I did it my way

[Teabag]

9 years ago, me and my Indonesian wife planed to emigrate from Europe to Indonesia for retirement. We are in the mid 50's.

I do remember, when I still sat on my desk in a boring office job, dreaming from paradise and checking this forum every now and then. It seemed time does not pass bye and I could not wait to leave Europe. But then one day it was the day X. All was so exciting, to arrange all the visas, ship a 35m3 container, book the flight and finally checkin into a new life.

I do remember the moment, when the door of the aircraft closes, there I felt so relieved because 95% of all my problems were gone.

That is now almost 3 years ago.

The settle down in Bandung was easier than I thought, speaking the language fluently helped a lot. We were lucky to find a house in a quiet area in center Bandung, 2 floors, very spacious and for European standards very cheap.

The first 3 month felt like we're on a vacation, we were so busy with all the needed immigration stuff, done by ourselves, unpacking the container that finally arrived after paying 2 million IDR 'handling fee' and renovating all the bathrooms, sinks, showers in the house.

Our landlord is very easy going, he did not want to renovate at all, so he reduced the rent quite a bit and said: do what you want, just do not change the basic structure of the house. We're on a 2 years contract which we just renewed and except for the payment dates, I never saw or heard from the landlord.

My social integration here was a bit harder, after the vacation feeling vanished there was a time I felt uncomfortable, because I was quite isolated and I could not really go bicycling or walk like in Europe. Traffic and streets do not really support that.

Also the traffic was so terrible for me at the beginning, scooter driver left and right and also in front of you, always cutting your lain and brake in front of you after they just took over. A nightmare.

Long story short, I am happier than ever, I found one good friend, half my age and a couple others for just chit chat. My hobby billard helped me a lot and now I know of minimal 4 pool halls (all checked and approved by my wife, not first floor...) where I can go when ever I want, shaking many many hands bevor I reach my table.

And in the mean time, I'm also very relaxed with the traffic, by car or scooter, it is all normal for me and now I am scared to drive in Europe again, I am sure I will loose my license there within the first hour.

Pros: very friendly people, I never had any issue, modern payment systems, everywhere you can scan a barcode and pay, banking is also running on the weekend, the mandiri emoney card is super usefull for parking and jalan tol. And for sure, I love Tokopedia so much, I get all from there over medication (also without prescription), billard stuf, aquarium stuf, food and supplements, household stuf and all you need is there at a finger tip. Indonesia is so much more modern than Europe in these things, you really get all within hours, you can repair all on the spot. Best example was the saddle of my scooter, giving me back pain because of a wrong sitting position. I just went to a tukang jok and he fixed the problem in one hour. Unthinkable in Europe.

Cons: hmmm, except traffic, potholes and incompetent tukangs there is not a lot I can think of. Oh yeah, you can not do so much outside activities like in Europe, the parks and attractions are mostly just good for once, the malls are boring and jalan braga looses its excitement fast.

My new hobby is now shouting 'Hey Mister, where are you from?' if I see a bule here in down town Bandung and also waving at the tourist buses.

All in all, to leave Europe and its rat race was the best decision ever, I feel home and integrated here and I can not imagine going back for good.

Questions asked, questions answered.
Cheers

 

[marcus]

I also :

• ended up in Bandung , and happier than ever ;
• agree about the Indonesian people (although only a good friend too) and the cons , do a lot of online shopping/payments (but prefer Shopee/Seabank) .

But I started very differently : never planned to live abroad , but came here to work and later after searching/living in few cities in my country , came to a conclusion that the best would be to retire in Indonesia .

 

[harryopal1]

Great to have a safe and happy landing. A bit surprised that you just paid 2 juta handling fee for your 35 metre container. Over the years it seems so many people have had enormous costs associated with bringing personal goods like that. Were there customs taxes? And, if this is not being too impertinent, what area in Bandung and what kind of rental costs? Here in Bali there have been significant rises in rentals these last few years?

At 55 are you still working? So, curious as to what is your visa status?

