Indonesia is an interesting country in many ways.

 

I knew Indonesia was in Asia, but I didn't realize that the flight from Japan would be over 7 hours.

 

Some of the first things I learned when researching a bit on-line:
1. 50% of the population lives on less than $2 US (about 200 JPY) per day.  Of course executives at large companies may make over $100K US per year. 

2. Like China, you can't drink the tap water.

3. Unlike most Asian languages, the language uses the Roman/Latin ("English") alphabet.  In fact, the language is basically the same as Malaysian, which seems to be closer to middle eastern than anything else.  Also, it seems they only use capital letters in writing.

4. Also unlike most Asian countries, Indonesia is overall Muslim.  (People in Japan are basically non-religous with vestiges of Shinto and Buddhism).  However it is not strict, and many people are not Muslim, or say they are but don't practice it (much like the US...).

5. Indonesia is not exactly the safest place.

 

The money:

Because of the low cost of living, the largest paper bill I have seen is worth about $10 US (or around 1000 JPY, which is the smallest Japanese bill!)

One Rupie is worth about 1/100 of a yen, which is worth only about a US cent (1/100 USD).  So 10000 Rupie = $1.00, very roughly speaking.

 

Yet, just because the cost of living is low doesn't mean that you will spend less money there than you would at home - unless you are willing to live like an Indonesian.

 

For example, in Japan, you can take the train half an hour or so for maybe 200-300 JPY.  ($2-$3 US).  The train is convenient, safe, and air conditioned.  Jakarta is not well connected by train, and when you do take the train, you will be pick-pocketed.

 

Supposedly outright violence is rare, but fraud, pick-pocketing, etc. are common.

 

Basically if you want to get around, you should drive - but most people don'T have cars, and the traffic in Jakarta is a nightmare.  Smart people have motorcycles, though they drive them in crazy ways, weaving in and out between the cars, etc.  It's common to see the bus driver get out of the bus in the middle of traffic and go complain to the cars in front to move faster, and to see people walking between lanes of traffic trying to sell stuff, etc.  I suppose that since the traffic is basically not moving, none of this is all that dangerous.

 

If you want to go somewhere quickly, there are motorcycle taxis all over the place.  You just hop on back and tell them where to go.  I wouldn't do it, but hey, I'm not a local.

 

Next, there are small three wheeled car looking things that are actually more like a motorcycle if you look at the handlebar inside.  These are the modern version of something that used to be pulled by hand I suppose.  They are noisy, and I am a bit scared to get in one by myself.

 

Then there are "real" taxis of various types.  Basically, I have been told by several people "only take blue bird or silver bird... and maybe Express".  Any of the other taxis "may not be safe".

 

Taxis are super cheap compared to Japan, and you can go about 30 minutes drive for about $5 US, though it's hard to say how long it will actually take to get anywhere given how crazy the traffic is.  Even though the taxis are cheaper than Taxis in Japan, they are also more expensive and less reliable than the trains in Japan, so as a result you will spend more money and time to get anywhere.

 

I you are "rich" (i.e. not one of the people living on $2 US per day), then a taxi is your best bet to get around.  Most Japanese, American, etc. choose that approach. 

 

You could rent a car, but you had better be a super driver to navigate this traffic.  I think it's probably better left to the pros.  There don't seem to be any enforced rules, other than don't drive in the bus lane.  Also, cars drive on the left in Indonesia, like Japan and unlike the US.

 

You will also see old beat up looking vans with missing doors driving around with a few rough looking people inside.    I swear they look like vans I have seen on terrorist videos on the news - except the people inside aren't all holding machine guns.  Actually they are just blue collar construction workers or similar, and that van is a kind of cheaper taxi.  No way I would ride that, but... you could try if you want to save some money.

 

If you work for a big international company, they will probably send a professional driver to take you to and from work.

 

Language:  People you run into who are working at fancy hotels and fancy companies, fancy expensive bars, etc. are likely to know English.  Other people, not so much.  Nobody knows Japanese except for people in Japanese companies, or businesses catering specifically to Japanese.  There are many Chinese Indonesians, most of them don't know Chinese at all.

 

In fact, Indonesia is a big place, and there are many local languages besides Indonesian.  For example, in Java they speak Javanese in addition to Indonesian. 

 

One amusing thing is that because they use "English" letters, you glance at something and think you should be able to read it, but you no matter how hard you try, you just can't extract any meaning.  German, French, English, etc. are all related to some extent, so you can at least guess what something means much of the time.  I can look at Chinese and make a good guess too, since it uses Kanji.  When I stare at a page full of Korean Hangul, but I know right away that I can't read it because of the alien characters.  Indonesian?  I try and try and.. nothing.  For example, the word for "Caution" is "hati hati", while "but" is "tapi", and "what?" is "apa".  There are some words (loan words) that you can guess easily.  "Taksi" is "taxi", etc. - but these are few and far between.

 

The TV and radio is pretty much all in Indonesian, so... good luck with that.  Well, I do have to admit that the local music videos are very interesting.

 

Ethnicity:

Besides many languages, Indonesia has many ethnicities.  The population is larger than Japan and may soon rival the United States, and the strong multi-ethnic background makes Indonesia similar to the US in another way.  If they can get their public infrastructure act together, they may be a strong rival to established economies in the future. 

 

Prices:

Again if you are willing to live like an Indonesian, you could live super cheap.  The hotel I stayed at was over $200 per day, but when I asked how much a "normal hotel" that local people would stay at costs, they said "oh, maybe $10~$20.. .but maybe no air conditioning, maybe not safe from theft", etc. 

Especially if people think a rich foreigner is staying there.

