Archive for the ‘Money matters’ Category

Getting Proper Screwed – again

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

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When you are a long term cruiser, and regularly find yourself in a new country, with a language you don’t understand and cultures, habits, politics and religions different from your own and previous countries you have visited, it is likely that, sooner or later, you will make a fool of yourself when it comes to money stuff – no matter how smart you try to be.

This has happened to me many times in many countries. We have now been visiting more than 80 countries on our yacht during 20 years. Each time I get screwed, I tell myself: OK, they will not get me on this scam next time. And of course they won’t, because I have learned from my mistake. Problem is; there will be a new plot next time in the next country.

Last month, here in Thailand, I decided to send my old wind generator on a factory over haul to England. I was advised, by a local contractor (in good faith as far as I can determine) to use a shipping agent and go for a “repair and return” procedure. Doing so I would only have to pay import charges, on the return, based on the cost of the repair plus return shipping costs.

At the end the project turned out to be a big mistake, something that the agent must have realized from the start and she should have advised me to just ship the unit in a regular way without the “repair and return” hassle.

First, I ended up paying, in government charges and the agent’s fees an amount equal to about 130% of the value (on the repair plus TNT return shipping). I would call this confiscation!

Second, the return shipment took more than two weeks as there was so much paper work included AND the package had to be routed via Bangkok (because of the “repair and return” scheme). When I received the invoice there were 22 attachments stapled to it!

In comparison: I have ordered marine products four times to be sent here to Thailand (from both the EU and the USA), deck hardware, winches, electronics, and they arrived directly to Phuket within 3 working days and generated only 10-15% import charges.

This is only a fragment of the sad story about the wind generator in question. The whole picture will be revealed in a later story called: The World’s Most Expensive Electricity. Stay tuned.

Dumb as a Brick? – to the Med at All Costs.

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

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Maybe you think I’ve written enough about piracy already. Yes, but I haven’t said enough.

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Cruiser’s Paradise Lost? – The Maldives

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

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1,200 tropical islands – 1,000 of them uninhabited, crystal clear water, abundant marine life, great weather and very friendly people.

A cruiser’s paradise, you may think? Not entirely so, unfortunately –the government of the Maldives does not encourage private cruising in their archipelago.

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Year of the Rat?

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

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The Chinese think we are now in the Year of the Tiger. I think they may be wrong.

At least here in Phuket we feel it must be the year of the rat. Some of our Face Book friends may remember the scene I faced when I opened our storage locker after our return from Europe. Three rats were caught in my glue trap.

A few weeks later, with the yacht still on dry land in the yard subject to upgrading work, I found this rope, below, in our sail locker on board. It’s an unused sheet, chewed through in many places. Also one of the sail bags had a large hole. But the discoveries didn’t end here.

Sometimes when we leave the yacht for longer periods I have left the main sail (and mizzen) on the boom protected by the canvas cover, thinking that it actually is a better place in stead of folding the sail into a bag. We have never had any problems with that other than sometimes bees build nests inside. This time we were up for a big surprise. There were 3 large holes in the thick (8 oz) Dacron fabric, clearly the mark of rats.

So as a warning to fellow cruisers, I’m giving you a heads up for this potential problem. This sail was almost 19 years old, with 60.000nm of service, and I had been thinking of retiring it anyway, so it was not a big loss. But what if it would have been a brand new one? The price of the new sail is 3.500 USD.

Bloody currency fluctuations

Friday, June 4th, 2010

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We haven’t been very lucky with the changings of the currency rate during the past decade. Our floating home has been located in maybe 20 different countries during this financially turbulent period and we have undertaken some pretty costly boat work. Usually there has always been an unfavourable change in the exchange rates whenever we spend more local currency than normal.

Our currency is the Euro.



The value of the Euro compared to Thailand Baht (6/09-05/10).
Click on chart for a larger copy. Source: www.xe.com.

Half a year ago (November 2009) we arrived in Thailand and decided to undertake some major repairs and face lifts on our yacht. Now, in May 2010, when the work is under way and the invoices are dropping in, the value of Euro in Thailand Baht has dropped by 20% (even before the Greek problem hit the news, the drop was 15%). If the grand total value of our projects is, say 700.000 THB, our costs have increased by 3,500 Euros.

Bad timing, wrong time and wrong place.

Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it. With hind sight somebody could say: Hey, why didn’t you terminate the amount in November? Well, we were not committed to all the projects until we had found the right contractors and agreed on prices, and by then we were already in April when the Greek problem suddenly hit the fan. Who would buy a large amount of Thailand Bahts just for speculation?

Anyway, we have seen this phenomenon before during our voyage.

Most countries in the Americas either use US dollars or their currency is linked to the dollar. We spent several years in Central and South America, the Caribbean and on the US east coast from 2000 to 2005. We had particularly expensive boat work done in 2002 and 2003, when the value of one Euro was around 0.85 US cents. After those years, the situation became the reverse and you could buy more than 1.5 US for a single Euro. However, by then we had moved to areas outside the USD-world and had little gain because of the strengthening of the Euro.

Instead, during the time when we spent around 50,000 New Zealand dollars on boat work in 2007, the value of the Euro decreased by 20% compared to the NZD.

Same stories, different currency, tough luck – this is cruising.

30,000 litres of water!

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

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In April we left Scorpio on the hard in Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket, Thailand. Then we flew to Europe for a few months. A month later, included in the marina’s first monthly invoice, I was charged for the use of 30,000 litres of water!

I know that I used about 1,000 litres when filling the tanks and cleaning the yacht. I have also had a contracor peeling off the anti-fouling paint and he has used some water, but not any excess amounts. According to the my contractor, the water tap has been locked.

