Hotel Kerobokan (11 page)

After developing calluses from weeks of sleeping on a concrete floor in the police cells, one improvement for new prisoners was having a thin mattress. Poor inmates unable to afford a mattress still slept on bare concrete or threw down a sarong. Hotel K provided nothing but the four walls of the cell. Everything, from essentials like soap, detergent and drinking water, to emptying out the septic tanks, was paid for out of prisoners’ pockets. The poor simply went without or depended on the charity of others, or earned cash by massaging wealthier prisoners or washing clothes for them.

Those with money brightened their lives with contraband luxuries in their cells, like televisions, DVD players, mobile phones, and single gas burners to boil water, cook simple meals or heat heroin, although the guards often swept it all up in random cell searches. But aside from the drugs, which could potentially involve a new case in court, the guards would simply sell this all back to the prisoners within a couple of weeks.

Primarily functioning as a men’s jail meant the women in Hotel K were treated as second-class citizens, rarely allowed out of their block and banned from the privileges of playing tennis and walking freely around the jail. Their sexuality was an issue. The authorities didn’t want the women inciting the men sexually. Doing a weekly aerobics class or yoga session in the hall, walking across the jail to a visit, collecting mail or walking to the little canteen or church were their only permitted outings.

As in the men’s block, there was no segregation between cold-blooded killers, card sharks and callgirls; no lines were drawn between a woman who stole an apple to feed her hungry baby and a woman who pre-meditated the stabbing death of her husband’s mistress. The huge divide between petty crimes, like stealing a bag of prawn crackers or playing cards at the kitchen table, and dark crimes, such as assisting in illegal abortions on eight-month-old foetuses, was invisible. They all slept side by side, so tightly squeezed in that they often woke with their limbs entwined.

In Block W there were many callgirls who’d been swept up in police stings at karaoke bars in Kuta and Denpasar. Many of the girls had deep resentment towards the police who’d used their services, asked them to procure a couple of ecstasy tablets, then turned around and snapped on handcuffs. Others were angry at being harassed by police for sex in exchange for a lighter sentence. While some refused, others acquiesced but were left bitterly disappointed when their sentences were read out in court.

Police at
Poldabes
said, ‘Do you want to have sex with me, we can drop the charges?’ She agreed and was taken out of
Poldabes
and had sex with the policeman . . . But her sentence was not cut. She got the maximum of five years
.

– Elsa, inmate, talking about her friend

One policeman asked me for sex in a flirty way. He asked in a very nice way. He wasn’t scary
.

Was he serious?

Yes. He asked many, many times during the two months I was in police cells. He told me sex would reduce my sentence. I said no and finally he stopped asking me
.

– Wanda, Indonesian inmate

Block W was a highly charged environment, tempers fraying and snapping at the smallest things. Within a split second, a slow afternoon could turn; two girls suddenly slashing each other with broken glass bottles or attacking with a pair of scissors over the theft of 10,000 rupiah ($1.30), a bowl of rice or a bucket of water. Or even just over one of them coughing.

Often in the centre of the storm was fiery Timorese prisoner Sonia Gonzales Miranda, nicknamed Black Monster. She was notorious in Hotel K for her fighting, her psychotic behaviour and for regularly being locked up for months in cell
tikus
. She tore around the jail, pulsing with energy, instigating spats and catfights wherever she went. If someone refused to give her a cigarette, she’d pinch their breasts. But usually she didn’t need a motive. Her fuse just blew anyway. She always managed to break the daily monotony.

When one afternoon a new prisoner gingerly walked into her cell for the first time, Sonia sprang like a cat off the floor and started strangling her. Other girls jumped up to unclasp Black Monster’s fingers from the woman’s neck. As they pulled her off she went nuts, flailing her fists around and yelling like a lunatic. A male guard walked in and started slapping her around the head, before dragging her out by the hair and down to the guard’s table. It was like a game to Sonia. The second he let go, she sprinted off, laughing maniacally. He angrily tore after her, snatching her by the shoulders within a couple of strides. He whacked her a few times and led her back. She enjoyed creating a show like this. All the women stopped to watch. The guards sat discussing what to do with Black Monster. The punishment cells were all booked up. They decided to isolate her in her own cell for a few weeks, expelling her cellmates and dispersing them into the eight other cramped cells, excluding Mexican model Clara’s paid-for ninth cell.

