Instagram fitness models from the Czech Republic received heavy criticism after posting a video of themselves playing in the water of a holy temple in Bali.
In the video—filmed at the Beji Temple in the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary—Zdenek Slouka is seen splashing the water on girlfriend Sabina Dolezalova's butt as a third unidentified person laughs in the background. This sparked outrage because the water is considered to be holy and runs from a sacred fountain. Although they've taken the video down, the footage happened to make its way to Bali senator, Dr. Arya Wedakarna, who openly condemned the couple "harassing" the temple.
The couple quickly issued an apology for their behavior, claiming that they did not know the area was sacred.
"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 a post before 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."
Yet, this explanation didn't sit well with their followers. "As a tourist, you should have learned about the local culture, religion, and what you can do or what you can't do before you came to the country that you want to visit," one Instagram user told the couple according to Fox News.
Due to the backlash, both Zdenek Slouka and Sabina Dolezalova have since made their Instagram accounts private.
