In Britain I’m definitely below average in wealth. In much of the world I’m comparatively affluent. Both of those things can be true at the same time and being in Kuala Lumpur forced me to confront this contradiction.
My accommodation was just out of the centre of KL in the embassy area. I could look out from my balcony over the Chinese embassy which gave me an unimpeded view of the firework display over the Chinese New Year. I could walk to some of the hospitals used by medical tourists and there was an international food store nearby. If I wanted to eat international food, there were Spanish, Japanese and Vietnamese options close by. In my own accommodation block, not only was there an Arabic and Italian café but also a British one where I could get an English or Scottish cooked breakfast, albeit at a price at least equivalent if not more than I would be paying in the UK.
I was enjoying a comfortable, cosmopolitan existence if not particularly a locals’ one, so why did I feel uneasy? Could it be to do with identity? I don’t see myself as rich and indeed if I look at things from a UK perspective, I’m far from it. There’s no way I could have stayed in such an apartment in most of Western Europe for the price I paid. But I was also challenged from the other perspective.
During my time in KL it was my birthday and I met up with a group of fellow travellers I had met online in a Facebook group. This was a group for travellers who had retired early and so were wealthier than most. We had a lot in common, but when the conversation good-naturedly moved on to whether the Hyatt or the Four Seasons was a better place to stay, and later, when people were talking about their forthcoming cruises to the South Seas, I felt that my adventures on the 301 bus to Little India might not generate a lot of interest.
Indeed the cost of the meal I had for my birthday came to the equivalent of £34 / $45 US … a separate birthday treat at the place in Little India came to £7 / $9.40 US. Different foods and different amounts … but both meals were satisfying and I think the price range speaks for itself.
Then there is the price range of accommodation. By staying for over a month I was able to stay in my apartment for the equivalent of around £27 per night. The equivalent of a month in the Four Seasons would be about £307. Of course at the other end of the scale I could have stayed in a twenty-eight bed dorm at a hostel for around £7.50 per night.
I remember meeting a backpacker in Sofia, Bulgaria, who couldn’t believe I was staying in an Airbnb on my own there. He was paying just £5 a night for his dorm room and thought that my £28 per night was exorbitant. Then again he was about 27 years old and at that age I was sharing dorms with more than twenty people. I can’t say I was happy about it (and others were not happy about my snoring) but I got on with it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with it now. I left that meeting not only feeling old, but wealthy … whereas when I left my birthday party, I felt older (by another year) and poor – but nothing about me had changed.
I was defining myself by the people around me.
When I’m in the UK I recognise how poor I am. My income is in the bottom 40% of people there, but in the top 10% world-wide. My wealth is in the bottom 10% in the UK (no home) but above average world-wide. If my perception of my financial situation varies depending on where I am in the world, I don’t know if I feel comfortable with that.
Having money buys comfort in travel and not only in obvious ways like business class for long flights or taxis instead of the 301 bus. If my accommodation is terrible, no problem – I will just move out and absorb the loss of the money I spent. If I get ill, I don’t have to think about whether I can afford to go to a private hospital, I might not need to choose such a big deductible on my health insurance.
I was watching some YouTube videos of an older backpacker (but nearly twenty years younger than me), journeying through South America on a very low budget. He’s catching long distance buses, staying in hostels and frequently eating convenience food from supermarkets. He broke a tooth early on in his trip and travelled with the discomfort for several weeks before he found a dentist with prices cheap enough not to break his budget. Having money may not make you happy, but not having money does make you anxious and can disrupt your peace of mind. That’s true if you are a home-body, but it does add to the stress of planning and execution of full-time travel and can turn what should be an exciting adventure into an anxious chore.
So, can I be happy with my low to mid-budget status? I do hope so. One of the downside of staying at places like the Four Seasons, is (so I’m told) that after a while, every hotel room looks the same. There may be less of a local vibe, which can insulate you from the country you’ve come to experience. I know I wouldn’t meet the hosts that were so good to me in previous trips (see my last blog post here) and I wouldn’t be challenged to find ways around situations instead of just buying my way out. I still don’t feel fully settled in places where people tip their hat to you, but I’m working on that and hope to adapt to whatever situation I find myself in. Still adapting as I approach my seventh decade, travelling full-time really is keeping me young.
