Wanna know who the real monster in Bali is? No, it’s not the Rangda. Nor Calonarang, nor Miss Hell 2016. It’s not even Ravana. It’s the bloody crooked money-changers of Kuta! F#@* them, F#@* their entire family! The dishonest ones I mean.
Beware these crooks. They’ll offer you an incredible, too good to be true exchange rate, and when you change, they’d do a magic trick, a swap, and you’ll be short-changed, without you knowing, until it’s too late to do anything about it. I was a dumbass for falling for it, …but that’s what I did. Here’s what happened.
Was in Kuta, Bali and wanted to change 800 dirhams or ringgit into rupiahs, so we walked around looking at rates (and other stuff while we’re at it). Walked past some shops in Jalan Melasti (the road between Kuta and Legian, coming from the beach), when one chap called out “What money you want to change?” “How much for UAE dirham?” I asked. “3700!” he said without even stopping. “Are you sure?” (The exchange rate should be about 3400 rupiah per dirham). “Yes, yes, come in.” And that’s how I was caught! How stupid can I be huh? The saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” didn’t come out just by chance, OK?
The money-changing desk is right at the back of a clothes shop. (TIP: TO BE SAFE, CHANGE YOUR MONEY AT THE OFFICIAL LOOKING MONEY-CHANGERS! NEVER AT THE SEEDY LOOKING MONEY-CHANGERS WITH A DESK AT THE BACK OF SHOPS!) Anyway, the guys (there were 2 of ‘em) kept asking me to change more money, but I’ve done the arithmetic, and 800 dirhams was enough for us for the rest of our trip! So, AED 800 at 3,700 Rp per dirham works out to a whopping 2.96 Million rupiah! I wanted 100,000 notes but they gave it all in 50,000 notes! And so I counted, and kept the cash in 3 stacks in front of me – 2 stacks of a million and a stack of 900,000. All going pretty well.
Then the unscrupulous bloody crooks gave me 7,000 and ask for a thousand back (which is just a ruse to confuse you. They’re supposed to give 60,000, not 6,000!). Anyway, their plan worked, I gave them back the 2,000 note and said “keep it” (1,000 Rp is like 25 fils!). While I was at it, doing mental maths in my head, the fellow in front of me moved the 3 stacks of money slightly, “one million, two million, 900,000” he said, counting aloud. I watched him to see that he didn’t do anything with it. Yup, the 3 stacks are intact (well, that was what I thought!). I quickly pocketed the money before they could touch it further and started to leave. They warned me before leaving not to take the money out as there were many thieves around. (How would I know, that THEY were the bloody thieves!). We left, walked a short way down and realized that “hey, they were supposed to give me 60,000, not 6,000!” We went back to the shop, and were really surprised to find that they were so ready to give us the 55,000 Rp which they short changed earlier!” Luck must be on our side …but how wrong was I?
It was not until we returned to the hotel that night that I realized what happened! They fucking siphoned off 900,000!!! From right under my eyes! One whole stack of fuckin cash! I only had 2.06 Million left with me! Those sons of bitches, scums of humanity! Our loss …200 friggin dirhams! (about 50 USD), (if calculated using the actual market rate of 3400 rp per dirham). May they rot in hell! (I’ve marked out the location of the thieving money-changers as the ‘Location’ for this post! Coincidentally, someone else has marked ‘dishonest money changers’ in the same place in Google Maps! Looks like I’m not the only one who’s fallen for their tricks!)
Scams can really ruin your holidays if you let it get to you. And yes, I didn’t sleep for almost the entire night! Thinking of ways of revenge, and of all the curses I can put on them, …and their generations to come. “Let him live a long life, but with a stroke that’ll leave him half-paralysed! Live long enough to see all his children fail in whatever they do, to see their properties stripped away…” (Oh yeah, I’m evil, …it’s my dark side, I feel like I’m Anakin Skywalker turning into Darth Vader…) Things like that really fuck up your brains! And I blame them, bloody mother******* money-changers! I thought of the honest tourist car driver, driving the entire day and getting just 600,000 friggin rupiahs! Life is unfair, but it ain’t my turn to put it right, so I wrote off the loss (with lots of encouragement from the missus, …that’s how she can be so wonderful at times!)
But not all is bad in Kuta. Here take a look at these!
Fabulous Kuta Beach, from the hotel we stayed in – Kutabex Beach Front Hotel
At Kuta Beach, Bali - nice to look at, but sweltering hot in the afternoon heat!
Streets of Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – this was my second trip to Bali. The first was err… in the early 2000s, can’t really recall which year, but I went with sis Kim, on a whim! We were in Ipoh, and I was in between jobs …I think (which may put the year as 2000, …it was before the 2002 Bali bombings I remember). We were talking and mentioned Bali and decided there and then to go. On the next day (or was it the day after), we were in Bali! On the first day there, we rented a motorbike. (Both my sister and I knew nothing much about riding a motorbike, let alone have a license for it!. But how hard could it be?!) We learnt soon enough, and ended up practising bike driving for the whole bloody day, on how not to crash into anything in the congested streets of Kuta. We gave up after one day, and just hired a tourist car to take us around for the next 2 days, hah!
