i dont think travellers really gain in the exchange rate

london 8.33pm 17C sunny clear sky saturday 2016

i was in town and saw the exchange rates that the high street money changers were charging. they have a buy and a sell rate. 

if u want to change £ to Euros, they charge u £1 =1.17 euros

if u want to change euros to £ , they charge u £1= 1.34euros. the official exchange rate now is £1=1.19euros.

so it looks like the euro tourists here dont really get the full benefit of the cheap £. i think this is the universal truth … you can never get good exchange rate if u are a foreigner changing your money to the local currency in the country where u are visiting.

that is why it is a wise move to buy all your currency in your own country before u travel. the downside of course is that u are carrying a lot of cash and u can get robbed. alternatively u can pay with your credit card and just pay the exchange rate that applies on that day when the purchase gets processed by your bank.

nowadays i dont like it at all , so that is why i dont visit countries anymore. it is only part of the reason i hasten to add . the other part is because i have lost interest in visiting countries just for the sake of visiting them. i have gone there and bought the t shirt as it were, and seen them and got it out of my system… and so have lost that urge to travel now.

in fact, i seem to have gone the other way round, i dislike leaving london so much so that i wont even take the £1 train that takes 2hrs to bournemouth to visit john. i mean to say if even that low fare does not tempt me, nothing will.

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

burlington gdn street festival

 

£ against everyone else

london 10.53am 5.4C cloudy thursday 2016

the £ has dropped…

the market is really silly, to drop the £ just because of uncertainty. but it does not like uncertainty and would think the worst and will always want to cover its backside.all it cares about is … it is afraid of losing money. once we have the result after 23june, they should settle down. 

 exporters are happy the £ has dropped. and in many ways it is a good thing in the short run.

tourists from uk are finding it more expensive to go abroad, but i think that is not a bad thing. too many are spending £s abroad and selling £s.

i would prefer they decide to spend their holidays in uk, and spend their money here. and help the british economy. and if foreign goods are more expensive, it means local services and good will be relatively cheaper and persuade more  people to buy.

economics dont like to say this, but all people should buy their own country’s goods … if u buy foreign goods u are helping the foreign country and sabotaging your own. but no one can say it,everyone pays lip service to free trade. but if u want to help your country, buy only what is produced by your country. 

£1 = 5.87ringgit, 1.96singapore $, 49.66bhat, US$1.39,1.26 euro,95.75rupee,1.94Aus$,