Where are we off to for holidays?

Anybody going on holiday over Saturnalia?*  If so, where?


* Also known as Christmas

I'm off to Indonesia over the break, from 22 Dec to 15 Jan.

Here's a fun fact about Indonesia.  Because of the large Muslim population, a lot of folks do personal finance along ways prescribed in the Quran.  At one point a few years ago we even bought a section with a sharia mortgage, essentially a layby scheme underwritten by the property developer.  This was arranged because my wife knew somebody who worked for the developer.

Strictly speaking, interest bearing savings accounts are considered usury under Islamic law, which is haram (forbidden) - and a lot of folks keep their savings in gold, which is the preferred method of doing so in Islamic circles.

This means that Indonesia is a candidate for the largest population of gold stackers on earth, and there's state backed infrastructure to support it.

The government owns a large mining/refining outfit called P.T. Aneka Tambang which, amongst other things, makes investment gold for the savings market - cast or minted gold bars much like you would get from somebody like PAMP or Metalor.  Because they're effectively a medium for savings for many people, this market is regulated.  They buy and sell at a regulated price, which has fairly modest spreads for small gold - typically about 10% for a 1g bar and 6-7% for bars in the 5-10g range.

You can buy off their web site, but you need an Indonesian national ID number and they don't ship outside Indonesia.  They also have several retail outlets in major cities, but the most interesting channel is that they operate a franchise through jewellers.  Most shopping malls (and there are a lot¹ of shopping malls in Indonesia) will have at least one jeweller that operates a franchise for it.

1 - The 'greater' Jakarta region alone (Jakarta, Bekasi, Tangerang, Depok and Bogor) has about 90 large shopping malls.  Bluewater would be pretty run of the mill by Indonesian standards (an equivalent one in Jakarta would be about 4 or 5 stories tall), and there are several larger than the Mall of America.  Chinese ones are even bigger.

I want someone to travel to the middle east and pick me up a bar from a vending machine.

I just want a 1g bar sealed.. i think it would be cool.
But I think they start off at about 1oz and the next is 50g bars.

meh.. oh well.

Admin wrote:I want someone to travel to the middle east and pick me up a bar from a vending machine.

I just want a 1g bar sealed.. i think it would be cool.
But I think they start off at about 1oz and the next is 50g bars.

meh.. oh well.

When I was stationed in Alaska, our dormitories had gold vending machines. That is the gold color of beer from them.

Nice one @Periodic Table . It was probably totally unaltered by human consumption too.

The Cat's Mother wrote:Nice one  @Periodic Table . It was probably totally unaltered by human consumption too.

So true TCM. In fact, the color was the same when I relieved myself on the snow. Zig zag art.

Admin wrote:I want someone to travel to the middle east and pick me up a bar from a vending machine.

I just want a 1g bar sealed.. i think it would be cool.
But I think they start off at about 1oz and the next is 50g bars.

meh.. oh well.

I thought there was supposed to be one at the airport in Dubai, but I couldn't find it. They did have a 1kg PM Kangaroo at one of the gold shops there, though.

OTOH, I can possibly get a few 1g Indonesian bars if anybody wants one.

How much @Silverlocks , roughly speaking?

If the price is reasonable, I am interested @Silverlocks.

The Cat's Mother wrote:How much  @Silverlocks , roughly speaking?

For a 1g, I guess about £55-60, depending on spot at the time.  Chances are I'll get it from a friend of my wife who wheels and deals in gold, rather than the web site, so there will be a bit of postage and a small margin on that.

This is Antam's online shop - https://www.logammulia.com/index.php/en/purchase/gold#

And this is the FX rate for IDR to GBP - https://www.google.com/search?q=gbp+to+idr

If you can send money by wise, I've got a wise account and the F/X rates tend to be fairly good.  I could take a deposit of £55 or so and settle the balance once I've got the total cost.

Periodic Table wrote:If the price is reasonable, I am interested @Silverlocks.

See my reply to @The Cat's Mother.  I think about £55-60 or something of that order.

I don't have a wise account, Paypal only, but I could send you a cheque. The 2g bars look good.

The Cat's Mother wrote:I don't have a wise account, Paypal only, but I could send you a cheque.

