100 Doller Millionaire

Dear toastmaster and most welcoming guests, Today my topic is 100 dollar Millionaire.

Imagine If you have 100 USD, what will you do with that? 100 USD is around 60 pounds, I use 100 USD instead of 60 pounds because usually I take USD with me when I travel around other counties. To be honest I don't like to buy pound, they r too expensive and even I have 50 pound I was rejected by some supermarket since they said it is too much.

For ladies 60 pounds maybe equal to a new cloth, a perfume or a pair of shoes. I have no idea about how normal British man will use the money, but if Mr. Danny Riley gets 60 pounds, I bet he will spend all the money in a Chinese restaurant called red chili.

For me, 100 USD can be a 4 days 3 nights trip in Bali Island in Indonesia or a 4 days 3 nights trip in Malaysia. You might think it is really impossible.I don’t believe it neither after living in the Uk for these months.

But I did it 2 years ago. It is my first time to travel abroad alone. I have done a voluntary work in Jakarta Indonesia for 2 month. My job was teaching street Children. Before I left to Indonesia, I booked my return ticket from Bali Island to China because I want to push myself to see the island. So I must go to Bali island without excuses with out worries.

Usually when we travel abroad, there are 3 main things you need to consider about, transportation, accommodation and food. Enough research and quick decision about transportation are needed. I chose a cheap flight company and booked my ticket earlier so it only costed me 20 pound from Jakarta to Bali Island. 2 months ago, I was trying to find some accommodation in booking or agoda, I found some hotels but all extremely expensive. Luckily I got a Russian friend and a Chinese friend who went to Bali Island earlier than me. We know each other in voluntary work. So I decided to share accommodation with them. We got a kingsize bed with bathroom and balcony, there is a beautiful swimming pool downstairs, 14 pound per night. So I only spend 14 pound for accommodation in 3 days.

The Russian girl is a big fan of surfing. So in her 7 days, she get up at 8am, then go to seaside and do surfing. She will have lunch in 12 pm and then go to surfing again. she will surf until starts come out. In last few days, she burned her nose skin and hurt her leg. Then she decide to get up at 8am and seat to watch all the people surfing. 

So i decided to join other Chinese and do some AISA style trip. We went to rafting in Ayung Rive. We found a agency which offer 10 pound per person including a buffet for lunch, pick up service and rafting.  What’s more, if you can speak a little local language, everything will be so easy.

If you use english to ask how much is it, a meal will be 8 pound or 10 pound, but if you say it in Indonesian, you can use 2pound for a tasty south Asia dinner and 80p for a big fresh coco nut.

So, to sum up the price, 20 pound for flight, 14 pound for accommondation, 10 pound for rafting, 15 pound for all meals. it is 59 pound in total. Also We swimming and surfing in the sea, see sunset and stars in Pacific ocean, enjoy free and beautiful scenery from Nature.

After that, I start to explore more countries by myself. I start to try youth hostel and couch surfing. Using minimal money to maximize journey and life. Finally you will find not only 100 USD, but all the things in your life, if you use it in a proper way, admire about nature and people you have met. Even with 100 USD, you will feel you are a millionaire.

Old young lady

Thanks to Danny, I decide to continue writing and start to write in English.=D.
I named my blog Old Young Lady because it is exactly what I'm thinking about myself, a old lady lives in a young girl's body.

Since I'm the only Child in my family, I don't have so much neighbors to play with. Instead of that, I start reading in a young age. My aunty bought me some riddle books years ago. Every night I read for 30 mins and tried to figure out the answers. When I entered the junior high school, I started  to read some classic book, most were Chinese books since I don't like read translations. I read HOW THE STEEL WAS TEMPERED, written by Nikolai Ostrovsky. The young boy in the book was as naughty as me at that time. 

Another book which effects me a lot called A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS. At that time, I studied in a boarding school with a huge stress of study. Every weekends I went back home and started reading A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS immediately, sometimes even forgot to eat dinner XD.(You will know how hard it is for me to FORGOT eating lol) There are a lot of foreshadowing hiding in the book which makes it more attractive.

I started to read some modern writer's books, such like Zhang Ailing. I like her stories. She wrote a lot of stories which happened in Shanghai and Hongkong. So every time I will remember some sections from the book when I visited Shanghai and Hongkong.

Reading makes people grow in another way. Reading stories for me is like going through another kind of life. I followed the characters' life to feel and to experience. Finally, you will know if you do A, A will lead to B and the result of doing A is C. Reading makes your life easier. Even you don't have to experience a lot of tough things, you will understand reasons and truth behind them by reading. 

I can not tell if it is a good thing or not. Usually when I'm facing two roads in front of me, one is familiar for me and I know what will happen in the end, another one is totally a abyss for me. Every time, I will choose latter one. I'm more fascinate about unknown experience. So sometimes even you read a lot, you know a lot but life is still tough. You choose to be tough.:)

I still feel my english writing is like primary school level XD. I will try more to improve. It is also a unknown thing for me. At last, I want to pose a poem from Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other,as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one lees traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.