Hotel Kerobokan

by Kathryn Bonella

  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.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  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.

  Table of Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT PAGE

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  FOREWORD

  1 WELCOME TO HOTEL KEROBOKAN

  2 THOMAS

  3 THE HEADLESS CORPSE

  4 THE GREAT ESCAPE

  5 LET’S PLAY

  6 NO STAR TO FIVE STAR

  7 TOUCHING PARADISE

  8 THE WOMEN’S BLOCK

  9 THE BLUE ROOM

  10 PLASTICINE GUARDS

  11 TERRORISTS CHECK IN

  12 THE DEALERS

  13 ROLLING THE DICE

  14 ANIMAL FARM

  15 WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

  16 AN EYE FOR AN EYE

  17 SEX ON THE BEACH

  18 RAIDS

  19 KEROBOKAN CREW

  20 ROOM 13

  21 NO MORE TOMORROWS

  22 OPERATION TRANSFER

  EPILOGUE: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS