Mel and Janet's Excellent Adventure

This blog is a way for Janet and Mel to communicate with friends and family during their incredible journeys following retirement. Of course, some adventures are less than incredible. You might not find those here. Their most recent adventure took them to Okinawa, Japan to see their now 4-year old twin grandchildren, Milana Michelle and Tavis Michael. Feel free to add your comments, questions, or just news. Private communications can be sent to m-muchnik@sbcglobal.net.

Friday, April 01, 2005

We're Millionaires!

A word on money in Indonesia. The ATM's here limit the amount of money we can withdraw at one time to 1.2 million Rupiah. That's about $130.
So you bargain and they say that will cost 100,000 (just $10), or for some art work they might say 800,000 (little more than $80). You counter with 1/3 the price and you hope to buy at 1/2. If it is a shop with air conditioning or behind glass the asking price is close to what they get.

On the other hand, if you want a ride on the public "bemo" - a public system of green vans - you bargain your fare, On a ride today, the young lady from Switzerland was paying 5,000 ruipiah (about 50 cents) and I was paying 2,000 total for Janet and me (about 20 cents). Go figure.
Meals have cost us about 90,000 - about $9 or $10 for both of us. A sirloin steak costs about 32,000 or $3.50. Money is mostly paper and if they need change to the hundreds you get candy.

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