In Bali, it’s easy to feel like a million bucks. Actually, it’s more like a million rupiah, which is the local currency. At the moment, one U.S. dollar buys you about 15,500 Indonesian rupiah. The biggest bill I’ve seen is a 100,000 rupiah note—about six dollars in Yankee greenbacks. In practical terms this means two things:
We are Balinese millionaires
My wallet is stuffed
To help you visualize what I’m talking about, I took the money out of my wallet and, like a gangsta, threw my cabbage across the bed. Needless to say, Christina was impressed; she even started calling me Big Daddy Warbucks.
With so much money burning a hole in our pockets, we decided to hit a local flea market. To get there, we took a Grab, which is Indonesia’s answer to Uber. The ride took about ten minutes and cost 43,000 rupiah, or just under $3. Actually, the ride, including taxes and Grab’s platform fee, was only 28,000 rupiah, but Big Daddy Warbucks is a generous tipper.
“You shoul…
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