Flights are a globally fixed cost, while local activities such as food and rent are not. Saving 10% of your Swiss Francs means you could travel anywhere in the world. Saving 10% of your Indian rupees, even if you make a load of them, is going to make international travel a challenge.

Still, while I do understand that by virtue simply of my birthplace, I am richer than much of the world, that doesn’t make me rich enough to afford travel in Dubai or Hong Kong. Our contact in Jordan is annoyed that we don’t seem to know we’re so rich. I learned my lesson not to complain about it, but maybe he ought to learn his lesson: he ain’t so poor!

Lastly, spending money in poorer countries goes a long way not only toward valuable cultural exchange, but also toward spreading around some of that wealth.

Getting irritated about the differences in incomes as we both did doesn’t help much at all!

stretch your money and complain all you want; that’s you’re right. but realize that some people don’t even take one vacation never mind multiple. the luxury of multiple lifetime vacations is exactly that, a luxury. and because of that you ARE rich compared to many in this world.