Hilton Hotel, Jakarta, Saturday, 1998-04-25 09:00 local (Z+7)
I've been here for a day and one half. My impressions thus far follow.
The collapse of their economy has traumatized them. They don't understand why it happened, can't figure out how to cope with it, and are completely unbelieving that it can be fixed even though yesterday's newspaper headlines parroted a government pronouncement that it will be “over” in three years.
The outlook that it will be “over” betrays their belief that it's a natural disaster, something like an earthquake or catastrophic weather, an occurrence you can do little about except suffer through it. That it's due in large part to violation of basic economic rules by the government, purposeful over-heating of the economy for years, and massive, endemic corruption doesn't seem to have penetrated their thinking.
But it's great if you're a visitor with U.S. dollars. Last year I got 2,300 rupiah to the dollar. This year, at the airport, probably the worst place here to exchange your money, I got 7,200 rupiah to the dollar. That's over three times as much. Things have stabilized some, though. When the crisis first broke, the exchange rate shot up to 13,000. When the first Tower pilots arrived here in late February, the rate was 10,000.
Properly coping with the situation requires an adjustment of a visitor's thinking. Yesterday I went to the mini-market that's part of the hotel's residence section. I bought items that I had bought the two previous years to allow me to eat at least one meal in my room rather than having to walk outside a long ways or eat expensively in the hotel restaurants. About halfway back to my room, I realized that what I had done was unnecessary; the hotel food was now reasonable.
No matter, though. I had spent just $3 plus a few cents for two chocolate bars, a liter of chocolate milk, two cans of coca-cola, an apple, two medium sized boxes of Sunkist California Seedless raisins, one apple, two individual meal sized containers of noodles into which you pour hot water to prepare (quite good actually), and a large tin of butter cookies. Amazing!
Yesterday I accompanied three other Tower personnel on a shopping trip. It was like a feeding frenzy. Things were so cheap they couldn't resist buying them even though they didn't really need them. The comment I heard most was something like, “How am I ever going to get all this stuff home?”
For my part, I don't need anything, and I'm limiting my shopping to getting some fabric for C.J. that will pack easily, though my bag will be quite heavy.
Well, I need to get down to the buffet breakfast paid for by the company before it's too late.
More later...Terry