one year on the road!

Even though I have already sooooo much to tell you about Kyrgyzstan, I will write about something different in this story. So patient my dears, I have to get all my Kyrgyz impressions sorted out anyways.

So, after one year on the road ( it's even more than a year now! I left last year on the 13th of August) it is time to look back...

but this time I will look back in a different way than usual. Because this time it is all about money!

I often get asked how I can afford this trip, or how much such a trip costs. Well, the most important thing is: 

I travel really low-budget, which means: 

• accommodation
• cheapest hostels, only dormitories
• stay with locals - couchsurfing this is!! (I guess you all know already how much I love CS! not because it is for free - but as I'm now talking money I should still mention that CS is free)
• take overnight-transport whenever possible even if it is not comfy

• transport
• overland instead of flying! Another advantage apart from the fact that it's usually cheaper: you will actually see the country and "feel" the distance
• public transport instead of taxis (even if it is really annoying to take overcrowded busses with a huge backpack...)
• cheapest transport options: 3rd class in trains (or even hard seat instead of beds), non-airconditionned busses, ... (and again: travelling cheap is definitely not the most comfy version)
• taking slower trains or busses when cheaper
• hitch-hiking

• nutrition
• eat local food instead of expensive Western stuff
• eat cheap: food-hawkers, food sold on the street - yes, it does not always look perfectly hygenic but it is sooo good
• cook yourself in expensive countries (like OZ, NZ,...)
• go out partying as seldom as possible and spend as few money on drinks as possible

• others
• don't buy stuff you don't need (who really needs souvenirs??)
• buy quality clothes and equipment in the beginning of the trip, so you don't need to replace cheap stuff that breaks all the time. Believe me: invest a bit more in outdoor shops in the beginning, you'll be happy to have good things that really lasts! For this trip and all the trips in the future...
• wash yourself instead of paying for laundry - you'll also need less clothes like this because you're always washing as soon as something is used

I do like travelling low budget even though it is not the most comfortable way of travelling. In my opinion it helps me to understand how the countries I am visiting really are: I don't have a guide showing me only the fancy historical buildings, but I walk around by myself. Of course I struggle to find some places sometimes and have to ask locals even though I don't speak their language... But that's part of it and makes it so much more interesting! And I get in touch with more locals than just the receptionists in hotels, waiters in restaurants, souvenir-sellers, taxi-drivers or guides.

By taking cheaper transport options you will always travel with the locals.
In cheap hostels you meet other travellers who can give you a lot of hints for this or other countries...
And what I think about couchsurfing and hitchhiking - you already know, or can read it in this story.

Food?! Oh yes, food... Man, I didn't even have a slight idea how right my boss was when he wrote me this in my small book before I left:

Silke! The most important thing on a world-trip is
to observe local food and eating habits.
So, please: lots of photos of your diet
on your blog! Good luck, Brandy

It is thanks to Brandy that I am always taking photos of the food I eat and am uploading it to my food-around-the-world gallery, which you can see on the righthand side of this blog.

So, where was I?! Oh yes, food: the real local food is in most cases not the one you find in the restaurants but on the streets: local take away food, food-hawkers, and so on. You will sit in the small mostly a bit creepy looking restaurants, or even on small stools on the street.
But same rule here: locals go there a lot! And it is usually really good, even though quite often not the most healthy and quite fat stuff. As the real traditional food is usually quite fat anywhere...

But I wanted to talk about money, right?!

Many of you might know, that I am quite organised and I do keep books since years. So of course I can tell you exactly how much money my trip has cost me so far and how much I spent on what...

Cost before the trip

I did spend quite a lot of money before the trip for the perfect preparation:

Round the World Ticket				2020,18
Travel-Insurance 12months				480,00
Travel-Insurance additional 3months				186,05
tution fee (3 semesters)				51,50
Insurance Austria 15months				747,90
Vaccination (Dipherie, Typhus, Tetanus, Hep. B)				253,85
Medication				110,25
Netbook (incl. Bag)				334,32
Backpack				239,95
Shoes (Trekking Shoes + solid sandals + flip flops)				168,95
Outdoor Jacket (waterproof)				71,96
Camera (after being stolen in China)				104,95
Sleeping bag (after being stolen in Australia)				65,33
Other stuff				317,20
Total				5152,39

Round The World Ticket

Even though the deal for my RTW-tickets was really really great (€ 2.020,18 for 6 flights, dates of all but the first flight changeable free of charge (depending on availability) within one year), I wouldn't buy one anymore. Because finally I did change my route and did not take the 2 remaining flights. (And I was really not lucky once: the only time I was not flexible with flight-dates (Auckland - Fiji) there were no available seats within the time-span I requested, hence leading me to buying an expensive ticket at another company for an itinerary I already had a ticket on... This is why Fiji in total was finally so expansive.)

