the gap - value versus what it cost
I've been trying to work out some average costs per day.
I recall some time ago, Jen emailing me to suggest a daily budget of $45USD.
I was shocked to the holes in my socks, and calculated a quick run through of my current daily budget, living relatively cheaply in London.
$63 a day.
I don't want to grind my experiences into a distillation of misery like I have done when truly short of food on journeys past (one square of cooking chocolate, every two days, alternating with a single glass of raki ... brrr).
But I also don't want to end up not catching the Trans Siberian Express in Autumn 2008 merely because I lived like a hog in the first month or so of what is only a starting point on the much much longer journey. So here's middling-cheap rates, based on what I could find online.
Hawaii: $65
NZ (middle of winter): $60
Rarotonga: $100
Fiji: $50
Singapore: $60
Malaysia: $45
Indonesia: $55
Thailand: $30
Vietnam: $50
Nepal (middle of snowy season): $55
India (middle of monsoon): $18
London: $90
Looks like I need to buy a tent.
I recall some time ago, Jen emailing me to suggest a daily budget of $45USD.
I was shocked to the holes in my socks, and calculated a quick run through of my current daily budget, living relatively cheaply in London.
$63 a day.
I don't want to grind my experiences into a distillation of misery like I have done when truly short of food on journeys past (one square of cooking chocolate, every two days, alternating with a single glass of raki ... brrr).
But I also don't want to end up not catching the Trans Siberian Express in Autumn 2008 merely because I lived like a hog in the first month or so of what is only a starting point on the much much longer journey. So here's middling-cheap rates, based on what I could find online.
Hawaii: $65
NZ (middle of winter): $60
Rarotonga: $100
Fiji: $50
Singapore: $60
Malaysia: $45
Indonesia: $55
Thailand: $30
Vietnam: $50
Nepal (middle of snowy season): $55
India (middle of monsoon): $18
London: $90
Looks like I need to buy a tent.
posted by Lectrice at martes, mayo 24, 2005
4 Advice:
Didn't I say 400 a week? sheesh woman - isn't that 57 a day?
My god, for Ecuador I've worked out $150 a week, same with Bali. Where're you staying? What are you eating? My god.
Let's take New Zealand - $60US - that's only $33GBP. There is no way Indonesia is more expensive than New Zealand, I'll eat a kiwi bird. Or I would if they weren't endangered.
Do I have to come over there and beat you to death with your travel first aid kit?
I should have a travel first aid kit??
You said 400 Canadian dollars a week, yeah. But these figs are all in US dollars, cos the US runs the n'inter'net.
If I start veering into UK dollars, sorry, pounds, then it starts to make my head hurt.
So far, hostel accommodation has been 10$ a night max, so p'raps the budget is a bit ...erm unrelated to reality. Mostly I picked a number right in the middle of the range given on the site quoted, or on Lonely Planet. (If I camp, too, I can cut it down.)
F'r instance, for Ecuador, the backpacker site quotes "Ecuador is not expensive; in fact it is about the cheapest of the Latin-American countries, and with meals coming at US$1-5, and a bed around US$2-15, with the occasional blow-out, you can bank on paying US$15 per day for a really tight budget. US$50 to US$80 per day will get you better sleeping arrangements and leave enough to do some traveling, as well as some decent grub.".
Lonely Planet says "Meals
* Budget: US$1-3
* Mid-range: US$3-10
* High: US$10-30
* Deluxe: US$30+
Lodging
* Budget: US$2-15
* Mid-range: US$15-40
* High: US$40-70
* Deluxe: US$70+"
Thus I'd have read that as a $3 (squeeze) to $50 daily budget, and set it at $30 to fit mine somewhere in the middle.
[Suddenly notices that LP budget is lower than backpacker.net...]
Jen, if you know of a better way of fixing the budget for each country, tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... :)
Well, I'm going to five countries (not including the UK) and three of mine are cheap. I picked two or three places I'm staying (I'm planting my ass for a week or two at a time) - averaged them out (Vilcabamba includes food for ex), threw in some travel money. Then for Aus - priced out buying a camper/van, gas, food, a month on Tim's farm, buyback on the van, then staying with rellys in NZ and taking the bus/camping there - in the end $400 a week is working out well for me. Whatever I save in the three cheap countries goes towards things in the dearer ones - it averages out. And I am thinking in Canadian dollars. But I'm not doing a lot of "sightseeing" - I'm just hanging out, hiking, volunteering - which is cheap as well. Yanno?
Yeah. I haven't planned any sightseeing. But that's partly because I've barely planned anything, partly because I know nothing of most of these countries (cos of how I chose them), and partly because I don't think I'll know till I'm out in Hawaii what flavour I'll want this first trip to have.
So in the meantime, these numbers are fictional, really, I guess. More than tentative.
Beginning to regret the decision to leave for the airport straight from my last/prior to last day at work. Some time to fix things sounds advisable, right now.
At the same time, I'm desperate to get over this nothing/planning/micro-manageing stage and just bloody go.
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