Bloody Tourists Parts 1 & 2

Part 1:

Rarotonga township (Avarua) opens out to a four laned road, two each way obviously, with a very wide medium strip, complete with path, benches, and trees down the middle.  There are the shops on one side and the sea on the other.  Now, it's fairly obvious to anyone who looks that the road that runs by the shops is one way because of the same direction of the diagonal parking spaces both sides of the road, and, well, the cars and bikes that use both lanes!  So what do I see this afternoon?  A tourist pulling out from a rental agency, and turning right into the far lane(second of two), and into oncoming traffic.  As she, yes she, was coming towards me I respectfully leaned over at her from my perch on my scooter and yelled "You're going the wrong way!"

And how did I know she was a tourist?  Because all rental vehicles, be they cars or bikes, have number plates that start with RA or RB (The R meaning rental I assume).  As a 'local' now I always keep a watchful eye out for those vehicles!  That, and her pasty white skin!

Bloody Tourists!

Part 2:

I was waiting in the queue to see a bank teller and was held up by tourists (accent this time but I won't say from where for fear of upsetting my American friends...doh!) arguing the point about the exchange rate and fees.  There was a team of them strategically placed around the foyer of the bank to maximise the chaos factor and were yelling at each other about their 'issues'.  Now, I used to work in Banking so I know how they operate, how they make their money, how they cover costs etc.  But that's not to say I am a cheerleader for Banking in general, but I do happen to know that the Westpac Banking Corporation, which is where we were, is a very large, world renowned bank with a reasonable reputation who doesn't partake in scandalous rate fixing or exorbitant fee structures to fleece their customers.  I do know that actually handling foriegn currency is expensive for banks to do because of the repatriation and stock holding costs etc.  (See I know a thing or two about this, but I shall cut a long story a little less long by not going into how FX rates work).  Anyway, point of the story, don't come half away around the world to a remote Island location, bringing foreign currency with you, then complain about things not being wholly to your liking on the exchange rate front, especially given the US Dollar is in the toilet at the moment.  I bet these same tourists are happy to go back to their, in my mind, hellishly expensive resorts and pay $6 or $7 for a beer, when I know where you can go to get Heineken for $3.50!  But I wasn't going to tell them!

Bloody Tourists!