Respecting local norms, or not
There are many things that make living on a Hindu Island a wonderful experience, the cultural aspect being one of the most significant. The Hindu calendar is full to the brim, there are almost daily ceremonies celebrating, commemorating and honouring. Some loud, some quiet, some small, some large, nearly all quite beautiful.
Bali as a whole has a wonderful policy whereby national dress should be worn by men and women every Thursday. Balinese National dress is quite beautiful.
There are cultural norms wherever you go, some we’ll be used to, some may take us by surprise.
We recently had an experience that we posted about in a local facebook community group :
We’ve just asked 3 lovely ladies to cover up, walking in a rural area of the island in g string bikinis with butts on display to the world
This kind of dress can be seen as deeply disrespectful to our island hosts and their culture
Please remember to cover up when out and about walking, in restaurants and on scooters
No body shaming, butts are beautiful! Just keep them to yourselves if not on the beach or in a pool
The responses were, well, interesting to say the least, some humorous, many agreeing, some disagreeing, some casually racist and others outright ageist.
Why did we feel the need to say anything? let alone post about it? Well we really do live in a very rural and local part of the island, no shops, restaurants or tourists and it was completely out of place to see these butt baring bikini clad beauties. We figured they were unaware of the cultural norms of the islands and that others may also be.
As mentioned in the original post, there is no body shaming from us, simply a willingness to illuminate when and where we can. The Balinese Governor released a whole list of dos and don’ts guidelines for tourists following various unruly tourist occurrences. Here’s a bit of info about it and the list on Bali’s official Love Bali site. https://lovebali.baliprov.go.id/article/detail/1742819770564/bali-cracks-down-on-unruly-tourists:-governor-koster-issues-new-regulations. The key line being 2. Dress appropriately – When visiting temples, tourist attractions, or public spaces, tourists are expected to wear modest and respectful clothing.
Whether you love butts or not, are on holiday or not, it may be worth remembering, there are places where your beautiful butt will be perfectly at home, and others where it might be best safely tucked away.
