Bali is cracking down on foreigners who are flouting local rules and customs.
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Every morning, running clubs weave through the streets of Canggu, the busy beach town on the southwest coast of Bali.They regularly pass along the Canggu Shortcut, a narrow road near Juryco Nugraha's tattoo studio, where he also lives upstairs. Nugraha, who goes by the name Kane, had grown used to them. "You can hear their steps and people talking," he said.But every now and then, a larger, louder group would come through around 5:30 a.m., singing and cheering as it passed his studio, he said.One of Canggu's many run clubs was Entourage Bali, whose events were hard to miss. Videos circulating online show one of their "Silent Disco" runs, with runners covering almost the entire width of the street, wearing glowing headphones and a DJ leading the group from a truck.In July, Entourage became the focus of a much bigger debate after social media posts said it had discriminated against local applicants.The episode reverberated through digital nomad circles and sparked widespread backlash online. A Reddit thread about it drew more than 500 comments. Bali senator Ni Luh Djelantik reposted a video of one of Entourage's runs and called on authorities to investigate.On July 24, immigration authorities said they'd barred two Dutch nationals linked to the club, both of whom had left the country on July 23, from re-entering Indonesia. Indonesian authorities did not publicly identify the two individuals, except by their initials. Officials said they suspected the event violated immigration rules and ordered a further investigation into the organizers, per state news agency Antara.Bali has been through different waves of tourism — it has drawn everything from the pseudo-spiritual "Eat Pray Love" crowd and yoga trainees to raucous spring-break partiers.Since the pandemic, Bali has also cemented its reputation as one of the world's premier digital nomad destinations, as the rise of remote work has given more people the freedom to work from anywhere.
