You should enjoy your precious holiday in some places great you know. You can start by visiting a country named Indonesia, to its most popular island, Bali. Many may not know about Indonesia, even though they already visited Bali like thousand times. Some people also have a very respective behavior, which is one thing that need for basically any tourist who visits Bali.
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Of course, there’s a difference between the culture in the country those tourists came from, and the culture in Bali island. They may be very contrast to each other. If you don’t what are those things that you should know first before visiting Bali, here’s the list about the things you should never do in Bali. There’s fifteen in total, so make sure to pay attention.
1. Touching people’s head
The first one is touching people’s head. Of course, this thing is very unacceptable, both in Bali island also Indonesia in general. If you usually find that touching this part of the body, for showing love or warm to other people, in Bali, this thing is not okay. There’s only one reason for this, because head is the most sacred part of their body.
Touching any part like hands, legs, or even body accidentally is more okay than touching the head. Even touching the head of the kids in Bali to show careness is not suitable for their culture. You can show it in the other kinds of activity like hug, shaking hands, etc. But remember, don’t ever touch that sacred part of their body.
2. Step on the offerings
The next important thing in Bali that you can commonly see in your daily activites of enjoying the island is the offerings. In come spots of the area, you can see some of them, lying in the place that carefully preserved for them, or just lying on the ground. Even though they jusy lay there, you shouldn’t put your foot on it, or passing right above it.
The offerings are considered to be the most sacred thing for them. They are also included as part of Balinese culture that should be respected. People are starting to preparing them during the morning for only purpose, to show their grateful to the God. So, we also should respect their way of praying and showing gratitude.
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3. Entering sacred temples during menstruation
In Bali, it’s not a new thing to find so many temples. Even in one area, you can find some of them exist in the area. Those temples are never empty, people are coming in and out almost in every hour to pray. And there’s one restriction, for the girls who already have their first period. Yes, they shouln’t enter the temples during menstruation.
The girls who have their menstruation will wait outside the temples, and only able to see them just from the outside. That’s why, before entering the temples, they wil usually asked first, if they are “clean” or not. If yes, they will allowed to enter the temple and instructed to wear this kinds of cloth to cover their lowe body. This thing should be remembered among the other things you should never do in Bali.
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4. Wearing unproper clothes when entering sacred places
This has a relevance with the thing above, which is to cover some parts of the body. This rule is not only applied for women only, but also for the men. Both genders should at least know that they are visiting a sacred place on the island. Of course, they should wear the appropiate clothing for this event only. And it’s not a hard thing to do right? To properly dress.
You don’t need to wear thick clothing to be able to enter the temples. You only need to at least cover some parts of your body like torso, and leg. You can wear long pants, shirt, or any clothes you want to wear, as long as they can cover your body. If you’re wearing a skirt, people around the temples will give you the cloth that will putted around your waist as a cover.
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5. Disturb religious processions
The next one is about the Balinese processions or rituals. In the island, there’s a time when a ceremony should be made. For example is someone dies in Bali, the family and relatives will hold a ceremony called Ngaben procession . All rituals in Bali are considered to be holy ceremonies that should be attended with respect and care.
As tourists, we should respect those processions by keeping our mouth shut and not making so much noises. We can also take the pictures of them, but, we should make our camera more quiet, or else. We must respedct the people who try the best their can to show their devotion and love to their own God almighty.
6. Urinating inappropiately
Not only in Bali island, this thing happens basically in every country like America, Russia, or even dveloping countries like Indonesia and its neighbors. This vile activity usually done by the drunk people, or they who can’t find an appropiate place for taking a piss. You must not do the same thing in this island, becuase people will suddenly judge you.
Bali is known as a very respectbale, cultural, and the most tolertant area in Indonesia. But, they are of course, like anybody, really don’t like to see things like PDA, or these bad activities like urinating inappropiately. Beside making yourself more troubled, you can make your name as a tourism from particular country worse.
7. Saying stupid things in the temples
As teenager, one may doesn’t have the control of their emotion. Sometime they do stupid things like littering everywhere, vandalizm, or any other things. It’s pretty normal for their age, to not fully gain control of their own self, especially their emotion. But, whn visiting an island like Bali, they should behave themself, especially when visiting sacred places.
Those sacred places are the temples, and also some arts of town that have the white and black clothing on it like the trees, building, and the others. People in Bali belive about Karma, and yes, it exists. So, in those sacred places, especially in the temples, you must not saying stupid stuff or doing bad things in there.
8. Making too much noise during Nyepi
There’s one of many things you should never do in Bali, this is also important because not so many people, especially the ones who came from their own countries know about this. In Bali, people are celebrating Nyepi day. So what’s about the Nyepi day ? On this day, people will not going out from their house, all day.
They will be inside, doing self reflection and introspection. There will be no entertainment, nor lights to make the street more bright. There wil be not much sound, and all fall into a dark and peaceful atmoshpere of Nyepi day. Tourists also should not making distractions like bright lights or making much sounds. Most of them will spend their days on their hotel room.
9. Pointing at something using left hand
In Indonesia, the left hand is considered a not good part of the body. That’s why, we only use the left hand for several occasions like cleaning our body part after taking a dump, or taking the trash out. So that’s why we never use our left hand to eat, doing hand shake, or showing ways. That’s why, you should also use the right hand when pointing at something or someone.
If you happen to have a meal or drink on your right hand so you can’t point with your right hand, you can just say “sorry” before actually pointing with your left finger, people will understand. Also, don’t point at something or someone using your feet. It’s no appropiate at all. It’s okay if you do it to your friends, but not for any other people. Of course it should be included as one of many things you should never do in Bali.
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Beside those things mentioned above as things you should never do in Bali, we also have several tips for you that you can find in the small list below :
- Don’t drink the tap water, you can hurt your stomach
- Don’t do drugs!
- Never use the horn of your vehicle excessively
- Don’t bring too much stuff when visiting the attractions
- Don’t make an offensive approach to everybody, either in Bali island or basically everywhere
- Don’t use flash when taking pictures of people praying
So that’s the article about the things you should never do in Bali. As a tourist, you should respect th culture that exists in Bali island. With that, you can have your travel with ease without having problems, especially from the Balinese people around you.
