I saw the other day that gas prices in California are over $4 a gallon. Wow. That’s crossed the pain threshold, hasn’t it? But maybe that’s good.

Here in Abu Dhabi, gas is about $1.80 a gallon. It doesn’t rise or fall, unless the government decides it’s time to change. I’m sure it costs less than that to bring to the pump. I mean, the sources are just a few miles away, off the coast of the UAE.

I’m convinced they charge $1.80 a gallon just so that people living here will remember gas/petrol has value.

In many other countries, however, people have long been aware that gasoline has value.

Just how aware?

Have a look at this fun little toy.

Someone compiled gas prices, as of about two weeks ago, and made an interactive map of the world, showing them by country.

We know that, in California, for instance, prices are higher than they are in the rest of the U.S.

But isn’t it comforting to know that it’s worse somewhere else? Gas is over $9 a gallon in Turkey and the Netherlands. How much, then, to fill your Ford Explorer when you are in Amsterdam? About $180? Yes, it could be worse.

Gas is nearly $9 a gallon in Britain. Almost makes you want to go straight to France ($6.89 per gallon). Way better food, far cheaper petrol.

The best deals are pretty much in the countries that export oil. The OPEC countries, etc.

$2.23 a gallon in Indonesia. $1.67 in Nigeria. And allegedly free in Venuezula, which I don’t even understand, but the place is run by a madman, so who knows.

The cheapest goverment price, otherwise, seems to be in Saudi Arabia: 61 cents a gallon. Or what it was in the U.S. in about 1970.

May want to check this, before you book that trip that includes lots of driving around.