Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Some Things You Should Know About Indo

1. In the big cities, the malls and fashion outlets are open from either 9 to 9 or 10 to 10 every day, including weekends. In some Bandung malls, you have to pay if you go to the toilets (around € 0.08 or $0.1). The only days they are closed are on HUGE national holidays like Lebaran Day or New Year.

2. Living together is still a taboo thing in Indonesia. Surely a few people do it, but it's not a common thing to do. Kids still mostly stay with their parents until they get married, unless they work or study in another city, then they'll rent a room.

3. The cost of renting an apartment is WAY more expensive than the cost of renting a house.


4. Pirated CDs and DVDs are sold freely. Of course every now and then the police would arrest them, but then they'll bribe the police and then the markets are open again in no time. For an unrich nation like Indo, it'd be crazy to have to buy original DVDs just to enjoy movies at home. I mean, nowadays it's already HARD to survive on one income if you have a family with one kid (if your hubby's not a manager or the owner of a thriving business or something like that). If you still have to buy original CDs or DVDs, then you won't eat or you can't save money anymore. Let's get real here! The cost of buying one pirated CD/DVD is only around €0.41 or $0.51, whereas the cost of buying one original DVD would be around €3.50 or $4.30 (sometimes even more than that!). The cost of watching movies at the cinema in Bandung area would be around €1.25 or $1.50 (on weekends the tickets cost more than that). So, even though sometimes the quality of the pirated CD/DVD sucks BIG TIME, it still is the most affordable option anyway.

5. As a follow-up to Vince's comment for my other post, I think one thing that's similar about Finland and Indonesia is this (if what I read about Finland is correct, that is): If you visit someone in Indo and the host/hostess serves you something, you'd better at least try some he he he...

Okay, I think I should stop here and start learning Finnish. I'll add more stuff later on when I remember more.

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