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!
