An influencer couple from the Czech Republic were branded “disgusting” for their behavior at a sacred temple while on vacation in Bali, Indonesia. Sabina Dolezalova and Zdenek Slouka, who have roughly 85,000 Instagram followers between them, posted a video to the social media site from their visit to Beji Temple in the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in the village of Padangtegal, and while it started out innocently enough, things soon took an extremely inappropriate turn.
- They seemed to be posing near a fountain to begin with. That’s fine – normal tourist behavior! However, Dolezalova soon lifted up her skirt and bent over while Slouka put some of the holy water on his hands and splashed it on her backside before spanking her twice as they both laughed, Yahoo! reports.
- The backlash was pretty much immediate. People pointed out how disrespectful and immature their behavior was, especially given that they were in a place of worship in a country they were merely tourists in. They soon took the video down and made their accounts private, but it was a bit too late.
- A Balinese senator reposted the video on his own Instagram. According to reports, Dr. Arya Wedakarna shared the couple’s clip to his own list of 172,000 followers and accused them of “harassing” Beji Temple. Needless to say, many of his followers agreed with his assessment of their behavior.
- Dolezalova and Slouka soon issued an apology. “We are so sorry about the video from yesterday, we dishonored the holy temple and holy water in Ubud and we didn’t know it,” Slouka said in the clip, according to the NY Post. “So, we are so sorry about what happened.” Dolezalova added: “We had no idea [about] the holy water, holy temple… we really didn’t want to do anything bad, we are so truly sorry, and we hope you can forgive us. Now, we are just trying to do what we [can] to fix it.”
- Dolezalova later made a donation to the village to express her regret. “A voluntary contribution was proposed to the local village. Whatever amount Sabina and her friends give, it is up to them and purely voluntary,” her manager Daniel Šimkovič told local media. Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson!
