6 Months. The Budget.

Instead of dazzling you with beautiful pie charts I decided to keep the budget page plain so it is easy to read. When updated, the table bellow will show the new countries entered in color. This way you will always see the overall trip budget in addition to the money spent in each country. The budget numbers reflect all of our costs/country including the visa costs and all transportation costs excluding airfare. I will keep a tally of all the airfare costs below the budget table. To keep things simple I won’t break down the amount per country into categories. Drop me a line if you have specific questions about costs and I would be happy to answer.

The last two countries we visited were Indonesia and Nepal.

How affordable was Indonesia? We found it to be very cheap, but our daily average is pretty high at $86/day. It is high compared to other countries because we couldn’t resist all the temptations thrown our way. We did so much in this outdoor paradise of a country: snorkeling trips, hot springs, volcano and island hopping, cooking classes, art and music lessons. It all added up quickly, but why bother traveling to a far away place if not to enjoy it, even modestly, right?

Nepal turned out to be the country with one of our lowest daily averages so far and we had the time of our life exploring its majestic mountains and rich culture. We did not make any sacrifices to keep the budget low. While hiking the Annapurna Circuit we had 3 cooked meals/day, 3 big pots of tea with each meal, hot showers and a clean, cozy room to spend the night. The tea houses did not charge us for accommodations, offering us free room in exchange for eating dinner and breakfast there. As we gained height the food became more and more expensive, so our daily budget increased, but on average we fit in $60/day. One thing that came as a surprise was the amount of food we consumed during a day on the trails. Our kids were ravenous and they ate HUGE adult portions! Under normal circumstances they are average eaters but in the woods they would easily eat a loaded plate of noodles with cheese or a whole big veggie burger with fries and then ask for more! At the higher elevations our family with two children transformed into a party of four hungry adults. We had to start bargaining for our meal costs as the meal prices got steeper and steeper. Because it was off season, most of the tea houses would compete for our business and give us a discount on the food. These small savings added up quickly, but by the end of our trip we were too tired and too hungry to bargain;)

I was surprised to find out how affordable and well established trekking in Nepal is. If hiking is your thing than this is a must visit destination! A single traveler can easily make it on $15 per day, all costs included. We met young hikers claiming that their daily budget is $7! Pretty impressive given the amount of energy one needs to conquer the hills.

The daily budget for Nepal accounts for the fees required to hike in the Annapurna Region, $40/person, not counting Raina. We chose not to have a porter or a guide not because of the added expense but because we didn’t feel like sharing our adventure 24/7. Guides add $20/day and porter $15/day. 

Additional Expenses: $4,985 on airplane tickets: (Asheville – San Francisco, San Francisco – Tokyo, Osaka – Phuket, Thailand, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Denpasar, Bali – Kathmandu, Nepal). $1,291 on travel insurance for a year.

In a few days we are heading to India. Yes, I know, just in time for the monsoons and the staggering heat, but a journey cannot be always perfect and we are too curious to skip India, which is a stone throw away. So, armed with our leaking rain ponchos, we will bravely descend and hope for the best. We should survive a month or two. I am planning on doing the 10 days silent Vipassana Meditation course and the kids need a little break from our adventurous life style. A little rain should not interfere with all that:)

-M