Practicalities

Once the visas are sorted and the boxes unpacked, Indonesia stops being a destination and becomes daily life. This is where the real settling-in happens: finding somewhere to live, opening a bank account, sorting a phone that actually works, getting yourself and your family registered for healthcare, and working out how to move around a city built for anything but ease.

None of it is especially hard. But little works the way it did back home, and the rules change often enough that last year's advice is frequently wrong. Here a practical errand is also a social one: patience, courtesy and a good local relationship will carry you further than any official procedure.

The pages below cover the everyday business of living in Indonesia, from the mundane to the things nobody thinks to warn you about.