A Facebook post from a foreigner telling of a horrible experience at one of Bali’s most famous temples, Pura Besakih, has sparked an investigation by authorities and has even triggered an arrest.
The temple complex, though regarded as Bali’s largest and holiest, has gotten a bad rap, as tourists (international AND domestic) complain of extortive practices going on there.
Now, hopefully the tipping point to clean things up at the temple is the reaction to this women’s Facebook post published to the group ‘Ubud Community’, where she describes guides trying to squeeze out Rp 300-500k from her family even after they had paid the official entrance fee. When her family didn’t want to pay for a guide and didn’t cave into intimidation, they went back to the entrance and asked what is going on with the guides, only to get blank stares and clueless responses in return, she wrote.
Surely thinking of how this could tarnish Bali’s reputation (and of course influence tourism numbers), the Bali Provincial Tourism Office reported the complaint to the police.
Arrests have reportedly already been made as of yesterday but the identities of the self-proclaimed “guardians” have not yet been made public.
The tourism office’s head, AA Gede Yuniartha says this shall not stand and it’s certainly not an isolated incident. “It’s not just a one time thing, so I proposed to make a managing team of guides at Besakih to anticipate this happening again,” Yuniartha told Tribun Bali on Tuesday.
There are currently 6,000 guides certified in Bali and hopefully a body governing guides in earch region can help tackle illegal tour guides, he added.
Bali Regional Legislative Council (DPRD II) member AA Ngurah Adhi Ardana says he was both surprised and outraged when he saw the Ubud Community Facebook post.
Other than fuming on how this could affect Bali’s image, Ardana emphasized the importance of making sure people operating as guides in Besakih are doing so legally.
“It’s true, right, special guides at Besakih must have a certificate. This why there should be no extortion, it’s the only way this regulation can be enforced,” Ardana said.
Alright, so he’s saying the right things, let’s just hope he actually does something about it.
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