UPDATE Tourist scavenging through Bali trash turns out to be globetrotting Bulgarian backpacker
A set of videos of a foreigner scavenging food from rubbish bins has gone viral in Bali.
The man, presumed to be a tourist, is seen rummaging through the trash in three different videos lasting under 20 seconds each. As he rolls a suitcase, he stops at a couple of different bins where he appears to take food from the receptacles and proceeds to eat it.
This comes at a time when Bali’s governor is complaining of cheap tourists who come to vacation on the island but spend little money during their trips.
The videos of the trash-picker were uploaded by Facebook user Dwikayanthi Pudja on her profile on Saturday. The footage was recorded in front of Le Mayeur Museum in Sanur, according to Dwikayanthi.
The disheveled man had been seen pacing in Sanur the day before, Dwikayanthi told Kompas News on Monday.
“As you see in the video, he clearly ate from the trash can,” Dwikayanthi explained.
Dwikayanti confirmed with Kompas that she did not actually speak to the foreigner whom she filmed.
The three videos collectively have more than 145,000 views, as of publishing time.
Comments range from pitying the man “in need of help” to disparaging him for irresponsibly traveling without enough money in his account–Dwikayanthi herself seems to hold both views.
“I’ve gone outside of the country before. You must have a minimum balance in your account. But this tourist who is scavenging, it’s sad to see,” Dwikayanthi said.
The OP goes more in depth about the injustices of Indonesians needing minimum account balances to travel abroad versus how it’s so easy for foreigners to come to Indonesia without much money, in her comments accompanying the videos on Facebook.
Here is a translation of her post, originally written in Indonesian:
It’s somewhat surprising to see a westerner scavenging through trash for food. If we go to their country, there are a lot of requirements. There must be a minimum account balance, a certificate proving work, a tax letter, insurance, etc.
But it’s a good purpose, to prevent us from scavenging or running out of money later in the country.
But they come here easily, the conditions are easy… But it turns out that there are even westerners who do this here.
It’s a shame to see him like that, but what if all tourists who come to Bali do like this?
Maybe the conditions for arrival to Bali must be further updated. Yes, so there is at least a minimum account balance and length of stay. So that western backpackers coming here aren’t pitiful like that. At least this way (people coming to Bali) would still contribute to Bali’s income.
