Kuta Bali, just another sex holiday destination

Bali continues to show it is far from the tropical island paradise portrayed by the self-serving tourism industry, that it is just another tacky cheap thrill, cheap sleazy sex destination like Patong in Phuket, from which many parallels can be made.

Here now the case of 41-year-old female Japanese "tourist" Hiromi Shimada, brutally murdered in her holiday home in Moral Cesspit and Cheap Tackville on the Sea, Kuta. Two Indonesian male suspects arrested. A knife and a used condom taken as evidence; thank you Bali POLDA (police), we all wanted to know that! The Balinese police also allowing unlawful disclosures about "confessions" made by one of the two men to be released to the media; "I did not kill her! My friend was with her in the bathroom and then she come out covered in blood!" Was Ms. Shimada having a threesome? I doubt the Balinese tourist police (actually tourism industry police) will disclose this as it would be bad for business. The term "Kuta Cowboys" saved for the dribblings of Australian tourism blogs.

Just like the so called "Jewel of the Andaman Sea" Patong, a byword for prostitutes, garb, transvestites and dumb tourists, Kuta is a Balinese public toilet; cheap tropical destination for foreign men and women mostly past their sell by date looking for orgasm rather than organic. Surrounded by drones of "party" minded red necks and substance fuelled youngsters all somehow seeing the Kuta area as an experience to be enjoyed time and time again.

Perhaps it is the malarial mosquito infested water ditches around the outskirts of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak that attracts them? Or the police protected drug and prostitute peddlers that adorn every main tourist walk-by route in Kuta that makes it so charming? Or the polluted ocean where fishing is illegal because of the severe bacterial contamination courtesy of untreated sewerage? Or the rip-off, fake garbage sold in virtually every shop?

The police story about poor Hiromi Shimada now suddenly having changed. Gone from many Indonesian newspaper sites are the statements about a used condom being taken as evidence. Now the official line is the evidence points to her having been robbed and raped. Either way, it does not work, does it? If Hiromi was nothing more than the victim of a crime, what an awful yet typical Balinese investigation and police statement regarding a used condom being taken as evidence. On the other side, the statement having been made and documented, are we to somehow believe the rapists were so caring as to use condoms yet then go on to murder her? The truth for the sake of the tourism industry will likely never be known.

Where did you go for holiday?
Kuta Bali!
Urgh, good bye!

Addendum
Bali's mafia (police) are now saying Hiromi Shimada was a resident of Bali for 10 years, though it seems she was more a frequent visitor. Additionally, reports in the likes of the Bali Post are stating nothing of hers was actually taken, so the robbery modus operandi for the murder statement by the police seems to be very much in question, like most of what the POLDA say and do.