The main language in Indonesia is called Bahasa Indonesia. It is very similar to Malay, which is the language spoken in Malaysia, a neighboring country. There are also hundreds of local languages spoken across Indonesia's many islands. Sometimes people mix those languages with Bahasa Indonesia!
In Indonesia, we use the rupiah. One US dollar is equal to 16,000 rupiah (Rp). So, when I spend Rp32,000, I am spending $2.
Rp16,000 = $1
Rp32,000 = $2
Rp48,000 = $3
Rp64,000 = $4
I have a challenge for you: how many dollars is Rp128,000? How many rupiah is $10?
At a supermarket, a small bottle of water is Rp5,000, which is 31 cents. A large bottle of water is Rp10,000, which is 62 cents.
The best meal this week was from a restaurant called Senja. We ate mie goreng se'i (fried noodles with smoked beef and vegetables), nasi rendang (spiced beef with savory sauce and rice), cassava (a root vegetable kind of like a potato), spring rolls and fried corn balls. For dessert, we had boiled cassava in sweet, brown sauce. Our favorite was the nasi rendang!
