Working income vs Fixed income was our main thing to work with. We being fixed income had to take all the prices for necessities into mind.
If working in Indonesia you have to basically work where you are assigned or where offices are located. This selects your area for you basically. Then, if you have family, school location comes into play. No matter what, the time spent in traffic for either of the above has to come into play.
On our fixed income we had the privilege to look around being that nothing was holding us to a particular community or area. So, we looked with prices in mind. Getting outside Jakarta housing takes a drastic drop. We entered a two year contract here for just over Rp20 juta per year. The same property in Jakarta was three to five times that easily depending on location. Food cost also came into play. We actually found food prices for all but beef lower here and I contribute that to this being Sumatra and many items reach here prior to Jakarta. If I purchased beef in the morning pasar, perhaps it would be closer to the Jakarta price.
We are not clubbers so entertainment to us is a decent restaurant and this area is getting more and more upscale places. At least up scale in comparison to what they used to offer. Not in Jakarta upscale reasoning but to me, that is just marked up stuff any way. We have modern malls with Matahari and Chandra. We have some large grocery stores like Giant, Super Indo, Hero, and Chandra. There is a stand alone Solo store also as well as smaller malls with grocery outlets. As everywhere, there are AlfaMarts and Indomarets all over the place. Then there are the Pasars just like every city big and small has.
We have access to a Domestic Airport with flights to Jakarta all day long as well as Palembang, Batam, and Medan. We have passenger railroad service to Palembang also. There is now a bus service serving the city but it is being run like an Angkot company and they are normally overcrowded and stop wherever they feel like. Taxi's are plentiful. No Bluebird or Grab and all prices are fixed. It seems that all drivers give the same prices but if one should need some work they may offer for less. They don't negotiate. I figured by distance, the fares are about the same as Jakarta but here you get to where you are going in minutes compared to hours.
Traffic is sometimes congested and that mainly depends on the time and day. Congestion may only be for a few blocks and it never really stops completely. I drive here while refusing to in Jakarta. I drive a motor and not a car. Roads are improving and new toll roads are being built for the longer distance out of the city travel.
There are plenty of places to visit not too far from us. If we want to go see the porpoises we only need to travel 2 hours. Want a beach side seat looking at Krakatoa, 1.5 hours. Hit some of the best, basically unknown surfing except by some World travelers and locals, West Lampung, 6 hours with a stop for lunch. Off season. 1.5 meter breaks, in season, up to 3 meter breaks. Elephant reserve, 1 hour. Interesting little villages, everywhere.
Air quality, very good. In Panjang Bandar Lampung there is industry so it doesn't always smell that great there. It is also the heaviest population in the city. No expat would probably live there because there really is no housing they would want to live in and there are no plans for more modern housing developments there. Once out of that area heading north and it freshens right up.
Climate as on our list. We were told by many that Bandar Lampung is very hot and we wouldn't like that. We found it cooler then Jakarta and there are many nights and mornings that are cool and comfortable and there is normally a breeze. Temps don't seem as warm here compared to Jakarta. Just a lot more healthy environment for these older lungs.
Religion and the people. Warning, this section talks about religion so now you have been pre warned in case you don't think I should bring up the subject. Before our first visit here, we were told that Bandar Lampung is heavily Islamic and don't take kindly to anyone who is not. That the people are not friendly to outsiders and we would have a hard time fitting in here yet alone find suitable housing since we are a mixed marriage. Nothing further from the truth. Just driving from the airport we asked, what is that? A Christian church we were told. What is that? A catholic church we were told. Actually, there are a lot of them and also 7th day Adventist (with the people going door to door) and we discovered that there has not been any problems between the Muslims here and any of the Christians. This city is a good mix of people from Majority Javanese, then Lampunian, Balinese, Sundanese, and Chinese residents. With that population there are Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, and Hindus making up the city. All intertwined with each other. Except for one ad for housing, no one else listed Muslim only. We have never encountered anyone who seemed ill willed towards us and frankly, people seem to be very accepting of us. Everyone seems very outgoing. Of course you get the person who thinks they should get more price for something because there is a Bule involved but so far, there hasn't been a lot of those and they exist anywhere you go in this country. Bules? Me and another that live here and he is planning on leaving for work out of the country for awhile. Foreign workers are mainly Chinese and Korean but they are all located outside of the City with only a few in the Panjang area. As for people speaking English? I actually come across more that at least try to then I ever did in Jakarta. There are a couple English schools here and the university has popular programs and club lever English groups.
Family. For us, it wasn't high up on the list but helps if there is someone near that has a much better understanding of the city then you do. We ended up in the middle of family basically with one sister here but not close by, another in Jakarta, and another in Palembang. We don't see any of them too often but they are all happy we are here. Well, except the Jakarta one but she is her own story.
These were on our score list and things we felt important being on fixed income, a mixed marriage both racially and religiously. Plus, being on a fixed income, you can move if you don't care for it and find something better. You are not tied to anything.