We always think of Bali like the island of Gods, a little heaven on earth where people are smiling no matter what. 

The truth is that Bali is populated with humans and like anywhere else in the world, if there is humans, there is a risk that you encounter shitty people among a crowd of good people.
I guess that doesn’t mean that these shitty people are shitty all the time or that they are shitty with everybody. Anybody can wake up one day and nope… That’s not a good day. 

Or maybe there IS real shitty people who are shitty since they are born. But let’s not start talking about it or we will end with a three pages essay trying to debate wether the society is making humans little shitty people of if it’s in our Nature. 

Sometimes, if you meet too many shitty people in a row, there is a big chance that YOU are actually the shitty person in the story.

That’s what I asked myself after the misfortune that happened after my arrival on Bali that day, but after consideration, I realized that I was not the problem… Which can be really frustrating because the Buddha said that you can change yourself but not the world around you and that evening, I really wanted to change the situation.

After a long day of travel, I met one of those shitty person . I have to admit that it is rare to find one of them and after the story of the taxi drivers harassing me on my first arrival on the island, I should have been aware that no… Bali is not a happy sparkling pink magic cloud.
Packed in a minivan for the last few hours of travel from the east coast of Bali to Ubud, few backpackers and I were taking in hostage by a mad driver. 

This grotesque situation happened a little bit by mistake, with a lot of miscommunication and a pinch of tiredness. 

He decided that he would drop us outside of Ubud. We decided that he should drop us in the city. 

He decided not to drive 5 minutes more in direction of Ubud so he decided to continued driving to the next stop which was Kuta as a punishment (and because he was a shitty person and that’s what they do). We decided that we would scream in the car until he stopped.

He decided that he would not speak with us and would not make any tiny effort to bring us closer to our destination. We decided that we would try anything to make him stop the car at least and talk with us.

It felt like we were in a car with a parent and a toddler throwing a tantrum. Except that the toddler this time was the driver. 
After 10 minutes of driving, he decided to stop on the side of the road and smoke a cigaret far from us. 

We had nobody to call for help, we could not resonate this guy and we were now far far from Ubud, in the middle of some rice field, at sunset.

We hesitated to steal the van and drive ourself to Ubud and give it back but he took the keys with him while smoking his cigarette… We would not become criminals this time. 

So the few who were supposed to go to Ubud took their backpacks and walk, thumbs up, praying for a bit more luck this time and wishing good luck to the one continuing the trip with the mad man.

The good side of the story? During this big tension, I got to meet Juliet, a 19 years old Swedish solo backpacker who first booked her ticket to travel by herself in South East Asia to be like her father, photographer and adventurer for the well known National Geographic. She promised me an interview later as we were supposed to be in Canggu few days later.