Ground Zero Bali – the site of the 2002 Bali bombings
Statues by a temple in Kuta, Bali
Entrance Gate to Kuta Beach, near our hotel
Finally, Kuta Beach in the evening, the low tide and the beach’s relatively flat surface made the reflections a delightful sight
Beware these crooks. They’ll offer you an incredible, too good to be true exchange rate, and when you change, they’d do a magic trick, a swap, and you’ll be short-changed, without you knowing, until it’s too late to do anything about it. I was a dumbass for falling for it, …but that’s what I did. Here’s what happened.
Was in Kuta, Bali and wanted to change 800 dirhams or ringgit into rupiahs, so we walked around looking at rates (and other stuff while we’re at it). Walked past some shops in Jalan Melasti (the road between Kuta and Legian, coming from the beach), when one chap called out “What money you want to change?” “How much for UAE dirham?” I asked. “3700!” he said without even stopping. “Are you sure?” (The exchange rate should be about 3400 rupiah per dirham). “Yes, yes, come in.” And that’s how I was caught! How stupid can I be huh? The saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” didn’t come out just by chance, OK?
The money-changing desk is right at the back of a clothes shop. (TIP: TO BE SAFE, CHANGE YOUR MONEY AT THE OFFICIAL LOOKING MONEY-CHANGERS! NEVER AT THE SEEDY LOOKING MONEY-CHANGERS WITH A DESK AT THE BACK OF SHOPS!) Anyway, the guys (there were 2 of ‘em) kept asking me to change more money, but I’ve done the arithmetic, and 800 dirhams was enough for us for the rest of our trip! So, AED 800 at 3,700 Rp per dirham works out to a whopping 2.96 Million rupiah! I wanted 100,000 notes but they gave it all in 50,000 notes! And so I counted, and kept the cash in 3 stacks in front of me – 2 stacks of a million and a stack of 900,000. All going pretty well.
Then the unscrupulous bloody crooks gave me 7,000 and ask for a thousand back (which is just a ruse to confuse you. They’re supposed to give 60,000, not 6,000!). Anyway, their plan worked, I gave them back the 2,000 note and said “keep it” (1,000 Rp is like 25 fils!). While I was at it, doing mental maths in my head, the fellow in front of me moved the 3 stacks of money slightly, “one million, two million, 900,000” he said, counting aloud. I watched him to see that he didn’t do anything with it. Yup, the 3 stacks are intact (well, that was what I thought!). I quickly pocketed the money before they could touch it further and started to leave. They warned me before leaving not to take the money out as there were many thieves around. (How would I know, that THEY were the bloody thieves!). We left, walked a short way down and realized that “hey, they were supposed to give me 60,000, not 6,000!” We went back to the shop, and were really surprised to find that they were so ready to give us the 55,000 Rp which they short changed earlier!” Luck must be on our side …but how wrong was I?
It was not until we returned to the hotel that night that I realized what happened! They fucking siphoned off 900,000!!! From right under my eyes! One whole stack of fuckin cash! I only had 2.06 Million left with me! Those sons of bitches, scums of humanity! Our loss …200 friggin dirhams! (about 50 USD), (if calculated using the actual market rate of 3400 rp per dirham). May they rot in hell! (I’ve marked out the location of the thieving money-changers as the ‘Location’ for this post! Coincidentally, someone else has marked ‘dishonest money changers’ in the same place in Google Maps! Looks like I’m not the only one who’s fallen for their tricks!)
Scams can really ruin your holidays if you let it get to you. And yes, I didn’t sleep for almost the entire night! Thinking of ways of revenge, and of all the curses I can put on them, …and their generations to come. “Let him live a long life, but with a stroke that’ll leave him half-paralysed! Live long enough to see all his children fail in whatever they do, to see their properties stripped away…” (Oh yeah, I’m evil, …it’s my dark side, I feel like I’m Anakin Skywalker turning into Darth Vader…) Things like that really fuck up your brains! And I blame them, bloody mother******* money-changers! I thought of the honest tourist car driver, driving the entire day and getting just 600,000 friggin rupiahs! Life is unfair, but it ain’t my turn to put it right, so I wrote off the loss (with lots of encouragement from the missus, …that’s how she can be so wonderful at times!)
But not all is bad in Kuta. Here take a look at these!
Fabulous Kuta Beach, from the hotel we stayed in – Kutabex Beach Front Hotel
At Kuta Beach, Bali - nice to look at, but sweltering hot in the afternoon heat!
Streets of Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – this was my second trip to Bali. The first was err… in the early 2000s, can’t really recall which year, but I went with sis Kim, on a whim! We were in Ipoh, and I was in between jobs …I think (which may put the year as 2000, …it was before the 2002 Bali bombings I remember). We were talking and mentioned Bali and decided there and then to go. On the next day (or was it the day after), we were in Bali! On the first day there, we rented a motorbike. (Both my sister and I knew nothing much about riding a motorbike, let alone have a license for it!. But how hard could it be?!) We learnt soon enough, and ended up practising bike driving for the whole bloody day, on how not to crash into anything in the congested streets of Kuta. We gave up after one day, and just hired a tourist car to take us around for the next 2 days, hah!
Ground Zero Bali – the site of the 2002 Bali bombings
Statues by a temple in Kuta, Bali
Entrance Gate to Kuta Beach, near our hotel
Finally, Kuta Beach in the evening, the low tide and the beach’s relatively flat surface made the reflections a delightful sight
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