In Reply to: bulu = hairy posted by Freogirl on Tuesday, 27. October 2009 at 22:48 Bali Time:
"Must be cultural we say. However, the Indonesians I know would be very offended if I made similar comments about their appearance, they are pretty much the same when it comes to vanity, sensitivity about appearance etc."
Thats interesting. I expect that many Balinese would not have close friends from other cultures and therefore view tourists as the "other" to a greater extent than one would initially assume. Not to mention the way they see some tourists behaving which would widen the perception of cultural differences. Our dismissal of their comments as "cultural differences" also surely reinforces the behaviour as a lot of people wouldn't react badly or get upset.
I once travelled to Bali with a friend and Balinese kept commenting on her 'pregnancy', only she wasnt pregnant and found it quite upsetting.