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The Plunging Rupiah
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EFL Educator



Joined: 17 Jul 2013
Posts: 988
Location: Cape Town

PostPosted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It does seem 15,000 IDR per U.S.dollar is coming much sooner than Christmas....possibly as early as next week...just follow the online exchange rates....if you are teaching English and getting paid in the local currency the value of your money is getting less and less by the day...as are savings (if any)! Shocked
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Tudor



Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 339

PostPosted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EFL Educator wrote:
if you are teaching English and getting paid in the local currency the value of your money is getting less and less by the day...as are savings (if any)! Shocked


Yeah, thanks for that acute observation Captain Obvious Rolling Eyes
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princesss



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: japan/indo/aust

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 8:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

EFL Educator wrote:
It does seem 15,000 IDR per U.S.dollar is coming much sooner than Christmas....possibly as early as next week...just follow the online exchange rates....if you are teaching English and getting paid in the local currency the value of your money is getting less and less by the day...as are savings (if any)! Shocked


They have opened the country to 90 different nationalities visa free now. They are desperate to get their hands on foreign currency by any means possible. I doubt it will help much but they are trying. Problem is the whole country is blanketed with haze from forest fires so tourist numbers are down 40% anyway. Who wants to choke on burning smoke on their holiday?


Last edited by princesss on Thu Oct 08, 2015 3:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doesn't matter if you get paid peanuts in Indonesia anyway, as there will soon be nowhere left to party or have a drink anyway.

The Jakarta administration has just announced that it will be introducing a rigid 12 pm curfew for all nightclubs. As no one even gets there until that time, this virtually means an end to nightlife in the capital. This follows the ban on selling alcohol at minimarts and supermarkets a few months back and the 150% increase in liquor taxes just to make sure no one can afford booze. The place is rapidly becoming more and more like Saudi Arabia by the day. The country is being taken over by a fundamentalist religious lobby. Hardly an appealing destination for expats these days.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/02/nightclubs-will-close-midnight-city-official.html

The story has already made the Thai newspapers, further spreading the bad news and damaging Indonesia's tourist prospects even more. The following quote gives an idea of how it is perceived abroad.

In what officials claim is a bid to combat drug trafficking in the capital, the Jakarta City Council is set to issue a regulation ordering all entertainment venues to close their doors by midnight, The Jakarta Globe reported.
The bylaw on the city’s tourism sector has already been drafted and is set to be ratified next Friday, said Mohammad Taufik, head of the Council’s Legislation Agency (Balegda).

The questionable bill, which would significantly affect Jakarta’s slew of high-earning nightclubs, karaoke bars, “spas” and lounges, will also regulate the general operating hours of the capital’s entertainment venues.

Should the bylaw pass the City Council’s approval, nightclubs will have to put up their “closed” signs by midnight, Taufik said.

Should venues fail to do so, they may face a degree of sanctions, with the heaviest being the revocation of their operating permits.


http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/jakarta-city-entertainment-venues-to-close-by-midnight
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jef dam



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 79

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Way too many vested interests for that law to pass. On the off chance it does get through, the wheels will be greased and a blind eye will be turned as appropriate. Reeks of a shake down and / or an effort to deflect from problems elsewhere, *cough* economy *splutter* currency.
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princesss



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: japan/indo/aust

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jef dam wrote:
Way too many vested interests for that law to pass. On the off chance it does get through, the wheels will be greased and a blind eye will be turned as appropriate. Reeks of a shake down and / or an effort to deflect from problems elsewhere, *cough* economy *splutter* currency.


You may very well be right. The mass drug dealer execution and the blowing up fishing boats was diversionary politics par excellence. But then again they do carry through with some ridiculous things at times. The English degree requirement has lasted far longer than anyone dreamed, and the JIS case had caused untold damage before they finally backed down. The poor cleaners are still in jail! Also it seems like this government is especially chaotic. Hard to know what they'll do. Let's see what happens.
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plumpy nut



Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Posts: 1652

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

princesss wrote:


You may very well be right. The mass drug dealer execution and the blowing up fishing boats was diversionary politics par excellence.


How much did the police make off of the drugs? Any guesses? Any announcements in the papers about the drugs having been blown up?
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 4:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

plumpy nut wrote:
princesss wrote:


You may very well be right. The mass drug dealer execution and the blowing up fishing boats was diversionary politics par excellence.


How much did the police make off of the drugs? Any guesses? Any announcements in the papers about the drugs having been blown up?


It is an open secret in Indonesia that the National Police are a pseudo-criminal organization- more of a Mafia than a police force. At the start of 2015, the Anti-Corruption Commission found $5.9 million in the bank account of a child of Budi Gunawan, a high ranking police officer. Wages being what they are in Indonesia, he couldn't have that kind of money from this job in 1000 years. The Commission placed charges and the National Police responded viciously. Every single commissioner of the anti-corruption commission was arrested and remains on charges now. The President himself was too afraid to over-rule the police and the charges have stood. Budi Gunawan has now been reinstated and the people who dared to challenge him are facing judicial persecution.

