Bali Blues

Bali Blues was first published in 2005, after I had spent the year following the 12 October 2002 bombing living in and around Kuta.

The attack killed 202 people and wounded many more, but its consequences extended far beyond the blast sites. Tourism collapsed overnight. Hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, transport businesses and the households that depended on them suddenly faced an uncertain future.

The book follows people inside that crisis: a Balinese hotel manager trying to reconcile professional demands with community obligations, a neighbourhood leader worried about the character of a rapidly changing Kuta, migrants from elsewhere in Indonesia trying to survive without the income they had come to Bali to earn, and families working through grief and fear.

It also examines the background to the attack and reconstructs the events surrounding it. The larger subject, however, is a community under extreme pressure and the ways people respond when an economy, a social order and a sense of safety are all shaken at once.

First publication: 2005
Publisher: Media Makara
Subject: Bali, Kuta, the 2002 bombing, tourism, community and social change