Translation lost! The menu mistake that cost the Australian tourist more than his entire Bali vacation

An Australian tourist has detailed the costly mistake he made at a restaurant that ended up costing him more than his holiday.

The Western Australian traveler was celebrating his birthday with friends in Bali when he decided to treat himself to a fancy bottle of wine.

The group ordered Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet, a 2004 Grand Cru.

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“Due to the cost and the average wine offering, we don’t usually drink wine when we’re in Bali, but this time I decided I’d buy a bottle of wine for the occasion,” he said on a Facebook group.

The high-end wine appeared at the bottom of the wine list with a price tag of “$170++”.

“Definitely a bit more than I would pay in Australia but it was a birthday party wasn’t it? $170 isn’t that bad, so I said to the waiter, ‘Let’s have this bottle, please,'” the man said.

But the waiter “paused” before answering him, “Are you sure, sir?”

“I scoffed at him and said, ‘Yup, don’t worry,'” he recalled.

‘How dare he’

“(I thought) How dare he think I’m no good for a $170 bottle of wine. Anyway, the wine was consumed alongside a delicious dinner and at one point the chef came out to introduce himself.

“I thought it was weird at the time, but I just assumed it was a nice restaurant and didn’t think twice about it.

“The bill came, I paid and we left.”

Only the next day did the man decide to check his bank account.

To his shock, he was billed in excess of A$2,000 – the bottle of wine alone actually cost A$1,700.

“I logged into internet banking and noticed a $2,050 charge from the restaurant,” he said.

“My heart sank”

“My heart dropped in my stomach and I had a mini panic attack. After rummaging through my stuff, I found the receipt and the wine was almost $1700.

“The meal actually cost more than the whole holiday.”

The traveler realized he had misunderstood the currency – as the wine was denominated in hundreds of thousands of Indonesian rupiah, not tens of thousands.

“What I didn’t know was that the prices on the menu were in the hundreds of thousands,” he said.

According to tourists, “+” means “plus tax” and “++” means “plus tax AND plus service charge”.

Despite the costly mistake, the guests saw the funny side of the situation.

“After a few hours of processing what happened, we had a hearty laugh about it,” he said.

“Of course I can’t order anything off the menu without getting the okay from the other half.”

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