The currency in Indonesia is the Rupiah (IDR). The exchange rate is roughly 9,300 IDR to the dollar. So it's easy to do conversions, but at times, working with so many zeros can be confusing. The first time we pulled out about 300 dollars from an ATM, Eric and I suddenly felt rich. The machine dispensed a whole wad of 100,000 rupiah notes totaling to 3,000,000 rupiahs. The biggest note is 100,000 and the smallest note is 1,000. The coins are found in denominations of 500, 200, and 100.
Mostly, prices are in the thousands. However, when the 10% tax is added to the restaurant bill, or buying items at the grocery store, you'll see prices in the hundreds. For example, a bottle of Gatorade might cost 6,300 IDR. When you give the cashier 7,000 IDR for the Gatorade, you'd expect to get 700 IDR back. But, stores rarely carry the small denominations of coins. They may give you a 500 coin and in place of the two hundred rupiah owed to you, you get two hard candies.
When you look into the cash register, they actually have hard candies in the little section where the 100 coins should be. After a while, you end up with a lot of little candies you don't really want to eat and the cashier won't take candies as payment.
That's a rip off! I feel like if you are getting change back in candies, you should be able to pay in candies...BS! but oh so funny!
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