Expat Life in Bali: Part 1

I started to do a series on expats in Bali in January 2009, and I managed to finish 3 out of 9 before getting sidetracked with my job. Then I started another series on expat men and Asian women and got sidetracked on that one as well. So, back to the beginning. I’m reposting the original three posts and will go on from there. Once I finish the Expats in Bali series, I’ll get around to finishing the other series. Oh, there was a third series on another blog that I don’t keep up anymore. I may get around to finishing that one as well. For now, here’s Part 1 on Expat Life in Bali.

Expats can be incredibly difficult people to deal with. I say this after almost 20 years of expat life, and I include myself as someone that can be difficult at times even though I generally make an effort not to be difficult. The internet has made expat life even more bizarre than it has historically been because now expats can act out in public for large (or small) groups of strangers without taking even the least bit of responsibility for their weirdness.
What brought this topic up? A few paragraphs in Paul Theroux’s latest travel book about his meeting with some expats in Thailand and the recent shenanigans over at an expat forum. So what about expats? Here are a few observations that I’ve made over the years, and for those who know me you’ll see that I include a number of my own habits and foibles in these comments.

The Weirdness of Expat Life #1: The Invisible Expat
Expats like to pretend that they don’t notice other foreigners around them. This stems from the early childhood belief that if you don’t see someone, they won’t see you. This invisibility paradigm is particularly true when visiting shops that specialize in selling imported items like ABD in Singaraja or Ace Hardware in Kuta. (Note that this does not apply to Expat friends, only to unknown foreigners.)

If Expats make their Expatness known to other Expats in these situations, it could damage their status as an Acculturated Expat in the future when they make statements like “I never shop in those kinds of stores, I buy Indonesian and support the local economy. I like living the simple life like the Balinese.”

The above only applies to Acculturated Expats. Those Expats who insist on retaining their national habits in such activities as language, eating, drinking, socializing, child rearing, and driving make a point of being highly visible wherever they go, especially if they have a large Balinese or Indonesian entourage with them. This is especially true of Americans, Australians and Germans who are fond of speaking as loudly as possible in their national language in order to make sure that no one misses their entrance, performance and exit.