Confession of an ex-expatriate

One of my friend just got back from Jakarta, he's been staying there for more than 6 years now.. he's moving there because of his job.,,
so when he's back, all of us having a night out and kinda celebration thing goung on.. and I asked him what did he think about living there,..
here whats he said...

 Confession of Bradyy 
What do I get living in Indonesia for 6 and a half years? a lesson!
At the moment, In my silly brain,  there is not many good thing about Indonesia, The one thing I like most about Indonesia is we get things done quicker(with bribe of course).
Tell you the truth I though Indonesia was a bit more open minded, but the fact is far from it. Everyone still not embracing the differences, for example in Indonesia, most girls have straighten their hair, whitening their skin. I have actually have  conversations with couple of girls in a fx mall, they say if your hair is curly people will laugh at you and look at you differently in a weird and strange way and also, if you have a dark( tan) skin, then you are less of a person, it means that you are poor person and they will treat you less respect than the one that have white skin. Also, I find that most Indonesian wanted to know everyone business in a annoying way, especially when you are westerners, most people will treat you differently. and the attitude was just horrible. just cant believe why everyone put up with it?

The only reason we left our country for Indonesia was the word "CHEAP' and also my job,  it turns out not as cheap as we thought. Just because its a third world country it doesn't mean its cheap, yes its cheap when you are on a holiday preparing your 20 grand budget and ready to spend it all on everything, then yes it all seems cheap.. yes cheap cheap and cheap.. but when yo do actually live, stay and work there, you live just like the rest of Indonesian( most of it). You might just get a little bit higher salary as an expatriate than the rest of Indonesian workers but don't forget about your accommodation, transportation, groceries and everything else.
Lets talk about it one by one shall we..

Accommodation

House
 Definitely, you want to stay in a decent place with western style toilet otherwise you'll find yourself in an awkward position when you need to go to the restroom. well, that's off the topic but .. ah, well, just need to tell you before you sign anything. Health and sanitation is not the number one thing here. So, if you want a decent  house it will cost you more or less USD2500/month. If you are working for big company and get paid well, the you are good, no need to worry about housing, because some company will cover the cost for your accommodation, but if you are not getting paid as much, then you better start re-thinking about your decision to come to Indonesia. If you still want to go to Indonesia without preparation, then don't have expectation to have a life style like you used to do back in your home country. I you go to Indonesia without job offer,  research and preparing yourself, you might find yourself living in a hotel or exclusive boarding house at first then you start to have less and less money and the move to cheaper boarding  house until no money left in your account, then you start contacting your family back home to send you some money, but no money come to your account and to get even worse, your visa runs out. If this your current situation, then  you are in trouble. Please contact your embassy right away to avoiding jail time for overstaying and visa violation and possibly deportation.
First step - contacting your family, let them know whats going on
Second step -  contacting your embassy, wherever you are, let them know your situation and then they will offer you the best solution for your situation.


Boarding House
There are two type of boarding house in Indonesia, the cheap boarding house and an exclusive boarding house. You will only get one room  with bed, wardrobe.  For exclusive boarding house, usually they have the toilet inside while the cheap one usually provided outside and shared among the residence.
Cheap boarding house starts from RP. 200.000 (USD20) to RP 500.000(USD50), and an exclusive boarding house start from RP. 1 million to RP. 6 million. Depending on a contract, exclusive one will offer you free laundry, free WiFi, free electricity, but some aren't.
Most Expatriate living in Indonesia will find them self living in an exclusive boarding house as a start before they find more suitable place to live, sure it does provide you with free low quality internet, free laundry, free housecleaning, however some boarding house aren't cheap either. Places like Casaluna Residence, Residence 99, Rasuna  icon, many more will cost you about USD600/month and the also charge extra for extra person.
 For example my self staying in Casaluna Residence in karet Pedurenan Jakarta
Casaluna Residence monthly rent =RP. 5.000.000(usd500)/month,
Extra person(my wife)= Rp. 800.000 (usd80)/month
Permit to stay in the Casaluna Residence area( paid to Casaluna as part of renting process) = RP. 500.000( /usd50,me only), RP. 150.000(usd15,wife)
So total to be paid is USD 645/every month ( excluding food, transport and your expenses like phone bill and etc)
 If you are agree to live in Indonesia you better be prepared to get robbed. If you are working as a native English teacher for EF which only get paid 8million/months then you cannot afford to live in apartment, usually they have a boarding house for you to stay( NOT FREE- not recommended) because they charge you anyway, you better looking for another boarding house with a better condition. with 1 million or less you can get a boarding house with the air conditioned and toilet inside.

