In Reply to: thanks for the advice Kristal posted by jerrais on Saturday, 31. March 2007 at 15:55 Bali Time:
many, many people do take advantage of the kindness of tourists which is why I said if you doubt their sincerity don't give them any money.
It is very hard to know sometimes if people are genuine or not. The friendships that form here between tourists & drivers, shop sellers, massage ladies etc are very uneven friendships financially.
In my opinion the best thing you can all do is keep on coming to Bali, spend your money at the shops, restaurants, for transport etc and it will be going as far as it can and allowing people here to maintain their self respect.
If you want to do more than that donate to one of the many foundations already set up to help people in genuine need. Helen Flavel's foundation sounds great, google the East Bali poverty project, they are doing fantastic work and there are many more as well.