Dangers Of Blissful Ignorance

[tuky]

Dangers of blissful ignorance

By Chris Pritchard

• Tourists usually offend out of blissful ignorance
  
• Read about your destination in advance
  
• Be culturally sensitive and aware
  

OFFENSIVE behaviour outside Australia cuts two ways: how tourists behave in foreign countries, and how locals treat visitors.

There is one big difference. Bad behaviour towards foreigners is mostly planned, or part of organised rip-offs, while tourists usually give offence out of blissful ignorance.

"Eve-teasing" is a strange term often in the headlines in India and neighbouring countries. Local women are victims far more often than travellers, and its illegality in certain situations hasn't stalled its growth.

It encompasses wolf-whistling at passers-by, bottom-pinching, sexual propositions and groping.

Most often, young men surround a woman and begin giggling raucously, pointing and making lewd suggestions.

The Hindu, a respected national newspaper, branded it a "rampant social evil".

Avoiding unwanted attention

Guidebooks commonly – and sensibly – recommend single female travellers dress conservatively and wear wedding rings.

According to this logic, cultural norms ensure married women usually – but not always – are shown respect.

Some advice goes further, suggesting pictures be carried of a male relative or boyfriend as "my husband'' and of nieces or nephews as "my children".

In troubling contexts, these can be produced as evidence of "married" status.

Offensive behaviour involving rip-offs is typified by the Thai ruse where touts loiter near entrances to temples or other attractions. "Closed today," they lie. "Come, I'll take you instead to my brother's shop."

Believe it or not, these commission agents are surprisingly successful.

Other widely reported cases involve love-struck young women, seduced by plausible drug runners and persuaded to smuggle narcotics.

"He told me there were only clothes and textbooks in the suitcase,'' wept one after her arrest.

Read up before leaving

Warnings about spiked drinks or food in Thailand, often on long-distance buses, and rigged card games in the Philippines saved some tourists, but the practices are still widespread.

A streetwise six-year-old on a Saigon street easily runs circles around naive visitors claiming, "Hungry, mama! Hungry, papa! Buy postcard! Buy map!''

Tourists decide he's cute, buying postcards they'll never send, or maps they'll never need.

When tourists are perpetrators of offensive behaviour it is usually out of ignorance rather than malice, but not always.

A first-time visitor to Bali, ahead of me in a queue at a Sydney money-changing booth, told a teller he wanted money for Bali and was, correctly, sold Indonesian rupiah.

"Look, mate," he protested loudly, "I said I was going to Bali and you gave me Indonesian money."

He wasn't unique in not knowing which country he'd be visiting.

Dos and donts

In Thailand, guidebooks warn, patting heads of small children is taboo because it's believed spirits reside there. You'll probably see locals doing this all the time – but it is still sound advice.

Also important is not to point the underside of your feet at anyone.

A tourist opposite me on Bangkok's Skytrain crossed his legs. The bottom of his foot gently brushed the leg of a passenger next to him. The Thai suffered in silence before finally urging the tourist to keep his foot to himself.

The tourist's expression revealed he believed he was being unfairly victimised.

I recently watched foreigners in Vietnam clutching beer cans as they toured a Viet Cong war memorial, even though guides told them this would cause offence.

Others clamber on to sacred Buddhist and Hindu statues to have their photos taken.

Skimpily-dressed travellers visit holy temples but when it is suggested they cover up, they angrily argue that their attire is acceptable back home, so locals had better get used to it. Cultural sensitivity is an alien concept.

Using chopsticks as drum sticks while waiting for food is disappointingly common but a definite no-no. Leaving chopsticks stuck upright in bowls of rice is offensive, too -- reminding people of incense-burning at funerals.

An old joke says the easiest way to clear a crowded restaurant in Japan is by blowing your nose loudly. Local custom is that blowing your nose requires a trip to the toilet.

Conversely, throat-clearing and spitting is inoffensive in China – despite officialdom's unsuccessful attempts to discourage the habit, particularly in pre-Olympics Beijing.

My best advice is to read about your destination in advance, and to dress modestly.

Above all, remember locals aren't always there to help.

A memorable example: within 48 hours of the tsunami in late 2005 that killed an estimated 250,000 people across Asia, bad-taste T-shirts were on sale in Bangkok's Chatuchak market saying "I survived the tsunami".

The Sunday Telegraph

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