“I love Bali cause I can smoke wherever I want; back home can’t smoke anywhere anymore.”
“Bali’s great cause I can drink piss wherever I want – on the street, while I’m driving, waiting at the arrival gate at the airport.”
“I don’t care - not my country, mate, I’ll do what I like!”
This is the attitude of many who visit Bali. The island has become a haven for those who want to act as they wish without considering the people or the culture around them. Tragic…
Culture goes both ways and there are things we can learn from the locals and things we can teach them too. This is a good reason why we, people from a developed society with rules and laws that have been put into place for the common good, should be setting an example – not giving us a bad name.
In Bali, sure, you can still smoke in most places. In most developed countries, however, it’s been banned in almost all public places, even sports stadiums. Recently a local friend told me that she asked a foreigner to stop smoking near her baby in an enclosed space (ironically, her family’s warung), who retorted indignantly: “You go outside, I was here first! I came to Bali so that I could get away from those ridiculous anti-smoking laws back home.” Nice…I know, however, that even local people would be polite enough to move away and smoke outside.
Waiting at arrivals last week, in the space of only half an hour two bottles fell from idle hands smashing on the ground, one shard of glass cutting my wife’s foot as she cuddled our restless three-year-old son, the rest of the shards thoroughly infuriating the airport cleaners. Would you dare to drink freely at the arrivals gate at any other airport in the world? Do you see any locals here doing this?
I know the implementation of laws here are a bit of joke, and many are still ruled by the wallet, but remember, it won’t be long before Bali catches up with the rest of the world – where will ya run to then?
