In Reply to: Bali posted by Hillary on Wednesday, 30. September 2009 at 08:34 Bali Time:
have more than one pair of rose tinted glasses and make Bali into something it isn't.
Crime is rife and it's not only the big guys. Over the years I have had cars broken into half a dozen times, twice in broad daylight in Legian Road. Earlier this year three small shops acting in collusion distracted us long enough for an accomplice to get laptop and money from the car.
A few years back had to feign a heart attack during "interrogation" at police headquarters on made up charges. My crime? Because I have a website I was working in Indonesia!!!Even if I was ( which I wasn't. What does WWW stand for)it's an Immigration matter not police but it was only about intimidation and money.
With 3 officers shouting at me that I was in big trouble if I didn't pay up bigtime the tables were suddenly turned when they thought they may have a dead foreigner on their hands and I was released immediately. I was forced, however, to pay 3 million for the return of my passport that they had confiscated illegally.
Shall I go on about hotels being stolen? The Aussie girl I met in the bank with black eye and stitches in her head from the beating she received from muggers?
That's not to say I don't like Bali. I do or I wouldn't be here most of the year but better to see the reality rather than the fantasy.
In this case what was the security guard thinking. Nobody gets arrested on drugs charges by an officer on a motorbike!!!!!!
Very sad.