The Prawn formerly of The House of Bach and The Esteemed Empire of Toongabbie has of late become married to his belle and I wish them all due happiness together. The following however relates to a recent post from his blog and a due warning for the would be traveler.
http://jamisonprawn.net/2009/01/married-and-back-in-sydney/
And Fiji was incredible as well - so relaxing, so humid, so expensive. Well, sort of expensive - things were basically the same cost as $AU, and the exchange rate was pretty much 1:1. But then you go into a resort where there’s no restaurants outside or around the resort, and all the food inside is very expensive! But it was very nice.
The resort was pretty awesome all round... very luxurious and relaxing. There was plenty to do, and heaps of Fiji culture too, which made it great.
If you look at the above excerpt you find the word expensive mentioned 3 times. Now I know (but not from my personal experience - more on that later) that Fiji should be a relatively cheap place to buy anything because of its relaxed taxation rules. So then, why we're things so expensive? Again, we find the answer in the post itself.
"things were basically the same cost as $AU, and the exchange rate was pretty much 1:1"
Perhaps he could be forgiven with all else that's been going on for overlooking a minor detail that might have cost him a pretty penny and that is the currency exchange pitfall. A casual glance at XE.com this morning reveals this (at time of posting):
1.00000 AUD = 1.22927 FJD
Oh dear.
Instead of his A$1.00 buying nearly F$1.23 it was only buying F$1.00. This means that someone was having a rip to the tune of 23c of every dollar. If I use my Commonwealth Bank EFTPOS card they only charge me 3% on overseas transactions, so even taking that into account, things were 20% more expensive than they should have been for our unsuspecting traveler.
Why is this so, I hear you ask? Yet again, we find the answer in the post itself.
"and heaps of Fiji culture too"
Indeed there was.
Fiji in my lifetime has suffered four military coups. Corruption in Fiji not only runs rife but appears in some respects to be instituationalised. This is more or less accepted by the general public at large, and is practiced to such a degree that the Fijian Independent Commission Against Corruption was itself subject to its own inquiry at one stage. Businesses who's main form of revenue is from tourists, are relatively free to fleece their customers without fear of reprisal as in the above case. Personally I suspect that this general culture has been allowed to permeate generally through society.
During the trial of the 2000 Coup Leader George Speight in 2003 (of which I went over to Fiji to help record whilst still working for Auscript), the Australians who went over were advised to spend as few Australian Dollars as they possibly could, and wherever possible to deal with the locals in Fijian Dollars. At that time the Australian Government was so distrustful of the situation that they issued the warning to their employees directly and possibly in travel warnings documents.
All of this relates to the general warning from the Romans of Caveat Emptor, "Let the buyer beware". It also is good to remember Murphy's Golden Rule which states "Whoever has the gold makes the rules." If you have cash, it is normally advisable to hold onto it for as long as possible and wherever you can, to dictate the terms by which you'll give it away. Business operators and especially in places like Fiji know this, because once they have your money, you can bet your little cotton socks, that they're never giving it back to you...
unless you can stage a military coup of your own.
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