Armed 12 employees, 28 wood chairs, 6 tables, and modest building Mak Beng will serve your lunch. This restaurant is never visited by only few customers. Approximately 12.00 pm it will be flocked by the people who want to have lunch. No chair is left!

“Mak Beng” is a well-known restaurant that serves you just one set menu. A plate of rice, a hunk of fish completed with hot spicy sauce, and a bowl of fish soup are enough to satisfy the hungery people. With only Rp 22.000 to spend you can taste this Balinese cuisine that sometimes oblige people to stand, waiting for their turn to sit and enjoy their long-waited meals.

Even when you have got your seat, it sometimes takes 30 minutes even more than it. “I have been waiting here for 1 hour, where is my order?” complained a customer. And the waitress answered that the soup was been cooking and asked the customer to wait. Another customer asked her to serve himself only by a hunk of fried fish and rice. Well, restaurant that has many customers should keep the customers comfortable, is not it? (more…)

The development of the tourism industry in Bali is getting better after having crisis due to the first and the second Bali bomb blast. But the flaw within the tourism itself has occured and still occur before and after the bomb blast. It happens towards the tourists (domestic, foreign, and local tourists). They usually get unfair treatment.

These are some flaws within the tourism:
From the price view point the tourist, especially the foreigners are given a very high price. The art shops could inflate the price from 100% up to 400%. Wow! Maybe it will be fine for the rich tourists but not all of the tourists can accept that condition. It would be more reasonable to give normal price because it will give pleasure and comfort for them who are going to do shopping.

From the service point of view, the domestic and local tourists usually get less quality of services even though they pay the same price for it as the foreign tourists. However, it shows that there is customers’ segregation between the domestic/local tourists and the foreign ones.

Those such treatment are often experienced by the tourists. I met an Australian citizen who stays in Bali that sighed the expensive price of a new year trumpet which is offered by the vendor. He said, “He gave me an iflated price just because I have this face.” He pointed at his face while speaking. It just because he is a white person he got double price. The other complaint came from a friend of mine from Yogya, Middle Java. He was complaining the service of a hotel in Kuta where he stayed during his holiday. Everytime he was going to have lunch or dinner, the waiter/waitress always came and asked him to show his lucnh/dinner card and he had to pay in advance. Meanwhile they did not do the same thing to the foreign tourists.

Indirectly, these treatment create discrimination among people who are involved in the tourism industry. Wouldn’t it be better if the tourism goes fair and reasonable?
So, the flaw within the tourism can be abolished.

I had a nice talk with Gutomo Priyatmono, the headmaster of Ideology Critique in Philosophy Faculty, Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, about Bali nowadays while having tea in Kuta. Well, actually it was not really nice things to hear, quite bitter but I think it was a constructive critique for Bali. He was complaining about Bali’s (the people) attitude that always become an event organizer for events (he stated it as a “worker”) to prepare hotels, transportation and etc. for the United Nation Climate Change Conference (UNCCC). Well, no professors from Universities, no figures from the government who are really have any fine ideas and solutions to solve the climate change problem. Even most hotels and restaurants belong to non Balinese and sorry to say that lots of Balinese only become waiters, waitress, spa’s workers, and so on.

Garuda Wisnu Kencana

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