David and I were super stoked to arrive in Bali on August 9th, after almost 12 hours of travelling on an overpaid flight ticket with Virgin Australia. I’m not going to get into the details of our flight for now but my advice is if you can avoid this airline, please do. After running around three conveyer belts, as they kept changing the belt where our luggage would be dropped off, we finally stepped out of the airport. For a minute I thought I was in Mumbai, as shaddy cab drivers swarmed around us offering us a cab. We politely said no, as we know better than to walk off with some dude offering us a ride. We walked over to the counter just as you exit from the airport, on the left. Many online posts provide quotes of how much it should cost, including what seemed like a legitimate Bali transport website, but you’ll be lucky if you actually pay that price. Our trip as per what was online, was supposed to cost us 50000 IDR. The guy at the counter, quoted us 125000IDR. I was rather confused, as it looked like we were at a legitimate counter and yet the price was more than double. With puzzled looks on our faces, we pulled up our phones ( luckily, there’s free wifi signal at the arrivals) and showed the man at the counter the official site. To this he responded, that the real counter was outside. So we continued walking and asked one of the hustling cabbies to point us in the right direction. We barely walked a few hundred feet and arrived at a stand, not a booth with no sign or company name. Some random guy who was sitting on a bench a few meters away popped up and quoted us 130000IDR. He claimed there was a lot of traffic at this hour which is why it was higher. At this point, both David and I were exhausted, neither having the patience to deal with any of this. One of the cabbies offered to take us for 12000IDR and we just agreed. For me, its not about the extra money, as I am aware it adds up to peanuts at the end but it’s the principle. But then again, I also fully recognize that this is unfortunately just the way it is.

We finally arrived at our hotel in Kuta (more on that later) and were graciously greeted in traditional Balinese style. Our hotel’s name is Kana Kuta and for 42$ a night we are very satisfied with the service thus far. Super clean rooms, friendly staff and excellent free breakfast everyday. The hotel also has a nice swimming pool and gym that cannot handle more than 2 people at a time.  Given our long journey, we opted to save the exploration for the following day and ate at the Star Anise restaurant at the hotel, which for Indonesian standards was an expensive meal, close to 50$ or 500000 IDR. A delicious treat, where we had the chance to try over 20 Indonesian dishes. Now, before going further I would like to quickly mention, that many people warned me about staying in Kuta too long. Both friends and blogs alike. But we also read that Kuta is a good place to be based in given its location ( 4kms from airport and close to Ubud, Nusa Dua etc) and prices for food and accommodation are cheaper than elsewhere. I also wanted to form my own opinion of Kuta and with that we’ve booked 5 nights.

So after a good night sleep, we woke up the next day and went for an early breakfast at 730AM. We started our adventure by taking a quick walk around our hotel to see what’s around and I will admit thus far, not much. We returned to the hotel as they have shuttles that take you into the Kuta Centre. After waiting 30-40 minutes for the shuttle, we finally arrived near Kuta beach at about noon. We decided to check out the beach and were once again welcomed by hawkers offering us braids, surfing lessons and much more. Oh the perks of travelling with a white man! The lack of a golden tan must be a dead giveaway! 😉

We barely walked off the beach and were greeted by a young Indonesian lad, offering us to help promote the Karma hotels. He explained how the hotel was looking for tourists to give it reviews and in return we get a prize! We figured, okay what do we have to loose. We open up our little booklet and I won a two free t shirts, while David was the 1st prize winner. Winning one of the following prizes :

A. 1000$ USD

B. 7 free nights in a hotel from the KARMA ROYAL GROUP, anywhere in India, Bali, Thailand or Germany

C. An IPhone 6

D.Go Pro hero 5

All he had to do to claim his big win was take a small cab ride to the hotel, do a one hour complimentary tour and claim his prize.

Sounds pretty straight forward right? Nope!

I don’t know what we were thinking, but we got into that cab and the next 8 hours of the day were the most patronizing of my life.

After all their shenanigans, it ended up being an offer for a membership of 15500$US and with that you get to book 5 star hotels for only 300$ a week and the perks go on and on. All throughout it was clearly too good to be true and each time we said no, they would offer us something else free. They barely left us alone for a minute to talk to each other and repeatedly patronized us. Maybe their services are legitimate and all their promises true but the fact that they wouldn’t let us think it over or join online, made me super weary. I can’t believe that even for a split second I was considering buying it, thanks to my ‘action oriented’ character! But thanks to David’s desire to think over everything, (seriously, thank you!) and him being hangry! They let us have dinner in one of their restaurants at their hotel. During this time – when I had the chance to google what exactly this scam was, then I finally put my foot down and said no, we need to leave now.  Which, btw as soon as we gave a firm no, at this point it was 7:30, 8:00pm, the guy who was just about the nicest guy an hour ago, made a full 180 and walked out banging the door. His name is Richard Miano. If you YouTube him, which he suggested I do – he’s a vocalist. It’s probably his show name, because we couldn’t find anything else under his name. An American claiming to be a retired New York detective. Online you can read that he even told someone else that he was part of the mafia.

And so ladies and gents, we managed to get away but wasted a gorgeous day in a freaking room where plenty of others actually signed up for this! Over 7 families in the time we were there. At the end of the day, my lesson once again – There’s nothing free in this world! Oh and as for the gifts they promised us, we did get our dinner for free + 2 dinner vouchers valued at 20000IDR and a voucher for 7 nights which involves filling out a form and emailing it to some number, plus a booking fee of 50$ .

Unfortunately, they know which hotel we are staying at and they have our names and date of birth. I am hoping they are smart enough to not continue harassing people at their hotels but if they do, I’ll be taking this to the press at the least.

Now, day 3 in Bali.. Stay tuned..