In Reply to: The ones with noses turned up are....... posted by dadvet on Sunday, 3. May 2009 at 06:06 Bali Time:
Balinese do have their own way of doing things and I need to point out, that even when my husband goes to the tax office here in Bali monthly to report, everyone is wearing things, they have a shirt on and long pants, but they wear thongs. We have adopted the Balinese style of footwear since living here, I did not own thongs when I lived in Australia. I now only own one pair of thongs and one pair of sneakers.
You need to remember that we take our shoes off whenever we enter a place, out of respect so wearing shoes is not part of respect. In the South it may be different but every government office we enter in The North of Bali where it is a lot more traditional (including the police station) we leave our shoes at the door, our Balinese family taught us that one early on in the piece.
In other parts of Indonesia I think it is best to ask what they think is respectful. This question was posted with regard to Bali and in Bali thongs are our 'work boot' and removed at the door of someones house or business out of respect. I never walk into a small store and especially not someones house with my shoes on in our village. Even when I went shopping the other day in Seminyak I took my shoes off at the door of the little shops.