When we arrive in Bali the first thing we usually do as we go through Customs is phone our friend, my Bali brother and our unflappable driver, Made Dera. On this trip, having gone past Bali to Changi Airport in Singapore and then back to Bali again, it was late into the evening. We know that Made goes to bed early as he has to get up about 2 am to go to the Denpasar markets for supplies for the local warung (small local shop) so we got an airport taxi instead.

Next morning at breakfast in the Sinar Bali Hotel we phoned him but got no answer. This is not unusual as he does not turn his phone on if he's had a late trip back from the market, or he's sat on his phone and broken it (again) or lent it to his daughter or a friend who needs it for some reason. Our fall back position is to ring his older brother, Wayan, and ask him to pass the message on that we need our driver at 9 am. No problem says Wayan and we finished breakfast and started packing stuff to go to or 'warehouse' at Andrew's.

To our surprise, at 9 it was not Made who came to pick us up but Wayan, and he was driving Made's Kijang. We made the proper greeting before bursting out with the questions at the top of our minds.
How is Made?
Where is Made?
Is this his car? (We knew it was not actually his but belonged to his boss whom Wayan also drove for.)

Slowly, over the rest of the day and even a bit beyond that, the story came out.
After the second bomb the Boss was in real trouble with 2 recent vehicle purchases and no tourists. Things rested on a knife edge for a while but the crunch soon came and the money lenders moved in, squeezed the boss and he became bankrupt.

Wayan was fortunate in having a good credit standing and therefore being able to take over the payments on the best of the old boss's vehicles, the one which Made always drove. Brother Made had (and still has) a 2 year old debt of Rp40,000,000 (a bit over Aus$5,000) to the hospital money lender for his daughter's TB treatment in '05. Obviously he was not a good lending risk - so no car.

I think that proud Made did not know how to tell us this and so the older brother took up our interest and needs in Bali, allowing Made to borrow the car when we were in town and saying nothing but taking Made's earnings to maintain the payments.

When we found out all of this Made had not had any regular or significant income for about 2 years. Interest on the hospital loan slowly built up and he was in real trouble, the family existing on wife Ketut's work in the warung and the occasional customer like us, visiting Bali again and staying at the Bali Hai Resort which was Made's old stand. On these occasions he would ring Wayan who was working out of the Patra Resort next to the airport and borrow the car if Wayan had no work.
Then, early in '07 of course, the Bali Hai closed and like all of the workers there and on the beach and many nearby, Made saw even this trickle of income fade away, life becoming an endless succession of empty days, watching the street and playing chess with his friends.

Why not find another boss?
Most bosses were in similar positions with cars and drivers but no customers, and any driver who had a boss was not about to give up the work for someone else.
Why not move to another area?
A driver would not be welcome in other drivers' working spots at any time but particularly so in the present situation.
Understandable, and touring the streets competing with the already stressed taxi industry is not an option either.
Why not try another job?
What job? Made was the son of a local fisherman who lost his livelihood when tourism came to town, and Made consequently grew up with no other skills but driving which he has done all of his life, and if there was another job there would be a dozen others seeking it.

And Made was not the only one suffering on this little stretch of the beach.
Adi, of the broken foot some years back, has an eldest son who takes after a somewhat wayward father. He is now eating more or less regularly but in the 'Shapelle Suites' of the Kerkoban Prison. It seems that he was being a good Samaritan and helping put food on the bare table but to do so he was carrying some of that green vegetable matter from Java to Bali for his father or a friend - and was caught. That's the story Adi tells and who are we to dispute a mother's wishes.
The consequences for her are that she leaves the beach to visit him several times a week, leaving her meagre income source and spending some of that income to get there and back, and to take him food I don't doubt, depriving herself in the process. One day she was particularly miserable and I asked the her friend what was wrong. 'No food this week', was the reply, and it was Thursday.
I slipped her a 50 and pointed up the beach to the warung under the trees. She moved with no sign of disability from that broken foot and came back shortly with a nasi bunkus, rice wrapped in one of those paper folds they use. She handed me the change but I couldn't take it. She'll be hungry again tomorrow and need it, unless she's been up to Kerobokan.
Peter the Kite Man is another with problems. He has a licence to sell his wares in front of the old Balihai Hotel which is now closed. Like Made, no hotel means no customers; no customers means no sales and no income. Like Made too he just can't go somewhere else because he doesn't have a licence to sell anywhere else and he would be unwelcome on someone else's patch anyway.
Like Made and the other beach sellers he still comes down to the beach to talk and hope.
We found him under the trees on the little patch of now untended lawn and ordered three kites for friends. First sales for weeks.
I'll never forget him running after Made's car and calling out to us down the street on our last day, just so he could hold our hands, thank us and say goodbye.

Such is the tenuous nature of life in Bali.
Made, Adi and Peter are not the only one who have suffered.
For a start there are the widows of those tourism workers killed in the bombings, raising families with no fathers, although some have been helped by entrepreneurial ex-pats like David and Moire of the Pacung Indah who set up a sewing and cloth printing business for them.
There are others who came from farms to help the family by working in the expanding Tourist industry (although perhaps their family farms were bought up and closed by the expansion of these very hotels and the associated infrastructure) and who have returned there if the farms still existed.
Others simply chased the money that tourist service offered to buy a motor bike like a friend in the next village and have now lost the 'bike to the money lender and also returned to home villages.
All regular visitors will know some of these young people who have gone back to the family and the farms when work dried up and their jobs suddenly no longer existed.

We should remember that it is not only the tourists who have suffered from the terrorists' fanaticism. Nor should we think that tourism and tourists have been the saviour of the Balinese! Some would say instead that these have been the cause of many of Bali's problems, dividing the young from their simple but sustainable farming roots, diverting arable land to non-productive uses  and creating  a 'wanna be' middle class. Nor should we abandon Bali (or similar places) as this would be a sure way to add fuel to the fires of the fanatics who triggered the latest crisis.
 

Wayan and Made, 'Brothers Transport, Bali'.

Links:

* Back to our Home Pages for a different selection of information sheets, stories and pictures.

* Back to the 2007 selection page to move on to another part of our holiday and more about Made.

* A Shoppers Cheat Sheet for Bali or anywhere else in the world you want to travel.

* The Balinese and their culture.   Bali's religion.

* Bali for Beginners.

* Bali's Rice - a core of Balinese life.

* Money, Bargaining and Tipping in Bali.

* Bali Belly and other health issues for Bali travellers.

* Bali's beaches.

* The Bali Travel Forum summary. All you ever wanted to know about Bali. The pages that most visitors to our pages are looking for.

* The on-going source of up-to-date Bali information, The Bali Travel Forum. Ask your questions here and get personal answers. (You will need to be on line to access this site and allow sufficient time for your computer to make the connection.)