Secrets on Bali Beach: Bali Crime Story

By Stefani Kang

Translation of the original version:
Spuren am Bali Strand.

Content:
Ellen Miebach, a German hippie dropout living in Bali, is involved in a murder case by chance. Her sense of justice, coupled with a dose of daring energy, drives her determined to clear up the case. With the help of her boyfriend, she can ultimately not only find the murderer, but also experience the fascination of the Argentine tango.

Volume 1 from the series:
Ellen Miebach interferes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Dec 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9783347182080

Book preview

1 Hopeful feelings

The lukewarm water of the Indian Ocean laps gently around her feet. She holds her flip-flops in her left hand while with her right she brushes a windblown strand of hair out of her face. A wonderful feeling of liberation flows through her body. She feels strong and self-confident. The walk on Berawa Beach has really done her good. Out here it’s a little quieter. There are only a few tourists out and about to enjoy the natural spectacle that is to be seen every evening. Sunset on the west coast of Bali is simply fascinating.

It is late afternoon, only a few minutes to go. She takes a deep breath. Now she knows what she has to do. It is all perfectly clear. She feels a pleasant tingling in her stomach, a feeling like being newly in love. But she isn’t. She is just happy in anticipation of what is to come.

She watches the waves breaking gently on the beach while some deeply tanned Balinese youths laugh and dance on the worn-out surfboards given to them by tourists. A few old hippies are walking their dogs, and here and there a Balinese fisherman casts his rod.

She walks and walks as if driven on by some mysterious force, and doesn’t notice how far away she has got from the general hustle and bustle. She walks as if in a trance. Her legs seem to move of their own accord. She feels no strain, no fatigue. She could go on walking for hours, but she knows that it will get dark very suddenly as soon as the orange-coloured disc on the horizon sets.

The sky is already dark red when suddenly she feels a dull thud on her head, and she falls to the ground. In her pain she just catches a glimpse of the brownish batik pattern of a sarong before she loses consciousness.

2 The warong on the beach

Ellen sits in her favourite restaurant on Batubelig Beach. She has just decided to order a seafood dish and is looking out to sea in hungry expectation, as she often does. Under the thatched roof a splendid sun is slowly sinking. The reddish orange is just merging into purplish grey.

A lot of people from many different countries are out walking in both directions. Japanese women are easy to spot at first sight. They usually wear slouch hats and are well covered up for fear of the sun. And they do have a fantastic skin.

Ellen comes from Hamburg. She has been living on Bali for some time, and in the 20 years she has built up a small business. She sells Balinese silver jewellery at Christmas markets, and she also supplies some wholesalers. Business is quite good and affords her a comfortable life. During the busy months she is in Germany. The rest of the time she spends on Bali, her island in the sun.

A lot of Europeans do the same as Ellen, people from Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland and Russia, but also Japanese and Australians. They come from all parts of the world to live here. For life on Bali is so much more relaxed and offers a better quality of life.

Ellen postpones her order a little, as she has arranged to meet Britta. She doesn’t want to order yet, but she could treat herself to a cool Bintang (an Indonesian brand of beer) while she waits.

It’s 20 past 8 already, and there is still no sign of Britta. This doesn’t strike Ellen as being at all odd, for punctuality doesn’t count for much here. Jam karet, as the Balinese say, literally rubber time, and in this respect all the foreigners have adapted admirably.

But she does now decide to order. A good thing, too, as it turns out, because her acquaintance won’t turn up. This doesn’t worry Ellen much. She met Britta only yesterday, quite by chance on Balagan Beach, and they spent the whole day together. They took to each other immediately, and exchanged a lot of information about themselves, much of it private.

Hallo! she exclaims suddenly when she recognizes an old acquaintance, "Are you still around? They sit down together and start gossiping. The evening passes quickly, and the rendezvous with Britta is soon forgotten.

The warong on the beach

A Bintang at sunset

3 Silver jewellery in Celuk

Ellen is sitting in the silver factory sorting her range of goods. This is the most important part of her work. She has to check whether her jewellery has turned out as ordered.

It always takes a lot of time, this long trip from Seminyak to Celuk on her scooter. It’s not a pretty route. It follows the outer tangent of the capital Denpasar with its heat, congestion and dirty urban smog.

In Celuk the atmosphere is quite different. No rush, friendly, infectiously cheerful faces everywhere. Well, okay, there is heavy through-traffic on the main street, but all in all Celuk is a cosy handicrafts village, specialising mainly in silverwork, very laid-back, in a word: unhurried. There is a wide range of shops and workshops selling traditional artefacts, jewellery and cult objects, but also a great variety of modern design. The Balinese are gifted artists, but they are also talented businesspeople, that is to say, they are flexible enough to go along with the wishes of their customers. That is the main reason why their businesses have been in existence for many years and have made the town rich.

She jokes with the silversmiths going about their work next door. The dexterous craftsmen sit on the floor manufacturing wondrously filigree pieces of jewellery, always with a heavily sugared coffee beside them and a cigarette in the corner of their mouth.

It’s getting late, I’m famished, Ellen thinks, when she finally makes up her mind to go home. She puts on her leather jacket and her helmet, and reaches automatically into her pocket for her mobile for a quick check of her mails.

Strange that there’s no message from Britta, she thinks, I’d have thought that she would have texted me to apologise for not turning up. Well, well! And off she sets again, back towards Canggu. Travelling along the main road is definitely no walk in the park.

But it is a pleasure to catch a glimpse now and again of the rice fields on both sides of the road, the few that remain here in this densely populated part of the island. It is rush hour the roads are more than usually congested. She interrupts her trip on the Gatsu, where there are so many little food stalls.

She stops directly in front of her sate ayam stall. Here, you get delicious grilled chicken kebabs. Ellen treats herself to a quick belated lunch.

Actually, Ellen has long been a vegetarian, but she sometimes finds the aroma of the peanut sauce together with the grilled chicken kebabs irresistible, especially when her stomach is rumbling.

She sits on the wooden bench and is brought her kebab served on a banana leaf, accompanied by a lime water on ice. The stall owner knows her and says with a smile, "Selamat makan, Miss Ellen.

4 The Bali house

When she reaches her house in Batubelig, Ellen jumps under the shower, if shower is the right word. The shower is a white-tiled basin, about 60 cm square and 80cm high. The water in it is at room temperature, in other words it’s neither warm nor cold. On the white-tiled wall there hangs a pretty coconut ladle for scooping the water out of the tub and pouring it over your body. The whole thing is called a mandi. This is the traditional Balinese shower.

If you have your shower in the afternoon as the natives do, it’s very refreshing and healthy. But if you have it in the evening when the water is too cool, you get masuk angin, in other words you become ill, says Made (pronounced with the stress on the e), Ellen’s pearl of a housekeeper.

Ellen loves her mandi, which is surrounded by its own little garden. The orchid- and fern-covered natural stone wall screens Ellen from prying eyes and affords her a wonderful view when she is sitting on the toilet.