In Reply to: Sad reminder to keep things locked posted by Fernandez on Saturday, 11. July 2009 at 09:35 Bali Time:
I used to believe in the honesty of the Balinese hotel workers myself, until....
Considering the stringent entry requirements in getting into the hospitality trade and the fact that any act of crime reflects badly on their families, I believed that the Balinese hotel staff were an honest mob, and for the most part they are. However I discovered that they can be opportunists and if you leave an openning, they will take it. I have had 400,0000Rp extracted from my wallet which was lying on my bed while I had breakfast downstairs. On a seperate trip, (same hotel) I had my mobile phone pinched. Upon talking to an Aussie expat that lives in the area, I discovered that a staff member was caught placing a credit card back into a tourists purse. Not before racking up 1,000's of dollars as a withdrawal.
I'm not going to tarnish the hotel by mentioning their name. The offender was sacked and the money was replaced in that case. The staff there are wonderful, and treat me like a long lost family member when I return, but we must be wary of the fact that the rate of crime is increasing, and it's not the tourists.