In Reply to: How do you annoy them? posted by Aliceinwonderland on Friday, 8. January 2010 at 20:04 Bali Time:
Another poster said they are a brotherhood so stick together, this is a good way of describing it. The only reference I was making is to what friends have told me. One Irish friend cut in on a girl being hit by another guy (Both Indonesian) at the Apache Bar, he was quickly told it was none of business by being smashed in the nose, anyway, he fought back and one thing lead to another - 4 days in jail (Police-station bench actually) until they gave his passport back and he has been told never to return or they will kill him.
Another friend (Balinese) had the group come to his house and try and set it on fire as he had befriended the Irish guy and visited him at the police-station to give him so food etc.
Another friend was a bit drunk and bumped past a guy at the front of The Bounty and my friend is a big guy (body builder), the group all surrounded him and asked him if he wanted a fight, he said no and kept walking, they followed him up the road yelling at him, he stupidly lost his cool and turned around and pushed one guy and then grabbed his girlfriend and jumped into a taxi, they followed the taxi and so did police officers who banged on their hotel door and said that if they did not leave Bali they could put something in their room to make them stay a long time. They kept to the Hotel ground for the balance of their stay.
Another story (not a friend of mine) was a guy had a lot of trouble with them, cut his Bali holiday short after threats, went to Thailand, landed in Thailand and was beaten up that night and told by one of the Thai guys it was a message from his Bali friend that he cannot hide. That is where the reference to the Mafia comes in as it seems to be a bigger group than just Kuta.
I have never said these people are Javanese and from every story I have heard and I have heard many it seems to be that it's always the tourists that have a bit of an attitude, or they are a big guy that looks aggressive. I know my stupid friends mentioned above didn't know when to back down quick enough from an argument or thought they should help out someone in an unfair fight. The message seems to always be, this is none of your business or are you looking to pick a fight with us as you really don't know who you area dealing with.
I think your children need to keep attitudes down, smile, back away, even look a little frightened of anyone like this, then they seem to leave people alone.
I had a problem at the Bounty 15 years ago on NYE (old location) and it started with the Collingwood Football team, so it's not always the Bali boys. Can happen in any country, I am sure there are stored like this in every country, it's how your kids act that is important, and if they see trouble they need to walk away.
Oh, and if they go to the Bounty and they are girls, they need to watch out for all the drunk tourists, they can be very grabby.