World's most expensive cities..

[Ki Choi]

No. 1: Tokyo

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112902/most-expensive-cities-world-businessweek

 

[MylesBAstor]

No. 1: Tokyo

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112902/most-expensive-cities-world-businessweek

Interesting, thought Hong Kong and Moscow would be on the list?

 

[garylkoh]

The HK$ is pegged to the US$, and as the US$ fell HK became "cheaper". This year, Singapore overtook HK.

 

[JackD201]

True. HK also has a whole lot of inexpensive places to eat. I love eating at hole in the walls and also love street food. When I finally get to go to Singapore you can bet I'll be hitting the stalls

 

[amirm]

You can also eat much cheaper than the survey shows in Japan. I can easily eat lunch for less than $10 for example. If you are a tourist and don't know where to go, indeed you will pay the prices they mention.

 

[jadis]

The HK$ is pegged to the US$, and as the US$ fell HK became "cheaper". This year, Singapore overtook HK.

I would say so too. I was in Singapore last April and found the lunch and dinner cost in kopitiams (food court) to be more expensive than the same things in HK's food court. A typical sandwich in McDonalds in Singapore is almost twice the cost of that in Manila. I just 'felt' the cost of living Singapore is high, but I believe no higher than Japanese cities.

 

[jadis]

True. HK also has a whole lot of inexpensive places to eat. I love eating at hole in the walls and also love street food. When I finally get to go to Singapore you can bet I'll be hitting the stalls

Jack, my family's favorite is 'Cafe de Coral', the local McDonald's or our own "Jollibee' chain in Manila. You can see inside are mostly local HK people eating, and just looking at how they savor their food and looking at the food itself makes you hungry. Our favorite is the Baked Porkchop Rice in tomato sauce. First time we tasted it, we ordered it for 3 straight nights, and no one had excess food to give to another. LOL. If I can, I always bring some home from the their airport branch. For the quality and big serving, it costs only HK38 (US$5) or about 200 pesos, not bad at all. Singapore's famous 'kopitiam' has fantastic varieties too, food from many countries and we love them too.

 

[JackD201]

Yes indeed. I love those stand up noodle bars in Tokyo Amir. When I'm there I've got local friends who take me around. There's nothing like local knowledge.

Jadis, strangely I've never tried Coral. I will make it my mission. I should be in HK then Macau in August. I'll check it out.

 

[jadis]

Jadis, strangely I've never tried Coral. I will make it my mission. I should be in HK then Macau in August. I'll check it out.

When I first saw Cafe de Coral back in the 80s, I was reluctant to try it because as I stood and watch people cue for their order, everyone was talking in Cantonese including the order takers who I can sense spoke no English. Fast forward to 2007 my family and I were just outside the Coral store and I brave myself and poked at the menu and said "No.1, 4 orders please" and the lady asked: "Do you mean the baked pork chop rice"? Man was I glad to get through. LOL. There's one below the basement near McDonalds at Ocean Terminal Star Ferry. Usually is crowded at lunch time and seats are mostly full. Shows us how good the place should be doing. Another we frequent is just across Sogo in Causeway Bay but it's in a side street where there are lots of street foods like fried squid balls and all sorts of fried intestines and the locals are chewing them up like they're in heaven. But honestly, those are not my type. LOL