[at] Rambut merah, you must have had a lot of looks in the early days in lombok because of your hair???
Nowadays Lombok is nearly as touristy as Bali (or getting there in part thanks to the new international airport). There actually seems to be a serious efford going on (backed by the government and various enablers) to make Lombok the number one tourist destination in Indonesia. So i guess nowadays you won't get that many looks in Lombok anymore since the people are getting used to tourists there in all shapes, sizes and looks.
Actually i am not in Indonesia at the moment because of work and private reasons, but am planning to return this May. I have not been back to Holland for that long since years but circumstances forced me.
[at] No idea: Well yes i obviously been in the retail stores and Carrefour to check out the fridges, and i have considered buying one but since i am still not formally settled in Indonesia i still stick with the mantra "rent whatever you can". I like to be flexible and 100.000 is still not a big chunk out of my budget so for now i stick with the renting. If i would settle in Indonesia forever i would probably buy a small house and stuff.
One often hears stories that Bali has become a lot more expensive then before, but what is before?? 5 years ago? 10 years ago or 20 years ago?? For me i think it all depends, some things have become cheaper and other things have become more expensive. The most important is the base money or the currency one makes his money in (Euro, USD Australian dollar etc). For example for Australians Indonesia has not become much more expensive the last 15 years or so, simply because the value of the AUD has gone up at least 50% to the US Dollar in those 18 years. (an AUD is no worth more than a USD) And we all know that the Rupia is still more or less linked to the USD.
For people who use or make their money in USD or EURO the story is much different, these currencies are more or less constant to the Rupia since after the KRISMON (however the trend is that they are very slowly depreciating against the Rupia). So the Americans and Eurozone people suffer as much from Indonesian inflation as the Indonesians do.
If i remember well, i went to Bali for the first time in 1995. I came fresly from Australia where i had worked 3 months as a fruitpicker and i had managed to save 3000 AUD. A US Dollar in those days would go for 2500 rupia (pre krismon time) and an australian dollar did about 1500 rupia. (Dutch guilder would do 1100)
I managed to live a bit over 3 months in Bali on those 3000 Australian dollars (including one visa run with ticket from Jakarta to Singapore which took quite a bite out of the savings) and i was living quite frugally, staying in a cheap family run losmen , a garden with small huts around it for 4000 rupia per night including breakfast (where have they gone) Without airco and without anything (but a squat toilet and a simple handmade cold shower outside surrounded by a wall but no roof). But i still went out to Legian often to the nightclubs (i was young) and had a motorbike.
Looking at what the Aussie dollar is doing today in Rupia (a bit over 10.000 rupia) i could probably still manage to live 3 months again on the same 3000 dollar today and probably live even less frugally as i did back then!!!!!!!!
Amazing actually
Nowadays Lombok is nearly as touristy as Bali (or getting there in part thanks to the new international airport). There actually seems to be a serious efford going on (backed by the government and various enablers) to make Lombok the number one tourist destination in Indonesia. So i guess nowadays you won't get that many looks in Lombok anymore since the people are getting used to tourists there in all shapes, sizes and looks.
Actually i am not in Indonesia at the moment because of work and private reasons, but am planning to return this May. I have not been back to Holland for that long since years but circumstances forced me.
[at] No idea: Well yes i obviously been in the retail stores and Carrefour to check out the fridges, and i have considered buying one but since i am still not formally settled in Indonesia i still stick with the mantra "rent whatever you can". I like to be flexible and 100.000 is still not a big chunk out of my budget so for now i stick with the renting. If i would settle in Indonesia forever i would probably buy a small house and stuff.
One often hears stories that Bali has become a lot more expensive then before, but what is before?? 5 years ago? 10 years ago or 20 years ago?? For me i think it all depends, some things have become cheaper and other things have become more expensive. The most important is the base money or the currency one makes his money in (Euro, USD Australian dollar etc). For example for Australians Indonesia has not become much more expensive the last 15 years or so, simply because the value of the AUD has gone up at least 50% to the US Dollar in those 18 years. (an AUD is no worth more than a USD) And we all know that the Rupia is still more or less linked to the USD.
For people who use or make their money in USD or EURO the story is much different, these currencies are more or less constant to the Rupia since after the KRISMON (however the trend is that they are very slowly depreciating against the Rupia). So the Americans and Eurozone people suffer as much from Indonesian inflation as the Indonesians do.
If i remember well, i went to Bali for the first time in 1995. I came fresly from Australia where i had worked 3 months as a fruitpicker and i had managed to save 3000 AUD. A US Dollar in those days would go for 2500 rupia (pre krismon time) and an australian dollar did about 1500 rupia. (Dutch guilder would do 1100)
I managed to live a bit over 3 months in Bali on those 3000 Australian dollars (including one visa run with ticket from Jakarta to Singapore which took quite a bite out of the savings) and i was living quite frugally, staying in a cheap family run losmen , a garden with small huts around it for 4000 rupia per night including breakfast (where have they gone) Without airco and without anything (but a squat toilet and a simple handmade cold shower outside surrounded by a wall but no roof). But i still went out to Legian often to the nightclubs (i was young) and had a motorbike.
Looking at what the Aussie dollar is doing today in Rupia (a bit over 10.000 rupia) i could probably still manage to live 3 months again on the same 3000 dollar today and probably live even less frugally as i did back then!!!!!!!!
Amazing actually
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