Being a Millionaire in Indonesia

IMG_20171031_153509

This question literally just went through my brain:

“Should I pull out 3 million or 4 million from the ATM?”

I wish we were talking about USD. If we were though, what the heck would I be spending it all on? Which brings up an interesting question – if you had a million dollars to spend in Bali and you couldn’t take the money home with you, what would you spend it on?

But alas, I’m talking about the Indonesian Rupiah. For a bit of context, roughly 16,500 rupiah is equal to 1 USD. Which basically means my US dollar can stretch really far in Indonesia. However, it’s hard to be happy about benefiting from it when I know it’s at the expense of a nation’s poor economy.

Side note – airport workers on roller skates just cruised by. I repeat, roller skates. Jakarta just went up in my books.

Another side note – when I was 12, it was my dream to work at Sonic where I could get paid to roller skate food to cars. When I was like 7, my parents let me skate in the house on the tile, or I would roller skate in the garage to music. I had NO IDEA back then that there were roller skating competitions. My life could’ve been so different …

I want to be this girl when I grow up:

Ok, where was I? Ah yes, poor economy. Anyway, I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Lombok when I was trying to figure out how much money to pull from the ATM. You see, I’m about to be in a village on Lombok for the next two weeks surfing.

And this village does not have an ATM. Or wifi. I literally have to rent a scooter and ride to the nearest town (20 minutes away) to get internet. Isn’t this going to be interesting …?

If I’m being honest, I’m a little nervous. Nervous for a lot of things.

I’m nervous that:

  • I won’t find the surf school
  • the surf school doesn’t exist
  • the surf school will give me bed bugs
  • I will get sick and won’t have proper medical aid
  • I’ll need something, and there won’t be any stores to buy anything
  • I won’t make any friends for two whole weeks, and I’ll be really lonely
  • I’ll get bored

Woof. That’s a long list, right? Lots of things to be nervous about. So trying to figure out if 3 million or 4 million rupiah will be enough is kind of the least of my worries. I’m staying at another hotel on Lombok tonight, and then I take a taxi to the surf school tomorrow where I hopefully learn that everything is going to be ok.

And if it’s not? Well … *shrugs* … I guess we’ll find out.

IMG_20171031_172637

Hi, I’m so glad you’re on my site! My name is Meagan, and I write about my traveling adventures and finding beauty in each day. For more info about me, click here!

Meagan Tilley

I believe that every day is a day that matters – even just enjoying the little things. Whether that’s traveling to the top cities across the world or binge watching Gilmore Girls. To read more, click the About Me page!

You might also like …

1 Comment

  1. Tony Vu

    Love the bottom photo! This is my new desktop picture! 🙂

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published.