Be careful of Bali parking attendents

Here in Bali there are 2 kinds of parking attendents, Parkirmen, who take money and issue a ticket, for your parking, and Satpam’s, security gaurds, who double as parking attendents.

Often its helpful having a guy step out into the road, blow his whistle and stop traffic, so you can make your turn. Many restaurants employ Satpams, including Made’s Warung. Recently I have had a couple of close calls, due to the intervention of Satpams. Waiting to enter the traffic on a very busy road, I waited patiently for my chance to pull out, cross the middle line and join the traffic. Before I was able to do so, out stepped a Satpam, and held up traffic in my lane. Great you might think, except that motorbikes were flying up the middle line. The stopped cars, were impatient for me to get out in front of them, and cross into the other lane. The Satpam, back to the traffic, looking at me, blew his whistle frantically, in order to get me to move. As I edged towards the middle, a line of speeders zipped by, the Satpam still encouraging me to cross.

Here’s my advice: These guys can sometimes be helpful. They are doing their job, but common sense is not their strong point, and if you rely soley on their instructions, you could get hurt. The same thing has happened twice, now I hope the Satpam doesn’t try to help me.

Safe travels.