Moscow ranks as world's priciest city

[Azure]

NEW YORK - Moscow is the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row, thanks to an appreciating ruble and rising housing costs, a new survey reports.
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The cost of living for expatriates in the Russian capital is nearly 35 percent higher than in New York, which served as the base city for the survey released Monday.

London, estimated at 26 percent more expensive than New York, climbed three spots to second place on a strengthening British pound and steep rental prices.

<snip>

In Moscow, a luxury two-bedroom apartment will cost an expat $4,000 a month; a CD rings up at $24.83; one copy of an international daily newspaper is $6.30; and a fast-food hamburger meal totals $4.80.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/...nsive_cities_2

[rockstar]

Sure, but you can go to Moscow and live in a simluated space ship for free!

[ohms]

Fast food hamburger meal 4.80? That's cheap by Quebec standards ;-). Then again the average rent for a two bedroom in Montreal is around 700/month.

-ohms.

[troutman]

I like Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow . . .

[Table 5]

^ hahahaha, oh lordy, that was good.

[Cowboy89]

That same study ranked Calgary 92nd in the world with Toronto at 82 Vancouver at 89 and Montreal somewhere else in the 90s I think. I read this yesterday in the Globe. Maybe someone can check to see if I have the right numbers.

[photon]

Yeah I think that was right.. no Canadian city made the top 50.

Gives a bit of global perspective on prices in Calgary. So when the cheif economist says average home price in Calgary will be $900k in 2015, maybe that's not that insane.

[Roy Keane]

photon, I hadn't heard this before. Any chance you might have a link where you read this? I'd be interested in reading the article myself, thanks.

[photon]

Heh, actually I haven't been able to find it! The person who I talked to heard him say it on an interview and this person spends a lot of time analyzing the economy and paying attention to stuff like that so I trust it, but I haven't been able to find a reference anywhere to it. I keep meaning to email him to get more details too, maybe I'll do that now. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

[rockstar]

Originally Posted by troutman

I like Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow . . .

You need some new material!

[octothorp]

You don't know how expensive Moscow is until you're staying in the most expensive hotel in the city while having absolutely no money and no documenation other than your passport, because someone robbed you on a train way back in Mongolia. Man, that was a fun couple weeks.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by octothorp

You don't know how expensive Moscow is until you're staying in the most expensive hotel in the city while having absolutely no money and no documenation other than your passport, because someone robbed you on a train way back in Mongolia. Man, that was a fun couple weeks.

Oh cool story!

What'd you do then?

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Azure

Oh cool story!

What'd you do then?

Long story, and the first part of it is in the archives somewhere around here about how I got pickpocketed in Mongolia so I won't bother retelling that, but basically I when I rolled into Moscow with about five dollars, I immediately set out to find the Canadian embassy, but it was friday afternoon and the embassy was closed until Monday. So I starting going around to all the hostels in my guidebook, explaining my story and hoping to find a sympathetic ear, but nobody seemed to believe my story. I was briefly considering finding a park to sleep in, but then I ran into an australian fellow who told me about about how he had been walking through a park late at night and got mugged, waking up the next day with a broken arm and several broken ribs (his broken arm just hanging there in a sling as he wasn't willing to let any russian doctor touch him).
So with nowhere else to go, I decided to see if I could bluff my way into a fancy hotel. I chose the Hotel Russya, which was, at the time, the world's largest hotel. I walked up to the front desk, showed them my passport, asked for a room for a week, and when asked about payment, said I'd pay on my credit card when I left. They gave me some keys, and I went to my room and immediately ordered a whole lot of room service, as I had not had much to eat over my six days on the train, then called my parents. With no way for them to wire me any money until Monday, I was stuck trying to find anything remotely cheap to do over the weekend. Which was pretty much nothing, so I wandered around, looking at the architecture and riding the metro (and fending off the extremely agressive door-to-door prostitutes who work the hotel. I was terrified that someone would find out that I was pennyless before I got my wire transfer, but as long as I was running up my bill on phonecalls to north america and lots of room service, nobody asked any questions.

[Azure]

Wow....good thing they let you in without paying.

Don't you have to make some sort of down payment...or at least give them your credit card number?

Thats usually what happens when I stay at a hotel.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Azure

Wow....good thing they let you in without paying.

Don't you have to make some sort of down payment...or at least give them your credit card number?

Thats usually what happens when I stay at a hotel.

Yeah, surprising they didn't ask for anything more... but I think when they typed my travel visa number into their computer, they were able to bring up all this information about me (russian travel visa applications are really detailed... it may have even contained my credit card number, I don't remember).