100 Days of Non-Stop Travel & Adventure

Wow! I cant believe we are already 100 days into our epic adventure around eastern Asia.

Feels like just yesterday that we were getting ready to board the flight to our first stop in Japan.

It’s been an amazing adventure so far though. We have had the opportunity to visit beautiful places, meet locals, learn about their culture and country as well as make some great friends along the way. 

Here’s a quick look back at the last 100 days:

Travel by the numbers:

Days spent on the road: 100

Countries traveled to: 7 (Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia (Bali and Gili islands), Singapore, northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam)

Countries left: 3 at least (Cambodia, southern Thailand, India, Nepal – maybe Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka)

Cities/Towns visited: 33

Total money spent on travel (excluding flights): $10,048.72

Total money spent on all flights: $570.4 – thanks to travel hacking

Costliest country: Japan at $261/day for both of us

Cheapest country: Thailand & Laos tied at $70/day for both of us

Number of flights: 7

 Number of train rides: 9

Overland border crossings: 1 (Thailand – Laos)

Nights slept at airport: 1 (Singapore Changi airport)

Hotels slept in: 35

Mangosteen fruit eaten: >5 kilos

Scuba dives done (Manyu): 11

Cheapest beer: Bia Hoi freshly brewed beer in Vietnam (20 cents)

Most expensive beer: Chang Beer at Sky Bar, Bangkok ($13)

Average travel cost per day: $100.49/day for both of us together or ~$50/day/person

Food has been our biggest expense over the trip but given how much we love food, this is completely understandable And while we didn’t splurge on luxury accommodation, we still stayed at great places that didn’t break the bank.

Our rule for life is “Spend on experiences, not things”, so it’s no surprise that our activity budget came out at 20% of the total. We splurged for a good experience because it’s worth it – especially scuba diving for me in Bali

On the whole though, travel has been cheap. It could have been cheaper if we wanted but that was not our aim.

Just for comparison,  we spent $100/day traveling around Asia while just our rent in Boston was $53.33/day.

You don’t have to be a millionaire or a lottery winner to travel long term!

Favorite Country: tough one here – tied between Thailand & Indonesia (Manyu), cheaty 3-way tie between Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam (Staci)

Favorite Place: Chiang Mai & Bali (Manyu), mountains of northern Vietnam  (Staci)

Top 10 travel experiences so far (in no particular order):

• 7-day motorcycling trip around northern Vietnam (Manyu and Staci)

Motorcycling through the beautiful country of Vietnam

• Diving in a ball of jackeye fish in Bali (Manyu)

Exploring Bali’s amazing underwater diversity

• Kayaking to then swimming through a secret cave in Phang Na National Park, Vietnam lit only by our headlamps  yikes! (Manyu and Staci)

Swimming through Dark cave in Phong Nha National Park, Vietnam

• Spending a day with elephants at the Elephant Nature Camp, Chiang Mai, Thailand (Manyu and Staci)

Staci feeding an elephant at the Elephant Nature Park

• Watching the lantern release at the Loy Krathong/ Yee Peng festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Manyu and Staci)

Lantern release at the Loy Krathong/ Yee Peng festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand

• Watching a sumo tournament in Tokyo, Japan (Manyu and Staci)

Sumo wrestling in Tokyo, Japan

• Riding dirt bikes in rural Laos…only laid it down once in some soft thorny bushes (Manyu and Staci)

Staci riding a dirtbike in Vang Vieng, Laos

• Watching sunsets…we’ve seen some amazing ones in almost every country.  Bali sunsets and sunsets over the Mekong probably take the cake. (Manyu and Staci)

Beautiful sunset in Lovina, Bali

• Dim Sum in Hong Kong…insanely delicious (Manyu and Staci)

Mmmm…… dim sum in Hong Kong

• Learning to cook Thai food in a cooking class at an organic farm in northern Thailand (Staci)

Making curry paste at the cooking class in Thailand

 It’s been the adventure of a lifetime and we have had so much fun along the way!