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SNOWING IN BALI

It was only when a high-profile person was involved that the frequent club violence got wide exposure, like former AFL North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley. His holiday hit headlines when security guards at Kuta's Bounty Discotheque, where Laskar held the contract, attacked him and his family. It was vicious – the former coach was glassed in the head with a beer bottle and his son suffered a broken jaw. Three security guards were arrested.

'What the police are telling us so far is that things like this happen all the time,' Laidley told SEN [sports entertainment network] radio.

– The Age, 11 October 2011

It happens a lot over here that tourists get beaten up by security, and other tourists as well.

– Bali International Medical Centre spokeswoman

Tasya Aulia, Herald Sun, 10 October 2011

Crime also pervaded the hotels, with hookers allowed to work in most of them – including five-star resorts – by slinging the security guards 50,000 rupiah (about $5).

Nyoman, a Laskar gangster, was one of the tourist precinct's seven official pimps. He regularly parked his battered blue Toyota four-wheel drive in a beach car park directly in front of the popular $300–$1600 a night Padma Hotel. Most nights the rented Toyota was full of girls in skimpy outfits, touching up their lipstick and mascara, dabbing perfume between their legs, as they took turns taking jobs.

The seven pimps cruised the streets with girls piled into their cars, on the lookout for customers to walk by or come out of clubs. They also relied on phone calls from taxi drivers, hotel