It's gonna be quite a long trip. 9 days. As usual she's working half the time and I'll have to explore a bit on my own.
The first thing that struck me when I got here is how expensive the food is.
I mean food here is more expensive than in Paris.
Which I find absolutely amazing.
If you account for exchange rate, Paris food is more expensive. But that's not how you're supposed to look at cost of living in most countries.
Singaporeans earn S$3000, they go to Malaysia and think everything is cheap. But many don't realize. Malaysian earn less than MYR3000.
Similarly, in Australia, or Europe, people earn AUD or EUR, 3000. So when we go to other countries we aren't really supposed to do a FX conversion.
Like in Singapore. You earn S$3000, you can get a meal for S$3.
In Paris, I can get a sandwich for around €5, and it's easy to find.
In Perth, I can hardly find a cheap enough meal. A sandwich is AUD6+, and I can hardly find such places. It's really not so easy to find cheap eats here.
Fish and chips is AUD15-18. That's the price of a normal meal here. There's little options under AUD10.
Today is my first day on my own. I managed to find a supermarket selling "reduced to clear" sandwiches at half price. So I grabbed 3 packs for breakfast lunch and snack. Total cost AUD8. Which is not too bad already for almost the whole day meal.
Dinner is going to be expensive again. But we usually share a meal cos she can't finish a whole meal anyway.
I'm expecting expenses to be running high this month mainly due to food and transport over here for the 9 days. And we are planning on having a day tour as well.
Transport is expensive as well. A 30 min train ride from Perth city to Fremantle... 4 tickets. 2 Tix to Fremantle, 2 Tix back... Costs AUD19... That's almost AUD5 per trip. That's freaking expensive!!!
Perth city isn't as historical as Paris so I dont have as many things to see as when I was in France. But I'll probably venture further out tomorrow and explore a bit more.
Anyway... That's all for today...
Although I now seriously wonder...
With such a high tax rate, high food and transport cost, how the heck do these people save up to buy their own place and to retire?!?!
It's probably really tough.
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