Drivers in Bali

We arrived at the airport and were met by a man holding a sign reading "A HOECHSMANN."  He was very polite and gave us bottled water the second we arrived at the car.  Within a few minutes we were on the road and he was handing us his card "Do you need a driver?"

The next day we took a shuttle bus to some near by shops.  The driver of the shuttle also offered to be our driver.  The next day we hired him to take us through the busy streets of South Bali to Sanur for a pre-1st day of school grade 3 beach party.  While at the beach it poured rain.  Nice and cool for a change.

The next day we wanted to get up to to the Green School but our driver from the previous day wasn't available.  He sent his brother instead.  His brother's story was remarkable.

As a young child Jerry had an aptitude for Karate.  By the time he was in high school he was winning tournaments.  At one point near the end of high school he won the Balinese championship and went to Java to compete in the nationals.  Talk was that if he won he would have a fulltime permanent governemnt job (something hard to come by in Bali).  He won.

Regretably, all he got was $25 and a six month wait before he was told there would be no job.

A chinese businessman offered to take Jerry to Tokyo where he could compete professionally.  Needing the money he accepted and ended up working in nightclubs in the equivalent to ultimate fighting (no holds barred, anything goes).  He made lots of money, double pay if he was asked to lose (!).  The only rule was that if someone wanted to stop, all they did was tap the mat twice.

One night his opponent tapped the mat to accept defeat and \jerry didn't notice.  He struck the man again and he died.  The local Japanese mafia was outraged and there was an immediate call for retaliation.    Very soon after a group of men beat him up and threw him in a dumpster.  He knew he didn't have long to live if he stayed in Japan.    He moved back to Bali and has been trying to lose his muscle mass (women here don't like muscular men).  He's trying to settle down and go legit.  Even offers to be a bouncer at a night club are too much for him - he doesn't want to go back to fighting.

Jerry dropped us off at our new house up on the Sayan ridge.  We are now in the land of rice paddies and jungles.  Hot and sticky.  I have a video of the kids playing at the house I will try and post on youtube.  Also here is a picture of one of the rice paddies.