Visit Indonesia Year-ly?

March 5, 2007

Unspun has often heard that the wild nightlife, cheap golf, cream bath, Bali and sometimes even food is an attraction for Malaysians to come to Indonesia. But shopping?

Strange, but there are apparently some Malaysians who trek southwards toward Indonesia for this activity. Unspun knows a senior journalist in one of the nation’s largest papers who make a bee line for Mayestic every time she’s here on assignment or for golf because, she says, the fabrics there are dirt cheap compared to Malaysia.

And now Enda Nasution reports of some Malaysians making a pilgrimage to Bandung for shopping. Unspun thought that the shopping heyday of bandung was over when most textile companies shifted to Vietnam and China, but apparently not.

Perhaps Indonesia shoudl have a Visit Indonesia Year aimed at Malaysians. They should not ask the Malaysian Turist Board for advice though, unless they want to scare people away.

unspun

Indonesia, Malaysia

6 responses to “Visit Indonesia Year-ly?”

-Cybergirl-

March 5, 2007 at 6:53 am

to be honest, yes… Indonesia sell apparels cheaper than what I found in Malaysia, even the quality is better. Take a short break for shopping @ Tanah Abang, Malaysian will be surprised!
I even saw nice man poloshirt sell in USD 1,5 each…
Now I expand my business to Malaysia, selling apparels, and ppl here love Tanah Abang’s items 😀

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treespotter

March 5, 2007 at 12:19 pm

actually, some of my malaysian friends were saying the same thing, apparently the KL – Bandung flights are overly popular, also to shop for movies and music etc.

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bleu

March 5, 2007 at 2:47 pm

A colleague at work regularly goes to Bandung or Mangga Dua, once every quarter perhaps, to shop for clothes, especially the Muslim clothings. My opinion, Jakarta keeps up with fashion trend better than KL does.

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dodY

March 5, 2007 at 4:13 pm

bleu says:
Jakarta keeps up with fashion trend better than KL does

dodY says:
it certainly DOES!

kalau malaysia pasang tag line: truly asia, seharusnya kita bisa pasang tag line: truly shopping paradise! ehh… tapi bakal kegampar ama singapore yah? secara mereka lebih jago utk urusan shopping 🙂

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riccardo

March 6, 2007 at 1:22 pm

Muslim clothing, fabrics, Music CDs?? Gimme a break… they just *say* that to look proper, but we all know the real reason — they come for the beer, which is about a third of the price here in Indonesia, available 24-7 and tastes better.

In all seriousness, I was recently working on a consumer report and Indonesia, specifically Jakarta, has become – statistically – one of the best places to shop in the world, with the most variety and best prices for everything from high-end branded stuff to wholesale tanah abang silk.

The amount of retail floor space ranks in the top 5 globally and they’re still building new and bigger malls. The Grand something-or-other is set to open in March at the H.I. site and some outrageous gargantuan thing is set to open next year in Depok….

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enda

March 7, 2007 at 10:27 am

I have this conversation with an Indian friend here in Bangkok.

Q: Indonesia is a Muslim country right?

A: Yes

Q: So, how come you have your own beer brand? Who’s going to buy those?

*lost for words*

A: Well, apparently some people still buys beers in Indonesia and do you know that we have 0% alcohol beer…

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