Yes it’s Cheap!

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Ok China is pretty much dirt cheap, the amount of money I have saved for the trip just seems to be growing bigger and bigger. When I was saving for this trip I was planning on a conversion rate of about 5 times. When withdrawing money from the bank the other day I got 6 times and then some! Thankfully this eases pressure on the budget and also puts me in the clear if I want to travel to other places or leave my placement early. Although a young fool and his money are easily parted…

So lets get down to what you wanna hear, how amazingly cheap most things are! Food glorious food! The cost of beer here is staggering. It cost less than one aussie dollar here for a litre of crisp Hans beer, a German Chinese partnership that goes down well with just about everything. The local whiskey which is soaked in 3 types of animal penis is about $1, 42% alcohol and goes well with Coke. So that is your night out for about $5 which I can’t complain about. Next step is food, you can pick up a decent meal of street food for about $3; I’m talking maybe a bowl of noodles, some meat, a drink and some bread thing to go with it. This will all be with table service and a place to seat down. Basically I’m hoping when I get traveling on my own I can do food for the day for about $6. Here are some example’s of the food bargains you can pick up. I can get foot wide roti canai for about 40cents, 10 mutton skewers for $2 and a huge breakfast burger thing for 50cents. If I want to get a little classier something like a 20 dish hotpot in a private room with your own personal attendant will set you back about $7. It’s truly nuts when you think about the service and food I’m getting and everything is always under $10.

Public transport is also a ripper deal. Taxi’s have a flag fall of 50cents and charge 35cents every km after. Meaning it is ken cheap when you can’t be bothered mucking around trying to figure out which bus is yours when everything is Chinese. By the way, the bus only sets you back 20 cents anyway.

Now I know no one wants to see that many numbers in a travel blog but I wanted to convey how cheap it really is for those essentials: food, beer and getting around!

Moving on to something that is a little more personal and relevant to my trip is the school I am volunteering at. I’m actually going to pull out the E word… Ethics! Now you may wonder why I just pulled that one out but I am a wee bit troubled by my placement. I originally signed up for orphanage work and I thought it would be a decent way to make a difference, give back and feel good about myself. Helping little kids with no parent’s sounds like a worthy cause doesn’t it? Well it turns out the orphanage is a 2 hour hike each way so I decided to skip that and volunteer at the local preschool. On my first day I was blown away with how modern and new it is. The corridors feature giant undersea murals that with a flick of a switch glow blue from special mood lightning. Where was my mood lighting when I was 5? I did some more digging and it turns out it cost 800yuan a month to go there. The teachers only earn a 1000 yuan a month. I was a bit surprised by this. I wanted to volunteer somewhere where the students were a bit more deserving. If I wanted to a volunteer at the local private school I could have walked up the street to mine at home. So I’m thinking of asking for a transfer to one of the under funded public schools where I feel I will be doing a wee bit more.

Peace.

Zin

Note: Everything in Australian prices.

P.S Sorry about lack of photo’s but internet speed here is what early man probably had in his cave. Trying to sort it out and look for an update.

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Comments

[Nana Perth]

Interesting!!
So delightful to read your blogs Zin, really great and newsy - many thanks

[Ziniszen]

Thanks mate
I'm trying to keep them punchy and look for the next one coming soon!