Our perception of the people on the islands we visited, and especially the Balinese. We find them extremely warm, kind, polite, service oriented. Of course they need to make a living and tourism may be there onely possibility. But this pleasant behaviour is not initiated by tourism, it’s a cultural quality that – as a side effect – helps a lot in tourism. In discussions we now and then have there is no sense of inequality. And very often they are very pleased to have a chat with you. Then they have this particular eye for the detail. We already mentioned the flowers you’ll find everywhere. Imagine a gents’ toilet in a restaurant – not an expensive one – with on the floor a big bowl made of natural stone, filled with water that is completely covered with the petals of flowers. Changed everyday, sometimes the shape of a heart or something else formed with different colours.

Incomprehensible is that very often they dispose of their waste by just throwing it over the wall of their yards or on dirt tips they spontaneously make on the side of the road, on riverbanks, in corners of the street etc.