“Money’s just something you throw from the back of a train.” - Tom Waits
China is eating away at The Balance. On the plus side, the food is cheap and I don’t feel I’m overstating things to say that I have mastered the art of eating well for under 3 USD per day. On the other side of the coin, I’m staying in dorms for what I paid for an air conditioned single room in Vietnam and the transportation costs are sucking my lifeblood. An 8 hour bus ride is about 12-16 USD, which wouldn’t be so bad if this country weren't enormous. I’ve taken 6 of these buses (and one train) already and I’ve only been here two weeks. When it came time to buy my ticket for the 15 hour train from Chengdu to Xi’an I panicked a little when they told me the “Hard Sleeper” class was 34 USD. I asked for “Hard Seat” for 15 USD, knowing full well that this was an overnight train, 9pm to 12:45pm, and that I would be considering suicide by the time 3am rolled around. The ticket agent was horrified. “Haarrd seeeeat?! It’s FIFTEEN HOURS?!” I told her I could take it. She shook her head, “You are very strong!” I paid, walked up to my room, stood by my bunk for awhile, turned around, walked back down to the desk and told her I’d like to change that to sleeper, if possible.
First off, great Modest Mouse reference. Second, I'm really surprised that this is the first time you've run into budget-busting travel. You've done a good job of staying out of tourist-money areas. Just remember that you still have more than half of the money you started with 7 months ago, so a little money spent now isn't the worst thing, as long as you can get it under wraps again soon.
ReplyDeleteThe bus rides in Colombia averaged $2 an hour, I opted to stay places longer to offset the transit costs. Down in Ecuador it is $1 an hour and smaller, I think I can hover under $15 a day here, but you have set quite a standard for budget travel.
ReplyDelete--Micahoe