The young ones are always "mabuk", she explains, using the Indonesian word for drunk. They are drunk, stupid and fighting," she says. When she is at Paddys, it is barely noticeable in the dim light and drunken haze. Lily is one of more than HIV-positive sex workers in Bali who work out of brothels in Sanur or trawl the clubs of Jalan Legian or Double Six, either as paid waitresses serving drinks or as party girls on the pretence of a night out.
In Gatsu, on the edge of town, considered the end of the road for sex workers past their prime, the HIV rate is between 49 and 60 per cent and the girls charge between RP30, and RP50, an hour.
Bali's sex workers are based either in brothels in Sanur or "karaoke bars" across the island, small cafes with a karaoke machine, beer and rooms. Some have a glass window, like a fishbowl, where clients can peer through and see girls by their number.
Others work the streets. Then there are the ones in Kuta who blend in with the bar crowd, either as waitresses or "customers" flirting with tourists. Some will be with them for a week and think they're having a relationship. According to the foundation's statistics, one in four of these girls in Kuta is HIV-positive. It can be quite exhausting for them, especially if the guy is drunk and doesn't want to listen.
On the second floor of the clinic, Bunga, a year-old bar girl from Sanur, says she found out she was HIV-positive in But then I realised that was a risk of the job," she said. She could earn three to five times that in one night if she went home with a tourist. She sends them money every week. With her poor education, the best she could hope for otherwise was a cleaning job worth RP, a month. It would not be enough to support her extended family.