Sonia craved attention and didn’t mind disrupting everyone’s life to get it. During the night she’d suddenly let out a long, piercing scream and thrash the cell door back and forth, just to wake up as many women as possible. Angry screams telling her to shut up would tear back until the entire block was awake, and abusive yelling was coming from every cell along the path, often accompanied by the loud din of saucepans being banged against the bars. It could last all night, until the fury exploded into a fight in the morning.

One such fight broke out on the eve of a court hearing. Sonia started screaming abuse at a girl, Dewi, a few cells down. The pair fought often and had a joint date in court the next day. Dewi stood at her barred door, yelling, ‘I’ll get you in the morning, Black Monster!’ Black Monster yelled back, ‘I’ll get you, Dewi!’ Their inane slanging match continued for hours.

In the morning, when a guard opened Black Monster’s cell, the fight blew up. The guard grabbed Sonia by the arm to take her straight out of the block before a fight started. But Dewi was already crouched near the door. As Sonia walked past, they both spat abuse. Sonia snapped. She broke the guard’s grip, snatched a broken glass bottle from the ground nearby and threw it at Dewi. She missed, but the fight was on. They were both dancing around each other with jagged shards of broken glass. A crowd gathered to watch the action – it was better than breakfast television. Black Monster didn’t let her audience down. She dumped the glass and charged at Dewi, knocking her to the ground. They rolled around, tearing out clumps of each other’s hair. The guards pulled them apart. Sonia broke their grip again, and hurled Dewi to the ground for the grand finale. Dewi crashed hard, twisting her wrist and crying out in agony. As the guards yanked Sonia away, she turned back to smirk at the crowd. She didn’t go to court that day. She was locked back into her isolation cell.

If Hotel K issued membership cards, Sonia’s would be platinum. For years she’d been checking in and out. When she wasn’t a guest, she’d return as a visitor to see a friend, usually dressed up in her latest clubbing outfit. She couldn’t stay away. One afternoon she was even arrested during a visit. She sat talking to a friend on the floor of the busy visiting room. She was working as a dancer at a nightclub, and was casually flicking through photos of herself dancing and of her new Spanish boyfriend. The relaxed scene turned when three uniformed police officers briskly walked across and snapped handcuffs on Sonia. She went psychotic. Everyone in the visiting area turned to watch. She was thrashing her body about as the police dragged her out with her high heels scraping along the ground. The police had been looking for the Black Monster since the day before, when a New Zealand tourist had reported she’d stolen his money and mobile phone from his hotel room.

Sonia was unrepentant. The time she was arrested in Hotel K’s visiting room would lead to her sixteenth incarceration in the jail. She’d do stints of three or four months here and there, and then a longer stay. But she clearly wanted to get caught. She never bothered trying to conceal her identity or cover her tracks, despite her intelligence – which revealed itself in her skill and ingenuity at luring men and in her fluent English. But her arrests were always a spectacle. She fought ferociously, once even stabbing a policeman.

The arrest went well, although at the beginning Sonia refused to be taken to the station. She tried to run away several times when the police put her in the car. They had to call the station for backup. When the policeman Nyendra entered the car Sonia suddenly attacked and stabbed him in the neck with a knife. He was caught off guard and pulled away. Luckily other officers turned up at the scene and rushed him to hospital. Nyendra was treated and had to have several stitches. They didn’t know where the knife came from. During questioning Sonia who is known at Kerobokan as Black Monster, admitted to stabbing the policeman
.

– Denpost
, July 2003

Sonia’s crimes were as audacious as she was. She started her career stealing tourists’ bags from the beach, and slowly graduated to poisoning men’s drinks in bars, until they were so bleary eyed she could slip her hand into their pockets and steal their wallets. She went from that to meeting western men in bars around Kuta, going back to their hotel – ensuring the receptionists saw her – and sleeping with them. Then she’d either drug them and steal their stuff or return the next day, ask the receptionist for
her
room key and then empty the room of jewellery, watches, mobile phones, cameras, cash and credit cards. While her victim was still out enjoying the Bali beaches, she’d be splurging online with their credit cards. A drunken night of holiday sex with Sonia Gonzales could be very costly.

