Cost of "Stuff".

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It’s often interesting to hear about the costs of things in other countries so here are few things for you. Remember that there are about 30-32 rupees to the dollar.
1 hour on the internet - 30rp.
1 small kit-kat - 5rp.
A cup of street chai - 7rp.
A good cup of REAL coffee - 25rp.
375mls of local whisky (tastes O.K.) - 92rp.
500grms of those delicious little sweet cakes - 85rp.
A Thai feast for 5 in a little restaurant (my birthday) - about 1000rp.
Naturally everything seems incredibly inexpensive, but then the average person here would earn so little that these things would be luxuries.

An interesting hairdressing experience.
I decided that my hair colour needed doing and after having hunted high and low (in Darjeeling take that expression literally) I went to a small local place just up the street from where I now live. I sat on a tiny stall in the middle of a very small room with a bed and a mirror in it and had my colour put on. I was then left alone, slowly freezing to death for 40 minutes while the colour took. At this stage I was looking for were the wash basin was. I was soon to find out that there wasn’t one. In came the “hairdresser” and after she had put a plastic sheet on the pillow of the bed, motioned for me to lie down. So, I am lying on the bed, she is sitting on the small stall by my head and then proceeds to put jugs of warm water from a bucket onto my hair, which then runs down the plastic into another bucket . Believe me this felt extremely odd! At the end of it my hair colour was done, although she left it on too long and I now look a dull grey colour and I have decided that next time I will check out the wash basin first.

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