Another day, another travel influencer being self-serving, inappropriate, tone deaf to local culture, generally a horrible example of a thoughtful traveller - and showing really bad decision making.
We’re not going to show images or link to these two self-promoting "influencers'" social media accounts because we don’t want to give them the attention or the traffic that would reward their bad behaviour.
One Russian Instagram "influencer" is facing jail in Bali for up to six years after posing naked among the massive roots of a ‘sacred’, 700-year old tree.
All to provide more fodder for her 27,000 followers on the social media platform, of course.
Strict nude photography laws on the Indonesian island impose not just jail time, but up to $90,000 in fines. Reports say her use of the sacred tree in the nude images could be ruled “pornographic.”
After Alina Fazleeva, whose boyfriend took the photos, posted them on her account, locals saw them and were outraged, reporting the pair to authorities while they were still on the island.
The "influencer" immediately took the images down, shockingly admitting in her online apology, “I’m so embarrassed, I didn’t mean to offend you in any way, absolutely no knowledge of this place.”
The incident follows hard on the - naked - heels of another recent incident on the island that resulted in a Canadian actor/ "influencer" being deported.
What is it with influencers and exhibitionism?
In the other case, Jeffrey Craigen filmed himself doing a naked ‘haka’ dance on top of the island’s Mount Batur - also, if anyone does even elementary pre-travel research, a "sacred site."
He too tearfully apologized after the fact, and was detained by the Balinese police. Craigen was deported.
In his case, he even managed to offend two countries at once - and one he wasn’t even in at the time! When the naked mountain-top haka dance incident went viral, Maori communities also criticized him for appropriating and disrespecting the haka dance, integral to indigenous New Zealand culture.
I was kind of hoping that if the pandemic had any silver lining, it might be the demise of the so-called "influencers" giving a bad name to travellers everywhere they go as they violate laws, local culture and etiquette. But it seems they are back in full force even before travel has fully recovered.
Social media puts a lot of pressure on us all to use our travels for ‘likes.’ But all I can say is, first: keep your clothes on. And even clothed - please - just don’t be ‘that guy.’