Otherwise... well done and have a good life.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm Happy that you have had such a pleasant time while moving here. I am curious about your Health insurance situation? Do you have International private insurance, or BPJS? Haven't you had encounters with Locals, where they consider you only a walking ATM, no matter how many times you've been generous and gave them money to help their living situation? Your situation sounds too good to be True? You don't mention if you still work, or are retired?

 

[pantaiema]

... I love Tokopedia so much, I get all from there over medication (also without prescription), billard stuf, aquarium stuf, food and supplements, household stuf and all you need is there at a finger tip. Indonesia is so much more modern than Europe in these things, you really get all within hours, you can repair all on the spot. Best example was the saddle of my scooter, giving me back pain because of a wrong sitting position. I just went to a tukang jok and he fixed the problem in one hour. Unthinkable in Europe.

Cons: hmmm, except traffic, potholes and incompetent tukangs there is not a lot I can think of. Oh yeah, you can not do so much outside activities like in Europe, the parks and attractions are mostly just good for once, the malls are boring and jalan braga looses its excitement fast.

My new hobby is now shouting 'Hey Mister, where are you from?' if I see a bule here in down town Bandung and also waving at the tourist buses.

All in all, to leave Europe and its rat race was the best decision ever, I feel home and integrated here and I can not imagine going back for good.

Questions asked, questions answered.
Cheers

As @Shadrach pointed out, don’t overlook BPJS. Even if you believe you won’t need it because you already have private insurance, it’s still a useful backup. To me BPJS is a no brainer considering the premium vs the benefit you will get.

Another consideration is purchasing prescribed medication through Tokopedia, particularly the expensive ones. Personally, I’d avoid buying them from lesser-known vendors on the platform unless I’m certain they’re reputable pharmacies or drugstores. Too many fake medication in circulation.

 

[Teabag]

Great to have a safe and happy landing. A bit surprised that you just paid 2 juta handling fee for your 35 metre container. Over the years it seems so many people have had enormous costs associated with bringing personal goods like that. Were there customs taxes? And, if this is not being too impertinent, what area in Bandung and what kind of rental costs? Here in Bali there have been significant rises in rentals these last few years?

At 55 are you still working? So, curious as to what is your visa status?

Otherwise... well done and have a good life.

We took an international fright shipper with connections in Indonesia, the goods were declared as personal items as my wife is an ex-wni and she shipped it under the repatriation visa and regulations. No custom taxes if you come for work in Indonesia, which we don't do, so there was a big confusion about the valid law in our case. Fun part was, we were the first ever who shipped from my home country to Indo, so bea cukai and port officials were not sure about the valid regulation. We had to declare every peace of imported item.

When they inspected the container, they found an undeclared golf set, so we had the option to undergo a full inspection, piece by piece, taking a whole day, or just pay a 'handling fee' of 2 juta and they let it trough. (the total shipping cost was more than the value of the goods, but we wanted to feel home from the first minute and we did not want to buy furnitures here. So we shipped our living and sleeping room, including all the kitchen stuff and more)

I forgot to mention, that my wife played the full drama with the officials, from smiling to crying, falling into the local sunda dialect and give them all a huge head ache. But finally it worked (again, as many times in other situations.)

We live around Sesko TNI, near TSM Mall, 2 story house, 400m2, 100 juta a year, not working, visa from ITAS to ITAP after 6 month (also here, huge drama from my wife at immigration, because your are allowed to convert from itas to itap after a year, but finally we made it even to the head immigration Bandung and got the conversion after 6 month)

 

[harryopal1]

Thanks for the interesting breakdown.

 

[Teabag]

I'm Happy that you have had such a pleasant time while moving here. I am curious about your Health insurance situation? Do you have International private insurance, or BPJS? Haven't you had encounters with Locals, where they consider you only a walking ATM, no matter how many times you've been generous and gave them money to help their living situation? Your situation sounds too good to be True? You don't mention if you still work, or are retired?

