How Melbourne’s Will Cabantog turned life around after Bali’s Kerobokan jail

Cabantog was arrested alongside fellow Australian David Van Iersel back in July 2019 in the trendy Lost City Nightclub with 1.12 grams of cocaine in his pocket, and immediately thrown into jail.

Van Iersel was later sentenced to nine months in jail, while Cabantog got one year for cocaine possession and spent some of that time in solitary confinement in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan jail.

His story is one of destruction to begin with, including doing drugs in jail, and ultimately redemption.

For the first time Cabantog, 37, has opened up exclusively to news.com.au about an extraordinary couple of years that could have gone either way, as he continues to rebuild his life – moving from Melbourne to the Gold Coast after being released from jail in July last year.

In talking, he wants to inspire others in similar situations, to make them realise there is always a path back.

RELATED: Aussies arrested in Bali after drugs bust

“When I look back at it, I feel like I went down two paths,” he said of his time in Kerobokan.

“The first path I went down was a path of destruction.

“In jail there are gangs, there are drugs, there is illegal contraband, there are parties, there is alcohol.

“There is a steady road to drug addiction.

“I went down that dark path of drug addiction, smoking ice, smoking weed, getting my hand on anything I could and getting into fights.”

For Cabantog he realised quickly that he had to get his act together.

“If I had kept going my one-year sentence could have been a five-year sentence, that’s what happened to a lot of Westerners,” he said.

“I was at that point where I was locked up in solitary confinement, getting into fights and looking to get myself the next hit of ice.

“It was like, if I don’t change, I will be stuck here.

“There is another path and that is rehabilitation, and it’s never too late to change.”

RELATED: Aussies sentenced after Bali drug bust

Bizarrely, the Covid-19 pandemic was both good and bad for Cabantog. When the pandemic hit in the first months of 2020 in Bali, many prisoners were getting released early.

While he never got early release, he hit the gym hard in jail and got off the drugs, and fit again.

“Because of covid they were releasing prisoners and my name popped up on the list and initially I thought I was going to be released and I had an epiphany,” he said.

“If I walked outside of prison at that time I was in bad shape.

“I was addicted to drugs and I wasn’t healthy.

“For myself I wanted the people who supported me through my incarceration to know their thoughts and prayers hadn’t fallen on deaf ears and I wanted to change my life for the better.

“That was a pivotal moment where I thought to myself, this is not how I wanted to walk out.”

Covid-19 also provided Cabantog with one of his scariest moments in Kerobokan.

He believes he got the virus, but unlike some of his unlucky prisoners who were shipped away to be never seen again, he survived.

“It was very, very scary,” he said.

“People were dropping like flies.

“The prisoners were going missing, and basically anyone who got really sick we didn’t see them, we think they got transferred to hospital, we don’t know.

“All we knew was people were getting really sick.”

One of his most frightening mornings of his year-long prison sentence was when he woke up in the middle of the pandemic to find the prison in a state of panic.

“I remember waking up one morning and my eyes and the whole room was full of smoke,” he said.

“I didn’t know what was happening.

“I woke up and opened the door and I literally couldn’t see two feet in front of me and by the time I navigated myself out of the prison cell, I realised they were spraying and burning sage through a leaf blower as a preventive measure throughout the whole block.”

During his time in Kerobokan, Cabantog kept an incredibly extensive journal of what he went through and his thoughts, as a history of the period.

He hopes one day to turn this into a book.

It might very well be the most thorough personal documented experience of Australian prisoner who has spent time in Kerobokan jail in Bali, and there have been many.

He also used to have an iPhone and was a regular user of WhatsApp, messaging supporters back home in Australia, detailing what life was really like in the jail.

When Cabantog was released in July last year after serving his year, he eventually got a flight back to Perth from Jakarta to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine and from that moment he wanted to change his life forever.

Just being back in Australia and stepping into that hotel room again is a memory he will never forget.

“I remember I could feel the carpet on my feet as soon as I took my shoes off,” he said.

“I saw a bed, I saw a fridge, I saw a television, a toilet and running water.

“I couldn’t believe it, there were all these creature comforts I took for granted and were deprived of for a year.

“The first thing I did was just take my clothes off and have a hot shower and as soon as the water hit the back of my neck I just burst into tears, I was very numb until that point.

“Going from the prison to Jakarta to Perth, I hadn’t let anything really sink in so as soon as the hot water hit I sat on the floor naked and was just crying for 45 minutes, letting it all out.”

After he finished hotel quarantine Cabantog eventually came back to his home city of Melbourne.

The first thing he did was seek out his family.

“The main thing was reconciling with my mum and my family, that was paramount,” he said.

“So being able to see my mum for the first time, being able to hug her after being away for so many years was really emotional.

“I needed to reconcile with my family to move forward and now that I have done that I’m in such an amazing place at the moment.

“It’s such an amazing high.”

Part of his healing was also getting sober.

After years as a prominent figure in Melbourne’s sometimes hedonistic nightclub scene, alcohol and drugs were always available.

“I used to be that kind of person who couldn’t go out and have a drink by itself,” he said.

“I would have a lot of drinks, a bottle of wine or lots of pints of beer and then I would get a bag (of cocaine) and the next thing you know it’s 5am and I would write my whole weekend off.

“I did that every weekend.

“Now I know my limitations, I know I can enjoy myself, maybe having one glass of wine at dinner and that’s it.”

After returning to Melbourne, Cabantog also embraced his faith, and that includes saying grace every night before dinner.

“My faith and finding God puts things into perspective,” he said.

“As long as you know there is a higher being out there, you have that energy to be the best person you can possibly be.

“It creates an inner strength and motivation that everything has a purpose.”

It was Melbourne Cup Day in November last year that Cabantog’s life took another turn for the better.

He met what he calls the love of his life Steph Harmon, who is a health, nutrition and lifestyle coach and, like Cabantog, lives a sober life.

They have a mutual interest in the mental health space and they immediately clicked.

The couple moved to the Gold Coast earlier this year and live right by the beach, where they go on daily walks.

“We are both on the same journey and she doesn’t hold any prejudgements about what I have done in the past,” he said.

“For me she is the absolute love of my life and I couldn’t picture being without her.

“I feel like as soon as you start changing your ways and start manifesting and putting positive energy out there, that’s when the universe aligns and gives you what you want.

“I’m literally over the moon.”

Training five times a week in mixed martial arts and going for daily runs, at 37, he says he is as fit as he has ever been.

Cabantog is studying a mental health diploma and wants to be a life coach, and he will use every bit of his Kerobokan experience to help him and others in the future.

He also is heavily involved in the #speaklesslistenmore Facebook page, which supports people going through mental health issues.

He has struggled with his mental health no more so than when in prison, and he wants to put what he went through to good use.

That includes acknowledging past mistakes.

“Everybody makes mistakes and it’s about being able to learn from your mistakes and not let your past dictate your future,” he said.

“I want to use my strength now to help inspire people, to help educate them and help people who are going through their own mental health issues.”

Both he and his girlfriend are set to walk the Fraser Island Charity Walk on Sunday July 4.

July 25 will mark the one-year anniversary since Cabantog left Kerobokan forever.

As he takes his morning walk on the Gold Coast’s pristine beaches leading up to the date, he will never forget just how blessed he is to be back in Australia, living and thriving again.

“I now appreciate every day,” he said.

Luke Dennehy is a freelance writer.