Fabric shopping: Jakarta

Fabric shopping in Jakarta is so much fun. You can easily get fabric from Paris, Switzerland, Italy for relatively low price (Japanese fabric is always the cheapest - about 10 dollars a meter; fabric from Switzerland is slightly more expensive - about 15 dollars; Italian fabric is the most expensive - about 25 dollars) . All you must do is haggle. In Jakarta, you haggle everywhere, even for food. The key is to not sound desperate and look around. Do no be afraid to go and come back later even if the person tells you that the item is so popular that it will not likely to last.

This is not to say that you cannot get really expensive fabric in Jakarta. For instance, brocade is quite expensive (about 200 dollars a meter).