A MELBOURNE man holidaying in Bali believes he escaped a potential drug-bust setup on the same day a 14-year-old boy was arrested and jailed for possessing marijuana.

Just hours after the schoolboy was allegedly caught with 3.6g of marijuana and arrested, 25-year-old Ryan Shinn was harassed by locals trying to sell him a bag of the illegal drug.

Mr Shinn said the intimidating incident happened on the same road and less than 300m from where the teen was earlier arrested.

Mr Shinn said he was in Bali for just three days while on his way home to Australia after a two-week holiday in Vietnam with his girlfriend.

He said he was returning to his hotel after a night out with his girlfriend when two Balinese locals cornered the pair and tried to make the illegal sale.

"It scared the living hell out of us,'' Mr Shinn said.

"They were quite intimidating and quite pushy and it was obvious they just wanted to make a sale.''

Mr Shinn said he believed it may have been an elaborate ploy to catch unsuspecting tourists.

He said the local pair harassed him for about a minute before he escaped by running across the road.

"We were stopped for a period of time ... they were pretty adamant to make a sale.

"We're adults but it was certainly something that would have been pretty horrifying for a 14-year-old kid to have dealt with.

"In the end he could have felt the need to say yes just to get rid of them.''

Mr Shinn said he was shocked to learn of the teen's ordeal.

Under strict Indonesian narcotics laws, the teenager from the NSW Central Coast town of Morriset Park could be held in custody without charge for 30 days and tried as an adult, in which case the maximum sentence is 12 years' jail.

That sentence would be served in Bali's Kerobokan Jail, alongside murderers, sex offenders and gang members, and where a prisoner was last week bashed to death by a fellow inmate over a $6 drug debt.

Australia's Consul-General in Bali, Brett Farmer, said the teen was being kept in a 3m x 4m cell with a squat toilet and wooden bed his distraught parents were in an adjoining cell.

"I feel for the young kid,'' Mr Shinn said. "Since Schapelle Corby we are well aware of the zero tolerance approach over there ... He could have stupidly just said yes to shut them up.''

Mr Shinn said the experience had changed his view of Bali.

"It's not a place I'll be visiting again,'' he said.

deerys@heraldsun.com.au

Originally published as I dodged Bali drug setup - Aussie