Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Page
My friend, please try to read again my post. Maybe you skipped some line in the hurry. I never said simply "don't bargain", period.
I think I passed already 20 visits to Batam in 5 years, that is maybe 100 days in total. Not much for a Singaporean who lives at 45 mins from Paradise, but enough to know how it works and to "travel wisely".
I repeat my advice with different words.
I said: don't waste time to bargain BEFORE taking the taxi. No need to waste time in needless discussions. What's more, if you start bargaining without having enough experience, you invariably give the impression you are new and don't know the system. => the local service provider (taxi driver) will be mouth-watering looking forward to eat the small fish just arrived to Batam.
From reading the forum, you know what is the price (the best price achievable and the regular price without bargain).
WHAT TO DO: Take the first taxi, don't speak about price, go to you destination, get off the car, pay the regular price (50k in this case).
Again: pay 50k, not 60k. Easy. 50k also includes a tip (more than the 40k achievable by bargaining), so it will make the driver happy, even if he shows black face and pretends to be not happy (it will not happen with 50k).
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With no disrespect to the experiences you have with regards to traveling to Batam, I do think that asking a "brand new" traveler to Batam (or any other holiday destination) to not engage in negotiating payment for services rendered (in this case, taxi) and just to pay what we think is adequate, is more likely to get that newbie into trouble. Just imagine, what happens if the driver starts to protest about the amount given, and the newbie is not able to respond due to not knowing the language spoken (bahasa Indonesia, in this case).
Before dishing out such advice, we need to bear in mind that not everyone is able to communicate in the local language or able to exude confidence when faced with a driver who felt he's entitled to much more than he's being paid. After all, I do often get quotes from 30k to 60k for the same journey of HBB to Formosa.
And, what's wrong with asking the newbie to counter offer with the price he has in mind when approached by taxi drivers? It remove any possible conflict later on, and both parties are happy with the deal strucked.
As for your comments on using ojets for visiting booking joints... no offence meant but you're overpaying even if you are just paying 10k per joint that he brings you to. Max I pay is 30k for taxi to bring me go joints. Only in the event that I don't end up with a girl, then I'll pay a pre-agreed rate. But, that rarely happen.
Here's an example... I was in Batam on 31/5/15. For those who remember, 1/6 is Vesak Day (public holiday in Singapore) and 1/6 - 2/6 are public holiday in Malaysia. What this mean is that, there are many horny dicks heading to Batam on 31/5, myself included. What makes it worst is that I had not made any hotel reservation beforehand. Hence, when I settled my hotel room, it was already 4pm plus. By then, New Berry, Gold Bird and Permata Indah are out of girls already. Even Indo Rasa, my favorite massage joint, has a waiting time of 2 hours. I was almost decided to forget about it and catch the next ferry back to Singapore. My hotel room is only about 300k, at Holiday Hotel. Not a clubbing guy, hunting FLs is out for me. As I walk past Lovinna Inn, this Ojet called it to me and I hop on after settling the fare at 20k. Along the way, he convinced me to go other booking joints which I offered to pay the same fare. If I didn't manage to get any girl, it'll be 20k + 50k for the hunt. We went to no lesser than 5 joints (excluding Morena which I refuse to enter), when I finally got a girl at Bunga Massage, I paid him 50k including tip and the additional trip to bring the girl to my hotel. 1 juta for the girl (baby elephant but she's pretty). Well, she's from Bunga Massage and we all know now how they charge. At least she's pretty, her service is good and she's not a runner. The Chinese mami's word is that she's supposed to start working at Bunga the following day, but called her in when I reached Bunga on the ojet. So, for 1 juta, I drew her first blood. (Duh... big deal...) Those who are with Nono's July trip would have heard me talking about this.
This is just to show that my max 30k for hunting trips to joints is not just empty talk. You just need to use the commission that they stand to get as a leverage.
Last $0.02... how did you get quoted 30k for ojet from hbb to Nagoya? I always get my Ojet from the coffee shop near to Horizon Ferry office, and they always accept 20k. This is not even outside of HabourBay. Hmm...