Have a fabulous 2012

FOR PHOTOS: PLEASE ASK FIRST, I WOULD APPRECIATE THE COURTESY OF BEING ASKED!

FOR PHOTOS: PLEASE ASK FIRST, I WOULD APPRECIATE THE COURTESY OF BEING ASKED!
Gaga: Rest in Peace (b.2002 - d.2010)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Tokyo and Karachi: Most Expensive & Cheapest Cities

A scene from weekend bazar also called Sunday market in Islamabad

When I was in Pakistan, I did an experiment and lived in only 4 $/week. One can even live for less than that and still enjoy all the seasonal fruits, vegetables and even chicken.
I had cherries, oranges, mangoes, strawberries, melon, grapes (seedless), nans, ready to eat meals and it was really not a problem. I felt bad for our farmers and even businesses where everything's sold for a throwaway price.

I bought these fruits and veges for 1.5$ or 150Rs. or 1500 won last summer (2012)


When I saw the list below and saw that Karachi is the cheapest city of the world - I wasn't surprised at all. However, I disagree that Karachi is the cheapest city in the world, if we will go to smaller cities within Pakistan then we will find that prices are much less than those in Karachi.
We are in a habit of doing survey on just about anything without digging deeper. Surveys themselves are often misleading, anyways. Back to the prices, Islamabad is pretty expensive compared to other cities in Pakistan. I was based in Islamabad for the most part and well, quality and prices are both unsatisfactory there.

Spices and dry fruit stall at Itwar Bazar (Sunday's Farmer's Market)


Tokyo is now the most expensive city in the world, according to the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit.

According to the EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living 2013 report on Tuesday, the Japanese capital was listed as the No. 1 expensive city. It was followed by Osaka,  Sydney,  Oslo, Melbourne and Singapore.

The apples above (golden apples) were sold for 40 cents or 400 won for a kilogram in Islamabad

Seoul was ranked as the 37th-most expensive city on the list.

Switzerland’s Zurich, which topped the list last year, descended to the seventh position this year after revising its exchange rate and stabilizing its prices.

The EIU price index is calculated by comparing the prices of 160 top consumer products in 131 countries, according to the analysts.

The cheapest major cities were Pakistan’s Karachi and India’s Mumbai, where the general price level was some 44 percent of that in New York.