Bali Resort That Allegedly Harassed S’pore Couple Responded; Claims to be Innocent

When looking at this photo you might think that they were having fun.

Well except, maybe the wife in the wheelchair.

They were the couple in the disastrous Bali Vacation, which we covered in this article.

What previously happened

Couple Eugene Aathar and Dolly Ho visited Bali and was met with 3 cases of robbery and harassment. They rode on a rented scooter from their villa (La Vie Villa) for 125000 rupiah (about $12).

At 2 am, 6 May, they were riding back to the villa and had their Samsung S10 snatched away by another pair of riders. The culprits kicked the scooter and Dolly fell unconscious here.

Aathar cried for help. A man responded pretending to help, by asking where Aathar’s scooter is. The man rode off with their scooter, which contained 12 million rupiah (about $1,140).

Aathar managed to hitch a ride to Siloam Hospital Denpasar, and then after Dolly was warded, he claimed that villa’s employees threatened to stop them from leaving the country and demanded 250 million rupiah ($23,700). To that, the couple paid 12 million rupiah (about $1,140).

At this point, Aathar sustained minor injuries, Dolly a concussion, broken shoulder, and memory loss.

Yeah, not what you would expect from looking at the pictures alone.

La Vie Villa denies allegations of Villa Employees’ threat

So while 3 people who stole the S10 and scooter can’t be found, an entire resort obviously can’t escape as easily. And they actually replied rather promptly, doing the obvious thing and denying that Le Vie Villa has anything to do with it.

To my fellow armchair detectives, the entire reply can be found here.

“To set the record straight, no one from La Vie Villa threatened to keep Mr Aathar in Bali, or anywhere else, against his will.”

Insurance to be borne by the couple, and that is pretty normal

They talked about who should be bearing the cost of the stolen motorcycle – which under the contract, should be borne by the couple.

Looking at several online scooter rental company’s agreements and online forums, this is pretty standard.

Though, some companies would have Theft Protection Insurance. So this means that if the rental company had Theft Protection Insurance, the couple would only need to pay Theft Protection policy’s excess, which is the extra amount that the insurance wouldn’t cover.

They also claimed Aathar exaggerated the numbers

They denied the compensation amount that Aathar claimed it was, saying that the sum compensated was “actually considerably below what was the current value of the vehicle”.

“In reflecting upon Mr Aathar’s accusations, we can only think that Mr Aathar perhaps added a few zeroes into the sum being discussed.”

At this point, I was considering the possibility of a non-resort, non-couple third party who actually barged in to claim compensation. But it appears that the resort did, in fact, visit the couple.

“As we discussed these matters with him in person, in a secure setting and during a consensual conversation, we feel the characterization of “barging in” and “threatening” are, again, simply not true.”