"Wah, things in JB/KL/Batam are so cheap! If only Sg is like this.."

I like this video by NOC. It is a very truthful dig on us Singaporeans when we travel to our neighbouring countries, especially the "Wah damn cheap" part. Do you have friends saying this all the time when they travel to our neighbouring countries? Or you always have this thought as well?

Recently i travelled to KL for work. So my colleague was nice enough to drive us around the makan places after office hours. We went to a popular wan ton mee store. This is not some atas restaurant, just a regular coffee shop type.  A plate cost 7rm iirc. This is cheap to people who earns in SGD, and if we convert it back to SGD because of our strong currency (Power of 3! Hooray!". However, the serving is quite small, and i end up eating 2 servings. 14rm just for 2 plates of WTM!

When i was younger, i was guilty of saying the "if only it is so cheap in Singapore as well" phrase. It's only after i started travelling alot for work and communicating with the locals much, then i realise it is only partially true. It is cheap for Singaporeans, but it is actually quite expensive for the locals. Whenever i eat at other countries, ill do a mental some of how much the meal cost in percentage wise (im a silly engineer, i love doing this kind of boliao things). 

A local engineering grad starting pay is around 3k RM i heard. Singaporean counterpart earns around 3k SGD. If both of them eat 1 plate of WTM each, the Malaysian will spend 0.23% of his pay. Whereas the Singaporean pays only 0.1% for his regular bowl of WTM at a coffeeshop or hawker centre. Moreover the Malaysian portion is maybe around 20% lesser compare to the Singaporean WTM. I find this true for Thailand and Indonesia as well. I kinda pity the locals and i always get digs by the local colleagues that Singaporean always spoil market, in which i just laugh it off. 

On the other end of the spectrum, if a Singaporean goes to UK for travel, everything becomes DAMN expensive. When i was staying in London, i got a shock to find out 1 MCD value meal cost almost an arm and an leg. It was around 7-8 GBP? So it was equivalent to around 20 SGD back then!  And no chilli! Wah kao, totally not worth it haha! Thus, it is abit like our neighbours visiting Singapore. 

Thus, the next time when you travel to JB or somewhere else in the region and you find yourself wanting to say "Wah, this place is so cheap! I wish Singapore is like this!" , perhaps is it better to be silently glad that our currency is so much stronger than the others. :)

Oh and of cause, housing and cars in Malaysia are really DAMN cheap there! haha. This one cannot compare. :)