Personally, I don't mind to tip a satisfying service with a make sense tip. In Indonesia, tipping is not mandatory and I think the people who don't tip outnumber the people who tip. Often upon paying the bill at a restaurant, we check first if we need to tip the waiter because at some restaurants, cafes, and the alike usually there is already 10% service charge included on the bill. However if the waiter is very helpful we might likely give small tips in addition to the service charge. On the other hand, we are likely not to leave tips even if there's no service charge included, if the waiter doesn't serve well or if the food are not good.Although to tip or not to tip is never really a problem in my country, it's already like an unwritten rules to tip at salon. It's not a big deal if it's a small salon, because you likely only have to tip the hairdresser and the shampoo guy/ girl. Having a haircut at a big salon will likely to involve at least 3 people, the shampoo girl/guy, the hairdresser and the hairdresser assistant who's in charge to first dry hair before being styled and having final touch by the hairdresser. The tip for hairdresser is usually up to 10% of the service, while amount tip for the shampoo guy/ girl and the hairdresser assistant is usually up to the customer.
Tipping a taxi driver is not a custom in Indonesia, but some people like to let the driver keep the change or to give some more if the driver drives cautiously and is polite.
Basically people who tip in Indonesia will tip if they get very good service, this is very different from the tipping custom in US, at least from what I read on How to tip like a gentleman. Glad that many countries don't apply tipping like in the US, and a comment from TedinAsia on that article should be taken into consideration, just in case :-)
Photo by greatseth
