In Reply to: Legian lizzards posted by Alli on Sunday, 17. June 2007 at 10:02 Bali Time:
to just keep your head screwed on right!! The fact that he hasn't asked you for money goes in his favour but as Alli points out you do need to be careful at all times. If at some point he sms's you saying his father needs an operation or his house has been demolished by a runaway truck then that would be a red flag. Of course father's do get sick and houses do fall down for a variety of reasons but it just happens rather more often to the family and homes of Kuta Kowboys. (Same thing with the genders of tourist and local reversed, or, come to think of it same gender)
Having said that I know quite a few young guys who could be described as Kuta Cowboys and without exception like them. I mean it's hard if you have no work or casual work with little money in Bali to get a date in what we would call the "normal" way and of course they like to date attractive western girls who don't care if they have money or not.
Is it possible for a Kuta Cowboy genuinely to fall in love with a tourist? Of course it is. Will he be faithful, possibly, but not probably. He of course won't know if his overseas girlfriend will be faithful either so there are a lot of unknowns but that is true in any new relationship especially a long distance one!!!
To sum up. Is he a Kuta Cowboy or not? Don't know. I'm not sure that it really matters at this stage. Enjoy the romance and if you are the exception that proves the rule, great. If not, well, you had a lovely holiday romance.
You might like to search the forum for my piece "Under the Rainbow Umbrella at Sunset", maybe easier to just search under Hillary. I changed the names and little things about the people in the story for their privacy but they are based on real people. I moved the location of the "Rainbow Bar" for the same reason.
Good luck and happy holidays whichever way it goes!!!!!!