In Reply to: Beach Pests posted by Loz on Friday, 20. March 2009 at 04:24 Bali Time:
of handling the beach sellers is by saying hello to them & engaging them in conversation before they actually have a chance to start their sales pitch.You may be surprised at how much you learn & get to know by talking to local people.
The best advice I can offer is to learn some basics of Bahasa Indonesian or Bahasa Bali.After a day or two you will find if you can speak some of the local language that you feel more at home & have no problems with anyone being in your face re selling you items.
I still say that the best thing I did many years ago was to buy the Lonely Planet guidebook to Bahasa Indonesian.Even knowing a few words or phrases helps.These days this book I think costs all of about $12 - it is definately a very good investment.