It's funny how each and every time I visit Australia, I resent Malaysia more and more. It's not the people I resent, but the quality of life we get dollar for dollar. And people sometimes wonder why I choose to visit Australia, time and time again. So, here is my attempt to rationalize why I say the quality of life there is of higher quality. I will try my up most best to compare apple to apple and orange to orange. But where it differs, the content or logic is the same.
I'll start with McDonald's. I usually have the Sausage McMuffin with Egg set in Malaysia. It cost RM7.80 tax excluding. In Perth, I took the Bacon & Egg McMuffin set. Both comes with a hash brown and coffee or tea. And that only cost me AUD$4.95 WITH tax.
Cars are so darn cheap there. A Toyota Altis 1.8G would cost us approx RM119,000 whereas the Ultima Sedan, which is what Australia calls it, is, get this, only less than AUD$40,000 with full leather trim. That's a whopping 79,000 difference, dollar for dollar. My most recent trip, I saw a Ford Focus which sells for RM120,000 here in Malaysia for A$20,000. Oh, did I tell you there isn't any toll? I didn't? In KL, you just can't get by without going thru toll plazas every now and then, here and there. Oh, and in shopping malls, parking is free. And in some part of the city, free parking is also available albeit only 1-2 hours. Free parking in KL city? Hahahahahahahahaha .....
Here's the cruncher, petrol, which our dear Malaysian Government tries so very hard to convince the locals who knows no better. Petrol prices fluctuates according to the market. During my most recent trip, the most expensive I saw was AUD$1.43 per litre and the cheapest was AUD$1.41 per litre. When you shop at supermarkets, like Woolworths for example, you get 4 cts off petrol too, which we paid AUD$1.39 when we fill up the car one day. In Malaysia, a producer and net exporter of oil, we previously paid RM1.92 per litre. And recently, a hike which yten puts our petrol at RM2.70 per litre but reduced 2 weeks ago to RM2.55. Oh sure, economics comes into play and all but at the end of the day, I'm just showing how we pay so much but get so little. But I so resent the government for saying, "We are still amongst the cheapest you will pay for a litre of petrol. Here you pay RM2.70 but in Australia, you pay RM4.29 (AUD$1.43 x 3 exchange rate)". What a load of crap.
There are stuffs that are more expensive there too, but you get so much more back because of the excellent infrastructure and support to the people by the government. I've a colleague who wonders what's so good about visiting countries like Australia. He doesn't like to travel unnecessary. And he'd rather travel to Asian countries where he can speak his mother tongue language. And that is fine. But one has no right to comment on the negatives of going to somewhere he or she have never been before.
We make do with what we earn here in Malaysia, but to those who haven't been elsewhere, you haven't been living. It's really an eye opener. And to think that I've only just begun. Where next? After all, according to Bukit Bendera UMNO division chief, Datuk Ahmad Ismail, we chinese are squatters and do not belong here in Malaysia. So, why stay? I'd rather spend my money elsewhere when your own countrymen do not see us as equal.
I'll start with McDonald's. I usually have the Sausage McMuffin with Egg set in Malaysia. It cost RM7.80 tax excluding. In Perth, I took the Bacon & Egg McMuffin set. Both comes with a hash brown and coffee or tea. And that only cost me AUD$4.95 WITH tax.
Cars are so darn cheap there. A Toyota Altis 1.8G would cost us approx RM119,000 whereas the Ultima Sedan, which is what Australia calls it, is, get this, only less than AUD$40,000 with full leather trim. That's a whopping 79,000 difference, dollar for dollar. My most recent trip, I saw a Ford Focus which sells for RM120,000 here in Malaysia for A$20,000. Oh, did I tell you there isn't any toll? I didn't? In KL, you just can't get by without going thru toll plazas every now and then, here and there. Oh, and in shopping malls, parking is free. And in some part of the city, free parking is also available albeit only 1-2 hours. Free parking in KL city? Hahahahahahahahaha .....
Here's the cruncher, petrol, which our dear Malaysian Government tries so very hard to convince the locals who knows no better. Petrol prices fluctuates according to the market. During my most recent trip, the most expensive I saw was AUD$1.43 per litre and the cheapest was AUD$1.41 per litre. When you shop at supermarkets, like Woolworths for example, you get 4 cts off petrol too, which we paid AUD$1.39 when we fill up the car one day. In Malaysia, a producer and net exporter of oil, we previously paid RM1.92 per litre. And recently, a hike which yten puts our petrol at RM2.70 per litre but reduced 2 weeks ago to RM2.55. Oh sure, economics comes into play and all but at the end of the day, I'm just showing how we pay so much but get so little. But I so resent the government for saying, "We are still amongst the cheapest you will pay for a litre of petrol. Here you pay RM2.70 but in Australia, you pay RM4.29 (AUD$1.43 x 3 exchange rate)". What a load of crap.
There are stuffs that are more expensive there too, but you get so much more back because of the excellent infrastructure and support to the people by the government. I've a colleague who wonders what's so good about visiting countries like Australia. He doesn't like to travel unnecessary. And he'd rather travel to Asian countries where he can speak his mother tongue language. And that is fine. But one has no right to comment on the negatives of going to somewhere he or she have never been before.
We make do with what we earn here in Malaysia, but to those who haven't been elsewhere, you haven't been living. It's really an eye opener. And to think that I've only just begun. Where next? After all, according to Bukit Bendera UMNO division chief, Datuk Ahmad Ismail, we chinese are squatters and do not belong here in Malaysia. So, why stay? I'd rather spend my money elsewhere when your own countrymen do not see us as equal.
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