What $1 Can Do

A survey done by Lonely Planet through Facebook asked people from different countries what $1 can buy in their country. They comments are very interesting. In some countries, $1 can buy you a nice foot massage but in others it can do nothing!

Chester, England: US$1 (63 pence) gets me half a loaf of bread. As for Philippines, one of the best things you can get with $1 is a big bag of sweets to keep in your backpack, to hand out to kids. – James

Vienna: a dollar would buy you a freshly baked Kornspitz (a kind of bread roll), but wouldn’t be enough for a salty pickle from a street market or a short-distance public transport ticket. However, with the change from that Kornspitz, you can visit the museum of applied art (MAK) on a Saturday since it’s free of charge. – Dilyan

Tenerife, Canary Islands: it will get you a good cup of coffee in the capital, Santa Cruz, but in the tourist areas of the South you will be lucky if it gets you half a cup. – Linda

South India: it will give a unlimited servings of rice with rasam, sambhar, curd, papad, 1 piece sweet on a banana leaf. – Tarun

Cebu, Philippines: $1 can get 30-45 minutes of a glorious foot massage – Dexter

Nepal: you can get momo (ten units of dumpling) and a 250ml of coke. – Niraj

Croatia:  a big scoop of ice-cream. – Morana

The UK: 60 pence buys you about 3/4 litre of milk, half a litre of petrol/diesel for your car, 2 cigarettes (that’s two single ones, not a packet), 3 apples, 2 days supply of the Sun tabloid newspaper, a small portion of fries from Maccy D’s or a can of coke from my office vending machine. – Alex

Denmark: you can get a litre of milk, a ciabatta bun in the Godthaabsvej Bakery, a stamp for a postcard/letter with receiver in Denmark, a cucumber or maybe a chocolate bar. 1 dollar = 5,5 danish kroner – Sandra

Budapest: 1 scoop of ice cream/4 small apples/1 plain hamburger at McDonald’s/1 postcard/1 daily newspaper/30 minutes parking in the downtown area – Csaba

Canada: Nothing! Haha. Blame it on Canadian taxes – Ashley

Faroe Islands: a pack of chewing gum, 2 apples at the supermarket, some candy probably, hardly anything – Bjarki

Vietnam: you can buy either 1 hat, 1 or 2 magazine(s), 1 DVD, 3 pairs of flip sandals, 5 instant noodle packages or snacks, 1 meal in some cheap food courts. ALOT, rite? – Lynn

In middle Italy: a litre of cheap wine or 1kg Spaghetti or 6 bottles of mineral water and just about one tablet of Ibruprofen which you might need if you drank the cheap vino!!! – Robert

Chiang Mai: The question is, what can’t you get in Chiang Mai for US$1? Street food doesn’t usually cost more than that. I even get a cooked to order vegetarian lunch delivered to my office everyday for that price. – Sheila

Bogota, Colombia: A cup of coffee and 2 fresh baked cookies. Or an arepa with some spicy home made aji salsa! – Andrew

Seoul: one subway or bus ticket and a mask pack for your skin. – Yun

Egypt: you could buy a koshary plate which is an Egyptian dish which basically includes spaghetti, rice, lentil and fried onions on the top. Another choice would be about ten Fool (beans) sandwiches maybe even some falafel or in other parts of Cairo just a donut. – Aly

India:  ‎1USD = around 50 Indian Rupees which can get you a hearty meal of boiled rice, dal, vegetables, pickles, chutney and papads in a Kolkata ‘basa’ …and it’s usually eat as much as you want! – Priyanka

Costa Rica: you can buy one papaya, one watermelon, one pineapple… and perhaps a cup of coffee of decent quality. – Luis

Los Angeles: one hour of street parking – Christina

Paris: about 40% of an espresso at Starbucks. – Michael

Dubai: a dollar will get you a ‘Jabal Al Noor’ shawarma. – Ineke

Portugal: 1 espresso coffee. Except if you are in the airport. – Nuno

Australia: a scratchy (lottery ticket) with the chance of getting enough cash together for your next trip – Kin

If you have limited budget, your best choice is Indonesia, Thailand, and India!

