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  • Money exchange in Indonesia +1

    I had the bad experience in Kuta, Bali Island.  Just did a quick research online and found it's actually kind of common in the country.

    One USD is worth about 13,000 Rupiah, The Indonesian currency.  That means their bank notes bear very high numbers, like 100000, 50000, etc.  They don't use commas to group the zeros, so one big challenge for foreigners is to count the zeros on a paper money.

    It's not uncommon that money exchangers purposely use lower value bank notes, e.g. 20,000 Rupiahs other than 100,000 Rupiahs, to exchange your USD.  That means there are lots of bank notes to count.  Counting money is the part they do trick on you. 

    When I went to exchange 200 USD in a small store in Kuta, the guy took out quite a few stocks of Rupiah money.  He counted in front of me, but he had very quick hands!  He took away the money in front of my eyes without my notice.  When I went back to my hotel room, I found there is a short of half million Rupiah.  That's $50 USD, a quarter of the amount I exchanged.

    When you go to Bali Island, stay away from Kuta.  Also only exchange money in bank offices or dedicated money exchange shops, which would provide a transaction receipt.  Always count it with your own hands.

    Basically same precaution applies to everywhere, especially developing countries.

    Wish you a great trip!

    • Thanks for sharing. As far as I know, Indonesia is a Muslim country, how do you like it? +1
      • Good question. I have been thinking about writing something about that. +1

        Yes, Indonesia is a Muslim country.  Actually it's the most populated Muslim country in the world. 

        I visited two big islands and one tiny island.  Interestingly enough, Bali Island is a mostly buddist island.  But the other two are Islamic.

        I felt Islam is very intrusive to daily life.  On the tiny island, there were two mosques, each has very powerful loudspeakers on the roof towers.  The loud chanting woke me up very early every morning. During the day time it occurred several times.  I didn't count.  I stayed on that tiny island for two weeks.  At first I was quite disturbed, but after a few days just got used to the sound.

        On the beach, you would see some Muslim women covering themselves from head to legs.  But also I met an Indonesian girl who was also a Muslim but she wore bikini.  During my stay of one month, I didn't see any women covering their face.

        Dispite being ripped off by the money exchanger the first night I arrived at Bali island, my experience in Indonesia was quite good though. :)

         

        • Can't imagine wearing niqab all the time in a hot place like Indonesia. +1