First trip into the unknown
When I went to Bali for the first time in 2000, it was my first real venture outside the relatively sanitised world of Western Europe and Central.
Before then, I’d done the usual inter-rail circuit around the big hitters, and – barring the odd encounter with Polish tram inspectors and Czech police – I’d not experienced any real problems in terms of hassle.
Three memories of Bali
Bali, therefore, was my first dip into the world of persistent touting. I have three major images of the visit: my friend being attacked by a monkey in Ubud, obtaining coruscating sunburn on Nusa Lembongan and my first experience on Kuta Beach. Within two minutes, ‘friendly local traders’ had tried to sell me drugs, women and -believe it or not – a crossbow.
“Different culture”
I spurned all three offers for the reasons that a) it’s a bit dodgy, b) I prefer to find my own without monetary transaction and c) it wouldn’t fit in my backpack. But it was an introduction to a “different culture”, and by the end of the two weeks I was heartily sick of telling people that I didn’t want their T-shirts/ bangles/ prostitutes/ weaponry.
Tourist harassment
Since then, I’ve travelled elsewhere, and had the same problem. I know I should be embracing it, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t like this culture of continually harassing tourists to buy things. There – I’ve said it; I don’t like it when foreigners pester me, treat me as a walking piggy bank, constantly draw attention to my skin colour and attempt to grope my girlfriend. I sincerely hope that doesn’t make me some kind of racist.
Avoidance tactics
And what’s more, I have a right to vote with my feet. I am less likely to visit a country or city where such hassling is notoriously endemic.
Respecting cultural differences
What infuriates me even more, however, is being preached at and told that I’m in the wrong for not respecting cultural differences. There is a select band of holier-than-thous out there who work on the following principle: I don’t like something that someone with a different ethnic background does, and thus I must be a bigot.
We all know people who do this, and I’m thinking of one or two in particular. Ironically, they’re usually the kind of hypocrites that will be boycotting one country or another for some reason or other (human rights abuses, anti-homosexuality laws, refusal to sign up to the Kyoto agreement etc).
A matter of taste?
Just because something does happen in another ‘culture’ (and I use this term loosely as I suspect most people in famously hassle-heavy countries don’t like being hassled all that much), doesn’t mean that we have to like it or agree with it. We are perfectly entitled to decide that something is not to our taste – whether it’s Japanese food, American tipping frenzies, Ecuadorian drivers or French queuing etiquette. And when we decide something is not to our taste, we are entitled to avoid it in future.
Is not liking something wrong?
It doesn’t make me a Philistine because I don’t really fancy the idea of visiting Mumbai. It doesn’t make me a racist for wishing that I could walk through a souk without every single stall owner trying to aggressively sell me something. It doesn’t make me closed-minded because I respond angrily to the Albanian boy who has followed me for half an hour trying to make me buy a pen.
Right and wrong
You call it a cultural difference, I call it a significant annoyance. Just because you’re in someone else’s country, it doesn’t automatically make their behaviour right and yours wrong. It’s OK not to like something – and if that something happens to be the way a person or people go about things, then so be it.
So right on.
you better not go to China. Or learn to say “bu yao le” (I don’t want it) in an authoritative tone of voice. All this pestering drives me crazy! You are right on with this!
Hmm I dunno David, if you barred travelling to every place where this sort of thing happens, you’d be restricted to Western countries and some of Eastern Europe. Badgering tourists is more a function of the difference between the income of tourists and locals than any cultural factor, I think.
However, I agree you should not have to like it, and that doesn’t make you racist.
Thanks for the comments, chaps. I’m glad it’s not just me.
I agree Tim – poverty/ earnings gaps have a lot to do with it although it doesn’t necessarily follow (for example, it’s rare to encounter it on the Pacific Islands).
I most certainly don’t bar travelling to anywhere, but those places known to be bad for it will always slip down my list.
I’ve faced these ‘cultural’ quandaries in most places I’ve been in the last year (in India, SE Asia and Latin America). It can wear you down – especially if you let it. I usually find saying ‘no gracias’ (or the equivalent) about 10 times, trying to be as friendly as poss and walking away, works – eventually. In India, it’s slightly harder. I think we’re aware before we head to such places what’s in store for us, especially if they’re in any way ‘touristy’ spots. Being pestered is annoying, but it goes with the territory. Many of the locals are desperately poor, so you can’t blame them for wanting to extract a few pennies from the ‘rich’ foreigners. I guess you don’t have to like it and if you hate it that much, the simple answer is not to go to the more notorious places. But sometimes it’s a case of having to grin and bear it so you can enjoy what else their city/country has to offer….and realise that we’re actually pretty lucky to be swanning around while the ‘beggars’ and vendors struggle to make enough cash to feed themselves and their family!
PS…Dreadful traveller cliche perhaps, but I must admit whenever I’ve got ‘off the beaten track’ and got myself lost in non-touristy areas of said annoying places, I’ve generally been met with smiles and ‘hellos’ and none of the irritating aspects of the touristy areas. Mumbai especially.
Interesting subject… and an interesting point that Steve McKenna raises about the difference between tourist hotspots and backcountry.
I dislike it too, for what it does to me. After 100 un-wanted approaches, do I give the 101st the open-minded attention it might deserve?