmerized by all the zeros and the David Copperfield speed hand movements.
Our advice is to be very leary of rates that look too good to be true, places that try to use only smaller denominations and always, ALWAYS be the last one to count the money before you put it away.
After a few days we considered it a good lesson learned and we may have just forgotten about the whole thing; however, we still needed to change more money. I'm not sure if it was curiosity or pride but for whatever reason we went back to the exact same spot to change one more hundred dollar bill.
This time it was only $100. He told us we should change more. We said we didn't want to. He used the exact same style to count his bills. We both counted them as well. He asked us if we could make small change again. We said no. Like clockwork distraction lady came in and spoke to us again. This time we didn't acknowledge her at all.
He now said he could make the right change and placed it on the pile. At this stage Jueun started counting the total again and it was here where things got really bizarre. He tried to stop her by placing one hand on the money. "No" he said," you are counting too fast, count it slowly". She put her other hand on the pile and said, "Ok. Let me count it slowly." He then tried to grab it back by putting his other hand on the stack. "Slowly" he repeated. While this Rupiah tug of war was going on our original hundred dollar bill was still sitting on the desk and I had had enough. I grabbed it, Jueun let the Indonesian money go and we walked out. He followed us out but when I lifted my phone to snap a picture he quickly ducked out of sight.
Obviously he had somehow already tampered with the cash or he was going to try another trick. We will never know for sure; however, we had seen enough of this crooked magician's money show. It reminded me of a scene from a looney tunes cartoon and I couldn't help but think, Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us...
We shook our heads and walked a few meters down the road to the next place and changed our money in a completely normal manner.
When travelling for a long time you have to expect you will have some bad experiences from time to time. It's like a travel tax you need to calculate into the cost of the trip. There are ways to help cut your losses but the fact is there are dangers everywhere. The important thing is to not take unnecessary risks even when you are willing to take chances for things which you really care about. For us travelling is worth that risk or the travel tax you sometimes have to pay. As the saying goes, "A ship in harbour is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.”
During our time around Seminyak and Kuta Beach we saw the busier, louder, wilder side of Bali. We were able to go to the world famous surfing beaches, the Bali bombing memorial site and one day we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Our money changing experience in Seminyak was a good lesson for us; however, it certainly won't change our opinion about travel, Indonesia or the kindness and honesty of most people everywhere.
"Good people aren't hard to find:
They're right around the corner,
At the end of the line, it's true!"
- Great Big Sea
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