I was with some relatives when the subject of travel led to Bali, Indonesia. The few instances which they experienced or heard from others were ways of cheating, so different from unexpected honesty which RPK had experienced and written in the following article:
Malaysia Today: The proof of the pudding is in the eating
For example, those who have experienced it, advised others to exchange your Ringgit in Malaysia instead of Indonesia. In Indonesea, after counting and re-counting the Rupiahs, you will discover being short-changed! Maybe, we are not used to counting millions in cash! Just to give an idea of the big difference in value: One million Rupiahs is only USD120 or Rm360. So to become a billionaire in Indonesia, you need only USD120,000 or Rm360,000!
When travelling in a car, someone might knock on your car window offering to sell you a copy of a Malaysian newspaper. But you are likely to get photocopy of say, front page of The Star online version but the rest inside consist of Indonesian newspaper!
More serious was the joke that it is better not to report to the police if something had been stolen in your hotel room. After the police investigation, more things are likely to be missing!
I suppose a lot depends on who you meet when travelling. Generally bad impressions of a country or island would be the result of frequently repeated bad incidents which would need a long time to change. But for all the good impressions of a place, just one nasty incident is enough to put one off.
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