Rags to riches

It always strikes me how money is a mercurial thing and wealth is very much a state of mind. 

In England, I had more than I could wish for including good friends and good health, so I felt wealthy. However financially, we were very comfortable and happy, but I wouldn't use the word rich.     
Once you've travelled places where there is real poverty (or even just seen it on a screen), you once again reevaluate your own position. 

This is the case in Hanoi. 

Here, relativetly, we are rich.  You are reminded of this by the hope in peoples eyes when you look at things they are selling. 

But, we didn't feel THAT rich.  I've got a handy little application on my phone which lets me work out any currency into any currency (should you want to know how many dong a bitcoin costs, for example). 

Yet our first day here, everything seemed a bit pricey.  For example, I was looking for a post flight massage and it was 30 quid.  Not going to break the bank, but you'd think twice.  And this happened with everything all day.  Not expensive, but not cheap.  I was starting to worry our budget might not last.  

Then, when buying some quite cheap sunglasses, I realised that in fact they were very cheap.  I had been converting all the prices from chinese yuan, not dong (to be fair the flags look quite similar with jet lag- I didn't switch it back after a quick stop over in Guangzhou). 

Suddenly everything had dropped in price by 90%. Suddenly we were rich again!  

  I'm writing this while drinking a beer with Alicia with chicken pecking at our feet and motorbikes weaving and beeping past an old french railway. 

Right, that's quite enough of this. I'm off for a massage.  Or ten...