My Future Autobiography

Someone gave me this idea of writing an autobiography, but not about the life I've lived but yet to come. I thought that's a great idea! Although life aften goes out of your plans, it is important to know what you want and what your goals are. So I wrote this autobiography on my life 50 years from now. 

As Peiran continues in pursuing her Bachelor degree, she concentrated more in Advertising because she realized how influential they are in people’s lives and she aims to be an influential person. She got an internship in her senior year in BBDO, a worldwide advertising agency. There she learnt a lot of practical skills in Advertising industry and also gained more interests for this career. What was even better was that it was a paid internship. She paid off her last year’s tuition with the money she earned. It took her one more year to get a Masters degree because she was in the five-year Communication program. As much as she loved being in college, it was exciting for her to step into the second quarter of her life.

She found an Advertising Assistant job in Los Angeles. She had visited LA two years ago during Christmas break and she enjoyed living there so much, so she didn’t give a second thought for relocating. Working as an Advertising Assistant was fun, everything was pretty much the way she imagined before except for that it was a 9 to 5 office work. She hated office works ever since she had her first job in the International Admissions on campus. She once told her mom that the admissions job does no good besides letting her know that she doesn’t like office work. She left the Advertising Assistant job after one year and started her own company as an entrepreneur.

She had always had this idea about an agency that connects designers, writers, photographers and media people with different projects of companies. The agency provides a platform for them to choose the project that they are interested in doing and signs them a contract with the company. In this way, these creative people can always work on the project that they are interested in. This Media Agency was like a baby to her; she worked hard and took good care of the baby, and the baby grew very fast. After 2 years, she had 150 people signed under her agency and there were international companies that offered projects to her. By the age of 27, she was married to her significant other.

One year after, her business went worldwide and she decided to open a chain company in her home country, China. She moved to Shanghai with her family and spent another 8 years there before they all moved to France. During that time, she son was born and two years after was her daughter. They both went to a primary school in Shanghai. She started supporting missionaries in Southeast Asia because she wanted to be part of this great mission even though she couldn’t be there physically. Their relocation was because of her new company in Paris. This agency was targeting the European market. She picked up French at the age of 35. Her company developed a few more chain agencies but she did not relocate with the company.

A friend of her mom’s introduced her to this movie base in Hawaii and she thought that she would go for a visit and it was a vacation anyways. However after visiting the base, she decided to help this company in publicity. She moved to Kona, Hawaii with her husband when both of her children went to college. She advertised this movie company and its movies using the network she built in the past few decades and made this company well known. She traveled around the world with her husband and the crew for this movie; that was just an incredible way to fulfill her childhood dream!

At the age of 60, her son was mainly in charge of her companies. She and her husband became full time missionaries in India. She told her son that the companies will continue supporting missionaries. She left a notebook with her autobiography to her son and daughter to tell them how short but wonderful life is and that they need to cherish the moment they have in order to be prepared for the time to come. 

Good deeds that you can do

This morning I read an interesting news story about an international biker who cooks for local families all over the world. His name is Jay and he is from India. In the beginning he cooked for the family that hosted him for free to show "gratitude for a free stay". Later on he realized that he enjoyed sharing his home food with people from other cultures; food brought people closer to each other. Food is a big part of Indian culture and cooking Indian food is sharing his culture with them. Click here to view this news.

 

Jay's famous dish "Curry Chicken"

 

 

I agree with Jay's attitude towards the place that you travel to and the people there. Many people do not like tourists because tourists cause chaos in the local community. I am from a city that has a huge tourism industry; the city is by the ocean so it's famous for the beautiful beach, sea food and the Beer Festival. Every summer millions of people visit the city. The large amount of tourists is often the reason for prices being raised, traffic and noise violations in the district near the beach. Tourists have brought inconvenience to local people's everyday life.

 

It is important to be aware of the local community and show your respect to people. Jay inspired me to give something back to the community that I travel to; little actions like cooking a meal for them can show our appreciation for their hospitality. Respecting them and their culture can also bring you closer to them. Little good deeds that you do can make people happy, and you will also be more satisfied with your journey!

 

Giving something back to the place I visit is my goal for the next trip.