Going Postal in Indonesia

When I told friends and family that I was planning to travel in Indonesia after the 1998 riots, they urged me to go elsewhere. CNN memories of Jakarta's spring-burning buildings and looting crowds-lingered, and they couldn't understand the appeal of sightseeing in what they imagined was a war zone.

Despite the May turmoil, which was by and large confined to a few sites in Indonesia's largest cities, all seemed calm during my July journey in the country. Because the currency was weak-the exchange rate fluctuated between 13,000 and 15,000 rupiah to the dollar during my stay-Indonesia was a bargain for the trickle of travelers venturing there. I paid, for example, only $10 a night for a Jakarta hotel that charged $50 in better times. And because most travelers stayed away, tourist magnets, such as the ancient Buddhist temple Borobudur, were nearly empty, so I never had to fight for breathing room among crowds of tour groups.

While the injustices of the Suharto years hadn't vanished in a matter of months, tourists visiting tourist sites encountered no angry mobs. And though the government's institutions were reeling from The Crisis, as the Indonesians referred to the country's economic and political meltdowns, my only glimpse of a bureaucracy in disarray took place at the post office.

When I started my trip in Bali, I mailed some postcards to friends and relatives in the U.S. At 1,400 rupiah a card, it was dirt cheap.

My next stop was Yogyakarta in central Java, where I sent off another batch of postcards at those discount rates. The next day, I returned to mail more and was told that the postal rates had risen; it would now cost 6,500 rupiah to send one postcard to North America. "The Crisis," the clerk said apologetically, pulling out what he said was the Official Rate Form and pointing to 6,500 at the bottom of a column of figures. I thought than an enormous increase and imagined the uproar a rate hike like that would inspire in the U.S. I didn't send the cards, however, because the clerk had only 500-rupiah stamps, and 13 of them would have covered an entire postcard.

I went to Jakarta next. At the mammoth central post office, I asked a clerk if it really cost 6,500 rupiah to send a postcard to the States. "More," she said, plopping an Official Rate Form onto the counter in front of me and pointing to 8,000. "The Crisis," she said.

From Jakarta, I flew to Sumatra, where the Official Rate Forms all listed 8,000 rupiah as the new price. "Because of The Crisis," the clerks said wearily.

At the end of my holiday, I returned to Bali for a few days. I went to the post office in Kuta and placed a stack of postcards, 8,000 rupiah worth of stamps attached to each, on the counter. The clerk took one look, sniffed and said, "Not enough." She whipped out an Official Rate Form and told me I'd need 10,000 rupiah because they were larger than standard-sized postcards. But, I protested, I sent postcards just like this for 8,000 rupiah in Jakarta. "Then post them in Jakarta," she said, and walked away in a huff. I grabbed my postcards and walked away in a huff, too.

I spent my last day in Indonesia wandering around Ubud, an artsy town amid rice paddies in south-central Bali. When I saw the town's post office, I dug my postcards out of my backpack and decided to have one more go at mailing them. The clerk saw the 8,000 rupiah on them, shook his head, told me they weren't standard sized and pointed to an Official Rate Form posted on the wall. Drumming my fingers on the counter, I waited for him to say "10,000 rupiah" and was startled to hear "15,000 rupiah" instead.

I sputtered a "But-but." And sighed. Then I laughed. "The Crisis," I said to myself. The clerk gave me a funny look and turned his attention to a Dutch tourist who was struggling to squeeze about 10 stamps into the upper-right-hand corner of a postcard.

I gathered up my postcards and decided to take them home with me. At that moment, I could think of no better souvenir of Indonesia.

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Published on 12/26/04