The accused, Sonia Miranda Gonzales, 22, really is daring and doesn’t repent. The very dark skinned, East Timorese woman, nicknamed Black Monster, is also very cunning. She’s at least been in and out of prison four times for stealing tourist’s belongings in hotels. Black Monster is willing to sleep with those tourists before stealing their stuff … It was revealed during the trial that the big lipped woman’s victim was a foreigner called Jorge Salasar. The accused carried out the act on May 8th around 10 pm in room 3027 at Wina Hotel. She came to the front desk asking for the key to room 3027. The front desk staff gave her the key without suspicion because she was often seen with Jorge Salasar who stayed in that room. It was also revealed that the accused had spent the night before in his room
.

– Denpost
, August 2002

According to the public prosecutor, other than becoming a ‘frequent prisoner’ the act of the accused has disturbed the circle of hotel owners as she often stole at hotels with the target of in-house guests. Her last operation was carried out on August 20 at Panorama Cottage II, Kuta. The accused smartly posed as a tour guide. She came to the hotel and borrowed the room key of Joel Tarming, a Swedish tourist. Strangely, the front office staff believed her due to her sweet lips. With the key in hand, the accused Sonia Gonzales freely took the belongings of Joel Tarming in the form of electronic devices and 17 million rupiah cash. The accused delivered the key back to the hotel receptionist and casually left the hotel
.

– Denpost
, December 2001

Sonia was a curious dichotomy; charming and charismatic one minute, but like a deranged lunatic the next. She dressed in trendy outfits, styling herself with flair; she was rarely seen in the same clothes twice, thanks to the sizeable wardrobe she’d bring into Hotel K, most of it bought online with stolen credit cards. She’d also check in with a full makeup kit, turning part of her cell into a theatrical dressing room. If Sonia had been a movie star, she would have been paparazzi manna, biting into every banal day with a new edgy story. But she was a star only on the Kerobokan stage, acting out daily scenes to give everyone a bit of a show. Her antics were tireless. She’d abuse someone, then return with her guitar and sing them a song she’d written in apology. When Schapelle Corby was sentenced to twenty years, she spent months yelling out, ‘Ha ha, Corby, you got twenty years’. She’d bang her head with a rock until it bled, she’d start screaming for no reason, and she often made feeble suicide attempts. But instead of flashbulbs, she got flashes of Nita’s coconut milk splashing down her face.

Sonia wants to kill herself for a trick only, just to get some attention from the security. One time I had to call security for help when she drank Rinso. Another time she tried to kill herself by hanging but a girl had already grabbed her around the waist by the time she kicked over the chair she was standing on
.

– Nita

The afternoon she performed her chilling trapeze act, she stepped up on a chair inside the cell toilet, put a noose around her neck, then stood as still as a statue, waiting for an inmate to glimpse her in the pose. Not until a girl frantically ran in and grabbed her around the waist, did she kick away the chair. But her well-choreographed stunt turned unexpectedly dicey. The girl wasn’t strong and Sonia started slipping through her arms, the noose tightening around her neck. Screams fast drew a crowd. Girls helped to hold her as someone slashed the plastic cord. Sonia was safe but her neck was laced with deep red welts that she proudly showed off around the jail for the next few days, like designer bling.

But drinking Rinso was her more regular thing. The catalyst one morning was simply a guard refusing to let her out of Block W to go to the visiting area; standard practice if a prisoner hadn’t been called to a visit. Sonia turned on a tantrum like a two year old. Used to her psychotic behaviour, the guards just sent her to clean the drains. As payback, she drank a couple of mouthfuls of Rinso and started vomiting. Yells for Nita Ramos preceded the ritual pouring of coconut milk. The guards’ counterblow was to ground Sonia in Block W for three months. She upped the ante by drinking a few more mouthfuls of Rinso after lockup. There was the usual insane wait for keys before Nita patiently dispensed her antidote, yet again. Sonia was still punished. During her three months stuck in Block W, female inmates brought her food, drinks and magazines, and Nita bought her cigarettes in return for massages. Sonia had an uncanny ability to win sympathy despite antagonising every other inmate.