We use BPJS only and only for emergencies, in that case we go directly to the emergency at Santosa Hospital Bandung, they are fully equipped for the major cases like heart attack, stroke, cancer, they always have a surgeon on duty. (The brother of my wife got in as an emergency with a heavy heart attack, he got a stent within 30 minutes, all completely free of charge with the BPJS coverage and has well recovered)

Minor sickens we tread our selfs through self medication or we go to our BPJS attached clinic, get the surat rujuk and do some blood tests or ultrasonic in the Pindad Hospital.

We don't work and enjoy the early retirement.

My wife is ex-wni, so no walking atm and she usualy tries to get a bargain. I ALWAYS contact a shop first via WhatsApp, asking for some service and a price. Runs very well, car shop, water filter service, plumber and so on. If I have then an estimation, I show up and then they can not increase the price a lot.

I usually do not help on peoples living situation with money, I try to convince them to do things a bit different so they can be more successful. (there is a reason, why most Indos are poor and the Chinese are rich).

Tukangs which work good, I generously tipp, my hairdresser I do always pay double (100 instead of 50), the tukang parkir at my favourite billard center which is taking my scooter off the lot and placing it in the driving direction as soon as he sees I'm about to leave, gets from time to time 50 or 100 k.

I don't give money to beggars. Singers, clowns, silver man and others at my favorite eating place or at the home of my wife's brother fear me because I am fully tattooed and I do not hesitate to tell them to back off right now.

My billard buddies and other contacts never asked me for money, I someone is in deep shit, as they always are, I decide from situation to situation.

I don't feel being a walking ATM.

 

[Teabag]

As @Shadrach pointed out, don’t overlook BPJS. Even if you believe you won’t need it because you already have private insurance, it’s still a useful backup. To me BPJS is a no brainer considering the premium vs the benefit you will get.

Another consideration is purchasing prescribed medication through Tokopedia, particularly the expensive ones. Personally, I’d avoid buying them from lesser-known vendors on the platform unless I’m certain they’re reputable pharmacies or drugstores. Too many fake medication in circulation.

In tokopedia I only order medication form the local pharmacy around the corner, so I can have a minimal trust

 

[Shadrach]

I'm cur

We use BPJS only and only for emergencies, in that case we go directly to the emergency at Santosa Hospital Bandung, they are fully equipped for the major cases like heart attack, stroke, cancer, they always have a surgeon on duty. (The brother of my wife got in as an emergency with a heavy heart attack, he got a stent within 30 minutes, all completely free of charge with the BPJS coverage and has well recovered)

Minor sickens we tread our selfs through self medication or we go to our BPJS attached clinic, get the surat rujuk and do some blood tests or ultrasonic in the Pindad Hospital.

We don't work and enjoy the early retirement.

My wife is ex-wni, so no walking atm and she usualy tries to get a bargain. I ALWAYS contact a shop first via WhatsApp, asking for some service and a price. Runs very well, car shop, water filter service, plumber and so on. If I have then an estimation, I show up and then they can not increase the price a lot.

I usually do not help on peoples living situation with money, I try to convince them to do things a bit different so they can be more successful. (there is a reason, why most Indos are poor and the Chinese are rich).

Tukangs which work good, I generously tipp, my hairdresser I do always pay double (100 instead of 50), the tukang parkir at my favourite billard center which is taking my scooter off the lot and placing it in the driving direction as soon as he sees I'm about to leave, gets from time to time 50 or 100 k.

I don't give money to beggars. Singers, clowns, silver man and others at my favorite eating place or at the home of my wife's brother fear me because I am fully tattooed and I do not hesitate to tell them to back off right now.

My billard buddies and other contacts never asked me for money, I someone is in deep shit, as they always are, I decide from situation to situation.

I don't feel being a walking ATM.

I'm curious. What do you mean there's a reason the Chinese are more wealthy and the Indonesians more poor? What does being fully tatooed have to do with giving money to other's? Does that mean you are a tough guy?