Eight Million Rupiah

Money feels very different when every purchase has six or seven digits.

Before travelling to Bali, I exchanged around five hundred US dollars.

The cashier handed me a thick stack of Indonesian Rupiah.

Over eight million.

For a brief moment, I felt incredibly rich.

Of course, reality quickly corrected that thought.

Still, it was impossible not to smile every time I looked at the numbers.

Lunch cost hundreds of thousands.

Coffee looked expensive until I remembered the exchange rate.

Even bargaining became entertaining.

One day in Ubud Market, my friends and I proudly negotiated a pair of slippers down to ninety thousand Rupiah.

We celebrated like we had won something.

The next day, we found exactly the same slippers somewhere else.

Fixed price.

Thirty thousand.

We laughed more than we complained.

Travel has a funny way of teaching humility.

You realise how quickly confidence disappears when you're surrounded by unfamiliar languages, unfamiliar prices and unfamiliar customs.

Every country has its own rhythm.

Its own normal.

Learning to enjoy that difference is part of the journey.

Sometimes the best souvenirs aren't the things you buy.

They're the stories you bring back.