Indonesia has been both one of my favourite and least favorite countries to travel in. The stunning scenery, beautiful traditions and hospitality make it a lovely place to holiday in. The unrelenting hawkers, sneaky rip offs and attitude that as we are from an ‘expensive’ country we need to pay up, make me hate it. There is definitely a vibe here that if you are from a first world country, you owe the people here something. Selong Balanak in Kuta Lombok is the perfect example of this…
Selong Balanak is a great beach about twenty minutes from Kuta. It has perfect surf for beginners, beautiful sand and some lovely food. We were amazed when we landed there the first day; the views were incredible.
On day one we rented surf boards from Man’s Surf Shop. He was a bit of a chancer, continually asking if we wanted lessons but in general seemed like a nice guy. We actually dented the board which must be common here due to how shallow the water is. We were a bit put out when he asked us for money to repair it (originally 200,000 rupiah but we settled on 100,000) but fair enough, we did dent it and he didn’t charge too much.
That evening I tried googling which was the best surf shack to take lessons with. I came across lots of scam stories about how tourists had rented boards which had broken in the water, and were forced/threatened in to paying hefty fines. The surf shack boys actually escorted them to ATMs to pay up! It seemed that despite us grudgingly paying Man, at least he was decent enough not to threaten us!
The next day, we went back for surf lessons. We returned to Man because we didn’t see his shop listed on any of the negative Tripadvisor reviews. We paid 450,000 rupiah for 2 persons; 2 hour lessons, sunbed and umbrella rental and boards for the entire day. Man had us standing up on the boards within three minutes of getting in the water. Note that the lessons are really just him standing in the sea with you, pushing you on to the wave and telling you when to get up rather than any information or techniques but, but still, he shared our celebrations when we managed it and we had a great day.
Day three, we went back for board rental only. Man was a little put out that we didn’t opt for lessons again and then accidently-on-purpose overcharged us on our food but hey, that’s the kind of thing you haave to learn to watch out for in Indonesia.
All in all, a great few days at a beautiful beach, attempting to surf. Until….
Day four. We had left Kuta but our friends went down to the same beach to rent boards. They were the only tourists on the beach since they were pretty early at 10am. After their very first attempt at a wave – what a surprise! – one of the boards broke. We had read about this scam together so I couldn’t bloody believe it when it happened to them! But, although they were aware of it, what could they do when multiple surf guys threatened and argued with them, demanding money until they reluctantly agreed to 500,000 rupiah. The surf guy followed them all the way back to Kuta to collect the money.
This, aswell as other scams we have heard first-hand accounts of pretty much sums up Indonesia. I feel sad that you can’t immediately trust the help of locals here, but it’s true that you have to suss them out until you are sure they aren’t ripping you off.
The funny thing is that despite Lombok and Indonesia being a huge tourist destination, I didn’t hear warnings of this until I searched specifically for it. I hope that more people become aware of this and can prepare for it. I will leave here feeling cheated and that Indonesians are sneaky, which is unfair to some of them but certainly not all. It is a shame, not just for the tourists, but that at some point this will affect business here, for the genuine locals as well as the crooks.
As for the guy that cheated my friends, he lost his scooter key whilst demanding money from them at our hostel… Thank you, karma!
