Chapter 13 of the Short Travel Stories segment, to read more, click on the section with the same name on the site’s menu. Want to send us your story? Contact us or leave us a comment below!

Chapter 13: Second Day In Bali

Second day in Bali, I’m staying at this really nice hostel in Seminyak, a colorful neighborhood close to Kuta, Bali’s party central.

I met a few people at the hostel and that evening we started drinking some Bintangs (typical Indonesian beer) when other people from the hostel approached us and told us to join them on a night out to a club called Sky Garden, apparently Kuta’s biggest club. From 9 to 11 pm you pay 150,000 rupees (around 12 USD or 15 AUD) and it’s free bar.

We got a cab and went straight away.

We arrived at the place, a tall modern building with like five stories and a pretty cool rooftop bar with a view of Kuta. We proceeded with business and by eleven we were drunk. Luckily, in my case, not drunk as fuck, I was in that perfect level when you’re drunk and happy, but still aware of what’s going on around you and with you.

I tell a friend I’m going for a piss. When I get to the toilet, all the urinals are occupied so I go for a cubicle. I’m finally feeling that pleasant sensation of liberating my bladder when somebody starts knocking rudely on the door.

“It’s occupied!” I shouted.

“Get out! Now!”

Not understanding what was wrong, I quickly finish the piss and open the door to find this short Indonesian towel boy.

“What are you doing in there?” He asked.

“Well, I’m peeing. What does it look like?” I replied pretty annoyed.

“Are you doing drugs?” He asked.

“No I’m not. I’m not doing any drugs”, I said pretty nervous. I really wasn’t, but I knew this could turn up badly.

Suddenly, the cheeky bastard pushes me back in and closes the door on my face.

I didn’t give it much thought, I was just angry, drunk and acted of pure instinct. I was aware the boy was pretty short and skinny (not that I’m big, but bigger than him yes), and I pulled the door with all my strength and he fell down inside the cubicle. I stepped outside, but he started shouting in his incomprehensible language and in two seconds I was surrounded by three other towel boys and a security guard.

I felt like in one of those mafia movies, the bathroom was empty, not a single foreigner, just the five Indonesians, pissed, and I.

The guard approached me, he was short but wider and muscular, and he looked like a matchbox. He pushed me against the wall and faked a punch, but he stopped his fist right in fro not my face. I was drunk, therefore I was slow and my reflexes sucked, so I didn’t even move. It wasn’t an act of braveness at all; I was simply drunk, period.

This upset him even more. His alpha male tactic of intimidation didn’t work with the whitey. So, he took out his handcuffs and handcuffed me.

They felt cold, hard, heavy and as if they were cutting my wrists.

“You want me to call police?” He said.

And that’s when I started to shit my pants. Luckily, I’m a pretty calm drunk guy, I was still conscious of the situation, and me alcohol level started going down from the scare. So I said no, and that we should find a way to solve it.

I was obviously implying to pay them something; I didn’t want to end up in an Indonesian jail at 3 am for supposedly doing drugs (a heavy crime in Indonesia), and fighting with the club’s staff.

They started discussing my proposal, and he turned around and said he wanted 200 thousand rupees each. It was five of them, so it was a million rupees. Around 100 AUD and 85 USD. Worst thing was that I had them, because I had taken out like 200 USD on my arrival, and stupidly carried all of them in my wallet.

I was willing to pay, but it just annoyed me that for a fucking piss I would have to pay a hundred bucks.

So, I went for the bluff, and offered three hundred total, saying it was all I had.

They discussed it again and quickly accepted.

Now, the tricky part came. Who was gonna get the money out of the wallet? Me or them? I had the handcuffs, and if they opened my wallet they would see all the money, take it and get even angrier.

“Could you please take these off to get the money?” I said politely.

He did. Thank God! I took out the wallet, with its opening towards my chest, and I took out six 50 thousand rupee notes hiding the rest from them, and gave them to the guard.

They let me go, I stepped out of the bathroom to see a Danish friend from the hostel. He was super worried, since he hadn’t seen me in ages and went to the bathroom but they wouldn’t let him in because “they were interrogating a foreigner”.

I didn’t say much but told him I wanted to leave immediately. So, we took a cab and got back to the hostel.

The next the staff told us the place is famous for pickpocketing and drug misunderstandings.

Two days later we were there again. This time I was only carrying the money to get in and something extra for the cab. Every time I had to pee I did in the urinals.