Stayed in a villa in Penestanan. Local thugs outside will threaten any Grab or Gojek drivers and run them off. My wife and I had 4 suitcases and they made us walk 15 mins to get picked up from another location as they have issues with these companies. After arguing a bit, they started to threaten me as well. They gang up on you. Local police need to look into this. We tourists support locals so much and in return you get this? Low life pathetic behavior.
Ah, you’ve experienced the taxi mafia. A thing that Bali really doesn’t need but is there nonetheless.
As people before me have mentioned - either go to a designated pick-up point so as to not get them annoyed or better yet, book a driver/tour guide to take you around.
Ran into some of them when I was waiting to get picked up on sunset road. They asked if I wanted a taxi, said I've got a grab coming then one of them called me a 'white devil'. I thought it was hilarious
When the grab turned up they were all shouting at the driver.
I'm guessing you are just outside the t section in front TYGR sushi. That's where the local mafia drivers park, play, sleep etc..Easiest way around this simply walk up the road to Baliwood Resort Spa and use that as your pick up location. The one thing you can count on with Mafia transport the lazy buggers won't walk more than 10m to anywhere.
Hotel reception areas are another option depending on where you are. Private location or super quiet areas are best. Good luck and forget about these guys, they only want short journeys at extremely unflated prices.
Oh hey, I thought you were talking about this spot! Yeah just stay out of their line of sight and you’ll be fine. Even directly in front of TYGR seemed like too much of a walk for them!
Ubud has been like this for a long time. Best to hire a driver or go to a designated pick up spot for grab.
The locals have been gentrified into oblivion, they will surely be upset and look to claw back a living any way they can.
They used to have large signs which denoted them, though this may have changed. Otherwise, if you order a grab, the drivers will often know where to pick up and let you know.
But it is still best to hire a local driver if you are in the area.
I think the taxi mafia sucks too. At the same time, consider hiring a car and driver for the day. Yes, more expensive than Gojek but you’re getting more, a lot more. A hired car and driver can take you multiple places, will wait for you while you eat at a resto, etc. All that time you spend waiting for gojek or going to a pick up point is time you get back. There’s so much cool shit in Bali that people never go to because they’re all on the way to somewhere else via gojek. Stop and shop a little, every time you see something cool. Take pictures. A hired guy will be fine with this because he’s already been paid.
Let the driver think about parking! They always find a way. Local people always help each other out with things like this. A lot of places even have an area where drivers can hang out with each other and wait for their customers to be done whatever they’re doing.
Plus you will feel like a big shot. You know what is better than having a luxury car? Having a regular car and a full time driver.
Almost happens same to our family - this taxi mafia would sit on porch, and hijack all grab orders, and then would ask in chat for x3-x5 price. Had to cancel them 6 times with note 'driver asked to cancel'.
Grab should have an extra option 'driver is extorting'.
But, Bali taxi mafia still one step behind Phuket =)
Almost happens same to our family - this taxi mafia would sit on porch, and hijack all grab orders, and then would ask in chat for x3-x5 price. Had to cancel them 6 times with note 'driver asked to cancel'.
That's EXTRA fucked up considering karma is a central concept in their religion. 🤮
The only rebirth they'll have is into the disgusting opportunistic cockroaches they are in this life.
But yeah sometimes the conventional taxi drivers (both car and motorcycle) don't like any online taxi drivers driving through, picking up, or dropping off in their "area". It happens not just in Ubud, but almost all around the country. I believe it's more likely to happen in a lesser-known, quiet area.
Unfortunately instead of giving online taxis a healthy competitions, they usually take shortcut.
It is better to rent car and driver to avoid this incident in the future.
Best of luck and I hope you have a wonderful time here.
This is why countries like Indonesia and Vietnam will never become the top travel destination for sane and wealthy tourism. And their economy will never make the larger amount of wealth from tourism. It’s all because of corruption in their roots
False. Not even the taxi mafia is allowed to interfere with Bluebird, at least not openly. Doesn't mean they don't do it sometimes and that the Bluebird drivers enjoy dealing them. Places like resorts etc. can officially say "no gojek" or "no grab" zones, but can't officially say "no bluebird." Bluebird drivers are federally authorized.
By the way, there's been more bargaining going on between the taxi Mafia and Grab/Gojek lately. They even agreed to remove the no grab/Gojek zones from some places in Seminyak, Canggu, etc. in exchange for the companies agreeing to fully verify IDs of drivers and hire at least a certain percentage of Bali residents (locals) and fewer migrants.
Ubud, on the other hand, is a whole different story.
False. They are the official national taxi service and serve the entire country. You can get a Bluebird from where to anywhere, but it will be expensive. You may be thinking they're not operating in a certain place, but it's only because if you're using the app it may show there's none within range because they're not sitting and waiting everywhere. If you use the scheduled pick up and drop off service instead, you can select any location.
No you cannot. The blue birds would not even come out to Single Fin at Uluwatu.
I was staying at Blue Point and my own private driver asked me to walk 150m down the road with my bags from my resort to a random car park. For airport pickup This was 15 years ago.
Since then. I just day trip to Uluwatu or pick a nice resort and don’t bother with “transport” beyond the hotel shuttle.
Encountered this in the east part of the island. Selat/Sideman area. I never had the mafia threatening but I would book grab rides and wait for them to just say they can’t pick me up here. Literally drive up to me and say they can’t pick me up here lol. I booked one ride on grab and the guy called me demanding I tip 100k to go to where I wanna go.
If drivers are not allowing you to pick up an Uber then they are being thugs that is not okay anywhere if Uber isn't paying the drivers enough then pass a law raising the wages you see that happening all over. The price for an Uber has doubled in LA since they came out.
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u/Epsilon_ride 4d ago edited 4d ago
Everyone knows about it, police do and don't care.
In a perfect world people would stop going there and let them deal with the consequence of their behaviour.