In Reply to: How can you tell posted by Marc_uk on Thursday, 6. January 2005 at 17:39 Bali Time:
All day I have been thinking about this and it has been bothering me as I have tried to be as accurate as possible in what I say. Did I hear him speak. To be honest I can't recall whether I did or not.
The restaurant was European as was the owner. That I am sure of because I complimented the staff on the food and asked where the owner was from.
As the staff said that the man was a friend of the owners, (possibly I also heard him speak, but as I said but I can't recall for sure).
I think I just presumed all this time without giving it any more thought because of this comment from the staff and it was not until today I thought this exact question you have posed through in greater depth. So yes there is a possibilty he may not be European although (and I am generalising here) he did look typical of many I have seen from the country concerned.
By saying this I realise I have very much narrowed down the number of restaurants this could be applied to and don't wish to do so any further as he could have just been a regular customer for eg. and the balinese would still say he is a friend of the owner whether the owner had any closer relation to him or not I don't know. With the owner being 'away' would imagine they might not be that close.
BTW - I am half European.