Current Currency
My mind has yet to get used to the Hong Kong dollar, and as a result is suffering perpetual sticker shock. There's a little less than eight Hong Kong dollars to one American dollar, and the smallest bill is a twenty. Having a ten dollar coin, or getting a $130 tab from a restaurant, still shakes me up a bit.
My rule in Japan was pretty simple: yen are pennies. Very light, aluminum pennies. Sure, I've lived there in periods when there were anywhere from ninety-some to one hundred twenty-some yen to the dollar, but to get a rough idea of price I could always just knock off two zeros and add/subtract "a bit."
I'm sure I'll get used to this too. About the same time I stop crashing into bed at ten o'clock and waking up at 4 AM.
Comments
Simple. Your Hong Kong dollars are French francs (pre Euro). Maybe not calling them dollars will unconfuse you.
Posted by: martin | May 25, 2005 04:58 AM
Preferable, perhaps, to pounds, which are kind of like dollars, but only half as valuable. London is shockingly expensive (although I doubt HK is much more reasonable).
eenctvPosted by: Alison | May 26, 2005 06:32 PM