Once again, it's time for my favorite type of post – statistics, with accompanying charts and graphs! December was a good month; I managed to spend quite a bit less than previous months, in part because I haven't had to spend as much on visa fees, partly because I bought a Vietnamese-style coffee brewing device, which allows me to brew my own coffee, and partly because expenses in Vietnam are generally quite a bit less than in Laos.
Now that I'm done with my third month on the road, I feel like I've proven just how easy it is to have an awesome trip on very little money. I'm not even trying that hard to save money, and haven't really had to give up too much in the way of comfort. I save the most amount of money because I'm on the bike, instead of traveling around by bus, train, took-took, or motorcycle; and as a result of that, I tend to spend most of my time outside of touristed areas, which means I save loads on food, drink, and accommodation. A beer in a touristed area of Laos costs almost $2, while you can get a good draft brew in a small town in Vietnam for 25 cents. Likewise, at restaurants that locals frequent, the food is cheaper and you generally get larger portions. Accommodation, too, is cheaper in small towns, and camping allows for some interesting experiences. I haven't even had to go a single night without a bath of some sort, even if it was in a river or from a bucket.
If you're at all interested in cycle touring but think you don't have enough money, I think the proof is in the pudding here as far as showing how easy it is to do on the cheap. $360 is many people's rent payment or health insurance premium. If you were to sell your $10,000 car, sublet your apartment or rent out your house, and just take off on a bike, you could easily have enough money to travel around the world for quite a while:
$10,000 - $1500 bike and equipment - $1000 plane ticket to Asia from US - $500 travel insurance plan for one year = $7000, or enough to wheel around for almost 2 years.
Student loans? If you have zero income, your loan payments are $0 for up to a year. Do you have any mutual fund investments, or can you make a bit of profit renting out your house? Depending on how much you have, that could cover all or part of your monthly trip expenses. Already have a bike and some camping equipment? Your up-front expenses just fell by half. Want to leave from your doorstep instead of starting your trip in Asia? Well then you don't need a plane ticket.
Enough of this ranting, back to the stats:
Accommodation was cheap in Vietnam, and usually I was only spending $2-3 per night for a shared room with the other shakies. However, it turned out to be pretty hard to camp in Vietnam, because of what I assume are remnant policies from the communist era. Even in hotels, we'd have to leave our passports at the front desk until we departed. Several times when we tried to camp, the police or other officials came and told us that we were not allowed to camp, and escorted us to a guesthouse. So in the end, we were only able to camp about 25% of the time in December. Much of that was in the last 10 days after we crossed back into Laos, a country much more open to camping. In Vietnam, most of our camping was done in national parks, or other places where it was officially sanctioned. We were also fortunate enough to be offered accommodation at a local's house in a tiny village one night, which we spent drinking beer, playing guitar, and hanging out with his family. So that accounts for the one night of mooching!
Finally, December was a pretty good month for riding. I totaled 1443km, or 895 miles, which averages out to 69km (42 miles) per riding day. Not bad! Although if I want to have any hope of making it to Turkey by the end of next summer, I'm going to have to pick up the pace a little.
Finally, I've broken the 3000km mark! Yay!
