In Reply to: Honestly, if I was given tea towels posted by sherbert on Thursday, 7. October 2010 at 06:19 Bali Time:
I'd be very uncomfortable if a stranger gave me a present.
Great tea-towels are fine when it's from someone i know. Prefer designer tea-towels, lol
It's not the norm for me to give material gifts to any person other than to a friend, family member, or charity.
But there were three exceptions this year.
We got the best box of chocolates we could find at Perth Airport and gave them as a gift to the villa and house owners we rented from in Bali and Penang. The chocolates seemed to go down well.
The only other material gift i've given to a stranger, that wasn't to a charitable org, was accidental when i got into conversation on a number of occasions with a young man in Bali who proudly showed me pics of his little boy and wife.
I had a pile of new clothing i'd purchased in Australia as a donation for a charity and asked him if he'd like to to pick out some items that his toddler and wife might like.
He loved the 'name-brand' clothing because it had Australian labels (he said it was good quality) he very carefully selected some items, and that same day reciprocated with 3 lovely sarongs.
A few days later there was a fourth gift to us of another sarong, and it was the most beautiful of all. Plus coconuts left on our doorstep on a few mornings that his father had climbed a tree to get. And so, it was an equal exchange :)