Apartment
In Indonesia, You have to be careful and prepared, because if someone offer you rent in Apartment for 2 to7 million per-months then you have to asked all the hidden costs. Most independent real estate will not tell you all the hidden fee, but you do have to ask them because you WILL pay for it later on when you do live there.Most apartment will charge you: Maintenance Fee, Service Charge, Utility fee, Water usage, Sinking fund, and Electricity(pay per usage + connection fee). Depending on type of Apartment, some offer you cheap rent  usually poor unit  with very small studio room (21m2) and most decent apartment are expensive.
 In Jakarta most apartment cost from 3million to 25million per months depending on type of apartment you want to live in.
After living in Casaluna residence, we find our self living in Taman rasuna Apartment. The agent only tells us about the monthly rent and none of the hidden fee, part of it, we figure it out our self when our electricity in our unit was cuts, we contacted the management and they told us that we haven't paid all the hidden fee. we were outrages, felt like its a trap. just remember if your electricity cuts out means you haven't paying electricity, water, maintenance fee or utility charge.
  Monthly Rent Charge : Rp. 4.000.000 ( it was 2010- Mei 2011, now everything gone up)
 Maintenance Fee       : Rp. 900.000/ month
 Service Charge         : Rp. 1.000.000/month
 Water usage            : Rp. 900.000/3 months
Electricity                : Rp. 2.500.000/6 months

Total to be paid  was= Rp. 9.300.000/USD1000 month(excluding food, transport , internet, tv cable, phone and etc).
Just remember ask everything to your agent.

TRANSPORTATION
 You do not want to get yourself in a public bus or angkot. Not just risky, full of thief and beggars it  mostly crowded. Most westerners in Indonesia use taxi as a everyday transportation and it doesn't come cheap either.


GROCERIES

There are many places you can go in Indonesia to get groceries, places like careffour, Farmer market, Giant, Alfa mart and etc.
To live and be healthy we need to eat something nutritious and actually does good to our body. As a couple, we usually go to shopping every 2 week because milk  usually go off around 2 weeks. Every 2 week we buy Milk, cereal, muesli bar, flour, egg, bread, cheese, sauces, noodle, rice, chicken, beef, fruit and vegetable. total cost of our groceries every 2 week is Rp. 1.5 million(USD150). we usually have toasts, cereal for breakfast, muesli for snack,  burger, salad, or sandwiches for lunch and  steak, pasta, lasagna or spaghetti for dinner.

sure some vegetable like bok choy, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrot are cheaper that in western country.but some are just the same and even more expensive like peas, potato and onion.
Frozen food like frozen cauliflower, broccoli, peas, french fries, burger patties, pie are cheaper in western country. Cheese in Indonesia is a luxury, they are expensive and some are just fake stuff.
Indonesian sausages are jokes, they are not real, fake stuff. I'm not even sure that the sausages even contain any meat??];:::?? yet they are expensive, 7 fake sausages cost you about Rp.25.000(USD2.5). Some fruit like Grapes(green or Red) cost Rp. 40.000/kg (USD4/kg), 4 apples cost you Rp.20.000(USD2).

