I’ve decided not to get a motorcycle. Money isn’t really the issue as a brand new Kawasaki Ninja is only $3,500, license classes $250, and tack on a couple hundred a year for insurance. The problem is I don’t have healthcare. My parents are self-employed and therefore pay out of pocket for healthcare. God forbid anything happens to me the burden of paying for my healthcare would be on my parents. No thanks. The money that isn’t being spent on the bike is being lent out on Kiva.org so ultimately it’s working towards the greater good.

Speaking of kiva, awhile back I planned to loan out a total of $4,000 on kiva.org before summer was up. As of today I have officially surpassed that number! However, seeing as how things have been going well for me finance wise I’ve decided to balance out the personal finance karma scale and plan to fund another $6,000-$8,000 on kiva by the end of August. So by September 1st I’m confident the total amount on kiva.org will be $10,000 or greater.

Going on vacation is a great way to run up your credit card bill. My total amount due on my card was roughly $3,500. I was gone for roughly a month so that comes out to $875/week! This is southeast asia too. Normally my spending doesn’t even top $200 a week at home.

are poor people morbidly obese?

In big crowded cities people not only have to worry about pickpockets and purse snatchers but cell phone snatchers too. Motorbikes are common throughout southeast asia and anyone unsuspecting chatting on the phone near the curb or crossing the street is vulnerable to getting their phone snatched by a passing motorist.

I actually witnessed this happening to a local which was surprising at first but then realized most locals now own flashier and more expensive phones than foreigners (the economy is booming). I was walking by two people on the corner and one girl was talking on her phone and a guy and a girl driving by on a motorbike snatched the cell phone out of her hands and took off (guy driving, girl snatching).

A lot of places in Indonesia and Vietnam charge 3% for taking Visa/Mastercard and 5% for taking American Express. One of the owners of a business in Indonesia I was talking to explained that it is against the merchant terms and agreements like it is in the US but everyone seems to do it regardless and visa/mc/amex enforcement against this practice are lax.

I’ve thought about letting various places charge me 3% and then calling up my credit card company later to get it removed but it isn’t worth the hassle and I’m on vacation. So yes, cash is still king when traveling here.

Citibank and HSBC have a huge presence worldwide and have a good number of ATMs and branches. The optimal way to exchange cash is withdraw from your account via the teller in US dollars and then exchange currency at a location that’ll give you better rates. Also there’s a different exchange rate for $100 bills and smaller denominations. I forgot which one got the better exchange rate but I”m sure smaller denominations would because of the massive amount of counterfeiting with $100 bills.

When you land in Jakarta, Indonesia and purchase a visa on arrival, don’t use your credit card. The payment counter does take visa/mastercard but they code the purchase as a cash advance. The clock on interest ticking starts the date the amount hits your account. It’s not much on a $50 transaction (two 30-day visas) but I hate paying interest and it’s extremely misleading that they code your purchase as a cash advance without any signs or telling you firsthand.