I like hotels.

I like them so much – and traveling! – that we bought our own timeshare. But like I said in my MoneySmarts guest post:

It gives birth to other expenses – yearly maintenance fees (which went up from P2,500 to P4,000 in the blink of an eye), RCI fees (S$150 annually –in Singapore dollars, but with the current exchange rate, it might as well be in US dollars), booking fees that could range from P2,500 (Asia) to almost P10,000 (outside of Asia). It does not include airfare, or the cost of food. The RCI hotels, although three or four stars, are almost always in the outskirts of the city – that means it is 30 minutes away from where the action is. With the cab fares we are paying, we could have had a decent room at a city hotel with dancing lights, Prada and great food at our doorstep.

But it is not all bad, as we have found out in our two years of owning one.

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Everything I know about Singapore, I learned from a taxi driver.

Okay, maybe not everything.

But for sure, you can get a taste of the history and the local flavor and the vibe of this fine city’s life through the eyes of he who plies the road at about S$20 per pop (that’s about USD$12).

We had the pleasure of the company of three very talkative ones. On the way from the Night Safari back to our hotel, at 12:30 in the morning, the taxi driver told us tales. Real tales.

And what he has told us has earned my respect for this beautifully manicured City. There are a lot of lessons to be learned here – some on money, some on good governance, others still on not taking anything for granted.

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With budget airlines, you do get what you pay for. The many mini-pleasures that you have come to expect from your friendly neighborhood airline – snacks, newspaper, blanket, magazines, drinks – they have been eliminated. No more movies (no more screen!) and even the sanitized ear plugs (served with thongs!) for your listening pleasure – all gone.

Wait, there’s more. You cannot bring your own food (okay, you can bring it but you cannot eat it – I made this mistake once and the stewardess gave me “the look”), if you are hungry you have to buy from what they hawk (which range from noodle soups to $3 unsavory sandwiches) and piece de resistance, you sit cramped on a 1×1 semi-reclining seat for hours (are we there yet?).

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They say that you get what you pay for. If you are rich, almost always, you get more than what you pay for.

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