quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:
Me thinks we should leave beer in. If the item was 'get drunk cheap' then we could be talking about hard booz, a single box of wine to go the week, etc.

Well, I think it was not so much the get drunk cheap thing as -- "I'll be out and about, I will want some sort of inexpensive alcohol with my meal" idea. In the U.S., that would be beer. In Paris it's wine -- maybe in Spain too, I don't really know. I don't think we priced the beer as a take-away anyway (which would have been cheaper from a deli, more like $1 than $4, and without a tip).

It's the coffee & tea idea -- what we meant is: the working person's cheap, hot, caffeinated drink that you can get on your way to work. But if we just said "coffee", then that could become more of a luxury item in places like Asia, where tea is that item.

I would still prefer to get beer over wine even if it was more expensive. Like I would still prefer beer over airag in Mongolia, even thoiugh the latter is probably much cheaper. If we'd count the cheapest local alcohol instead of beer in every place, it would get way too complicated imho. I've never heard of people getting coffee or tea opn their way to work here btw, it's definitely a sit-down-and-take-your-time kind of drink here.

Morelia is in! bna-wccit-v9.xls NTFT gets brownie points for detailed item explanations.

City                               Basket      Conv Rate     USD     Index

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia  MYR    522.20         0.2710  141.52      0.34

Morelia, Mexico             MXP  1,848.00         0.0910  168.17      0.41

Manila, Philippines         PHP  9,830.00         0.0194  190.70      0.46

Lima, Peru                  PEN    626.00         0.3050  190.93      0.46

Toronto, Canada             CDN    406.00         0.8870  360.12      0.87

Lisbon, Portugal            EUR    305.50         1.2800  391.04      0.95

Antwerp, Belgium            EUR    314.02         1.2800  401.95      0.97

Vancouver, Canada           CDN    555.41         0.8870  492.65      1.19

Vienna, Austria             EUR    386.60         1.2800  494.85      1.20

Copenhagen, Denmark         DKK  3,121.00         0.1720  536.81      1.30

London, England             GBP    298.00         1.8900  563.22      1.36

New York City, USA          USD    579.73         1.0000  579.73      1.40

Paris, France               EUR    493.50         1.2800  631.68      1.53

Zurich, Switzerland         CHF    790.52         0.8060  637.16      1.54

                            

Average                                                   412.89      1.00

Huh. Interesting. I thought Morelia would fall somewhere in the middle. I was being conservative and ¨safe¨with the numbers. It could definitely be done for less.

I guess it´s just ¨looks¨relatively inexpensive since the cities scew heavily toward Western Europe-US-Canada. Need some Middle East and SEA, etc.

Stoo, re your pm. I could do other cities in this area of Mexico, but they´d all be pretty much the same as Morelia. As I mentioned, Guadalajara would be a little more in some categories, and less in others, and the basket would probably be close to the same. So I ain´t gonna.

Whats going on with this now Stoo is it still on going? whats the next stage?

Michelle

Well, we have the above index...just need more cities. I can add them as they come in. I plan to add one or two more by end of year.

Hmmm, no Middle East cities up there yet....I can do Dubai's index if you'd like.....

quote:

Originally posted by Wayward Angel:
Hmmm, no Middle East cities up there yet....I can do Dubai's index if you'd like.....

fantastic! Just click the spreadsheet link above, fill out, and mail to me at bna@dietpizza.ch!

Dubai is in! bna-wccit-v11.xls

City                               Basket   Conv Rate     USD     Index

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia  MYR    522.20      0.2710  141.52      0.35

Morelia, Mexico             MXP  1,848.00      0.0910  168.17      0.41

Manila, Philippines         PHP  9,830.00      0.0194  190.70      0.47

Lima, Peru                  PEN    626.00      0.3050  190.93      0.47

Dubai, UAE                  AED  1,201.00      0.2723  327.03      0.80

Toronto, Canada             CDN    406.00      0.8870  360.12      0.88

Lisbon, Portugal            EUR    305.50      1.2800  391.04      0.96

Antwerp, Belgium            EUR    314.02      1.2800  401.95      0.99

Vancouver, Canada           CDN    555.41      0.8870  492.65      1.21

Vienna, Austria             EUR    386.60      1.2800  494.85      1.22

Copenhagen, Denmark         DKK  3,121.00      0.1720  536.81      1.32

London, England             GBP    298.00      1.8900  563.22      1.38

New York City, USA          USD    579.73      1.0000  579.73      1.42

Paris, France               EUR    493.50      1.2800  631.68      1.55

Zurich, Switzerland         CHF    790.52      0.8060  637.16      1.56

                            

Average                                                407.17      1.00

quote:

Originally posted by Wayward Angel:
Hmmm, no Middle East cities up there yet....I can do Dubai's index if you'd like.....

This is the out clause I was hoping for, Stoo.

I said I'd do Doha but it's such a ridiculous place, and no independent traveller in their right mind would come here, let alone stay for a week. There's one elusive hostel that's often full with people pseudo-living there and the cheapest single room other than this is $US75 per night. As a backpacker without a car, you HAVE to take taxis (and I hate taxis) because there are only about 6 bus routes in the whole city (and even these only began running less than a year ago - before that there was literally no public transport), and walking from one 'sight' to another is not really feasible because of the distance and the heat.

Anyway, Dubai makes much more sense as it's the most visited city in the Gulf and is therefore a much more logical destination. The prices for meals, drinks, internet etc are probably quite comparable.

So there, I think I squirmed out of that way quite nicely, don't you think?

Hey, is this spreadsheet still up and running?
The link didn't work for me.

Um, my web server has been down for the past month or so. Sorry. (Been to busy to sort it out.) Gimme a few days and I'll get the spreadsheet sorted out.

Glad to see interest after so long

If you're still interested in adding more cities once the spreadsheet gets put up again, I'd be happy to do Barcelona. I lived there this summer.

This is a really good idea.

OK, Brooke and Michelle! The ol' web server is alive and kicking. (Gawds, it is screwed up, though...) You can download the spreadsheet. I'll be tinkering with it on and off over the next week or so...if you are unable to connect then give it a few minutes or hour or something.

To add a city: download, fill out and email the spreadsheet to me at JesterTheMime@dietpizza.ch! We can answer any questions you might have here.

Stoo

Hey, Stoo, just wanted you to know - Sean likes this idea, too!