Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MEDICAL CARE AND EMERGENCIES
If you have a minor ailment, head to a
pharmacy ( apotik ), which can provide
many medicines without prescription.
Condoms ( kondom ) are available from
pharmacists and some convenience
stores. If you need an English-speaking
doctor ( doktor ) or dentist ( doktor gigi ),
seek advice at your accommodation or
at the local tourist o ce. You'll find a
public hospital ( rumah sakit ) in major
cities and towns, and in some places
these are supplemented by private
hospitals , many of which operate an
accident and emergency department. If
you have a serious accident or illness,
you will need to be evacuated home or
to Singapore, which has Asia's best
medical provision. It is, therefore,
vital to arrange health insurance before
you leave home.
Sometimes prices for tourist services,
such as diving or organized trips, are
quoted in dollars or euros , but you can
pay in rupiah at the exchange rate at
that time.
You'll find banks capable of handling
foreign exchange in provincial capitals
and bigger cities throughout Indonesia,
and most bigger places have ATMs , which
take at least one from Visa, MasterCard
or Cirrus-Maestro. here are also
privately run moneychangers in major
tourist centres. Always count your
money carefully, as unscrupulous dealers
can rip you off, either by folding notes
over to make it look as if you're getting
twice as much, or by distracting you and
then whipping away a few notes from
your pile.
In less-travelled regions, provincial
banks won't cash travellers' cheques, but
will take dollars . Over-the-counter cash
advances on Visa can be used for getting
the best possible exchange rate.
4
INFORMATION AND MAPS
here's a range of tourist o ces in
Indonesia, including government-run
organizations, normally called Dinas (or
Kantor) Pariwisata (Diparda). However,
many tourist information centres in
Indonesia are little more than pamphlet
outlets. Good hostels are often the best
sources of information.
Good all-round maps include
GeoCentre's 1:2,000,000 series and the
Nelles Indonesia series. In the same
league is the Periplus ( W periplus.com)
range of user-friendly city and
provincial maps.
OPENING HOURS AND HOLIDAYS
As a rough outline, businesses such as
airline o ces open Monday to Friday
8am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to noon.
Banking hours are Monday to Friday
8am to 3pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm,
but banks may not handle foreign
exchange in the afternoons or at
weekends. Post o ces operate roughly
Monday to hursday 8am to 2pm,
Friday 8 to 11am and Saturday 8am to
1pm, though in the larger cities the
hours are much longer. Muslim
businesses, including government o ces ,
may also close at 11.30am on Fridays,
the main day of prayer, and national
public holidays see all commerce
compulsorily curtailed.
Ramadan , a month of fasting during
daylight hours, falls during the ninth
Muslim month, which changes from
year to year. Even in non-Islamic areas,
Muslim restaurants and businesses shut
down during the day, and in staunchly
Islamic parts of rural Lombok, Sumatra
and Kalimantan's Banjarmasin, you
should not eat, drink or smoke in public
at this time.
MONEY AND BANKS
he Indonesian currency is the rupiah
(abbreviated to “Rp”). Notes come in
denominations of Rp500 (rare), Rp1000,
Rp5000, Rp10,000, Rp20,000, Rp50,000
and even Rp100,000; coins , mainly used
for public telephones and bemos , come in
Rp25 (rare), Rp50, Rp100, Rp500 and
Rp1000 denominations. O cially, rupiah
are available outside Indonesia, but the
currency's volatile value means that few
banks carry it. At the time of writing, the
exchange rate was Rp19,600 to £1 and
Rp12,000 to US$1.
 
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