An island of lawlessness in an abandoned paradise - continued.
It is even hard to imagine how the advertisement of a tropical paradise on the island of Bali is far from reality. You can't hide from unpleasant surprises, even if you sit all the time in the hotel. While relaxing on the beach at the Sanur Bali Hyatt, I suddenly saw beggars in rags walking along the beach. It's not poverty anymore, it's poverty. This is not seen either in poor Malaysia or in Thailand. It is better not to immediately hide from the unpleasant surprises of the island, but simply to understand what is here and how. Needless to say, it makes no sense to drag yourself here from your native places for a total of 16 hours of air travel - alas, there is nothing to see here. Mossy temples look extravagant, but no more. The resort is designed for wealthy Australians, throwing hundreds of bills left and right. Let's just say 60 USD for a half-hour trip to Lembongan Island is a little expensive. For this money in Egypt or Thailand they will carry and feed the whole day.
Now more about all the troubles of the island. The first and most unexpected dirty trick was guessed even at the Sanur Bali Hyatt hotel - all tourists are warned that upon departure they must pay an airport tax of 150 thousand rupees in cash. It is difficult to explain such greed - the visa itself to the country costs normally - 60 USD.
The second dirty trick on the island is taxis and taxi drivers. I already wrote about constant traffic jams. Now the human factor. Calling a taxi is almost impossible - they just don't come. Special care is needed if you catch them just on the street. For an hour trip to Ubud, we were charged 500.000 rupees. Upon arrival, the taxi driver said that he did not need money, and he was going to leave us there. The situation, alas, is typical. To some extent, it is close to crime - but in Bali this is normal, banditry flourishes here. So, we had to persuade the taxi driver to take us back and take the money.
The main problem of the island of Bali is congestion with tourists. Save Bali the trouble - don't go there at all to avoid any trouble.
