Bali is CHEAP!

This morning I went to a few Internet cafes to try to find one that has Skype. Once I found one I decided to go inside and check my email. I read and sent some emails, checked the news and read some blogs. All told I spent about twenty minutes. The clerk said that I owed 3000 rupiah for my time. I pointed to a sign that said 4000 rupiah per hour. He replied saying that I didn't use the full hour. Yes, I said so I shouldn't have to pay 4000 rupiah. He looked kind of frustrated and said 2000 rupiah. I paid him and went on my way.

On my way back to the hotel I realized that I had saved myself about 10¢.

1 US$ = 9434 Rupiah

This can be very confusing when purchasing things. There are a lot of zeros after merchandise. Megan would usually put her finger over the last two digits to find the price in dollars. One our first day we walked by a McDonald's with a sign for 1534 rupiah ice cream. I said to Megan "Is that 15¢ or $1.50?" It was of course 15¢ (17 after tax).

When we first arrived in Bali we went to the ATM to get some money. I withdrew 2,500,000 rupiah. This was giving to us in 50,000 rupiah bills. That makes 50 bills, that fills up your wallet really fast. At first I thought this was good because then we wouldn't have to worry about breaking a big bill. It turns out that 50,000 is a big bill. The first thing we tried to buy in Bali was a large bottle of water (1.5 L). It was 2500 rupiah, I handed the clerk a 50,000 bill and he didn't have change. Also, he was by himself so he couldn't get change. We went to another store where they asked us for something smaller and when we said that was all we had they looked around and one of the clerks ended getting enough change but we had to buy 3 bottles.

Here are some of the highlights of cheap stuff:
McDonald's ice cream 1700
Bootlegged DVD's 10,000 (Buy 10 get 4 free!)
One Hour massage 50,000
Motor scooter rental 25,000
One Liter Petrol 4500 (3.8 Liters in a gallon that makes a gallon of gas 17100 Rp or $1.81)