Mark
It's really amazing to hear some of the stories surrounding motor vehicle accidents involving foreigners and Indonesians (or even Indonesians and other Indonesians when there is a bule in one of the vehicles). From what I understand the foreigner is nearly uniformly held to be at fault, and the usual asinine excuse for blame is that 'if you hadn't come to Bali, the accident would never have occurred, therefore it must be your fault'. Somehow, the equally invalid counter argument that 'if you hadn't been born/got up late/forgot your offerings etc etc the accident wouldn't have occurred either' is never made to said local.
In any event, is anyone on this forum using a blackbox camera in their vehicles? These are very popular in North Asia as well as in Singapore, as there is nothing like a video showing time, date, speed, gps location and of course the incident itself to refute any amount of lying, bs, or wishful thinking. Of course, if the accident involved the death of a local you might have to survive a raging mob first, but when it comes time for a police investigation, at least the evidence of what really happened would be preserved.
Markit
I've been in several bumps and glancing blows from motorcyclists and initially I took them as seriously as we do in the west with lots of chin rubbing and angle looking also with loads of evidence gathered (camera) and when I did it that way it always came out with me paying - not much, ever, but nonetheless.
After number 3 or 4 I didn't even bother getting out of the car as they'd hit me, as usual and no blood was evident and I was tired of the stupidity. Nothing happened.
Since then I have had another where a couple on a bike following on behind me didn't note my slowing down to stop and my turn signals on for a cross lane maneuver and promptly bounced of my drivers side door with resulting flight through Bali's undergrowth. I got out of my car and ranted in English how ****ing stupid the pair had been, went and did my shopping. After coming out again and meeting the usual crowd of interested locals and the flight students I went over called them ****ing stupid again, got in the car and drove off. They looked like they would have enjoyed a longer discussion with follow-on gratuity but I just wasn't in the mood. End of story.