Basically, nothing besides narcotics money could explain the large fortunes which top cops amass in Indonesia. The freedom with which drugs were sold in Jakarta discos under police protection rackets also indicates collusion between the police force and drug dealers on a massive scale. It is also believed that a lot of this money is used to fund election campaigns, so the main parties are also complicit. The head of the PDI-P party is a close personal friend of Budi Gunawan. Basically, Indonesian democracy has been totally eroded by vested and even criminal interests. The idea of police confiscating drugs from dealers who aren't in their network and re-selling them is completely logical.
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jef dam



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 79

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As expected, a whole load of puff and bluster about the midnight cut off time for clubs and bars. Don't think the idea of attaching cubs to hotels should be too much of a problem as most of them are knocking shops with "sleeping" quarters anyway...

http://jakarta.coconuts.co/2015/10/29/city-council-gives-closing-clubs-midnight-weirdly-now-wants-them-all-attached-hotels

Quote:
Remember a few weeks ago when we were worried by a few Jakarta City Council members who were pushing to close down all of the city’s bars and nightclubs (aka diskoteks) at midnight in order to "curb drug use"?

It was a non-sensical plan (drug users can only get their fix in nightclubs after midnight?) that was sure to decimate the city’s nightlife industry - because of course nobody goes out to the clubs here until after midnight when the traffic actually dies down.

Fortunately Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and others argued against their proposed changes to the city’s tourism bylaws and now looks like the City Councilors who were originally pushing for the curfew, such as Deputy Speaker Muhammad Taufik, have given up on shutting down nightlife at midnight.

Tomorrow the City Council will hold a plenary session to discuss the ratification of a new draft of the city’s tourism bylaws. The new draft would make nightlife entertainment spots close at 2am, up from the current closing time of 3am (which is widely ignored by many of the city’s clubs anyways).

“On Friday, we will vote [on the new draft]. Tell the governor that this bill is designed to regulate nightclubs, not shut them altogether,” Taufik said today, as quoted by Kompas.

But Taufik said the new bylaws would tighten the regulations and sanctions on nightclubs in other ways. One of the new regulations, he said, would be that all nightclubs would have to be combined with hotels with a minimum of four stars.

Uhm... that also seems like a completely nonsensical law, given that only a handful of Jakarta’s clubs are currently attached to high-class hotels, and it would be impossible for most others to add a 4-star hotel to their premises.

Taufik also said that the draft included penalties that would force a nightclub to be closed immediately if any drug activity was found to be taking place there. That would be even stricter than the rules set out by Governor Ahok, who said that any club found to have drug activities taking place inside them twice would be shut down.

It seems quite unlikely to us that even this current draft will be enacted without being furthered watered down by sensibility, but we’ll find out tomorrow.
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plumpy nut



Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Posts: 1652

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Fed just raised interest rates .25%, what effect is that going to have on the Rupiah? Laughing
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Shanghai Noon



Joined: 18 Aug 2013
Posts: 589
Location: Shanghai, China

PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm going to be in Indonesia from February 14 to 19. What can I expect for an exchange rate?
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Tudor



Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 339

PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shanghai Noon wrote:
I'm going to be in Indonesia from February 14 to 19. What can I expect for an exchange rate?


http://www.xe.com/
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plumpy nut



Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Posts: 1652

PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you bring cash, you won't get your money exchanged at that rate, but maybe somewhere around that. You need to exchange your money from Chinese money changers, shop around the Sarina shopping mall area in Jakarta which is close to Jalan Jaksa street, the backpacker slum in Jakarta. You should bring brand new bills that you can ask for at your bank, otherwise you will get really crappy exchange rates. Get $100 dollar bills or the equivalent in your country. A lot of Chinese money changers are not picky about used bills, it's basically an Indonesian scam that they don't follow. Still be prepared to have brand new bills. Make sure you have US dollar brand new bills for your visa in all denominations or you will get extorted at the airport and have a very bad day. Using Visa debit cards, you might get good exchange rates, but I don't remember how well that works even though I didn't use cash when I was there, so they must have ample ATMs. I do remember being extorted by the crooks at the airport.

There are airport buses that go straight to Monas monument(close to Jalan Jaksa) and some other place that I don't remember, two different buses for two different locations. The buses are on the first floor of the airport. I would use the buses and then take a Bajai (or taxi if you wish) to wherever else you need to go. At the airport you will be followed by fake "workers" for Bluebird taxi with blue shirts and some kind of uniform looking apparel. Do not listen to them or do what they tell you to do. Take the Airport buses. These people will follow you and bother you and you cannot get rid of them period. Just don't do what they tell you to do or be fooled by them. This will be your first introduction to the Indonesian people's paradise that the imperialist United States and Britain is always trying to undermine and damage. Rolling Eyes


Last edited by plumpy nut on Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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plumpy nut



Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Posts: 1652

PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It looks like a reprieve for the Rupiah. I see strong resistance to it going down further. I could be wrong.
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Tazz



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 512
Location: Jakarta

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a small addition to the above-for most nationals there is no longer any need to purchase a visa upon entry at all-they'll just stamp your passport on arrival and through the gate to heaven you go! Very Happy
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