Tipping on a LOB in Indonesia

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I am in no way trying to shame anyone too cheap to tip, into doing so. I generally do not discuss my intention to tip, or share the amount, with other travelers.

The goal, if, when i tip is to quietly say thanks for service that i feel deserves a special thank you, not some attempt to raise a local population out of poverty.

Poor service warrents very little, or no tip at all.
 
It's known in Indonesia that Americans are generous tippers & the Europeans are lousy ones.

I've been watching too much of US presidential election news lately & slowly got brainwash by the negativity happening around me. Not good (*switching from CNN to National Geographic channel*)
 
While we are on this topic. Should I have local currency to tip with?
 
@Clernix not sure if you are from US, but crisp new $100s are much easier than 8-10 million rupiah. You almost have to bring another bag just to carry the rupiah. Every LOB I have been on do one tip for whole crew to be split evenly and really discourage giving guides or any one else a little extra. I am sure gifts are ok. I know they also prefer cash instead of tipping on the CC because they get it sooner with the cash.

The larger, newer and cleaner the USD bill is the better. They won't take ones with rips or writing on them and get higher exchange rates for bigger bills.
 
Not necessarily. USD is good. Make sure you bring good, crisp, new, unfolded bills, because the local bank have different exchange rate for the quality of dollar bills. The worse the bills are, the lower the exchange rate will be.

It looked like Cali_diver type faster than my 11 fingers.
 
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You just did. "Too cheap" is disparaging.

Edit: Wait, was that meant facetiously? Did it zoom over my head?

Yes.

While we are on this topic. Should I have local currency to tip with?

See below. We were in Indonesia a few weeks back and we were told we could tip in US$, or in Rupias, as we saw fit.

With $76 in your pocket, you'll be an instant millionaire (in Rupiah) :D

Paying for our diving, my brother and I signed off on a payment of over 20 Million Rupias, each. It sure sounded like a great deal of money to be spending!
 
Dan_T would know better than I would, but I found IDR 100,000 notes to be convenient units of currency for tipping dive guides, drivers, etc. At current exchange rates, that's about USD 7.50, but it's a lot to someone whose wages might otherwise be, say, 600,000 in a week. Carry a wallet full of 100,000s and you feel like a millionaire. In another thread, in which I inquired about tipping before my (land-based) trip, the consensus seemed to be that IDR 100,000 for a dive guide per day for a diver or diving couple was fairly normal. For a liveaboard, where you are getting a lot more service than just a guided dive, and where will be leaving a relatively big tip all at once, maybe US dollars are preferable for the sake of convenience. Again, my recent trip was land-based, and I have no idea about liveaboard tipping.
 

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