In the meantime, I’d like to share some observations when it comes to changing money. For the past couple of years, I have not really relied upon money changers but instead relied upon credit cards that allow free withdrawals to get cash upon arrival. Unfortunately my go-to card has recently stopped to reimburse ATM-imposed fees. These can be fairly steep; in Thailand it is usually 200 THB (8 SGD), in the Philippines 200 PHP (6 SGD) or in Vietnam 60’000 VND (4 SGD). So I once again started looking at changing money in Singapore before heading abroad. Also, for my recent trip to Central Asia I knew I’d be better off bringing US Dollars – especially in Uzbekistan.

If I had to change in the past (usually small amounts < 200 SGD), I’d just do it at the airport. But with bigger amounts (I changed around 2’500 USD for Central Asia) I started shopping around. I used an app called Get4X to compare rates, but found it to not always be very accurate as money changers didn’t seem to update rates very frequently. The best bet seems to be (surprise, surprise) Change Alley at Raffles Place. There are several dozen money changers and you can very easily compare their rates.

Recently I changed 500 SGD in Thai Baht. The best rate I got at Change Alley gave me 12’550 Thai Baht.

500 SGD in Thai Baht

Around the corner from my house is a hotel with several hundreds of rooms and tourists checking in/out nearly 24/7. Right next to the hotel is a money changer that advertised “no commission”… as they all do. Sure, he didn’t charge any commission but his rates were so bad that on the above transaction, it would have netted me the equivalent of 22 SGD less in Thai Baht. That’s an over 4% worse price for an identical product. For small amounts it may not be worth to travel down to Change Alley but for bigger amounts do your homework and shop around!

• How are you?
• How do you like [name of city]?
• Where are you from?

If you don’t answer the first two questions you might be kind of rude (in case you care). But if you give an honest answer for number three, you’ve lost. Especially when you are European and answer with an honest reply, chances are very high that the tout will know a couple of phrases in your native language. And then you are in for the sales pitch… While some of the vocabulary of the guys is impressive, don’t forget, that is what they do all day long.

That is why started saying that I am from…. Finland! How many people do you know that can speak even a single word of Finnish? That’s right, me neither. And the same goes for touts. Another good one is Hungary, also a very unique language.

Saying you are from one of those places is usually met with a split-second of surprise, just enough to keep going at a brisk pace and leave the confused tout behind you. Voila, you’ve just skipped their sales pitch without even having been rude.

After a bit of googling, I nearly gave up on finding a taxi but figured that due to the late night arrival, I’d probably just get ripped off if not pre-booked. The airport sees four international arrivals a day in addition to two or three domestic arrivals. So taxis won’t exactly be around in abundance, especially not for the last flight of the day.

So I resorted to the Thai version of Google with the help of Google Translate. I eventually found a few phone numbers of supposedly taxi drivers in the area. I drafted a simple message in English and had Google translate it for me into Thai script. Lo and behold I actually got a reply through WhatsApp a few hours later (odd since WhatsApp is rarely used in Thailand – Line is the messenger app of choice). From there a conversation in Thai started about price and destination. He would write, I would translate into English and then translate my reply back into Thai.

Let’s see – if Google Translate served its purpose, I’ll meet my WhatsApp taxi driver tomorrow at the airport with a prearranged destination and price. Stay tuned, I’ll report back.

WhatsApp conversation in Thai thanks to Google Translate

Asia (as well as most other continents) are still very fragmented when it comes to currencies. A frequent headache is exchanging money and being left over with small amounts that add up.

Below is my approach when it comes to foreign currencies:

1. Get a bank account that comes with free withdrawals worldwide: there are bank that give you a credit card that allows for free withdrawals worldwide. Not only do you not have to worry about getting the best exchange rate (well at least that’s how it should be), but you can also start withdrawing smaller amounts as you get closer to the end of your trip in a particular country. When I can I try to avoid exchanging money but instead just rely on ATMs (exceptions are countries like Argentina with a black/grey market exchange rate that is better than the official)
2. Withdraw uneven amounts: if you arrive at the airport and withdraw the equivalent of let’s say $100, chances are you will be getting large notes. And chances will be even higher that your taxi driver, restaurant owner or merchant won’t have change. For this reason, try to withdraw an uneven amount like $90 as this will give you some smaller notes to start out with
3. Check Google for exchange rates: make it a habit before flying off to quickly check Google for the current exchange rate. Typing in “1 EUR in SGD” will give you the current Euro/Singapore Dollar exchange rate and avoid that you have no idea how much to withdraw at the ATM after arriving. Take a screenshot in case you forget and don’t have data connection upon arrival (there are various apps out there do achieve the same, I just find Google the quickest)

While it can be annoying to deal with many foreign currencies, there are also upsides… you get to be a millionaire in some countries (I am looking at you, Vietnam & Indonesia)

Today’s post is about communication with taxi drivers in foreign countries. Unless it is a country where I feel confident communicating in the local language or taxi drivers are known to speak English well, I almost always try to resort to written communication. It just avoids a lot of misunderstandings and takes out most of any kind of ambiguity. Make sure you have your destination written down somewhere, be it a business card, a print out or any other kind of handwritten directions. Even if the driver does not know where exactly you want to go, at least he can check with other people while avoiding misunderstandings.

It is even trickier in countries that uses another than the Latin alphabet. In such cases I find it even more important to have written documentation of where you want to go. In places with the Latin alphabet you can at least to write it down on the spot, however that does not get you anywhere in some places. So print out the address in the local script from a website or ask a friend to send it to you via e-Mail/SMS.

My most recent experience was in Qingdao, China. The taxi drivers spoke pretty much zero English (which is about as much as I speak Chinese – ni hao!). However, with a printout in big signs (if you print it, you might as well print it big), commnication was no issue.

Unambiguous directions for the drver