In Reply to: Things You Will Never Hear in Bali posted by Necros on Saturday, 10. August 2013 at 17:48 Bali Time:
If you treat people with respect it is almost always repaid in kind.
I give the security guards and the reception staff a smile and a wave as I arrive and leave. They always smile and wave back. And at our regular hotel they greet me and talk to me by name.
In shops if I say I would simply like to look, they usually respect that. And if offered something on the beach I say a polite but friendly no and they leave me alone.
Perhaps when we first visited we may have been pestered because we seemed uncertain and probably naive. Now after 14 or more visits, they treat me like I treat them With respect.
There are the occasional rogues but they soon know they have picked a regular and stop.
I think it is sad that you have had such a poor experience. But if it was an attempt to be funny, it simply didn't work.