A dinner in Bali cost more than the flights after a tourist’s mistake

We don’t know who among you needs to hear this, but hopefully it’ll save you a headache and some embarrassment: don’t order something if you don’t know what it costs.

Unfortunately, that advice couldn’t reach one traveller to Bali in time and they’ve had to live with the consequences.

Bali is a tourism hotspot, particularly for Australians. It isn’t usually cheap to get there, or stay there, but it’s still a relatively affordable option for Aussies who want to go somewhere exceedingly hot and beautiful. You might imagine they get enough of that at home, but perhaps not.

For this anonymous traveller, however, a mistake meant their dinner ended up costing more than the flights.

Bali is replete with fantastic local dishes (Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images)

They admitted to it via a Facebook group titled Bali Bogans.

For the uninitiated, a ‘bogan’ is a catch-all term for the uncultured, and it’s most commonly used by the Aussies and Kiwis.

This particular Bali Bogan was visiting Indonesia on his birthday, and ordered a bottle of wine whilst out at dinner with friends.

The Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet had what he thought was the equivalent of a $170 AUD price tag, but unfortunately it was a bit more expensive than that.

When he placed the order, he said: "The waiter paused and said, ‘are you sure sir?’

"I scoffed at him and said ‘yup no worries’ (like how dare he think I’m not good for a $170 bottle of wine). Anyway, the wine was consumed along with a delicious dinner and at one point the chef came out to introduce himself.

"I did think at the time it was strange but I just assumed it’s a nice restaurant and didn’t think about it again."

It’s another great reminder to trust your gut when you think something’s a bit unusual, but as it turned out the wine was considerably more expensive that he thought.

Rather than $170 AUD, it cost him $1,700 (£820), and he only realised the next day.

"That meal actually cost more than the entire holiday,” he admitted.

It’s a relatively common phenomenon for tourists dining abroad, either through throwing caution to the wind or by making a mistake during the currency conversion.

Such was the case when a British woman and her 19-year-old daughter found themselves lumped with a €520 (£442) bill after two drinks and a plate of crab legs.

Let's hope they checked the price closely before ordering that cocktail (Colin Anderson Productions pty ltd/Getty Images)

The affected mum reportedly told her travel agent: "We spent a beautiful day at the beach but please, warn your future customers that the restaurant-bar we visited, charged us €600 (£510.53) for two cocktails and a portion of crab legs.

"While we knew that the bill would not exceed €200 (£170.18), suddenly they asked us to pay €600 (£510.53)!"

As to which mistake these guys made, we can only guess.