We were walking along the riverwalk in Melbourne, Australia with my cousin Gunther and watched one of the numerous acts which crop up fairly consistently downtown. The guy was a magician, and pretty good - he made tennis balls appear under hats through slight of hand - I couldn't figure out how he did it - he did a lot of banging on the table, which I'm sure had something to do with something. When the show was finished, we gave him some money - not too much, since we had arrived toward the end of the show.
Now we're in Bali, Indonesia, and there is a different kind of slight of hand that we have watched with some outrage, some amusement. They play for much bigger stakes here - they play slight of hand when you're exchanging money.
We have brought a certain amount of Canadian currency with us to use in the different countries that we visit. Mostly we exchange money at banks, which often give the best rates. Here in Bali however, there are a plethora of "official" money changers, all of whom give different rates. So the usual way to do things is to walk around until you find the best rate and go in and change some money.
Which is what we did. There were a couple of places that showed a rate several hundred Rupiah more than the best that we had seen. The usual exchange was 1 CAD = 8600 Rp, maybe 8700 Rp, and this guy was advertising 1CAD = 9105 Rp. Well, the choice seemed obvious to us, so we set out to exchange 100$CAD.
Of course, $100 CAD means 910 500 Rp, which is a hefty sum. Usually you get your money in 100 000 and 50 000 bills, but this guy started to count out 20 000 bills. We questioned him on that, but he said that was all he had. But we figured, it's all coin of the realm, right? Smaller bills work just as well, and it was a good exchange rate. So we watched him count, and we counted, and he counted again, and we left with our money.
Later that night after dinner, we counted our money again and discovered that we were missing about 200 000 Rupiah. We went through all of our pockets and it wasn't there. I was convinced that I was somehow at fault (I was carrying the money, after all), but Nathan rolled his eyes and questioned the idea that I might be able to lose exactly 200 000Rp. He said that we had been had.
Well, we decided to try again.
We went to a different exchanger this time, but with the same rate. Nathan figured out that it was more expedient for us to know how many bills there were supposed to be (say, 46 bills if we were exchanging $100CAD) instead of counting the number of Rupiah there were supposed to be.
So there we were, the guy counted out the 20 000 bills, and there was 920 000 (we gave him the change in coins). Then I counted it and it wasn't right. Then Nathan counted the bills and there were only 36 bills, not 46 as there should have been.
He said "We're about 200 000 Rp short, here".
Then the guy took all the money again and counted it, and it was right (of course). He started making noises about the idea that we should perhaps go to a different money changer, but Nathan refused. Then Nathan GRABBED all the money out of his hand (which surprised even me and certainly the look of shock on this guy's face was something to behold) and started counting.
What must have happened is that the guy didn't have time to palm the money when Nathan grabbed it from him and started counting the bills with kind of crazy look in his eyes (and he was kind of loud, too).Lo and behold, there were 46 bills in Nathan's hand.
Well, the guy was VERY unhappy about this. He advanced toward Nathan and grabbed Nathan and said "Give me my money!", but Nathan shook him off and said "NO, you made a TRADE!"
I was just kind of watching with my mouth hanging open.
Nathan says that he knew that if he made it outside onto the street with the money, the guy wouldn't follow him, since the guy knew that the police might be interested in why a tourist was yelling at a money exchanger.
So we got the better of that crook, but the account is still in arrieres (sp?), as Nathan likes to say.
Later, we went to a real "official" money exchanger (who gave us a receipt and used much larger denominations of bills), wanting to convert all the 20 000 bills that we had. The guy took one look at the wad of 20 000 bills that we had and winced, and started asking us how much we had been taken for. He said that some people get taken for hundreds of dollars. We were lucky (and crafty).
I tell you, you don't want to be on the wrong side of Nathan when he gets mad or when he thinks he's been wronged.
Now we know that if a money exchanger pulls out a bunch of
20 000 bills, we'll just walk out. Nathan can't be expected to get his ire up every time we need money.