 

 Which reminds me, the word for foreigner is "Buhle", pronounced "boo-lay". Whether this refers mainly to white people or black/Asian, etc. as well, I am not sure, but I suspect the former. 

 

I asked one person I met how much their apartment costs, and they said "Oh, around $200 USD per month" - this is in downtown Jakarta for a reasonably sized place.  You couldn't rent a cardboard box in Tokyo for that price. 

 

It seems people both love and hate foreigners.  They love the money and hate people they think are spoiled.  In general everyone is friendly, but it's hard to tell whether it's sincere or not, since they are so motivated to be nice to you.  For example, tipping are actually not customary in Indonesia, but some people will ask for a tip if they think you might pay.  I guess you can't blame them for trying.

 

The government immigration policy has until lately been "don't stay here.  Come and teach us stuff and leave".  This is  a very unusual policy to have towards more developed countries. 

 

But stop and think about something, at $2 per day, it would take 100 days (over three months) of saving all your salary to stay one night in such an expensive hotel!

 

It's pretty funny because some places will even be open about the fact that they are ripping you off.  My hotel sells $5 phone SIM cards for $10.  But they know nobody is going to go spend an hour run off to the phone shop when it's "only" $5 difference.  Indonesians are more likely to think "That's TWICE as much!" than just "oh well it's just $5, whatever.."  In Japan a 5000 JPY prepaid card costs 5000 JPY.

 

Food:

You can eat outside at a food stand for less than $1 US (100 JPY), and some local restaurants are not much more.  Or, you can eat at a fancy hotel restaurant for $60 or more if you like.  The only thing is, you may get sick from eating at the $1-$5 place.  Think about it, even including un-boiled water in something will make you sick.  Room service in the fancy hotels is also pricey, but not as much as in the US.  If you think about it, though, there is a whole category of places that the poorer people just can't go.  Now it might be true that "normal" people don't go to the ultra fancy $300 french restaurants in the US or Japan very often... but I am not talking about that.  I am talking about like the hotel bar that charges $5 for french fries.  Who is going to spend a whole day's pay on french fries when they could have a place of rice with eggs, etc. for less?  Nobody.

 

Starbucks' exists and costs roughly the same as US/Japan.  Pizza Hut exists (with eat in!), but I don't know the price.  I have seen other foreign chains like A&W, Fatburger, some Japanese ramen places, etc. 

 

Indonesian food is difficult for me to classify, basically it tends more towards rice and not so much towards noodles.  Perhaps for that reason, chop sticks are not used.  There are a lot of vegetarians, so it's easy to find food without mean.  Tofu and soy is used a lot, are veggies and eggs.  For the most part is is spicy or flavorless, or... very sweet.  And when I say very sweet, I mean it.  I ordered Iced tea at one fancy Chinese restaurant, the tea they brought out had so much sugar that the water was clouded too much to see through the glass!  I tried to drink it, but I couldn't even manage half the glass.  I bought a cookie somewhere and it likewise was probably about 95% sugar.  Fruit juice (Orange juice, mango juice, etc.) has added sugar.  They even have soy sauce with sugar!  Basically, anything that is sweet at all is usually very very sweet.  It comes as no great surprise then that a lot of Indonesian people seem to have dental issues.  My favorite dish so far is "taho easy" (I have no idea of the proper spelling), which is basically tofu stuffed with veggies and then fried like Tempura, served with spicy sauce.  You can buy it outside for like $0.50 - $2.00, or in the hotel bar for like $15. 

 

Tobacco:

It seems that roughly 98% of the population smokes, including like 12 year old girls (who are also hard drinkers!)  The tobacco cartons are all adorned with grotesque photos of throat cancer and similar, I suppose in the government's somewhat distasteful attempt to discourage smoking. 

 

 

Walking:

The really hilarious thing is that you might think "Well if driving is slow and dangerous, and the train system is not quite there yet, I'll just walk". 

 

Yeah, you can try, but it's closer to hiking than taking a stroll.  Many places don't have sidewalks, so you have to kind of walk in the road and just hope nobody decides to run you over.  Since the traffic is so slow anyway, it kind-of works out.  Where there are sidewalks, they are patchy, with big holes, mislaid bricks, random poles and stuff sticking out.  This is particularly hazardous at night.  Areas under construction aren't well marked either, so you could easily wander into a section of sidewalk with rebar sticking out, etc.  I often see debree (like bricks and such!) from nearby buildings spilling out onto the sidewalk. 

 

Phone Service:

Well it's cheap, and it sucks.  LTE theoretically exists, but the coverage is very limited and most SIM cards sold don't support it.  A lot of phones and routers sold in Japan not don't even work with non-LTE sim cards. (An LTE card will work in 3G mode, though).  If you are going to be in the country for any length of time, though, you should definitely get yourself a local SIM card.  This way you can send/receive SMS to local people.  (Most don't seem to have email), and/or use email/google maps, etc.  Sadly Telkomsel seems to block the VOIP app I usually use, though Google Hangouts works reasonably well.  In general, data drops out sometimes and it isn't super reliable, but it's a lot better than nothing.

 

Most people seem to have feature phones, not smart phones, which is probably why SMS is still common.

 

Internet:

All I can say is that my hotel had free internet, but 4 Mbps was an extra paid option, and 8 Mbps was the premium paid option.  The fees weren't cheap.

 

It worked well enough for email and the like, but I wouldn't call it fast.  It could even handle Youtube, though not always in HD mode.  (Then again, I have 1000 Mbps internet at my house, so pretty much anything will seem slow next to that).  If you stay at one of the "local" hotels, I seriously doubt internet will be available, but I could be wrong.  I also didn't see any Internet cafes, but I am not sure I would know if I did.