In most tourist attractions around the world, the ticket entry prices (if there are any) are usually different depending on whether you’re a citizen of the country or a foreign tourist. For example, the ticket price to get into the beautiful Emerald Pool in Krabi, Thailand is THB40 or around RM5.50 if you’re a local and a whopping THB400 or around RM55 if you’re a foreigner.
The same applies to most tourist attractions in Malaysia too, with foreigners having to pay more than locals. However, a few Indonesians recently took to TikTok to reveal that they’ve found a form of “travel hack” to circumvent this while visiting our country, which is largely thanks to our shared culture and how our physical appearances are almost similar.
Getting local prices in Malaysia as an Indonesian
In a video posted by Indonesian content creator @hisyam.arif on TikTok, he revealed how he and other Indonesians can simply get the local prices for tourist attractions in Malaysia by speaking Bahasa Melayu. As of the time of writing, the video has garnered over 1.6 million views on the platform.
The video itself was a reply to a TikTok post by allisya, in which several Indonesian women studying or staying in Malaysia share their habits in our country.
The first one in the video is of an Indonesian woman saying in Bahasa Indonesia, “We’re Indonesians in Malaysia, if we want cheap tickets, we pretend to be Malay”.
She then code-switched to Bahasa Melayu to say, “Nak satu tiket, kak” which translates to English as “I want one ticket, sister”.
You can watch the video here:
@llissssssssss we’re ✨indonesians✨ ? #internationalstudent #indonesian #indonesiapride #indonesia ♬ original sound – allisya
Posing as a local in Malaysia by speaking Bahasa Melayu
@hisyam.arif then expanded on this in his TikTok post, saying that what the woman said was true. He then shared how he was able to get the local ticket price for the River Cruise in Melaka by speaking in Bahasa Melayu with his friends in front of the ticket counter.
@hisyam.arif even shared a photo of the Melaka Cruise ticket price in the video, which was RM25, the entry price for Malaysians.
He added that he went to Melaka with 3 of his friends, one of whom is Malaysian. The Malaysian friend briefed the 3 Indonesians that they should speak loudly in Bahasa Melayu near the ticket counter so that the person selling the ticket would think that the group was all Malaysians.
However, @hisyam.arif did advise against doing this as it’s best for tourists to be honest and admit that they’re from a foreign country instead of pretending to be local.
You can watch @hisyam.arif’s video here:
@hisyam.arif #stitch with @allisya keuntungan org indo bisa ngomong bhs melayu ??.. ya mau gimana lagi 🙁 ?? #indonesia #malaysia #indonesiamalaysia ♬ original sound – Hisyam
Most Malaysian tourist places require you to show your IC
Well, if you’re Indonesian and reading this, do take this “travel hack” with a grain of salt when visiting Malaysia. Despite the similarities between Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia, if you’re not familiar with conversing in Bahasa Melayu, a Malaysian can easily detect a foreigner by the choice of words and accent.
Furthermore, most tourist attractions or services in Malaysia require you to produce your identification card to be eligible for local prices anyway. These include the funicular train at Penang Hill, the RapidKL travel pass and more.
So, what do you guys think of the sharing by the Indonesian TikTokers? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Also read: Foreign Tourist Visiting M’sia in Awe with TBS Terminal, Says It Feels Like an Airport Than a Bus Station
