Kathryn Bonella - Snowing in Bali

To the holiday-makers who think theyre going to paradise...
All isnt as it seems

AUTHORS NOTE

Because of the nature of the revelations contained in this book, some names have been changed in order to protect the identities of the people involved. This includes instances when they are referred to in quoted media articles.

FOREWORD

Theres something about Bali...

... And drug dealers

Theyre a perfect fit with Balis myriad hotels, sun, surf, millions of tourists, an endless stream of the worlds biggest drug bosses and a strong culture of corruption, the party paradise is the ideal place to play the drug game.

That is, until you go down.

You are living the dream until you bust and all the reality comes so fast and so bad... this game is fucking dangerous.

International drug boss, busted in Bali in 2012 with nearly a kilo of cocaine

Snowing in Bali has evolved organically out of my other two books, Hotel Kerobokan and Schapelle Corbys My Story. I think of them as my Bali trilogy, as each one was inspired by the previous and theres a crossover of characters and themes in all three.

Writing Schapelles book opened my eyes to the bizarre, crazy world of Hotel K. Sitting in the jail every day for a couple of months interviewing Schapelle, I saw the sex and the violence first hand, and the experience of getting to know many of the prisoners inspired Hotel Kerobokan. The subsequent researching for and writing of Hotel Kerobokan gave me insight into island life, and the fact that outside the white walls of the jail, Bali shared many of the same issues. Despite its Eat Pray Love-esque image, corruption was endemic, violence rife, and the drug dealers were cleaning up, selling both on the island and sending drugs overseas, especially to Australia. Bali is located in a strategically perfect spot for international trafficking and its millions of tourists serve as a perfect camouflage.

Snowing in Bali took about 18 months to research and write. Over that period, I spent time with gangsters, drug dealers, pimps and hookers to get a feel for the dark side of the paradise, which invisibly infiltrates everywhere. But it was the access I got to the islands international drug dealers that was most riveting. There was no question their stories were the ones to tell, especially as more and more of the islands dealers agreed to talk to me; participating in one-on-one interviews, often sitting for days at a time while I recorded their stories.

My entree into this unique position was largely due to my previous book it had introduced me to dealers in jail, who put me in touch with people outside, most of whom knew of Hotel Kerobokan. Some had read and liked it, with one person even photocopying it to pass around. It was also proof that I wasnt an undercover cop.

Of course I dont condone what they do, but I found the drug dealers fascinating, and mostly highly intelligent, educated, multi-lingual and cultured with a penchant for the best: top restaurants, French champagne, high-class hookers, luxury villas and hotels, first-class travel and designer clothes. Many were surfers, who had come to Bali chasing the perfect waves, and found an ostensibly easy way to fund their lifestyles in paradise.

As youll see, the main characters tell their stories, with graphic sometimes very sexually explicit details of their drug fuelled party lifestyles, as well as their secret tactics to move drugs through the airports and evade police. Once the dealers started warming up and trusting me in their interviews, it was amazing they just talked and talked and talked, often coming back the next day to talk some more. Most told me they were speaking of many things for the first time as Id promised not to use their names. I learned that even among their close dealer friends, these guys dont swap stories their lives are infused with deep paranoia, especially when theyre using coke. They also know that if another person in the drug game gets busted, often their only leverage is giving someone else up (or cash). So it was that some of these dealers were almost bursting to tell their stories, often with a gleam in their eyes as they recalled some moments. Rafael, in particular, seemed to want to talk as a kind of confessional and joked at one point that it felt like I was his psychiatrist. I offered a non-judgmental ear, and that was the key.

I should mention that for some of those I spoke to, I paid them a financial contribution for their time, which was undoubtably also an incentive.

A couple of the dealers were also motivated by a heartfelt desire to show young kids who might be thinking of getting involved in the glamorous life of fast bucks, hot women and orgies, that in the end, its not worth it. Literally, within a second, life goes from heaven to hell.

*

I first met some of the dealers during Hotel Kerobokan research when I went to the Super Maximum Security Prison on Nusakambangan Island to interview Juri and Ruggiero whom Id got to know in Kerobokan Prison while working with Schapelle. It was there that I met Marco, a very funny and gregarious man, who is on death row for trafficking 13.7 kilos of coke in a hang-glider frame. When he was busted, hed fled the airport and was on the run for two weeks. In jail, he cooked me lunch pasta and steak (hed spent time in a Swiss cooking school, and it was delicious). I also met his death-row compatriot Rodrigo, who was Marcos polar opposite very quiet and sad, with huge black circles under his eyes. I was introduced to Rodrigo in the church, and he was very polite, but didnt say much. I was told hed been crying all morning, and that this was typical.

I went back to Nusakambangan for Snowing in Bali