Saturday, September 16, 2017

Travel tips

As mentioned before, we had a lovely trip to South Korea. But afterwards, splitting the costs proved to be a bit of a nightmare...

Flight and hotels were not too bad, because there were receipts. Food and transport were a lot messier. Well, long trips were ok, because there were tickets. But small details like who paid for top ups and taxi fare were quite difficult to keep track of.

Meals were the worst, I think. We couldn't remember how much we paid for meals, coffees and snacks. I did try to keep all the receipts, but G, being male, hardly did. And sometimes I kept receipts paid by G just so that we had proof, but then I would be wondering who paid for it!

In the end, after much going back and forth, G mentioned the simplest solution - we should have had a kitty! Each puts in the same amount and all shared costs come out of it. Duh!! We can keep aside an extra bit of money for personal spending like cosmetics and souvenirs. Meals, top ups and taxi fares come out of the kitty. Easy peasy!

Oh well, lesson learnt. That's what we do the next time we travel together. For some reason, it was never so complicated before. This time maybe because I paid for the flights and most of the hotels while G paid for most of the meals. So it became messy to figure out how much he had to pay me back and stuff. Plus it was in a foreign currency for both of us.

In Malaysia and UK, it was easy to draw more cash if necessary. In Korea, we found that they didn't have the international withdrawal facilities we were used to, like PLUS. Also, food was frightfully expensive, so we couldn't simply ignore the costs like we usually did.

G already flew home yesterday and I think he should be getting home about now. I would miss him being around, there are few people I can share with about my difficulties in working life. He is much like a big brother or uncle to me...

That said, I don't generally share a room with my uncle or big brother, so the holiday costed more than I would have liked. So the next time I do a long overseas trip, I would prefer to go with my husband. It would be easier, cheaper and safer to have a man accompanying me. Although at this point, I don't have any idea where to find this elusive husband of mine.

My dad seems to attract women with incredible ease though. Barely 3 months after the demise of my unpopular stepmother, he has already found a replacement and they should be marrying by the end of the year. Amazing, huh? I don't really mind as long as she takes good care of him, but hello... can you spare a thought for your own children tak? I told him my wallet hilang pun, no response. Teruk betul.

Hrmph... nasib la labu...

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