Batam island is just an hour boat ride away from Singapore. It cost around 50 SGD (P1650) for a round trip boat ticket. Their currency is Indonesian Rupiah which is equivalent to 0.0038 PHP. For our pocket money (this was only a day trip. We just need money for lunch, snack, and souvenir.) we exchange P2700 pesos (for 4 people) which were converted to around 720,000 Rupiah. WOW! Almost a million! 😏 The boat fare was more expensive!
What were we able to buy for 720,000 rupiah or 2,700 pesos? Since I can’t remember the exact breakdown, I’ll just enumerate everything that we bought.
- Lunch at a restaurant located on the 3rd floor of Mega Mall Batam Centre. Meal + fruit shake (for 4 people).
- Food as pasalubong “souvenirs” from Mega Mall supermarket (5 big packs of dried jackfruit, a couple packs of cookies, 2 sweet potato chips and a bottle of mineral water)
- A box of coffee roti bread (10 packs) - the roti actually cost 100,000. That’s 10,000 each!
- Four grande frappuccinos (different flavors) from Starbucks Indonesia.
We had to spend all the money, or at least leave minimal amount because unlike other currencies, Indonesian rupiah expires. So even if we do have a plan to return, we’re not sure if they will still accept the money.
Note: We didn’t have any rupiah when we left SG. We did forex when we arrived in Batam because my cousin said the exchange rate there is more favorable than in SG.
