How Much Time is wasted in Bali?

Anyone who has spent some time in Bali knows that things don’t all ways work like they are supposed to! if your waiting for a delivery or a local workman, a maid or even a taxi there are literately hundreds of things that can go wrong, and any time something does go wrong it ultimately ends up as you wasting time tracking down the break and fixing it yourself. So what are the biggest time wasters in Bali?

 

 

Dealing with the local populous in any way can be a harrowing and frustrating event, from the no returns policy in almost ever store (some now give a 3 day exchange option) to your internet provider mysteriously cutting you off, lets not get into immigration or the police, taxi drivers or beach hawkers just yet, there are an unlimited number of ways your day can be wasted while living in Bali.

• My number 1 time waster is the now horrendous traffic, it used to take me about 15min (by car) to get from double 6 to kuta, it now takes that long just to get out of the car park. I timed a recent trip into Kuta on a Thursday afternoon from Bali Deli it took me almost an hour and a half to get to poppies 2 on legian, its took a further 30min to get to the beach! Sure i was in a car and its much quicker by bike, until its not.

Figures recently released showed that there was a 12% increase in car owners in Bali, with only a 2% increase in new roads over the last year (2010). Doing the math makes my brain hurt so i wont but it seems that very soon there will be total gridlock in the south of Bali. There are several way to combat this apart from the local gov creating new roads, the first thing i would do is put a limit on the number of taxis allowed on the road at any one time. I’m sure i’m not the only one who has looked down a road to see maybe 6 or 7 taxis lined up moving slowly beeping at any pedestrian that is in the area. Of course any ideas that could be helpful will be quickly by-passed by corruption any way so whats the point in wasting time thinking of solutions?

• My number 2 waste of time is a relatively small one, waiting at the petrol station! god seriously while your watching the guy or girl pour petrol into your bike why not get you money out, you all ready know how much its going to cost, take the keys out of the seat and put them back into the ignition and get off your phone! no-one likes stopping for petrol its a ball-ache but its a necessity, one that could take considerably less time if everyone was a little more switched on.

• Number 3 going back to find out the price has increased! oh dear god this annoys the crap out of me. Seriously if you give me a quote i damn well expect that quote to be what i pay, apparently the Balinese don’t think so, a quote is a number plucked out of thin air, and although it will never be cheaper it will most of the time increase. Its is quite commonplace to hear stories of the price of something doubling for no apparent reason! of course its not ready anyway, so its kind of like a late tax that the customer pays. The reality is that most of the time the guy/girl that took your order and deposit has just spent your money on something unrelated to your purchase, and they extra money they are now charging you is the actual price of what ever you asked for.

Trying to get a refund is akin to a tooth being pulled in 1680, one of the big rules of business in bali is once i have your money your not getting it back. Ever. I recently bought a laptop, at about $1200 it wasn’t a small buy, within 3 months the motherboard had crapped out, i took it back to the shop and was told that it would have to be sent to Jakarta for repairs, 4 to 8 week turnaround time! ‘fine but its under guarantee right so its free’ a nodding smile was the only response, worrying, very worrying. 6 weeks later i received a phone call from the TOSHIBA repair center in Jakarta, they were ringing to tell me that there was a water stain on the outside and so the guarantee was invalid and i would be charged $750 if i wanted to fix the laptop! its still sitting un fixed at my feet!

There are a couple of everyday annoyances that get to me, I’m late for a meeting now but i know that I’ll still be the first one there by 15min after i have another cup of coffee and a shower…

Mr P.