What he found was that tourism – of course – changes a place. But in his conversations with locals, he realized that maybe, in the end, that’s alright. Cultures change, but they survive. Usually.

Here is what Nyoman Purwa Sumantra, a farmer turned businessman, had to say about the changing times in Bali:

When he was a kid, he said, he used to grind sandstone into powder and brush his teeth with a leaf. Now he uses toothbrush and toothpaste. Before it was all natural, and now it’s supposedly better for the teeth. Likewise, in his day, his parents never gave him money. Now his kids have cellphones. One’s been to Australia, another to Singapore and Java. Which way is better, I asked? Neither, he answered. It’s globalization. And it’s O.K.: ‘‘They never forget about their religion, the culture.’’

And here, a conversation with a rice farmer:

When I asked what he thought made so many travelers come to Bali, why they didn’t just go to some other warm place, he answered: ‘‘Because of Bali’s unique culture. No other country has the dancing, the religion, the people making offerings.’’ He wasn’t worried about Bali withstanding the tourists. ‘‘If the parents teach the young generation, the culture will be strong. If not, the culture will be gone.’’

Obviously, travelers must navigate a never-ending juggling act between experiencing and communicating with the world and trying not to co-opt cultures or homogenize the planet. One small but important way of doing this is to frequent local businesses when one travels so as to make sure that tourism profits remain in that economy. But this paradox of travel will always be with us. What are your thoughts and experiences with respect to this topic?

It’s great for soaking up the sights on a shoestring budget, but as some Asians have found, “couchsurfing,” or staying at a stranger’s home, can be a culturally jarring experience, especially if you reciprocate…

Juana Jumat, a Muslim from Singapore, was offered a breakfast unlike any other during a recent holiday to Germany. “My hosts fed me breakfast with their local beer at 8.30 in the morning and I told them I can’t drink, but the host’s mum told me “you are in the Bavarian Alps and you should drink,”" said Jumat of a recent “couchsurfing” experience.

And when the time came for her to play host, Jumat had to persuade her conservative mother of the benefits. “Initially my mum was like, why are you hosting people whom you do not know and simply asking them to come to our house?” said Jumat, who has since hosted 50 couchsurfers, mostly from Germany and Australia…

For some Japanese, the responsibility and hospitality that comes with taking care of guests may act as a deterrent.

“When my friend stayed over at my house, my mum was feeling stressed because she thought she would have to cook her meals and wash her clothes. My mum even sewed a hole on my friend’s trousers when she saw it,” said couchsurfer Ayami Kobayashi.

Despite the Asian reticence, though, the concept continues to gain in acceptance. Couchsurfing now has well over 800,000 members worldwide and is growing quickly in Asia.

That shopping day in Hoi An, I had to remind myself to focus on what I thought was a good price for the gray shirt.

“How much?” I repeated my question. The saleswoman came closer and peered at my face searching for telling signs of what she should charge me. I tried to project a blank face.

With the most confident voice she could muster, she responded, “One hundred ninety” and continued to stare at me with a straight face.

“Noooo!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide with feigned surprise and offense. I stomped my feet. I pretended to walk away.

She didn’t betray hesitation. She didn’t call after me to come back. She was on top of her game.

I looked back begrudgingly and shouted, “I pay 30!”

Now it was her turn to pretend to be offended. She shook her head. “You crazy!” she yelled. But she knew that I knew how it worked. “One hundred, last price!” she said throwing her hands up in the air.

I considered the offer for a few seconds. “OK, how about I pay 85?” I asked in a conciliatory voice, taking my money out of my wallet.

“OK,” she said, smiling now. “Ninety,” she pushed my offer up a bit as a matter of course and put the shirt in a bag. She then playfully pointed her index finger at my chest. “Good for you,” she beamed and pointed it back at herself, “good for me!”

This travel story discusses the topic:

Business travelers’ confusion is understandable, says Lynn Staneff who compiled a tipping guide for 70 countries for Magellan’s, which sells travel supplies from two California stores and a Web site.

Tipping is common in some countries, not done in others, or only done in some cities, she says…According to her guide, tipping is not practiced in 11 countries – Brunei, Malaysia, Japan, Oman, New Zealand, Samoa, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

In most countries, travelers are expected to tip to a waiter or waitress 10 percent, pay the equivalent of $1 per bag to a porter and round the taxi fare to the next unit of the local currency.

Many countries in Asia and Western Europe add a service charge to a restaurant check, exempting diners from tipping, Forni, the author, says. In Japan, Staneff says, tipping is perceived as insulting.

In South America, don’t tell people you’re from America. (They are, too.)

In Italy, don’t order cappuccino after 11 a.m.

In Greece, don’t say, “I didn’t order this,” when your ouzo arrives with a small plate of peanuts or olives or cheese. (It’s complimentary.)

In England, don’t touch the queen.

In Thailand, don’t badmouth the king.

In Vatican City, don’t correct the pope.

In Scotland, don’t call the people English.

In Kazakhstan, don’t mention Borat.

In Ireland, don’t ask, “Are there any good books by local authors?”

In Singapore, don’t do a lot of things.

In Indonesia, don’t say you’re planning to explore the country by car.

And whatever you do, wherever you go, never say you don’t like soccer.

There was a light-hearted article in the Sunday NY Times about travel, tourism and cultural differences, which is worth a read.

Every summer, people all over the world become acquainted again with a deep truth spoken by the philosopher-tourist Steve Martin. He was speaking for tourists everywhere, not just to France, when he said: “Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything!”

That people from different countries observe different customs -  not only of speaking, but of eating, sleeping, gesturing, counting change, observing boundaries of personal space, tipping cab drivers, standing in lines, avoiding certain topics of conversation at dinnertime as unbearably disgusting -  is a truism one probably can never be reminded of too often.

…it is bad news only in those isolated cases (which you hear about if you talk to cabbies, tour guides and certain sarcastic individuals in sales) where the awe of Mr. Martin’s revelation is supplanted by the ugly reality of a culture clash – a tip denied, a personal boundary violated, or a long line at a drug store counter jumped by a family of Italian-speaking people, who forever thereafter shall be remembered by the offended party present (an acquaintance of mine) as those “ugly Europeans.”

Let it be said that no group holds a monopoly on the title of “ugly.” Tip-stiffing, line-jumping, excessive price-haggling, sidewalk-blocking-when-stopping-suddenly-to-take-pictures-of-a-person-playing-the-steel-drums – none of these are unique to any national group…

“Ugly” behavior in tourists is almost always in the eye of the people being toured; and Americans are no longer the only, or even the dominant group of tourists out in the world. We are now as often toured as tour-ing.

And New Yorkers, it turns out, are just as likely to be exasperated being toured by tourists unfamiliar with their local mores about tipping or standing in check-out lines, say, as the Achuar tribesmen of Ecuador are to be offended by tourists who sit on certain sacred rocks.

The moral of the story, of course, is that cultural differences matter, even for tourists.

To be an ugly tourist is to miss the fundamental truth in Mr. Martin’s statement. “It is to have an overall lack of understanding that there is such a thing as cultural difference,” wrote Prof. Inga Treitler, the secretary for the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology.