So all RTW blogs do some incarnation of this post when they get back: the wrap up. One of the best I have seen is on GlobeDecker. The amount of data they had is amazing and I give credit to Katie for sending me their wonderful budget file. We shamelessly plagiarized it as a starting point for our own detailed budget file. Their detailed wrap up statistics also provided the inspiration for us to think about what lists we wanted to keep along the way. Keeping track of the relevant information as we went made this post possible. I would highly recommend that anyone considering long term travel think about what information they want to gather and record as they travel. Along with setting clear strategic goals for your trip before you leave, it is one most important things you can do and will help immensely as you return and look to summarize the trip to family, friends and even potential employers.
While we are still traveling in the U.S. and Canada, we thought it was worthwhile to quickly sum up some of the most frequent and thought provoking questions we have had since we have been home. So here it goes. To be clear the statistics below apply only to the non-North American portion of the trip. If we missed something you want to know, leave a comment below and we will do our best.
Travel Statistics:
- Countries Visited: 17; see our detailed route here.
- Days on the Road Internationally: 255; October 6, 2009 – June 22, 2010.
- Favorite Country: For Keith, it was Bhutan. The scenery was stunning and the culture unique. For Amy, it was Japan. She was won over by the delicious food, adorably polite people and the sparkling clean public restrooms.
- Least Favorite Country: Egypt for both of us (excludes our 11 days in the Sinai, which was amazing).
- Flight Segments: 14 international, 6 internal. And yes, Amy still hates to fly.
- Modes of Transport: airplane, ocean ferry, bus, train, car, tuk-tuk, boat, motorbike, bicycle, horse, and last but not least (but definitely slowest) donkey cart.
Finances:
- Total average cost per day while traveling: $188. This includes all expenses for lodging, food, transport, etc., but excludes pre-trip expenses like our clothes and immunizations.
- Most expensive country per day: Bhutan ($490).
- Least expensive country per day: Laos ($82).
- Most expensive day: $720 on April 11, 2010 in Bhutan. This was our last day in Bhutan, so our expenses included tips to our driver and guide for the entire trip.
- Least expensive day: $9 on January 31, 2010 in Vietnam. This is the beauty of an overnight train.
- Most over-budget country: Australia (+42%). We like to believe that we overshot our budget so completely because we were cramming 7 weeks of activities into 3 weeks of traveling. It could also be that Australia is just a lot more expensive than either of us anticipated.
- Most under-budget country: Singapore (-26%). How, you might ask, did we achieve being so far below budget in one of the most expensive places in Asia? It’s called having a very kind and generous friend who happens to be back home on holiday. Thanks again, Anand!
Other Frequent Questions
- What was your worst experience on public transportation? For Keith, it was the overnight train in China in hard sleeper class while afflicted with a stomach bug, not pleasant for anyone. For Amy, it was the four-hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn on a bus with no air conditioning. She sweats just thinking about it!
- Do you two still speak to each other after so much time together? We do, in fact in many places there was no one else who spoke more than rudimentarily English, so if we didn’t talk to each other it would have been very lonely.
- How often were you in touch with people back home? Through skype, email, facebook and of course this blog, we were able to keep up with nearly everyone on a regular basis.
- Did you restrict what you ate? No, we decided early on that we could not go that long without fresh vegetables so we carefully choose places to eat them.
- So did you get sick? We both had minor to moderate stomach bugs a couple times. The worst was Amy’s 24-hour bug that hit on an overnight train in Egypt. But it was never anything the antibiotics we were carrying couldn’t handle.
- Did you experience any negativity as an American traveling abroad? Not ever at a personal level. However, we did get lots of questions about the healthcare debate going on at home and why American’s did not want to provide access to healthcare to everyone. That got tough to explain sometimes in less than an hour.
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Thanks for the shout out. I loved reading your blog this past year…sigh…so jealous…nothing like a toddler to anchor you down for a few years. Just have to press the “pause” button on the wanderlust until she can carry her own pack and stops pooping her pants.
Your blog reminded me of how as a trip winds down, you get pulled into that reflective list-making mode. We found is that its really tough to summarize something as all-encompassing as an RTW into a package that someone who has never done it can digest. We were bombarded with “What was your favorite country”, but found that 99% were asking it to just be polite. Much the same way once asks “hows a going?” but doesn’t want to hear anything other than “fine”. People just want a short, easy, answers. We found this super difficult. Favorite what? Food, sights, people, culture, persons, experiences…I guess it is just an experience that most have no frame of reference to even begin from.
Congratulations for taking the risk and getting out there, it is an amazingly big, and small planet we live on…I trust you have already started talking about and planning your next trip
Just in case you are looking for other list ideas we did keep a few others from our trip as well. http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globedecker/rtw_2006-2007/1185825300/tpod.html
All the best, and let us know next time you are in NYC or Northern NJ! We want to hear the stories that got left on the cutting room floor!
Great wrap up guys! I am so impressed that y’all kept track of your finances so carefully. So far, Australia is our most over budget country, too. I think it’s just more expensive than we expected. We actually stayed fairly on budget in Japan (surprisingly). I’m looking forward to reading more about your US road trip.
I’ve been reading a couple of RTWers wrap ups lately — y’all, Manali and Terry, One Giant Step, and Forks and Jets all started right around the same time we did —- and Patrick and I feel so unaccomplished. We’ve only done 8 countries in this year. We have spent a lot of time in them and it suited our travel style but your itinerary sounds way more impressive!
Hi, Keith, My wife and I traveled 20 countries/6 months somewhat similar to you and your wife, but in 1985. It was an amazing trip, as I can see that yours has been! I don’t have receipts, but did keep a daily expense journal. We always stayed in a hostel or inexp. pension or dormitory, and averaged $5 a day for both of us over the 6 months (which was our budget). My how times have changed in 25 years!
We are currently living (teachers) in South Korea, and visiting Shanghai in a couple weeks.
Great job on the blog! I’m sure it was much visited by family and friends, and a great record for you to keep for yourselves, too.