Snowing in Bali: The Incredible Inside Account of Bali's Hidden Drug World

Kathryn Bonella is as addictive as the cocaine and other drugs she writes about. Snowing is a ripping graphic journey into Bali’s underbelly and the brazen surfers who stoke the party island’s drug trade. The temptations and payoffs are huge, but so are the penalties. Snowing, impeccably researched over many months, pulls you in deep, into the hedonistic lives of drug dealers, their cunning smuggling tricks (yes indeed, surfboards were stuffed with cocaine along with hang glider components) and inevitable stumbles; there are “usually no happy endings.”If for you, ‘hard drugs’ are a rum & Coke, this book is a real eye opener. The book paints a vivid picture of the island’s multinational drug scene and its colourful modern-day pirates. Kathryn takes us places we’ve never been, lifting the lid on some extraordinary and almost enviable lifestyles. Enviable, that is, until the long arm of the law reaches out.Read Snowing and you’re hooked – it’s the book equivalent of a gateway drug - you’ll want to read the startling account of Bali’s notorious Kerobokan jail, Hotel Kerobokan, where so many drug dealing careers have ended. Some inmates live through hell, facing execution, but money and contacts buy drugs and sex or even a trip to the beach.Kathryn’s Operation Playboy is another real page turner focused on the South American surfer party boys with “steely nerves,” some from surprisingly wealthy backgrounds, who run drugs between South America and Europe.KB’s habit-forming books are truly must read. - Grant Dyson

This book read like a telenovela! Kind of dragged towards the end but overall well written and interesting read. Would recommend.

On a variety of levels, Indonesia is a complicated country. Starting with the fact that it is an archipelago. One of the islands that is visited the most by tourists is Bali.In 2019 my wife and I stayed in Bali for four days before flying to the Wakatobi dive resort. We stayed in Ubud, which is about two hours by car from Denpasar, where the main airport is located.In Denpasar and Ubud the impact of tourism is everywhere. Compared to European countries and the United States, Indonesia is a poor country and tourism is critical to Bali's economy.Beneath the glossy tourist experience, there is an underworld that, in part, feeds the tourists. The underworld documented in Snowing in Bali is the world of drug importers and drug dealers. This is a world that most of us (who don't use drug, especially in a foreign country) will never see.The author, Kathryn Bonella, does a remarkable job developing sources in the drug running and drug dealing community. Many of the drug runners and drug dealers are surfers who wanted to live in Bali and found drug dealing an easy way to live a fantasy lifestyle. Until it all came crashing down. Drug running in Indonesia can carry the death penalty or years in hellish prisons.

Good read (or listen in my case). Bought the audio book which was a new experience for me. Some of the pronunciation of Indo names was a bit off but overall the audio was good.The book is a good read highlighting the wild times that were around not so many years ago. I thought a bit more could have been made of the execution of one of the main players for his drug trafficking but still got the point across.Good read but it's a shame this part of the world was awash with drugs during the 2000's

If you love Bali as I do and you visit fairly often you will get an insight in to the seedy drug scene ,if you let it this could certainly colour your feelings about the place.i think 'snowing in Bali" should be read by young people before their first visit,not to put them off going but to make them aware of the dangers that could confront them if they are not vigilant .Bali is a beautiful .,beautiful island but like anywhere there is another side to it and Snowing in Bali certainly tells you about that side,a good read if you are interested in Bali but I dont think it would appeal to the general reader if they hadnt been there or were not considering a holiday there

This is the author's last book of what she describes as a trilogy - a cross sectional and longitudinal slices of what Bali is beyond the tourist brochures and tourists' experience. The history and the weaving of aspects of the drug culture, the local 'soil' for it, the crimes and the punishments! The story telling is with a lot of suspense, using 'disciplined' and precise language, making the reader to turn the pages avidly. It is a real story or better, stories, which is capturing the reader as a thriller. It opens the eyes of the visitor to the "Island of the Gods" to a part of lire, which is not immediately apparent if one is not interested in 'scoring'. But it is a part of the Island's life, which is very real and obviously existing. It was interesting that after having read the book one starts noticing or at least, reading differently, certain people and situations one comes across - many of them one would not have even noticed before.Regrettably, but understandably, the book does not cover or at least allude to the situation now, something which could have been done in general terms. Hopefully, the author will continue her study of the issues. A study which has significant socio-psychological value and insights.Worth reading.

This was a very good book. My only complaint, was that sometimes due to the writing or maybe the language the writer was trying to express came through a bit confusing. I would find myself having to reread a sentence to actually understand what she meant and also, there were so many players in this book that I was often forgetful of who did what when they were brought up later in the book. Since all the sources in the book partook in the same activities it was often hard to keep them straight. But, overall it's nothing that would not hold me back form buying this book. In general, I found it very interesting and was happy to be able to read it.

Ich habe das Buch während eines Urlaubs an einem Flughafenkiosk entdeckt. Irgendwann habe ich es dann über Amazon gekauft und mit großer Erwartung gelesen. Die Geschichten der Protagonisten wurde in einem flüssigen Stil erzählt, wodurch ich das Buch auch in kurzer Zeit durch hatte.Hier werde ich bestimmt noch das vorangegangene Buch der Schriftstellerin "Hotel K: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail" lesen.

very well written and easy to read, captures all yur attention from the beginning. is amazing the detail it explains even more if you think every word happened for real. a must read!!

O relato extraordinário sobre um mundo de ficção acordado pelo pesadelo de um mundo real... Lição por demais conhecida mas jamais aprendida, exceto para poucos sábios, "a neve caída" sobre o paraíso Bali expõe o lado tolo e frágil do ser humano que acredita ter vindo à vida com o propósito de vivê-la sem preocupar-se com algo ou além do seu próprio egoísmo, sua própria vaidade, enfim sua própria forma humana em ser sem Ser... Leitura recomendável!

Great read. You won't put book down

Everything I expected and then more!