Travel Expense >

Shishira and I left home on May 15, 2022 on this little adventure of full-time travel. For a few years now, we’d been dreaming about a life on the go and so we planned to take a year off our corporate careers and explore the world. From what we had saved up until May 2022 we earmarked a portion called the full-time travel fund. Our plan is to use this money to fund the expenses of travelling around the world and living this lifestyle while also working towards earning on the go. We’ve attempted to present the expenses related to our daily travel costs (like stay, activities, etc.) and other expenses that directly support our website and making travel videos and photography.

At this point, we are still unsure of what income streams work for us – we’ve only just about begun our Youtube journey and not eligible for monetisation yet. Also, this blog has only resuming activity in June 2022 as we begin to publish our travel blogs and free guides to the destinations we’ve explored. So there’s definitely a long way to go before either can support full-time travel.

Yes, we are (were?) accountants – so we’re going to present this in a way that makes the best sense! But if you prefer a more insightful view, let us know in the comments section below and we’ll attempt to get it right. After all, nearly everyone enjoys a little bit of math when it comes to money! 😛

Hopefully, you’ll find this full-time travel travel expense report interesting and might even inspire you to go after your dream!

INCOME

In the second quarter of our full-time travel, we earned a total of INR 0 / USD 0. I know, its been tough. If you’d like to support us, scroll down to buy us a coffee, on ko-fi below! 🤓

We grew from 761 subscribers (as on June 30) to 2,430 subscribers (as on September 30). We published 45 new travel vlogs every alternate day. In total, we have 70 videos on the channel (including the older ones) and currently have around 130k views. You can see more details here.

We also started a second channel in Kannada (our home language in India) to make our videos more accessible to folks back home! It currently has 50 subscribers and 800 views.

EXPENSE

In the first full quarter (since you saw what Q2 2022 was like) of our full-time travel, we’ve spent money on the below categories:

✈️ Flights: INR 25,349 / USD 317

This quarter we flew out on the first international flight of this journey which brought us to South East Asia! These were all the flights we took in these three months:

• • Kolkata (India) to Bangkok (Thailand)
  • Bangkok (Thailand) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
  • Thanh Hoa (Vietnam) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) – this was a free flight ticket (watch this video)

⛺️ Stay: INR 42,827 / USD 535

Hotels, homestays and rooms rented in:

• India (Sikkim and Kolkata)
• Thailand (Chiang Mai, Pai, Pattaya and Bangkok)
• Vietnam (Saigon, Da Lat, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hanoi, Mai Chau, Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa)
• Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Kampot, Battambang and Siem Reap)
• Laos (Don Det, Pakse, Vientiane and Vang Vieng)

Our hostel dorm in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) was the worst we stayed at in Vietnam – the dorms were not filthy, but the room was. Huge rats were running around and it was on the party street which stays awake till 4 am. Just wanted to share this to add context to why Shishira was screaming many times during our stay there (prepaid, so could not go away).

🍕 Food: INR 50,414 / USD 630

Breakfast (sometimes), lunch, snacks and dinner; includes water too. We definitely ate more street food and at small cafes than at popular restaurants. We aimed to keep our food bills under INR 700/day. Thailand has a very delicious cuisine indeed, but Vietnam did not disappoint either. We even found enough vegetarian and vegan food to feast on without having the need to search for Indian food (which was omnipresent too).

🤿 Sightseeing and activities: INR 20,815 / USD 260

Besides counting spends in Pattaya as ‘sightseeing’, we also did a lot of activities in:

• Thailand: Viewpoints, temples and beaches
• Vietnam: Ha Long Bay cruise (USD 40 for one day), boating in Ninh Binh, War Museum, waterfalls and temples
• Cambodia: Angkor Wat and other temples (so expensive at USD 35 for a one day ticket!), rickety Bamboo train rides and the Killing Fields
• Laos: Incredible waterfalls (best in the world?), UNESCO world heritage Hindu temples and so much more!

South East Asian has many natural sights, but most of them end up with a ticketed entry. WHile the tickets are usually inexpensive, they are not necessarily cheap. But we wanted to see them, so we went ahead and paid!

🚌 Transport: INR 58,939 / USD 739

Rides on the local city bus, tuktuks, interstate bus, train and scooter rentals! We also visited Bangalore for a few days in early July on a long distance train journey from Kolkata. However, the major contributors were the two overland border crossing journeys:

• Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam) to Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
• Stung Treng (Cambodia) to Don Det (Laos)

🔖 Visa: INR 25,780 / USD 322

Permission to stay in these countries – fees are per person:

• Thailand visa-on-arrival for 15 days: THB 2,000 (INR 4,400 or USD 53.23)
•  Vietnam eVISA for 30 days: USD 25 or INR 2,000
• Cambodia eVISA for 30 days: USD 36 or INR 3,000 (and USD 2 “coffee” money)
• Laos visa-on-arrival for 30 days: USD 40 or INR 3,200 (and USD 2 “coffee” money)

💊 Other expenses: INR 2,683 / USD 34

Misc. items like photocopies, soap, laundry, medicines and more. Shish was coerced into buying a very pricey-yet-useless organic cough syrup at a local pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh city.

Total: INR 226,806 or USD 2,835 

For 92 days of travel from 1-Jul-22 to 30-Sep-22, we spent USD 31 per day (INR 2,465) or USD 15 per person, per day (INR 1,233).

How much has it cost since we left home?

This totalled up to INR 320,792 or USD 4,025 for ~140 days of travel for two. Across these days the average cost of travel came to INR 2,232 or USD 28 per day including flights for both persons together.

That works out to INR 1,116 or USD 14 per day, per person. Thats our current cost of travelling full time (in India and South East Asia).

Or maybe a little more of Shish’s expenses as against mine – she likes to shop and hide it in the “others” category. 😛

NET INCOME/EXPENSE

With no actual income and considering the above expenses, we are at -INR 320,792 (-USD 4,025). Support us to bring this into the greenzone as soon as possible!

Do you have any suggestions or want us to add more details on this report? Let us know in comments below.

Useful links

Here are some useful resources to plan and book your next trip. These are the same websites and apps that we use for our own bookings! We may earn a small commission if you make your booking using the below link, at no extra cost to you. 🤓