Clouds of death in a sunny sky

By JULIE MIDDLETON

BALI - Outside it is another beautiful day, a cloudless sky, a balmy morning and the hawkers are still selling hard.

But inside Denpasar Hospital it is a charnel house.

More than 150, mostly completely charred, bodies are lying on every surface of a white-tiled morgue.

A crowd of Indonesian men shuffle through, shirts tugged up to cover their noses. Many of the bodies and body parts are unrecognisable.

Flesh has burned through to bone. Bodies are locked in poses of fear - arms in front of faces, or curled up in a futile attempt to escape the flames.

Each black body bag has a green tag for identification, but very few are being identified and taken away.

Just one face is identifiable. She was white with shoulder length sandy blonde hair, wearing a pink and yellow striped top and a chunky silver and copper watch.

Outside the morgue, people - Indonesians, Australians and Germans among them - stand listlessly in corridors, too shocked to speak. Some are crying in huddles. Anguish sounds the same in any language.

This is Bali's best hospital, but it is far from New Zealand standards. Twenty battered beds occupy each ward. There is no air conditioning, no fans and the heat is stifling. Blood smears the floor in places.

In an open-air corridor a sign has been hurriedly posted on the wall.

"Have you seen ... " it is headed.

There follows a list of 64 names. Most appear to be European. Just four have been crossed off.

Along the corridor tourists sit on benches awaiting news, eating sandwiches provided by Indonesian volunteers.

Many are crying into cellphones and adding names to the list.

A German tourist lies on her back sobbing over and over, "My friends are dead". Survivors, many in blood-stained clothes, fan friends with bits of cardboard and give them sips of bottled water.

About 9am the news has spread and volunteers are starting to arrive. Among them are a Canadian woman living here, a holidaying Australian doctor who works in a burns unit and an Englishman who runs a business here.

Stewart Smith, 44, an Australian who runs the Hotel Ahinsa, was just a kilometre from the blast.

"There was carnage and mayhem everywhere," he said.

He went back to check on his mostly Japanese guests and found them all accounted for.

"Fortunately Japanese don't go out much at night."

Already the volunteers are starting to worry about the consequences for Bali's principal industry.

Guy Burgs, 36, an Englishman who has been here for 14 years, said Bali had been "insulated".

"It happens in Jakarta and other parts of Java but not here. Not Bali," he said.

"The way of life here won't survive this. It can't carry on as it was. Tourism has been shot in the foot."

Denis Galfeather, a 15-year expatriate from Scotland, said Bali's tourism had already been struggling after outbreaks of violence in other parts of Indonesia.

"How are people going to get by now?" he said. "Everything here is geared to tourism."

Violence had been foreign to Bali, though tensions have grown in recent years between the mainly Hindu Balinese and Muslims from the rest of the country.

Outside, the sun is still shining. Around the well-guarded resort hotels people are weighing up whether to leave or stay. For the moment at least, we will stay.

Bali messages

New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families in New Zealand, can post messages on our Bali Messages page.

Foreign Affairs advice to New Zealanders

* Travellers should defer travel to Bali

* NZers in Bali should keep a low profile and remain calm

* Foreign Affairs Hotline: 0800 432 111

Feature: Bali bomb blast

Related links

Pictures from the scene of the blast

Further reading
Feature: Indonesia and East Timor

Related links