Motorbikes and Corrupt PoliceApr 15, 2012
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| Dianna and I got breakfast and decided we would go rent motorbikes. I was feeling very conflicted about the whole idea because I love riding motorbikes but the traffic here is not always predictable and I heard the police give tourists on motorbikes a hard time. I figured we'd try it for an hour or so and if it wasn't going well we could turn around and come back. We went to a place nearby to rent two bikes and as we were filling out paperwork we both hesitated and changed our minds about the plan. We wanted to head down South to check out a little beach area but it seemed complicated to get there and I was worried about the road conditions. On the way back to the Big Pineapple we changed our minds YET AGAIN and just decided to rent the bikes and stay on the main highway heading up to East coast of Bali. That way we could explore and area that we haven't been to and it would be easy because we would stay on one road. It took about 10 minutes to get used to driving here. The traffic was a bit intense heading out of Sanur and I think both of us were rethinking our decision to rent the bikes. It was Dianna's first time riding a motorbike so I was impressed that she was willing to ride in this kind of traffic. After we went about 15 minutes the traffic cleared it was became much less stressful. As we got further away from Sanur the scenery got more and more beautiful. We saw more lush green landscape, rice fields, mountains, different beaches and smaller areas that felt more local and less touristy. We stopped for a delicious fried rice lunch at Padang Bai (which when we looked on the map we realized was a bit off the main highway so we would have to turn around and head up a different way). We kept going up the coast until we got to Amlapura. Heading into that area we started going up some windy canyon roads with beautiful scenery in the distance. We stopped a couple times to take pictures but since we couldn't stop very often we just had to enjoy the scenery and not capture it with our cameras. I pulled over and told Dianna we should head back since it was already 2:30 and we had been riding for about 3 hours (including our stops). I didn't want us to hit the bad rush hour traffic and didn't want to take the chance of it getting dark before we got back. On the way back we didn't have any problems but we did get a little confused once we got back into the main area of Sanur and weren't sure which way to turn in the main intersection. We pulled into a Dunkin Donuts to take out the map and double check that we were headed the right way. As soon as we parked our bikes in the parking lot I hear “excuse me... excuse me... can you come here?” I turn around and see that unfortunately we had chosen to pull into a Dunkin Donuts with a little police unit stationed right outside of it (hidden in a little corner of the parking lot). All I thought was “Oh boy.. here we go.” At home I would be terrified if I got pulled over by a cop and would never not take them seriously. But here is a different story. I have been told my so many tourists and locals that the police here are all corrupt and just pull tourists in order to get their money. So walking over to this police officer I wasn't nervous or worried, I was just annoyed. Dianna looked like she was a bit shaken up so I took control. The police officers said they wanted to see our licenses and registration. Knowing that neither of us had international licenses I first asked if there was a problem and what did we do wrong. The officer claimed we turned on a red light and disrupted traffic. That was hilarious since none of the police could see us riding on the street- they had only seen us once we turned into the parking lot. Since they weren't in the mood for conversation and just kept repeating “license” with their hands outstretched I whispered to Dianna “So, how are we gonna play this?” We got out our the bikes registrations which were under the seats and told the officer we didn't have our licenses because we had to leave them at the rental company in order to take out the motorbikes. I looked at Dianna trying to express that this was the lie we needed to stick to. It didn't matter of course because without the international license, the police realize they have the advantage. The police officer takes out his little book of tickets and says “You want me to write you a ticket?? Is that what you want? Look I'm writing you a ticket.” Obviously he was waiting for me to burst into tears and ask how much I had to pay him in order for him to not write me a ticket. I was more amused honestly and said “Umm.. I'm not really sure if I want a ticket. What would that mean if you gave me one.” He points to it and says “You'll have to go to court and then pay 250,000 rupiah.” We both came up with the next lie that it didn't matter to us because we were leaving the country the next day. Unfortunately this man still had my vehicle registration, Dianna was somehow able to get hers back but he still had my form. I would have left but I didn't want the rental place to get into trouble. I knew he didn't have any other information about either of us so I tried to get the registration paper back. I went over to him and asked him if I could see it so I could make sure it actually belonged to my bike. I pulled it out of his tight grip and quickly made my way back to the bike and put it back under the seat, hoping I could get on the bike and leave before he knew what I was doing. Unfortunately as soon as I put it back under the seat, he came over and snatched it up again, clearly unhappy that I wasn't scared or taking him seriously. Dianna was visibly nervous and we both just wanted to get out of there so we whispered back and forth discussing how much we should pay to bribe our way out of the ticket (which we both had a feeling was not really enforceable). There was another couple of tourists we could see that they had pulled over, and I saw they were handing money over to the police so they could get out of the ticket. I went up to them and asked how much they had paid to get out of their ticket. They told me they paid 125,000 rupiah (I think each). I went back to Dianne and we decided to give the policeman 100,000 rupiah (about $10) between the two of us. He quickly grabbed it out of my hand and walked away like he wasn't interested anymore. It was almost too easy. I told Dianne we could have probably given him $5 and he would have been happy. So corrupt- its unreal. |
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