Just been to Siem Reap, where they could really teach Bali a thing or two about how to approach tourism. No overcrowding of buildings, no streets lined with art shops, people keep things clean (no sea of plastic bags dumped around the place), and the sellers certainly don't hassle you as much as Balinese sellers do (are Balinese sellers the worst in Asia? Even the ones in India didn't seem as bad for harrassment).
Just gathering my thoughts for the Bali Cultural Congress on 14th and 15th, where I'm talking about the future of Balinese culture. It seems now that Bali's 'cultural tourism' strategy is long dead, so where does that leave us?
Comments
I've been browsing your blog and found many interesting things about Indonesia especially Bali. Bali should really think about this 'cultural tourism'.While Balinese people keep themselves busy trying to preserve the 'culture'(to keep this 'paradise alive for tourists'),other people outside bali, come to this island to set up their own business, taking so much from this island and most of them dont care about the island who give them the good life, at all.And balinese will only be the inhabitant of the paradise, without really moving forward in this fast moving world. Cambodian sellers now maybe more'polite' than balinese, bcoz maybe tourism not yet influenced them that much and people who try their best of luck to start making business in cambodia is not as many as in bali. I dont know, you're the expert and am the balinese young generations who have loads of questions about where all this lead us to.Will we be swept away by global capitalism?And the government seems dont really know how to manage this small island, only keep saying about preserving the culture.But anyway, yr blog is really fulfilling.
Posted by: Gayatri Oka | January 18, 2009 05:09 AM