I spent a week in Bali; it is the most magical place I have ever been to. The land is filled with the most vibrant rice fields, colorful temples, and so many fruitful trees and plants. Amongst all of the rapidly growing infrastructure, there is still a very prominent appreciation for the land.

The people that live in Bali are some of the most community-based people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Their religious beliefs and practices keep them spending endless hours together at temple. And their belief that happiness comes from helping others forces them to be constantly engaged in making sure everyone around them is as happy and healthy as possible. I've never experienced a place where the idea that it is our duty to help those in need is such a major part of a lifestyle. It is a place where everyone believes that a foundation to a community is much stronger when everyone helps build it.

However, the people who live in Bali are walking a thin line between holding on to their traditions and succumbing to the westernized culture that tourism brings.

It's a choice between monetary pursuits, or traditional values; and unfortunately, there is often not room for both.

I stayed at a homestay with a local family that had been born and raised in Bali. There, I met a gentleman from Scotland who had been traveling for the past six months. As we were talking, I figured out he had been to my hometown, even visited one of my favorite coffee shops. He knows exactly where I'm from, and saw the beauty of what makes it such a special place. But what if the place you are from is rapidly changing into a place you don't recognize?

It is hard to really solidify what is right and wrong when it comes to tourism.

It undoubtedly contributes to the economy in astronomical ways. The amount of revenue brought into tropical places by vacationers increases the prosperity of the economy faster than probably any other economic pursuit.

But when so many outsiders come to a place looking for luxury that won't cost them, I think it is easy to forget what providing that luxury is costing the locals.

I often hear vacationers claim they came to their tropical getaway to "experience a different culture," but they fail to recognize that their fancy hotels, glorious meals ordered to their cabana on the beach, and the nice bars filled with loud music (which is all very cheaply priced) is what is extinguishing the culture that they claimed to have come to experience in the first place.

Traveling to a place with a hot climate is not what it means to immerse yourself in a different culture.

Living in a place that is growing as the amount of tourists do isn't always a negative thing. But there needs to be more attention brought to the things that are not conducive with keeping a culture intact. When you have places that are cheap to vacation to, then you have more of a demand for workers to abandon their previous form of livlihood and work for hostels, or restaurants, or in bars.

But these places are still keeping people below the poverty line.

The cheap price of a vacation shouldn't be obtained by taking away somebody else's quality of life. When you dedicate yourself to working hard to keep up the facade of luxury for foreigners, you have little time left to give to your own tradition or culture.

As we drove across the island and saw rice fields being destroyed by hotels, and lots of land owned by fisherman being bought by developers, I couldn't help but feel like I was witnessing a fleeting moment.

I was seeing Bali for all that is -- trying to really appreciate all the culture that still exists here -- but understanding that the next time I come here, I will look out at the same view and have to remember what the landscape used to look like, because the value of the environment does not outweigh the desire for money.

There are things that you can learn in classrooms and from books, but there are some things you can only ever learn from experience.

So go out and try and gain as much experience as you can. But when you book your vacations and make your travel plans, as you marvel at how easy it is to stay within the confines of a limited budget, try and be intensely aware of your impact.

Contribute to an economy without contributing to the demolition of a culture.

As I was packing up my things to leave my homestay, the father of the household, Mattie, told us he had just gotten back from finishing helping a neighbor build his house. He explained how the community had been working on finishing this house for awhile. He then went on to talk about how different things had become in the past few years, and how much he had noticed the changes. He said "we used to do everything together as a community; when I was a kid, my father would always call our neighbors over whenever we needed to repair the house. Now if you want something built, people usually just hire a construction company."

Because there are so many developers interested in building hotels for the tourists, it isn't hard to find a company that will happily build you a house.

Mattie looked down for a minute and then continued to talk. With a more hopeful demeanor, he said, "Things have changed, but I hope that in be future they go back to how they were, so that Bali can continue to grow without losing what makes this place so happy."

Remember that as you travel: Learn to be happy in a foreign place without taking away from the happiness of the local community that made it such a wonderful place to begin with.