So, one of the big fears for newcomers before coming to Bali is the dreaded Bali Belly. It can hit you in mild forms or can be quite severe. If it becomes severe, it is important to be tested for other more serious diseases such as Typhoid, hepatitis A and parasites.
Although Bali Belly has a bad reputation for originating from food. It’s more common that you will get a bout of the runs from touching items that have feces on them….and that most likely WILL NOT be your food.
Balinese (and Indonesians) find it quite rude and dirty that you hand things to them with your left hand. Or that you touch food with your left hand.
What do you normally hand over? MONEY!
Dirty money, not only has been touched by many people, but it’s also inevitably been touched using the ”toilet hand”. Yes, the left hand is for wiping your bum (without toilet paper) in Bali, as it is in many parts of Asia!
In Bali, they hand over that dirty money with their "clean" right hand. They consider it rude to hand it with your left (yes, confusing). Now, although this is their Custom you need to find somewhere to wash your hands afterwards if you wish to follow the Customs.
It may all make sense now what the little hose in the bathroom in your hotel is for (for washing the bum) and why housekeeping in smaller establishments forget to give you toilet paper.. simply because they do not use it.
TIPS: So, if you pay for a meal in cash at a restaurant, don’t forget to wash your hands immediately afterwards. You will find the locally run or places frequented by locals have a wash basin in the restaurant for such purposes.
Locals will wash their hands before and after each meal. Locals pride themselves on hygiene and will bathe at least two times a day *using the water-saving mandi described in our Trivia Topic on WATER recently.
If you give the kids some spending money in Bali, make sure they understand how dirty it is, and NEVER let them put their hands in their mouth or wipe dust from their eyes if they have handled money and have not washed their hands.
Carry a hand sanitiser around for those times when there is no washbasin, but if you see a washbasin use it and wash thoroughly with soap.
So, don’t forget your left hand is dirty, your right hand is clean!
So, no offering your left hand out to shake someone’s hand.
No offering food from your left hand and remember when you receive your change try to wash your hands as soon as possible. If you cannot wash your hands just receive it in your left hand and keep that as your dirty hand till you can find a washbasin.
Sorry to all the Lefties out there.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice and should be used for information purposes only
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So, one of the big fears for newcomers before coming to Bali is the dreaded Bali Belly, it can come in mild forms or actually quite severe, if it becomes severe it is important to be tested for other more serious diseases such as Typhoid, Hep A etc.
