Keeping up with the survival section, here comes clothing and body care, put these two together in order to make this short and sweet. Also it might be slightly on the girls side, but I will put some things in boys perspective as well.
So as you may know most of the clothing in the western hemisphere is made in this side of the hemisphere, but mysteriously... actually finding it it's the tricky part (probably because they ship everything to Europe and the Americas). The trickiest part is underwear, I have to say that I'm not on the tiny side, so going to Matahari, Centerpoint or Ramayana (big department stores) to buy some underwear I face the horror to see that good price underwear shows a L size panty that is not L size, not where I come from, maybe it's asian L which will be western S or M (and beside, they're not really pretty). In the other hand, there is the -not so cheap- underwear section which has some decent size underwear, but still doesn't really comply to what I would say cool underwear (because yes, underwear can be cool). Also because, most underwear here has this grandma kind if cut... which doesn't make any favors, to anybody and if you're looking for thongs... well you're gonna have a tough time, because they do exist, but they're not the most classy ones, just saying... so be prepared.
When it comes to, clothing in general, there are some cool stuff, prices are not bad an usually in the stores above mentioned, they have some kind of sale or promotion. First of all, yes clothes are smaller than usual, second quality, not so good and you must have a keen eye to spot good materials and third be patient, good things come to those who hunt through piles of clothes. I've heard of male friends complaining because the major issue for tall guys is pants, they might fit on the waist but they look like skinny jeans when it comes to the shins, so not a decent look, and shirts usually it's the same case, but it's about try and mistake, then again and maybe again until you find it.
Now the hot spot section, body care. This section at least 80% of it will be dedicated to girls, not just because I'm one, but also because girls use more beauty supplies than man (no one can argue against that).
Part one: hair
Precious, lustrous, shine, smooth hair... kiss it goodbye, humidity, sun, rain, helmets, shampoo (don't know what is it about it, but their effect is different from my back home shampoo) will make you depressed for a while about what's going on with hair here and also (putting this on a side) water, running common household water here is terrible, due to the fact the we live on an island and fresh water is a very high valuable commodity, water is highly chemically treated, which hunts down your hair, causing a lot of times a very scary case of hair loss, it breaks so easily, you have no idea, it is the primary reason of why I'm kissing my pretty locks goodbye, at least for a while. So my suggestions for it, drink a lot of water, buy some vitamin E or ginseng suplement, use nice natural hair tonics, also put on hair oily vitamins, and some natural masks that you can find online.
So for all this reasons I decided to go from this:
To this :D
Part two: skin
As with hair, skin also takes it toll here in this marvelous region, acne is one of the top things that will come up, mostly because here you sweat a lot, and when sweat dries it tends to clog the pores, which eventually will generate acne. to keep your skin smooth I recommend weekly exfoliation, always a body shower before bedtime and since spa treatments here are quite accesible (for not to say super cheap) a full body treatment maybe once or twice a month, depending on budget. When it comes to skin shave and depilation, mostly for the ladies (if you boys want to take a tip be my guest), there are some waxing center, but unfortunately they're not cheap, waxing is not a thing around here, so you have three choices either go back to shaving (never again), pay the price or if you know how to DIY, there is some available online nice ladies who actually sale homemade natural sugar wax, which works like a charm. More than happy to pass the info. Also be aware, because here there is a little obsession with white skin... Anyway a LOT of products have withening chemicals for "brightening" skin, and sometimes you buy them without noticing it, so read labels twice, just in case.
Part three: it's that time of the month
You might heard the rumours... and they're true, tampons are hard to find in Indonesia, for instance here in Malang I've never seen them in almost a year, only in Bali and Jakarta and a box can cost up to 100k (which is about 8$), so pack some of them. In my case, I'm actually on the avant-garde edge when it comes to period time because I don't like tampons, but I hate pads, so I've found an alternative solution, the diva cup, moon cup, something cup, there are several brands, but I'm loyal to the first one, first of all, because is environmental friendly, super confortable, you can wear it up to 12 hours (also depends on the heaviness of the flow), discreet, I'm not gonna keep with the promo, but you can check it yourself online, at first it might be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, would be like a walk in the park.
Part four: le sexy time...
In this part I'm letting you know, yes there is condoms in Indonesia, despite what you might have heard, there are different brands (evidently including durex and its variations) they're quite available in every indomaret, alfamaret, pharmacies and supermarkets, so there's no excuse for going comando here without a very good reason. I've heard (a friend of a friend) from male counterparts that they have had some problems with the diameter of the condoms, apparently length is ok but width is not, and they had the experience of breakage, which is not cool, so paint attention on it when wearing it. On the girls side, birth control is also available (and if you are at the doctors consultation there is no problem in asking about it, and you have to fake or prove that you're married in order to get it) also emergency contraceptive is available, I haven't seen the female condom (although I think nobody uses that), but the traditional ones are available and no problem about it.
