Ripped off when someone sees ya, that's life in Indonesia

It's been a week now since we arrived in Bali and we are now sitting in Lombok, another small island just east of Bali. We got here yesterday after 6 days of venturing to see the best bits of Bali whilst trying not to get too ripped off by the all-to-expert hawkers, touts and bus drivers that service the island.

Bali seems like paradise to most westerners who come to visit; its endless warm beaches with jewel-coloured water, blanket of tropical forest and fertile padi fields and its towering conical volcanoes all seem exotic and fresh to its visitors from foreign lands. However as I sit here I am being stared through the window by an old man who seems to think that by continually gesturing through the glass to me that he is in possession of a sizeable number of rather rancid looking bananas he will successfully entice me into buying his produce. A polite shake of the head or 'no thank you' just does not cut it here: these people are persistent. It can get extremely annoying and I have not experienced this incessant badgering anywhere else in the world. I've heard that India and Marrakech are the worst places for this; I dread to think what they're like. You learn in Indonesia not to sit in restaurants which have alleyways along their flanks; you will be badgered as you try to eat your meal. I know that I am from a different culture and I should accept these things, but given that these people are selling to westerners you would surely think that they would learn that by hawking us in such a way they are doing their business no good. It suffices to say that this, together with a bus driver who overcharged us by a factor of 10 and a 'guardian of the temple' who originally insisted his guiding was a free service, and later asked that we pay him an extortionate sum (we didn't), has partially spoilt my experience here.

Anyway, that's enough ranting. Here are some photos with captions of what we have seen so far in Bali:











In other news, Emma and I are becoming pretty good at learning Bahasa, the main language in Indonesia. We can now count arbitrarily high and we get smiles from locals when we try to use their lingo. Hopefully this will endear us more to these people and will mean we're less likely to get ripped off. There's my English sense of optimism coming through again; I mustn't let that get out of control!

I promise my next post will not be so grumpy! We're off to the Gili islands for lots of snorkelling and relaxing on the beach, before trying to find a way to get to Komodo islands to see their infamous namesake dragons!