Most Indonesian we met spend  less than Rp.100.000(USD 10) per-2week in a groceries, because they don't buy what we buy, they buy Tempe&tofu(fermented soybean),  Indomie ( noodle), rice and vegetable  and occasionally chicken. when I asked 3 indonesian couples about their diet, they simply answer they have Indomie(Packed Noddle) for breakfast, tempe,tofu and sayur( some sort of vegetable soup) for lunch and Nasi or Mie goreng for dinner. Most Indonesian also like to buy their food from street vendor.

if you are used to Indonesian food  that mostly cook with tap water and mostly chilli, than you will be okay with street vendor food they call warung or warteg and the food usually cheap but there is no guarantee that about the cleanliness and food poisoning.


we are living Indonesia because its so hard to get anything, for example to get a decent standard living, you need to pay huge amount of money to get a decent house/apartment and paying so much for groceries for nutritious food to keep our body fit and healthy while the amount of money we make here as an expatriate is not much.
we have to pay the same total amount  sometime more pricey of weekly groceries we do here with what we did back in our country ( only we pay here with Indonesian salary, that didn't come cheap)

    Total our salary My wife and I combine Rp. 30.000.0000/USD 3000/month
Expenses:  Rent  USD 1500/month++(hidden fee)
                 Groceries USD 600/months (150X4)
                 Transport    USD100/month
                  Bills             USD500/month
TOTAL = USD 2700

Total money left after expenses : 3000-2700=USD 300

More, everyone in Indonesia want a piece of pie, everyone wants a piece of your money, especially immigration and other public services. the habit of taking money before doing their work is disgusting, it seems like (if I don't give them the money that they are asking for, to do the job that they already  paid by government) nothing will get done or they will mess with our paperwork or even worse accusing us for something.

If you want a decent quality of live living in Indonesia, you will spend as much as you spent on a western country and sometime its more expensive.
We might pay the same amount of groceries as in western countries, but back in our home country the cost of groceries are much cheaper that's including milk, beef, juice, apples.
In Indonesia, everything that we think as everyday item in western country is a luxury in Indonesia. all those thing in Indonesia milk, cheese, meat, seafood, salad, bread, cereal, ice cream, real coffee, some fruit like apple and oranges consider as a luxury while in western country its just everyday groceries item. any diary product are expensive even tomato sauce is expensive and even pasta  expensive and you can even get a decent pasta sauce, its just fake stuff available on the aisle. Herbs and spices are just expensive. Yes its true Indonesia have fresh spices like fresh cumin, ginger, turmeric, but it also limited, like rosemary and sage. however you can find all those fresh thing in Australia too. We love fruit juice in the morning, however in Indonesia real fruit juice are imported from Australia like fruit juice and it cost a bit more expensive than Australia. and more on that, in Indonesia the label fruit juice its not always fruit juice sometime its just cordial. In Indonesia there is no consumer watchdog that protect the consumer right. there are so many example of this such as fake sausages, cordial as fresh juice and many more. and the fact that there in no actual butcher, the cuts are all wrong, they just cut it, no knowledge in proper butchering the meat, it seems like they just hack it. People in Indonesia aren't willing to work hard, most of them, but they are willing work hard for extra pay(bribe).
Not just one time, but most of the time, after we were shopping  from one  mall  in Jakarta and we took a taxi to get back to our place, and the taxi driver always.. always..pretend  that they do not know where Apartment Taman Rasuna is. Sometime my wife and I asked them how do they get the job as a taxi drivers if they do not know places.
The organize beggars in the street that people seems to ignore, the fact that people only want nothing but money. To me this country runs by nothing but "Greed".
And people here always think negative about everything.. The fact that my wife is Indonesian, she sometimes treated with less respect because everyone thinks she is prostitutes every time we go out. In Indonesia, if you are walking and holding hands with western person mean you are prostitute. Also, if you are women and get  job promotion, everyone will think you slept with the boss. if you going out with wearing shorts skirts/pans and tank top or mini dress people assume you are prostitute. Too many people jobless and spending all day hanging out in the sidewalk bothering and staring at everyone who walks along the sidewalk.
 in Indonesia people don't be surprise if you find a guy stealing chicken  get 5 year sentences and a guy who corrupt and steal 5 billion government money walks away free.