Money Exchange in Indonesia

Exchanging money is an easy feat. Lose money at your peril.

The official exchange rate for one US$ is approximately 13000 Indonesian rupiah and 19000 for one British pound.

The denominations are Rp 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000, 50000, 100000, a diverse set indeed. In most tourist streets around Bali, there are numerous exchange ‘shops’ that advertise their exchange rates on sidewalk street signs to the passing tourist traveling in a car, bicycle, taxi or motorbike. There are also banks that exchange money. Both these establishments offer quite different rates. You guessed it. The bank rate would be the official rate as indicated earlier in this section. The shop rate will be about 5 to 10% ‘better’. If the bank offers Rp13000 for 1 US dollar, the shop will offer 13900-14000. This difference is not what one can assume to be the difference between the official and the ‘black market’ rate. There is no ‘black market’ in Indonesia and just as so many ‘black markets’ in many Asian countries have disappeared altogether, Indonesia's is no exception.

A tourist is always tempted by bargains and will walk into one of these exchange shops, confirm the higher rate is indeed what is advertised and exchange their foreign currency. A one-hundred dollar or pound bill is not much for a few days stay in Bali so most likely, about 300 to 500 dollars or pounds will want to be exchanged. Looking at the high Indonesian currency value, even one British pound would retrieve several Indonesian notes and coins. When multiplied 300 times, the number and quantity of colored Indonesian notes being received by the tourist will seem highly lucrative (because we beat the bank rate), and mouth-watering (the thick bundle of received notes in quantity does not even compare with the three handed out. They are not going to fit into any wallet anyway) and at the same time make the tourist hasten not only because the large number of notes are attractive to other passers-by but also quite frustrating and time-consuming to count them all. Others might be waiting and rushing through the transaction seems imminent.

From his pedestal or behind his high counter, the friendly exchange vendor hands over all the Indonesian notes to be counted by the tourist. On accomplishing this minor counting feat in all of the heat of the moment, and verifying the amount is accurate, the vendor then proffers to the tourist either an envelope, rubber band or some such article to bind the notes together. While handling the notes from the tourist, the vendor then proceeds to stack the notes together, just as one would thump down against a table top the edges of paper sheets lengthwise and breadth wise in order to align them all in one neat bundle. This bundle for 300 dollars will be substantial. Believe me. It actually equals about four million rupiah! And of course, they will not be all in 100000 denominated bills to make life easier. The transaction will contain almost all the seven denominations because the vendor ‘does not have’ sufficient 100000 bills.

While ‘helping’ align all the notes, the vendor will thump down the stack of notes on his side of the counter which in all cases is higher from the ground than where the tourist is standing. The thumping down of the notes is very artful and several of them drop down from behind the stack of notes into an open drawer. The remaining stack which does not look diminished at all, because the stack was monstrous to begin with, is handed back to the unsuspecting tourist in an envelope. Try it yourself by taking a pack of cards or a sheaf of paper and while sitting in front of your desk, thump the pack or papers at the edge of where your desk meets your chair and let a few cards or papers from the back of the stack drop into your lap. The tourist merrily walks away none the wiser and the vendor has made ‘plenty good’ from the loss of his advertised exchange rate and what he will then exchange from a bank at the official rate.

You have been warned.

After you have counted all the notes, do not let the vendor handle it under any circumstances. You will soon find that he will not want to exchange your pounds or dollars, will hastily mass text message all the exchange vendors up and down the road as to your description so that you can never be successful in exchanging foreign currency at the tempting, sidewalk-advertised rate which you should not have looked at in the first place. Walk inside a regular bank!

Safe travels and happy exchanging!

From a Hindu sage

“You have a right to your prescribed duty. But you are not entitled to the fruits of its action."

Four Ways To Live a Better Life

By renowned Buddhist monk W. Vajiramedhi:

1. Don't be overly judgemental - Rather than constant critisism and fault finding, focus on the positive and what is realistic to achieve.

2. Jealousy and envy destroys - Be thankful for what you have.

3. Don't dwell on the past - Don't let events from the past limit, or restrict, your plans for the future. The past is history, start with the new.

4. Be true to yourself - You can't please everyone so make decisions or choices that are true to who you are.

Sanskrit saying

- He who knows and knows that he knows, is a sage; follow him
- He who knows not and knows that he knows not, is a seeker; teach him
- He who knows and knows not that he knows, is asleep; wake him
- He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him

Polite Society

This is an excerpt from an interview FT (http://www.ft.com/) had with Judith Martin, our very well known Miss Manners, published August 30/31, 2008.

"When Martin was covering embassies for the Post, she was bombarded and flattered by invitations. She complained to her husband that if she lost her job the next day, few of these people would invite her.

Martin's husband replied, "If he (the ambassador) lost his job tomorrow, you wouldn't go".

The conversation promted an epiphany: "We decided that the only people who would cross our threshold in our private life would be people we liked or thought we might like." "

.................."Expressing anger doesn’t usually change people’s behaviour. It just makes them rude back. You double the amount of rudeness in the world.” Her advice is more practical than prissy. “I have no magic formula (but) if you start screaming and yelling they write you off as someone who would never be pleased anyway.”

................“The English think we’re failed English people – that we don’t quite get it right, but that’s not the case,” she says. “The founding fathers of America very deliberately felt that manners in European court society with strict demarcations were not for us. De Toqueville points out that the chief thing about the servant-master relationship in America is that both know that their positions could be reversed tomorrow.”


From the Financial Times -
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bb6a1862-755b-11dd-ab30-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

Work to Love, Dance, Sing and Live

Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like nobody has ever hurt you.
Dance like nobody is watching.
Sing like nobody is listening.
Live as if this was paradise on Earth

Humans are irrational animals

Irrational phenomena in human beings include:

-"The Endowment Effect" - Once someone owns something, he places a higher value on it than he did when he acquired it.

- "Confirmation Bias" - Searching for or interpreting information in a way that confirm's one's preconceptions.

- "The Bandwagon Effect" - "Doing things because others do them"

- "Framing Problems" - When the conclusion reached depends on the way the data are represented.

All in all, the rational conclusion is that humans are irrational animals.

Above is an exerpt from an article that appeared in The Economist under the Science and Technology column of their June 21-27, 2008 issue.