top | item 28323225

(no title)

adakbar | 4 years ago

I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. My monthly living expenses (adjusted from IDR to USD on current rate)

1. Apartment rent, 6 months contract at $1300 + $200 deposit, pay upfront, thus $250 monthly. It is a small apartment 1 common area, 2 tiny bedroom, and tiny balcony

2. Utilities, varying from $30 to $50, mine has 2 AC running almost 24/7, a PC with average 200 to 300 watt power draw, and 5 led light bulbs

3. Meals, 3 times a day for 1 person, $20 daily or $600 monthly (this amount considered fancy meal, you can get way cheaper meals like $2/each, way cheaper if you cook)

4. Internet, up to 100 mbps, $35 monthly. Internet quality like speed and stability will depend on area

5. Phone data, $7 monthly

6. Cigarette, I'm a heavy smoker (almost 2 packs a day), $4 daily thus $120 monthly

In total: ~$1050 I don't count for entertainment, transportation (people mostly use Gojek or Grab), subscription

Experience living in Jakarta from native perspective.

- Language barrier, most people can talk in English, although not that fluent, hand gestures give you more power than talk

- Poor pedestrian side road, if you like to walk

- City full of concretes, green park almost non existent

- Bad air quality

- Noisy if your resident near big road or high way

- Covid-19 related situation, Jakarta not the worse but people here tend to not care about this

Alternative to Jakarta, I would recommend.

- Bandung, cheaper living cost, small city, good air quality on most part, had lived there for 2 years

- Bali, foreigner friendly, especially Ubud area for extra nature scenery, I don't recommend Denpasar

Let me know if you have any question (email on my profile), as a fellow game dev I admire your dedication

discuss

order

41209|4 years ago

Thanks for your response.

The rat race can wait , I think 6 months focused on game dev will get my game to where I need it to be. And if not, at least I had some fun.

Any big cultural shocks.

adakbar|4 years ago

Can't say much about culture shocks, Indonesian myself, but from my european friend who live in Jakarta for almost a year now said "people just late everywhere"