The quiet, island life Schapelle will leave behind when she leaves Bali
THERE are so many things about Bali that Schapelle Corby will miss. Like grilled chicken for $1.50, her local swimming spot, her dogs — and her boyfriend.
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THERE are so many things about Bali that Schapelle Corby will miss.
Like grilled chicken for just $1.50, her little spot at Jerman Beach, where she could swim, snorkel and read books in peace. Her two dogs, Luna and May, and beer for a few dollars a bottle.
And most importantly there is her Indonesian boyfriend, Ben Panangian, on whom she has leaned since they first met inside Bali’s Kerobokan Prison more than 10 years ago.
In one week the 39-year-old will say goodbye to her Bali lifestyle, to all the things that have made her love the so-called Island of the Gods, despite the fact that it was here that she was named a convicted drug trafficker despite tearful protestations that she was innocent.
After the crushing 20-year sentence was handed down Corby spent the best part of a decade behind bars at Kerobokan, during which she suffered a mental breakdown and was twice admitted to hospital.
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But during her three-plus years on parole she has managed to find some equilibrium and create a quiet life for herself among Kuta’s laneways. Locals tell of a seemingly shy but polite young woman who keeps to herself, shuns the limelight, deals only with a trusted few, paranoid of being photographed.
She doesn’t like it when Australian tourists, who recognise her from almost 13 years in the news, want to chat or take photos with her, and can sometimes appear rude in her haste to get away.
All she really wanted was to live anonymously on parole, abide by her conditions and wait for the day she was a free woman. That day comes next Saturday, May 27, when she will sign her parole for the last time and be deported to Australia. All convicted foreigners are immediately deported when they finish their jail term.
Those close to her say it will be a tearful farewell from her island home.
Initially paroled to live at the family home of sister Mercedes and her Balinese husband, Wayan Widyartha, and their children, she didn’t remain there long.
Mercedes lived within the traditional Balinese family compound of Wayan’s family, right in the heart of Kuta. Living in close quarters to the rest of Wayan’s family wasn’t conducive to Corby’s wish for a quiet life and things weren’t good between Mercedes and Wayan anyway. And Wayan’s devoutly Hindu family were annoyed at the constant disturbance of having Corby in their midst, bringing with it unwanted attention.
So, with the permission of her parole officers, she moved to her own small rented home at the dead end of a Kuta laneway, off busy Jalan Kartika Plaza. With the beach just a kilometre away and with high walls, the home, in the middle of a local area, she was able to carve out a life away from tourist eyes.
Mercedes and Wayan split and her sister moved back to the Gold Coast but Wayan remained Corby’s parole guarantor. Her brother, Michael Corby, moved from Australia to live with her, and family and friends from the Gold Coast visited often.
Corby had initially planned to help run The Boardroom, a shop owned by Mercedes and Wayan selling surf apparel and clothes made by Mercedes’ business.
She helped renovate but the constant throng of tourists coming to look at her was too much. The shop is now closed and Corby has spent her final years and months in Bali with a simple routine.
In the mornings she would often ride her motorbike, her preferred choice of transport, down to the nearby beachfront where she would jog, headphones in.
Later she would ride down to Jerman Beach, about 1.5km from her home, and swim in the ocean, dotted with local fishing boats called jukung, and sometimes lie on the beach reading. Other days she would snorkel around the brightly coloured jukung boats. More often than not one of her dogs, Luna and May, would be with her.
The dogs originally belonged to Mercedes and Wayan and they moved to the new home with Corby after her sister left Bali. Luna, the older mother dog, had been a source of comfort for Corby back in her days in Kerobokan jail when Mercedes would sometimes bring her in for Corby to have a cuddle.
Another dog that Corby had kept in jail with her, Stanley, later died. Luna and May will be just two of the myriad things Corby will miss on her return to Australia.
A few hundred metres from Corby’s home is Mbak Win’s Warung, a modest Indonesian Muslim warung, like a small restaurant, in Pudak Sari Lane.
About three times a week Corby and Panangian would stop off at Mbak Win’s and buy takeaway food — known locally as bungkus — the food wrapped in brown paper.
Their favourites were ayam bakar or grilled chicken, for 15,000 rupiah or $1.50, sometimes with rice, sometimes not, and nasi goreng, fried rice for the same price.
Sometimes they ducked next door, to a small hotel with rooms that rent for $20 a night next to their home, to buy bottles of takeaway Bintang beer and lemonade — a small beer for $2 and $3 for a large.
Some days Corby would go with Ben to the beach, near the airport at Kedonganan Beach, where he took clients stand-up paddle boarding. Often they would drive the Corbys’ distinctive yellow van, boards strapped to the top. Ben excels at stand-up paddle boarding, something he loves. Other days he would take his surfboard and she would take a boogie board to catch some waves together.
The couple have grown close as the countdown to her return to Australia approaches.
They first met in 2006, in a chapel at the jail. Panangian, whose full name is Bernard P Simanjuntak, hails from Sumatra and was in jail doing 3½ years on drugs charges. They were well known as a couple inside the jail and after he was released Panangian continued to visit and to drop off food.
He stayed in the background at the time of her dramatic and controversial release from jail and was not filmed or photographed with Corby by any of the Channel 7 Sunday Night crew that had signed up her exclusive story.
But amid angry words the story never saw the light of day in its intended format when the Indonesian Government banned her from giving any media interviews while on parole.
They threatened to throw her back in jail if she so much as uttered a word.
For the past three years she has abided strictly by that doctrine, fearful that any violation of her parole could be a disaster.
She faced extra scrutiny in August 2014 when Panangian was again arrested and convicted of possessing three packages of marijuana — 0.64 grams found on him when he was stopped on the way to a friend’s home and another two packages at his own boarding house room — 0.99 grams and 6.58 grams. It seems he was in the wrong place at the wrong time — the initial police target had been the friend he had gone to visit but when Panangian turned up and was searched he found himself back behind bars. He was sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Despite the brief interlude in their relationship, when he was behind bars and Corby didn’t dare visit the jail, Panangian has been a constant in her Bali life.
In the past few weeks, since media attention has focused on her home and on Corby, he has come and gone daily, shunning any requests for interviews and the couple have not been seen publicly.
If the Indonesian Immigration authorities keep to their plan to ban Corby for life from ever returning to Indonesia the future of their relationship will be thrown into limbo. Panangian’s two drug convictions could be problematic for any chance of getting a visa to visit Australia.
In the lead-up to her trial, in January 2006, Corby was baptised in jail. She had never been religious before but in some of her darkest hours she had turned to God for answers and to help her cope. She started wearing a cross pendant around her neck.
She stopped visiting the small chapel inside the jail after people started photographing her there and selling the pictures.
The St Fransiskus Xaverius Catholic Church is not far from Corby’s Kuta home.
While on parole she often attended services there or prayed alone in the Adoration Room behind the church.
The small room, where people pray sitting on the floor, is devoted to Jesus and is a place for quiet reflection and prayer, with a small altar, open 24 hours a day.
Parishioners at the church say they have often seen Corby, who is friendly and polite, at the Adoration Room. Sometimes she attended weekend mass in the church, on occasion with Panangian.
Several weeks ago parishioners there saw her at a Saturday afternoon mass, in Indonesian.
She sat at the back, kept to herself and appeared nervous, looking around to ensure she wasn’t recognised. One parishioner said she didn’t appear comfortable and spoke to few people.
When Corby returns to the Gold Coast in a week, life at Tugun, her family home, the same house she left behind 12 years and eight months ago, will be a world away from her Bali existence.
Just how she will cope with such a culture shock is something her family are wrestling with as they prepare to bring her home.
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