Hotel Kerobokan (36 page)

Saidin

Saidin was released from jail in 2008 after serving a little over six years for the murder and decapitation. He is now living back with his family in Klungkung, earning far less cash than he did when he was top
tamping
in Hotel K.

Michael Blanc

Michael Blanc is living in a prison in Java. In 2009, his sentence was cut from life to twenty years. He has served nine years already, and with remission could be home in France within five years. His devoted mother still lives in Indonesia to care for his needs in jail.

Laskar Bali

The eight Laskar bosses have all been released from Hotel K, none serving any more than a few years for the stabbing murder at the Denpasar Moon karaoke bar. The Laskars are still in full force roaming the bars and clubs of Kuta and Legian. They no longer rule Hotel K, as its bosses are busy outside. Several other gangs have moved into Hotel K, including a Korean crime syndicate. But there are always some Laskars inside.

Bali Nine

The eight Australian males in the Bali Nine syndicate are all still living in the ‘death’ tower, sharing with several locals and Nigerian death row inmate Emmanuel.

Three of the Nine, Andrew, Scott and Myruran, are fighting their final appeal to have their death sentences commuted to life. If these fail, their last chance is to ask the Indonesian President for clemency.

Five more of the Nine are serving life sentences. They do not receive remissions, but it’s possible that one day their sentences might be cut to twenty years by the Indonesian President, as he did in 2009 in the case of Frenchman Michael Blanc.

The only female of the group, Renae Lawrence, has served four and a half years of her twenty-year sentence. As a
tamping
, who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty clearing drains or unblocking septic tanks, she has been receiving the biannual remissions. To the others, her twenty-year sentence is enviable. And like Schapelle, with incremental increases in biannual cuts, she could be home free within eight to ten years.

All the Australians are living under a constant threat of being transferred out of Kerobokan to jails in Java. Fears were stirred up recently with news of Australian officials doing a recce of Indonesia’s Alcatraz prison SMS Nusakambangan.

For now, Hotel K is at least the hellhole they know.

First, thank you to all the prisoners and ex-prisoners who shared their stories with me. For many, it meant opening up old wounds by re-living some very dark, dark moments. For those still living the nightmare of incarceration in Indonesian jails, it was especially difficult at times to live past horrors while regularly enduring new ones.

I would also like to thank those people who were already free, for delving back. While some seemed to struggle with their emotions, others clearly relished telling me their stories, sometimes shaking their heads in disbelief or laughing maniacally at the surreal memories – stories which in Hotel K where everything was so crazed didn’t seem so bizarre, but telling them in a normal environment – for the first time – made them seem suddenly wild and shocking – even to the ex-prisoner. In the daily context of the insane world of Hotel K, they had seemed almost normal.

There are four prisoners in particular who I would like to give a very special thanks to: Mick, Ruggiero, Juri and Thomas. All are still doing time, but are incredibly witty, funny and interesting people. Each one of them continually surprised me with just how upbeat they were most of the time, despite the horrific, inhumane conditions they were still enduring. Their positive attitudes were inspiring. They opened up, graphically sharing their life behind bars. Thank you to these four prisoners – I hope you all get plenty of remissions and get out as fast as you can.

Thanks also to a high-ranking guard at Hotel K who helped me to gain access to prisoners, as well as feeding me stories and confirming facts about Hotel Kerobokan.

Thanks to Mercedes Corby for her support and friendship during my time in Bali, for her tips and advice, and for being a great sounding board for stories.

Thanks to Malcolm Holland for his support and encouragement, and for his continual enthusiasm for all the jail stories I endlessly told him for eighteen months. Mal, thanks for being my sanity lifeline while I travelled in and out of jails around Indo!

Thanks to my very good friend and journalist James Foster who, as always, gave me support whenever I needed it.

Thanks to my mum Sue, sisters Louise and Simone, brother-in-law Matthew Cripps and good friend Caroline Frith for reading occasional chapters for me and giving me feedback.

And finally, thanks to Pan Macmillan senior editor Emma Rafferty for her talented and hard work.

And a very big and heartfelt thank you to Pan Macmillan’s nonfiction publisher Tom Gilliatt. Without Tom’s belief, support and whip cracking, I doubt this book would ever have been written.