However, all in all I do not regret having bought this RTW-ticket: last year before I left I needed this kind of security. I needed the feeling of control: that I do know how long I travel and on which route. Even though the ticket is really flexible regarding the dates it is not flexible regarding the route. Last year I was convinced that I wouldn't change my route and wouldn't need more flexibility. Helas, I was wrong!

Insurance

Well, you don't want to need an insurance, but in case you need it you're happy to have one... So, I needed to be insured around the world, and within Austria. This is why I have 2 different insurance policies and am still paying tution fees on the university (to get the student insurance).

After prolonging my trip for another 3 months I of course had to pay additional 3 months...

All together quite expensive, right?!

Vaccination and medication

Before leaving I got vaccination for the most important diseases and bought quite a lot of "just in case"-medication, which I am since then carrying around with me. I hardly needed any medication so far (knocking on wood) but same with insurance: you're lucky not to need them but when you need it you're happy to have it.

All the other points on this list are selfexplaining... you can also find some infos in one of my very first stories.

Nights per country

The question how many nights I spend in which country is also quite interesting - and even more is the question of how many of these nights I paid in fact!

What a really great surprise:

Not counting Kyrgyzstan, I'm away since 361 days

I paid for 124 nights

I spent 53 nights in busses or trains and 

I stayed a total of 184 nights with CS-hosts, friends or on the WWOOF-ing farms! Hooray, that's great :)

see a precise table covering each country and regular update here.

Costs on the road

I grouped my costs on the road roughly into the following catogories and have spent as much in percentage per category so far:

- visas (3%)

- transport (36%)

- accommodation (9%)

- nutrition (21%)

- others (30%)

Well, I am not surprised to see, that the most expensive point is transport! How cheap hitchhikers or bikers must travel...

Costs per country and day

I splitted the costs per country and day in two groups:

• total costs
• costs excluding transport, visa and extras (diving + bungy jump)

	Total	costs per day	costs per day excl. transport  visa, extras
London	180	90	25
Russia	998	48	15
Mongolia	461	33	16
China 1	1204	21	14
Hong Kong 1	141	28	23
Macao	30	30	2
Vietnam	431	19	13
Cambodia	235	16	11
Thailand	502	33	16
Myanmar	568	21	10
Kuala Lumpur	74	15	12
Borneo	912	43	22
Singapore	58	14	12
Australia	2201	29	20
New Zealand	1484	49	29
Fiji	855	95	27
Hong Kong 2	465	116	20
China 2	490	26	14
Kazakhstan	219	20	9
Total	11510

Including transport there are the following reasons for quite high costs in some countries I've been to:

London is that expensive because I had to pay the flight into London (97,-).

Russia was far more expensive than it should or could be: it was still the beginning of my trip. I had no idea how to travel cheaply hence buying tickets in 2nd class instead of 3rd class on the train and sometimes on expensive trains as well...

I only spend that much money in Thailand because of the PADI-course (202,-) - otherwise it would have also been much cheaper. 

Borneo is in total quite an expensive destination. In my case the two dives on Mabul island and Sipadan (216,-) as well as the fact that I had to pay the flights in and out (103,-) added up to the budget.

I am really proud though to have spent only 2.201,- in expensive Australia in 77days!!

New Zealand on the other hand turned out to be more expensive than I had hoped beforehand. The bungy-jump (151,-) was not the main-reason for that. It was mainly the one week I was roadtripping with Ricky: his big car consumed loaaaads of petrol and we were buying quite expensive food too. It was a great week though, so I don't regret it.

And Fiji is a big outlier, not because of the shark-dive (128,.) but because I had to pay the flight in (427,-). Same with Hong Kong 2 - I had to pay the flight in from Fiji  (375,-) - without these flight Fiji and Hong Kong 2 would have been quite ok cost-wise.

When looking at the costs without transport, visas and extra-spendings it is not really a big surprise that in London, Hong Kong, Borneo, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji were more expansive than the cheap Asian countries... 

You can see that especially London, Fiji and Hong Kong 2 are transport-outliners:
in each "country" I flew in and stayed only for a short time, which is why the flight-costs couldn't spread on many days.

On average I spent 

39,-/day  (that's still too much - stupid flights...)

16,-/day excluding transport, visas and extras

For a precise table showing more exact spendings per county as well as updates click here.

Oh, so far I spent € 34,- on backpackflags ;) - and I still have 5 countries to go and soooo much space on my backpack for flags!