There are 5 different currencies in my wallet at any given time. The local currency - Hong Kong dollars; my weekend currencies - Macau Pattacas and Chinese Yuan; my home currency - Philippine Pesos; and the currency recognized by the world - U.S. Dollars.
My travels to the first 4 places are quite frequent, thus it's logical to have each of their currencies easily on hand. The downside is that given my wallet's limited space, I often find myself paying the wrong currency. Last week, I was at Manning's buying crackers, and the sales clerk was refusing my money. Initially perplexed, I later found out my folly, and that's paying him 20 yuan rather than HK$20. Since some Pattaca bills and Yuan bills are of the same color, I mistakenly paid Pattacas in Shenzhen, only to be given a blank stare by the McDonald's lady.
Yesterday, during my jeepney ride from 20th avenue to the LRT-3, the driver told me: "Ano 'to?" after paying my fare, It turns out, I paid him HK$5 instead of P5.00. (Of course, if he knew this and did the math, I actually paid him 5 times the usual fare.) I created a queue in Aji Ichiban in Galleria because my wallet was in disarray and it took me ages to fish out a P50 bill.
I guess this is the reason why the European Union chose to create the Euro. After all, most of Europe is landlocked and imagine all the losses that come with currency conversion each time you cross the border. From Franc to Gilders to Kronen to Peseta... It must have been quite a headache pre-Euro. (Although my aunt says the Spanish prefer the Peseta more than the Euro since everything became more expensive after the new currency came along.)
Maybe ASEAN should do something similar. Although that might be too far fetched given that our countries aren't landlocked like Europe. That makes setting up an ASEAN Central Bank a logistical nightmare. But who knows? It just might happen. Until then, though, I must contend with a bulging wallet with 5 different currencies. And equally, I must be careful not to get them all mixed up lest I overpay or underpay some poor shop owner.
2 comments:
same thing happened to me at a watsons store in macau. i actually had 6 currencies (all 5 you mentioned + about 1000yen). i bought a body scrub, but later on realized i didn't have enough MOPs..unfortunately they wouldn't accept HKDs, so I had to rush back to my brother's apartment and ask the household help to lend me 20 MOPs (no one else was there but her). Kakahiya tuloy..hehe!
That's the cool thing about Macau. The whole country is so small that it's easy to just go back home and get something, then go back to the shop. It looks like you really enjoyed your Macau soujourn! So glad to hear that.
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