No porn, no strip clubs but sexy dancers are OK

The Indonesian Government is very strict on pornography and recently an anti-pornography bill was passed that threatened Bali's very existence as a holiday island: under the new law bikinis are supposed to be outlawed.

Anti-porn bill leads to slow download speed

This anti-porn bill has also led to the internet-download speed being reduced to prevent porn from being downloaded, and resulted in the publisher of Playboy Indonesia being sent to jail, even though the magazine contained no nudity.

A funny footnote to this is that one of the proponents of this law, and an important Member of Parliament, was recently photographed looking at porn on his tablet during a parliamentary sitting. I found this incredibly funny in an it-can-only-happen-in-Indonesia kind of way.

Strip clubs in Bali

During my time in Bali two strip clubs opened and both places lasted about six months before they were shut down resulting in the foreign owners of both establishments losing a lot of money. I do not know the circumstances regarding the closure of the first place, but the second strip club was shut down because it became overrun by Indonesian gangs.

One practice employed by foreigners owning nightclubs in Bali is to impose cover charges for Indonesians to enter a club - something that is often condemned as being racist. The reasons club owners give for this practice are a) Indonesians do not drink much, b) foreigners do not like to go to clubs and be surrounded by Indonesian men, and c) Indonesian gangs take over the clubs, extort the staff and start trouble with the foreign clientele. The latter is apparently what happened to the second strip club.

The owner thought he had done the right thing by paying the right people, unfortunately he neglected to charge a door fee and within months a gang set up shop in his club. The owner was soon forced out and the gang tried to run the club with little success.

Sexy dancers

Indonesia's solution to its lack of strip clubs is sexy dancers - this phenomenon came to Bali about five years ago and now sexy dancers cam be found in the more popular and upmarket clubs.


From the chapter 'Thumbs Up', Bali Raw.