All's well that ends well. We lost a bit of money, but in exchange, we have this really good story.
And the story, after all, is what traveling is all about.
ACDB
Now we're in Bali, Indonesia, and there is a different kind of slight of hand that we have watched with some outrage, some amusement. They play for much bigger stakes here - they play slight of hand when you're exchanging money.
We have brought a certain amount of Canadian currency with us to use in the different countries that we visit. Mostly we exchange money at banks, which often give the best rates. Here in Bali however, there are a plethora of "official" money changers, all of whom give different rates. So the usual way to do things is to walk around until you find the best rate and go in and change some money.
Which is what we did. There were a couple of places that showed a rate several hundred Rupiah more than the best that we had seen. The usual exchange was 1 CAD = 8600 Rp, maybe 8700 Rp, and this guy was advertising 1CAD = 9105 Rp. Well, the choice seemed obvious to us, so we set out to exchange 100$CAD.
Of course, $100 CAD means 910 500 Rp, which is a hefty sum. Usually you get your money in 100 000 and 50 000 bills, but this guy started to count out 20 000 bills. We questioned him on that, but he said that was all he had. But we figured, it's all coin of the realm, right? Smaller bills work just as well, and it was a good exchange rate. So we watched him count, and we counted, and he counted again, and we left with our money.
Later that night after dinner, we counted our money again and discovered that we were missing about 200 000 Rupiah. We went through all of our pockets and it wasn't there. I was convinced that I was somehow at fault (I was carrying the money, after all), but Nathan rolled his eyes and questioned the idea that I might be able to lose exactly 200 000Rp. He said that we had been had.
Well, we decided to try again.
We went to a different exchanger this time, but with the same rate. Nathan figured out that it was more expedient for us to know how many bills there were supposed to be (say, 46 bills if we were exchanging $100CAD) instead of counting the number of Rupiah there were supposed to be.
So there we were, the guy counted out the 20 000 bills, and there was 920 000 (we gave him the change in coins). Then I counted it and it wasn't right. Then Nathan counted the bills and there were only 36 bills, not 46 as there should have been.
He said "We're about 200 000 Rp short, here".
Then the guy took all the money again and counted it, and it was right (of course). He started making noises about the idea that we should perhaps go to a different money changer, but Nathan refused. Then Nathan GRABBED all the money out of his hand (which surprised even me and certainly the look of shock on this guy's face was something to behold) and started counting.
What must have happened is that the guy didn't have time to palm the money when Nathan grabbed it from him and started counting the bills with kind of crazy look in his eyes (and he was kind of loud, too).Lo and behold, there were 46 bills in Nathan's hand.
Well, the guy was VERY unhappy about this. He advanced toward Nathan and grabbed Nathan and said "Give me my money!", but Nathan shook him off and said "NO, you made a TRADE!"
I was just kind of watching with my mouth hanging open.
Nathan says that he knew that if he made it outside onto the street with the money, the guy wouldn't follow him, since the guy knew that the police might be interested in why a tourist was yelling at a money exchanger.
So we got the better of that crook, but the account is still in arrieres (sp?), as Nathan likes to say.
Later, we went to a real "official" money exchanger (who gave us a receipt and used much larger denominations of bills), wanting to convert all the 20 000 bills that we had. The guy took one look at the wad of 20 000 bills that we had and winced, and started asking us how much we had been taken for. He said that some people get taken for hundreds of dollars. We were lucky (and crafty).
I tell you, you don't want to be on the wrong side of Nathan when he gets mad or when he thinks he's been wronged.
Now we know that if a money exchanger pulls out a bunch of
20 000 bills, we'll just walk out. Nathan can't be expected to get his ire up every time we need money.
All's well that ends well. We lost a bit of money, but in exchange, we have this really good story.
And the story, after all, is what traveling is all about.
ACDB
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1 comment:
Wow, it's unbelievable the gall of some people. That's a great story and a great warning for others who might follow in your footsteps.
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