📸 Photo

SNOWING IN BALI

weights. If someone had told him two months earlier that he’d be upbeat about going to the notorious Bali prison, he would have called them nuts, but with withered muscles and sickly pale skin, he couldn’t wait. As he walked inside, he felt sheer relief to see blue skies and green grass. But his surge of optimism deflated like a pricked balloon when the vivid greens and blues faded to the smoky bluish grey of another concrete cell. When the guard slammed the barred door, he was again banged up in a hot, smoky, windowless, overcrowded cell. This time a putrid stench hung in the cloying air.

There were a lot of ugly, disgusting things; the toilet in the first cell I arrived at was broken, so people had to shit in plastic bags, tie a knot and throw the bags out the window. It was like 12, 15 people in one room.

– Alberto

Life improved substantially after he slung a bribe of about $150 to a guard and was moved to a less crowded cell in a block that held most of the 50 or so westerners. It was the party block, with non-stop music, drugs and booze. The cells had stereos, TVs, DVD players, and his cellmates threw him a welcome dinner of feta cheese, olive salad and cold beers – one of the best meals he’d ever tasted. The inmates were from around the globe, mostly doing time for drugs, and gave him tips, like slinging a bribe to the guards so he could have friends bring in a mattress, pillows, clothes, food, books and magazines.

So then I started organising having a little life inside. We painted the entire cell. I ordered some speakers to be made by the prisoners so I had my music. I felt, ‘Okay, I’m still in hell but the hell is much better than where I was for the last two months.’ The biggest stress was