Joe went to sleep in his Bali villa. At 2am, the nightmare began.

An Australian man is "happy to be alive" after he was seriously injured during a terrifying armed robbery while on holiday in Bali.

Joe, 39, was asleep with his girlfriend in a villa in Canggu on October 17 when he woke up about 2am to find a knife-wielding man in his room.

"I woke up shocked in the dark, staring at him standing in my room," he wrote in a GoFundMe.

Startled, the Victorian resident immediately jumped out of bed and ran towards the masked intruder in the dark.

By the time he spotted the man's weapon, it was too late and his only defence was to grab the blade, Joe said.

"We fought for the knife for a while, before I won it from him and threw it under the bed," he said.

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Joe said the man threatened the couple and yelled "punya temen", Indonesian for "I have friends".

The man then ran from the villa, "smashing" Joe's head with a picture frame as the 39-year-old chased him.

The intruder took off with Joe's bag, which contained three phones, his passport, a brand-new laptop, wallet, and other personal items.

Joe's hands were cut "very badly" from the blade and his frantic girlfriend called police and ambulance for help to no avail.

"I had to get help from mini mart shop keepers to take me to the emergency hospital," Joe said.

His injuries needed four surgeries, which Joe said he did not want to undergo in Indonesia.

As he waited in Siloam Hospital, his sister flew over from Australia with an emergency passport and the necessary documentation for Joe to head home.

He was taken to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth where he underwent surgery on his hands.

Joe underwent four surergies on his hands. Image: GoFundMe.

The 39-year-old yoga instructor has split his time between Bali and Australia for the past seven years, but with extensive rehabilitation now on the cards, another trip is not on the radar anytime soon.

"The surgeon did four surgeries and repaired the two cut tendons in my middle finger, the broken meta carpal and cut nerve in my right thumb," Joe said.

Joe has since been discharged from hospital and will undergo three months of hand therapy.

He reported the "traumatic" incident to police but said he was disappointed by their response.

Feature image: GoFundMe.