Cowboys of Paradise (2009)

I had heard of the phenomenon of Kuta Cowboys, but couldn't really figure out what it was.  Kuta is a region of the Indonesian island of Bali, which is kind of a tourst trap, with a lot of bars catering to foreign tourist.  Kuta Cowboys are a kind of gigolo, who start relationships with foreign tourists, and eventually gets money from them.  I have heard stories about some local Balinese showing a tourist a remote village, claiming it is their home town, and hoping that the tourist, seeing how poor the village is, would give the person who took them to the village some money to help them, but it often turns out that the person who took them to the village had no connection to the village at all.  I have also heard of Thai women convincing foreign boyfriends to buy some property (which has to be bought under the Thai person's name, due to the laws in Thailand) and then turning around and selling the property without the foreigner knowing.

Strangely, I never hear of female Balinese pulling these types of scams of male tourists, though I would be shocked if it didn't happen, at least occasionally.  In general, I didn't see any mixing of Balinese women with foreign men, but again, I would be shocked if it didn't happen (though I know of some stories of that happening many decades ago).

When I looked up this film, the first thing that came up was that the Indonesian governement was cracking down on the Kuta cowboys, which I thought was rather odd.  In the film, the men shown do not do anyting illegal, and any money given to them by foreign women is done so willingly.

One thing to note is the economy of Bali is so poor that small amounts of money to people from western nations is much more valuable in Bali.  I remember the largest bill I had in Bali was a $3.50  (50,000 Rupiah) , and most stores would refuse to accept it, saying they didn't have enough money to make change for it.  In fact, whenever I was owed change smaller than 1,000 rupiah (7 cents, the smallest bill they have in circulation), I was given candy, instead of coins.

I was also kind of surprised that the men shown in this film do not appear to be remarkablely good looking or muscular.  It seems that looks are not what women are after.  There is a belief that Asian women cater to their boyfriends more than those in the west and while this does not generally apply to Asian men, it seems to be different in the case of these Kuta cowboys., as the women are attracted to these men because they pay more attention to them and show them more affection then they would get in their home counties.

While I keep hearing that western women don't treat their male companions well, as Asians do, I think this is not completely true, as it various from person to person,, though I do think that once people get married there is a tendency to take the other person for granted, and get wrapped up in day to day life, so that they no longer show their partner the affection as they did at the beginning of their relationship.