Budget Update from Seoul
by Jason -- March 8, 2010
Sharon and I left our cubicles nearly 5 months ago and are currently residing in our 6th country of the trip. We’ve now entered a completely different phase of the trip, as we’ve settled down into an apartment in Seoul for the next few months. Now that our initial traveling portion of our trip is complete, I thought this would be as good as time as any to update you on our financial situation.
The quick summary is that things are going well. Below is a country breakdown of what we’ve spent so far. I’ve stripped some expenses and categorized them elsewhere to try and make things as comparable as possible. However, there are some shopping expenses in Thailand and “Mainland China #2″ that make those numbers slightly inflated. In “Mainland China #2” we also had unusually high transportation costs due to a 24-hour train ride to Beijing and an overnight ferry to South Korea.
On an overall basis, we’re 38% through our year-long trip and have spent only 25% of our money. We continue to try and spend around $100 a day here in South Korea, which is far more difficult to do than it was in China or Southeast Asia. Rent on our apartment, however, is a very reasonable $16 per day. Factoring this into our expenses, we should be able to keep the overall budget.
If you’re curious as to where the “revenue” came from, I would love to tell you it’s from us working or this website, but unfortunately it’s essentially just Sharon’s and my own tax refund.
Finally, here are just a couple budget related thoughts:
- While I’m glad we have an overall budget per day goal of around $100, it would have been wiser to set country targets instead. It would have been irresponsible to spend $100 per day in Southeast Asia, but is definitely reasonable to spend that much in South Korea. Setting the country targets could have been done only after a couple days in each country, or could have been done arbitrarily based on some sort of percentage.
- While there are some expenses incurred which skew the data slightly, I believe the country order we show is accurate. The cheapest country we’ve visited was Vietnam followed by Cambodia, Thailand, and then China.
- I was surprised to find Thailand being relatively expensive. Food, alcohol and even housing just wasn’t that cheap in the cities we visited. Perhaps we could have eaten at less expensive places, but I believe with the amount of tourists that visit, prices have been inflated.
If you’re interested in seeing all of the detail (or perhaps just REALLY bored at work), our Trip Finances spreadsheet is available for download.
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Out of the three SE Asian countries that we visited, Vietnam was our favorite. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was our first experience with a heavy tourist population, therefore there was English everywhere (which, coming from China, was a huge breath of fresh Vietnamese air). Maybe it had to do with the fact that not only was there English everywhere, but the people were so used to tourists that the staring was almost non-existent. The Vietnamese people seemed more open to helping us when we needed help, whereas some of the Chinese people took some time to warm up to us after we established the initial ‘smile and hello’ (they don’t encounter as many tourists, so it is completely understandable why they would be more curious and inquisitive). Maybe it had to do with the fact that the food was completely amazing. Or the fact that we attended two weddings and even stayed at the parents’ home of our new hotel manager friend. I think it was all of the above.
Speaking of nice people, if I had to create an award for the nicest people on earth, so nice to the point that it was ridiculous, the Cambodian people would win hands down. No contest. I had heard from one of my friends’ boyfriends that the Cambodian people were the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and this became apparent immediately. The Khmer (the Cambodian word for… Cambodian) people are genuinely nice and the children are the most smiley kids you will find anywhere. Every smile you give will be met with an even bigger Khmer smile, and this goes for grown men as well, something that I found extremely rare in other countries. If you are sitting outside of your hotel, the owners will light a mosquito coil at your feet just to make sure you don’t get bites. They will serve you food from their own family’s dinner table and are extremely happy when you eat it. They will take the day off of work to drive you around the city and buy you dinner just because you’re their guest.
Unfortunately we were only in Thailand for 13 days due to stomach and Visa issues (clearly those two problems are meant to be experienced together) but it was clear from the second we got off our minibus to Koh Chang that this would be the most populated country of tourism we may ever visit. I mean it wasn’t a big newsflash for us- everyone wants to visit or has visited Thailand, it’s the ultimate exotic beach getaway equipped with western food at every restaurant and “lady bars” to suit every hairy Caucasian male above the age of 50. It seemed like there were more tourists than locals and there was virtually no need to learn any of the Thai language. It was like being in a country that was built for tourists. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against this unlike many other tourists. I’m not one of those “get away from all the tourists” types and I enjoy being around other people who are doing the same thing. The people of Thailand were also extremely friendly and welcoming, although I didn’t see as many kids as I did in Cambodia which made me sad, but if I had I’m sure they would have been just as smiley.










