They moved to Bali, built a small business, and spent their days side by side. On Tuesday morning, a single collision on a mountain road claimed both their lives.
BULELENG, Bali — In a village overlooking Bali’s cool highlands, Indrawati Setiabudi and Hidayat Maruta had built the kind of life many people spend decades searching for.
The elderly couple had left their hometown of Cirebon in West Java and settled in Pancasari, a peaceful community near Bali’s famous Buyan and Tamblingan lakes. Neighbors knew them as friendly, hardworking residents who kept largely to themselves.
For the past three years, they had lived quietly, managing a small laundry business and several rental rooms. Most days, it was just the two of them.
On Tuesday morning, that life came to an abrupt end.
The couple were traveling in their Suzuki pickup truck along the Singaraja–Denpasar highway when they became involved in a collision with a Toyota Hiace minibus near Banjar Buyan in Buleleng Regency.
According to police, the crash occurred as the pickup entered the roadway from a residential area. Moments later, it collided with an oncoming minibus traveling along the main route.
The impact was devastating.
Indrawati, 62, who was driving the vehicle, suffered severe injuries. Her husband, Hidayat, 81, who was seated beside her, was also critically injured. Both were rushed for medical treatment but were later pronounced dead.
The driver and passenger of the minibus were not injured.
For local residents, the tragedy was felt far beyond the crash site.
Village Head Wayan Komiarsa described the couple as well-known members of the community who had chosen Pancasari as a place to spend their later years.
“They lived here together and managed their businesses independently,” he said. “Many people knew them as kind and approachable.”
As news of the accident spread, neighbors gathered to offer support while family members began traveling from Cirebon to Bali.
Their bodies remain at Buleleng Regional Hospital as relatives make arrangements for their final farewell.
The accident has once again highlighted the risks of driving on Bali’s winding mountain roads, where visibility, speed, and split-second decisions can have life-changing consequences.
But for those who knew Indrawati and Hidayat, the story is not only about a traffic accident.
It is about two people who chose to build a life together far from where they were born. A couple who spent their final years sharing the same home, the same work, and the same daily routines.
And, tragically, their final journey as well.
In a village where they arrived as newcomers and became neighbors, they will now be remembered not for the way they died, but for the quiet life they built together.
