The Mundane: Money

I’ve been thinking a lot about how difficult it is to truly convey what my life here is like. Even the most gifted writer in the history of mankind will not be able to make you experience, feel, what goes on here because, ultimately, life here isn’t about the big events. No, it’s about the mundane, all the little things that occur on a daily basis. In the beginning, all these tiny components of Indonesian life were completely alien to me. Now that they’re more familiar, I wonder less about them. But they remain a mystery to you, back home. It’s kind of saddening. I want to share but I can’t. Not really, anyway. I will keep trying however!

So, here is a taste of something I deal with on a daily basis: money. I focused solely on the bills because the coins here feel and look like they are made of plastic and are, as such, of no aesthetic value to me. [In fact, good ol’ Wiki tells me that the coins are made of light-weight aluminum as of 1999 which might explain why they look and feel as cheap as a free baby.]

Some quick facts:

Indonesia’s currency is called the Indonesian Rupiah or IDR, not to be confused with the rupee.

$1 is about IDR 10000, € 1 is about 12000 IDR.

The guy on the IDR 10000 bill, Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II, was the last Sultan of Palembang. Nowadays he’s more famous for the airport they named after him – at least according to Google.

Wiki says: “the central bank is studying revaluing its currency by removing two or three zeros from the rupiah”. In conclusion: if I’d come here a couple of years from now, I would not have been a millionaire like I am now. Score!

IDR 1000

Mahmud!

 

 

 

IDR 20000

And my favorite: IDR 100000