I'm okay with tourists coming here, though there are a few things I'd like to tell them, if I ever got the chance. Since I don't, I'll tell you instead. Begging is simply part of our community — I know tourists don't like it, but there's no need to dismiss everyone who asks. People with disabilities, for instance, often have no other way to earn money; they depend on what others give them.
Children begging, though, is different, and shouldn't happen. Tourists who turn away adult beggars often still give to children — so the children have gotten creative. They used to just ask directly, but now they offer flowers, and the tourist feels obliged to give something back. It's still begging, just indirect. And the more they collect that way, the more children join in, and the fewer go to school. That's why it's better for tourists to travel with a guide.
The more those children collect that way, the more children go and do the same thing, and fewer children will go to school — that is why it is better if tourists go on trips with guides.
There aren't many hard rules, but public affection between tourists still strikes people here as strange, almost crazy — that's simply not how we behave.
It's better for female tourists to avoid shorts or tight clothing, since that runs against our culture; local women never dress that way. Men can dress as they normally would. I'm fine with tourists photographing us, as long as they ask first — and I do appreciate it when they send us a copy. Not everyone can or will, and I understand that, but we like having pictures too. We don't own cameras ourselves, so theirs are often the only ones we'll ever get.
A quiet request, passed along secondhand — because the people it's meant for never actually stop to ask.