30,000 litres is equal to the amount that flows through our tanks in about 10 years (and we live aboard 9-10 months a year).
I have protested about this charge, but so far no reply from the marina.

Update June 21, 2010: The marina has now credited the whole water charge (did it in next month’s invoice, but never replied to my complaint). Thank you.

Jackpot at the ATM

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

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ATMs have made currency management a lot easier for the frequent traveler. But sometimes things can get complicated even so.

The last few months we have been handling Indonesian Rupiah, Singapore dollars, Malaysian ringits, Cambodian riel and now we were facing Vietnamese dong. Usually the ATM’s in this part of the world have a very modest maximum amount of withdrawal, anything between say, the equivalent of 50 to 250 USD, depending on the country and the bank. This is another scam because you can usually withdraw several times in a row, but the bank takes a fee each time.

Anyway, here I am in a hot ATM booth in Saigon, where the machine tells me to enter the amount of withdrawal up to “a maximum of 20,000,000 dong (yes 20 million). Trusting that this maximum amount was something in the region mentioned above I pushed ENTER.

0511-0809-1214-5311_Cartoon_of_a_Man_Winning_a_Jackpot_clipart_image

And ding Dong, the ATM spat out the equivalent of 1,050 USD of Vietnamese Dong, which is not a converible currency. Also, you wouldn’t expect the machines to produce this kind of money in a socialist country. Later I had to change back a major amount to USD at the market (the bank refused to exchange it). How stupid can you be?

I’ll update this post later, when I have been able to calculate the damage.

Taxi scam

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

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I’ve been to more than a 100 countries – and I’ve probably been cheated at least a 100 times.

img_taxi

We arrived in Saigon by bus from Cambodia. I knew that our hotel should be only 500 metres or so from the terminal, so I was prepared to walk. As usual there was the hord of taxi drivers surrounding us when we stepped out of the bus, and I could sense that Malla wasn’t very keen on walking with the luggage (although we only have the flight bags on wheels). One taxi driver grabbed her bag and started walking towards his car.

I tried to get a fixed price, expecting it to be 3-4 USD, but the guy insisted that the fare is metered. After a while I gave in and got into the car and looked at the meter, which said 10,500 (dong), about 50 cents US. One minute later, when the taxi has moved around 100 metres, the reading was 220,000 dong (12 USD or so). I told the driver that there was something wrong, but he ignored me. A couple minutes later we came to the hotel, but the guy didn’t stop the car in front of the entrance (although there was free space), but at the corner 50 metres away.

At this stage the meter showed 260,000 (14 USD) and I new, that I had been fooled again. The driver said that he would not accept dollars, only dongs. I protested of course, and refused to pay this rediculous amount, as I knew that a ride from the hotel to the airport (30 minutes) would cost only 6 USD (120,000 dong). I told him to move the taxi in front of the hotel entrance, so we could discuss the matter with the reception, but the driver refused.

In the end he decided to accept dollars, and just to get the thing over with I handed him 10 dollars before we walked away. I could hear him complaining loudly, but we ignored him and walked back to the hotel.

It’s not the price, for that amounty you can’t even get into a taxi back home, but I hate being taken in – every time.

Prices are right, weather perfect …

Monday, March 8th, 2010

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We have spent the past eight months in countries where we’re getting a lot for our bucks: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Singapore wasn’t particularly cheap, but reasonable and in Indonesia, supply wasn’t great. On the other hand, prices in Thailand and especially Malaysia are out of this world, and you can find almost any item you might need.

Let me give you a few every-day examples. A local sim-card for your mobile phone costs €1.83, a subscription for mobile broadband (3G) for one week is €4.16 and a taxi ride starts at €1.28. A meal at the food stalls and street markets is around €1 and even in the restaurants you can have a several course lunch or diner for less than €4.

The prices are so good, we use to joke, that you can’t afford to eat at home.

A case of beer (Skool) can be found below €6, which is an incredible 25 cents per can, while the bests price I have seen on a bottle of Gordons gin is €5.42. Even in the bars a beer is usually around 75 cents.

We haven’t experienced prices like these since the four months we spent in Ecuador and the availability of goods wasn’t as good there as here.

bigmacindex

Even boating gear and services, which usually get a “reverse discount” on the price tag are relatively affordable in Langkawi, which is a tax free area. From Nongsa Point, our last stop in Indonesia, through Singapore to Malaysia we visited five star marinas and paid less than €10 per day for our 43ft ketch (and much less if you stay longer). More than 10 years ago we usually had to pay €40-50 in Spain and the same in the USA. The major exception concerning prices is the cost for storage on land, which I will comment in a later post.

Malaysia also knows how to make it easy for us yachties. There’s no restriction for importing your vessel, it can remain here for ever. Travelers get a 90 days visa when entering and you can briefly walk over the border and re-enter with a new 90 days visa when the previous has expired. Thailand is more difficult, you only get 30 days for yourself (60 if you have a visa acquired abroad) and 6 months for the boat. In addition, you cannot leave the boat in Thailand if you want to leave the country for a re-entry (without paying a bond).

Last but not least, the weather is perfect (some say too hot, but I guess they haven’t heard of shades and fans) and everybody is incredibly friendly.

We are planning to leave the boat here in Langkawi for 5 months while we take a vacation back home in Finland. I’m afraid that it is going to be an incredibly expensive trip.

Helsinki is 7th on the list of the world’s most expensive capitals compared to Kuala Lumpur, which is 70th, last on the list at level with Delhi and Mumbai (although it really is a first world city). Hope that at least the snow is gone before we get there;)

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