To fully enjoy living in a country like Indonesia you need the ability to quickly adapt. Many people will on their first visit to Asia experience a cultural shock, absolutely everything is different. A cultural shock is not just a way of speech, it can be quite real for most of us moving to a new country. It will not appear right after the move as many may believe, for the first 1-2 months everything will look new, exciting and charming. In the next phase all that used to be charming may turn into a source of irritation.

This article is basically written for expatriates moving to Indonesia for a shorter or longer period, the article's main focus is on the wife who decides to follow her husband abroad, as this is still the most common case when a family moves to a developing nation. Every move abroad starts with a decision (still) most often made by the husband, or more correctly, by his employers, and by the time the wife hears about it she sometimes feel there is little left to discuss.

The local currency in Indonesia is called rupiah. Notes commonly used is 500, 1.000, 5.000, 10.000, 20.000, 50.000 and 100.000 Rupiah. Coin values are 50, 100, 500 and 1.000 rupiah. It is not allowed to bring more than 50.000Rp out of the country. One of the small everyday problems you will encounter is to have enough of the smaller values, as most people are not able to change a 50.000 or a 100.000 rupiah note, or that is anyway what they will tell you.

Below is a list of Indonesian Embassies and Consulates abroad. The list is not 100% complete, if you find that data is missing, wrong or out of date please inform us. Before you go to Indonesia you should check your passport expiry date. Indonesia require passports to be valid for six months following the date of arrival. New regulations have implemented one month tourist Visa's for most countries, which for some nationalities may be obtained on arrival (see the forum for more details).

Most embassies in Indonesia are located in Jakarta, while several nations have consular representatives in Bali as well as in some of the major cities in Indonesia. Some countries deal with Indonesia from an embassy in a third country. This is a list of foreign embassies and consulates to Indonesia. The list below is not 100% complete, if you find that data is missing, wrong or out of date please inform us.

Beautiful Bintan Resorts. Just less than an hour away from Singapore lies one of Asia's best-kept secrets.

Overlooking the South China Sea, just a ferry-hop from Singapore, Bintan Resorts seems a world apart from the hustle and bustle of city life. White sand beaches merge with brilliant blue waters and lush green jungle to give the visitors a true island retreat.