You can probably just send it to me in GBP and I'll send it to Indonesia by wise, then once the dust settles I can work out the balance.

Silverlocks wrote:See my reply to @The Cat's Mother.  I think about £55-60 or something of that order.

@Silverlocks, I'll set up a Wise account and get back to you. I live in the US if that's no problem for you. Also, I'm interested in the 2 or 3 gram if possible.

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:See my reply to @The Cat's Mother.  I think about £55-60 or something of that order.

@Silverlocks, I'll set up a Wise account and get back to you. I live in the US if that's no problem for you. Also, I'm interested in the 2 or 3 gram if possible.

I've never posted PMs to the US; Royal Mail will only insure international post for £100.

Silverlocks wrote:I've never posted PMs to the US; Royal Mail will only insure international post for £100.

I'll back out then. Thanks anyway.

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:I've never posted PMs to the US; Royal Mail will only insure international post for £100.

I'll back out then. Thanks anyway.

It's still enough to cover a 1g bar (or most of a 2g one) if you want one of those.

Silverlocks wrote:It's still enough to cover a 1g bar (or most of a 2g one) if you want one of those.

PM sent

Silverlocks wrote:

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:See my reply to @The Cat's Mother.  I think about £55-60 or something of that order.

@Silverlocks, I'll set up a Wise account and get back to you. I live in the US if that's no problem for you. Also, I'm interested in the 2 or 3 gram if possible.

I've never posted PMs to the US; Royal Mail will only insure international post for £100.

Royal mail covers up to £250 worth. I ship to the USA all the time. You can also purchase extra insurance if needed.

AceBullion wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:See my reply to @The Cat's Mother.  I think about £55-60 or something of that order.

@Silverlocks, I'll set up a Wise account and get back to you. I live in the US if that's no problem for you. Also, I'm interested in the 2 or 3 gram if possible.

I've never posted PMs to the US; Royal Mail will only insure international post for £100.

Royal mail covers up to £250 worth. I ship to the USA all the time. You can also purchase extra insurance if needed.

That's interesting.  As far as I could tell, you could only get £100 worth of insurance on international post with RMSD.  Could you tell us a bit about getting extra insurance - is it through RM somehow, or through a third party?

Nowadays I am a holiday at home fan.

Too much hassle travelling, airlines, weather, security, greenwashing and general lack of trust in any of our simple systems that used to work before bots etc.

We don't have to go abroad to see the 3rd world anymore, we live in it.

Potholes, empty high streets no banks etc all come to mind.

Kids and adults addicted to screens.

Our pets are lucky, they don't really know much about screens.

My family are really excited this weekend, a new Wonka movie from Hollywood.

denby wrote:Nowadays I am a holiday at home fan.

Too much hassle travelling, airlines, weather, security, greenwashing and general lack of trust in any of our simple systems that used to work before bots etc.

We don't have to go abroad to see the 3rd world anymore, we live in it.

Potholes, empty high streets no banks etc all come to mind.

Kids and adults addicted to screens.

Our pets are lucky, they don't really know much about screens.

My family are really excited this weekend, a new Wonka movie from Hollywood.

Bless @denby i know the feeling, I am home 365 days of the year. I am soo tempted to just pack everything up and go back to America but somewhere that I can have 50 or so acres of land.... 100 if possible and just be alone. That is my idea of heaven.

Anyway @Silverlocks The Royal Mail has a insurance up to £250 if you use Special Delivery.

If you are sending larger packages you should get a 3rd party insurance !!!! There are many available. But you will need to jump through some hoops. I have personally found a way around it... and I have not had any issues. Thankfully. I have sent the majority of my Kilo bars off to America. They love them there.

3rd party insurance is easy but you might need to take pictures as you package the item. You WILL need to send it by Royal Mail ( other companies don't accept PMs being sent abroad ) But then you can ship it... It is NOT cheap. I had 2 kilos worth of stuff sent and it cost me the SD fee of about £18 PLUS I believe £80ish for the added insurance. Now note that amongst that 2 kilos was Gold and Platinum and silver. Doesn't take up a lot of room but I put it in 4 boxes, and all were full of bubble wrap etc. Makes the monkeys claw a bit harder to get into.