TravelForum.org SE Asian Travel forums, bulletin boards, vacation blogs

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Bali & Thailand Travel Forums

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About BLTF

The Bali and Lombok Travel Forum was started in 1999 by a traveler, Mark Austin, who fell in love with the island and its people. Mark started BLTF and a direct reservations site (Bali Hotels & Accommodations) when he found the existing travel forum and reservation sites on the Internet failed to meet his needs. Regarding his motivations for starting BLTF, Mark believes that another Bali Travel Forum (and probably all the other forums that have sprung up since) are used as sales boards by their owners posting recommendations under pseudonyms, pretending to be real tourists, for their own commercial gain.

That is why BLTF shows the IP address of the poster on each message. This does not identify the specific computer used but the IP address of the Internet Service Provider that person connected through. So it becomes easy to spot frauds posting under different names.

Mark also wanted to run a forum which was dedicated more to independent travelers who wanted to find the true Bali, rather then for people who were simply out for a holiday in the sun with cheap beer and western goods shopping trips; although both are welcome in the hope the later will become the former. Mark married Suci a young Balinese woman and who now have 2 children together; a boy born in August 2002 and a girl born in October 2005. Mark, Suci, Andrew and Francheska are currently based in Northern Portugal, but lived in Phuket, Thailand for a number of years. Mark was aware of police corruption in Bali but originally, like many, passed it off just as being a few dollars extorted from tourists in cars or on motor bikes by police officers claiming they had committed a traffic violation and demanded a spot fine (without receipt of course) or going to court. Of course every tourist pays the "fine" as no-one wants to spend hours, perhaps days of their holiday in a court room in a case they can not win.