Dollars, ringitts, baht, kyat, kip, riels, dong!
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2004
1
30
44
Trip End
Jun 01, 2004
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Friday, April 9, 2004
We have had a few questions about money, budget and expenses, so here is a brief account.
All the guidebooks say that you can travel in this part fo the world on about 10.00 US a day. We have found this only to be true if you do not care much about where you lay your head! (It also does not include alcohol, toiletries, tranportation and luxuries.)
While it is true that you can find a dorm room with shared facilities for a dollar, we value our space, privacy and cleanliness! By paying a bit more for accommodation, we have been able to stay relatively bug free.
Then again, even we found a reasonable guest house in Northern Thailand for $2.50. Eating local food and using local transportation is what has saved us money. We see many foreigners spending a great deal on air conditioned mii-busses and western food. By eating and travelling with the locals, we have been able to splurge on other things, such as beer and massages!
The most interesting thing is how out of whack prices seem to be relative to the value of things at home. We'll use Laos as an example to give you a sampling of what 10,000 kip (one US dollar) will buy:
4 hours on a local bus or 1 litre (they call it a jar) of draft beer;
a tuk tuk ride for two for several city blocksor 1 giant pomelo;
bike rental for a full day or a small bag of M&Ms;
a dorm room in a ver low end guest house or 1 hour of slow internet;
1 cup of western coffee or1 huge bowl of noodle soup with BBQ por, salad and tea;
1 bag of Lays potato chips or 1 prescription tube of acyclovir.
This is so unreal compared to the relative value of these things. And all of these things we have purchased for 10,000 kip without too much bargaining. We have discovered that we are simply not good at bargaining. We see tourists haggling and walking away...having lost all perspective that they are arguing over a kip or a few dong (a few cents).
For us, it is clear that one kip is worth so much more to the local than it is to us, that we just can't do it. Yeah...we're being told that we have often paid too much, but we think once a buyer and seller agree on a reasonable price, it's fair exchange and everyone is happy.
Just a quick update on where we are: We're enjoying Hanoi now, heading on an overnight train in a few hours to do some trekking in Sapa. Then we're going to cruise Halong Bay and then head south. More from Hue in a few days!
