Rupiah ... How much is it?

One of the most important things that you should bring on your trip is money ... agreed? Eventhough you have credit cards, but bring small amount of cash may be a good idea as not in every place here has the card machines. Well, this time I will write about Rupiah and hopefully can give you description about it. Rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia. The currency code is IDR.

Rupiah consists of bank notes and coins. The symbol for this currency is Rp. There are many forms of coins: Rp. 25, Rp. 50, Rp. 100, Rp. 200, Rp. 500, and banknotes: Rp. 1,000; Rp. 5,000; Rp. 10,000; Rp. 50,000; Rp. 100,000. The coins of Rp. 25, Rp. 50, and Rp. 100 are rarely used now.


The Coins




The Bank Notes

Some of my overseas friends always get confused about how we do transactions with our money. For example, you have to pay about Rp. 2,000 (two thousands rupiahs) for public transport fares. For my friends, it is a lot ... as they think Rp. 2,000 like USD 2,000 or RM 2,000 or AUD 2,000. Well, it is different. In fact, Rp. 2,000 is only USD 0.22. The exchange rate for USD 1 is around Rp. 9,000-9,500 (year 2008). So, you will find yourself spending thousands of rupiahs for bread or a meal, or a drink or a small souvenir or hundred of thousands for a hotel room ... or millions for rupiahs for an overseas flight ticket ... Yes, we have lots of zeros in every transaction.

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