Here are a few numbers about our trip across Europe, Northern and Southeastern Asia.
- TRANSPORTATION
During this trip, we mainly travelled by train and bus:
- train : 318h30, i.e. 13 days et 6,5h. In Russia and China mainly, also Mongolia and Vietnam. We have been impressed by the quality of the trains, even in the lowest class. Slight exception in Mongolia (overcrowded carriages, which make the trip interesting), and Thailand and Vietnam (where they really mean HARD seat!)
- bus/coaches : 237h, i.e. 9 days and 21 hours spent in coaches and minibuses. Essentially in South-East Asia.
- boat/ferry : 52h30, in China, Thailand and Vietnam.
- motorbike : 52h30 egalement. Only in South-East Asia. We absolutely loved the freedom of being on our own two wheels!
- bike : 7 hours over two days to visit Angkor temples. A wonderful way to take our time and immerse in this so touristy spot.
- tuk-tuk : 4 hours in one day, still in Angkor, to visit more remote temples.
- taxi : 1 heure 20. Yes, we are not crazy about taxis ! The only long taxi travel we made was in Southern Thailand to try to catch (unsuccessfully) a boat.
Grand total : 672h30, i.e. 28 days spent on the move. Over 146 days, that is 19% of our time. It seems a lot, but spending a few days in Russian or Chinese trains is pretty cool!
- WEATHER
Something that was really exciting during this trip was the diversity of the climates we encountered. Here is a quick summary:
Month / Average temperature / Days of snow / of rain / of thunderstorms
- January (Eastern Europe and Russia) : -8,9 C / 5 / 4 / 0
- February (Mongolia) : -17,4C / 1 / 0 / 0
- March (China) : +9,5 C / 1 / 4 / 0
- April (Laos and Thailand) : +26,9 C / 0 / 9 / 8
- May (Cambodia and Vietnam) : + 29,0 C / 0 / 7 / 9
Min : -33,4 C in the morning of January 26th in Tomsk
Max : probably slightly over 40 C on multiple times in Thailand and Cambodia.
Nota : Almost every day, I made a measurement of outside temperature around 9pm, that gives an idea (slighty underestimating I think) of the average temperature of the day.
- BUDGET
Here is our budget in EURO, made by Marion who very patiently added zlotys, euros, roubles, tugkriks, yuans, kips, bahts, riels and dongs :
Europe / 15 days /146 (9,7) [29,3] / 254 (16,9) [ 25] / 216 (14,4) [30] / 278 (18,5) [460] / 924 (61,6)transsiberian / 42 jours / 438 (8,4) [20] / 340 (8,1) [15] / 143 (3,4) [10] / 701 (16,7) [900] / 1622 (38,6)
China / 25 jours / 179 (7,2) [17] / 191 (7,6) [18] / 330 (13,2) [20] / 478 (19,1) [360] / 1178 (47,1)
Laos / 18 jours / 79,5 (4,5 !!) [11] / 144,5 (8,0) [11] / 74 (4,0) [10] / 207,5 (22,5) [242] / 505,5 (28,0)
Thailand / 25 jours / 148 (5,9) [11] / 228,5 (9,1) [11] / 54,5 (2,2)* [10] / 299 (12,0) [336] / 730 (29,2)
Cambodia / 7 jours / 35 (5,0) [11] / 71,5 (10,2) [11] / 75,5 (10,8) [10] / 65 (9,3) [94] / 240 (35,0)
Vietnam / 11 jours / 71,5 (6,5) [11] / 115 (10,4) [11] / 94 (8,5) [10] / 189 (17,2) [147,8] / 469,5 (42,7)
Total / 143 jours /
Nota : for every category, three numbers a given : total (daily average) [forecasted average; daily (lodging, food, extras) or total (transportation)].
Few comments:
As for lodging, we almost systematically searched for cheaper options. We nevertheless ended up in very comfortable rooms -- for less than 7 euros -- much more comfortable than we were used to in Europe or Australia !
Here is, thanks to JB, the summary of our lodging (143 nights):
- youth hostels/guesthouses : 47 nights
- hotels : 45 nights
- train : 16 nights
- bungalows : 9 nights (Laos and Thailand)
- couchsurfing : 8 nights (Poland and Russia)
- bus : 7 nights (China and Thailand)
- camping : 6 nights (Mongolia 1, China 1 and Thailand 4)
- ferry : 2 nights (China)
- B&B : 2 nights (Russia, Olkhon)
Extras are defined as every euro spent that cannot be accounted for by the other categories. It can be museums, parks, books, gear etc. A few extras do not appear above as they are present from our family (diving course, apnea, and Thai massage course).
- LOST/STOLEN
- whistle : lost on January 8th on the bus from Tallinn to StPetersburg. That was not a good idea to let not useful gear hang oustide my bag! (5 euros)
- cheese: stolen on Feb 19 by an opportunistic pickpocket in our backpack while walking on Peace Ave in Ulan-Baataar. We saw him run and hide in a fastfood restaurant, but we decided that the stakes were too small not to confront and try to get our cheese back... We now systematically close our backpack with a small karabiner. (4 euros)
- camera pocket: lost on Feb 28th (?)
- SD card reader: forgotten on March 25th in the guesthouse computer room in Dali. Lesson: each of us has now responsability for half of our small gear. (5 euros)
- T-shirt JB: forgotten on March 28th (while drying ?) in a youth hostel in Jinghong. Lesson: when we wash our clothes, we make sure everything is back in our clothes bag (it s pretty straightforward!). (25 euros)
- One meter of excellent string (from Antarctica): forgotten on May 10th. Famous story, as it allowed us to hang our water bottle on our bag. We left the bottle (and the attached string) in the car of an hysteric lady who threw us out of her car at the border between Thailand and Cambodia. Lesson: in high stress situations, stay calm and share responsabilities: one of us is in front dealing with the issue, the other stays behind and makes sure our stuff is fine.
- PLASTIC BOTTLES
This point is important to us. Thanks to our water filter, we drink tap water without risks. We save a huge amount of pastic bottles that would end up in rivers, fields and cities outskirts. A quick estimate: 435 bottles saved (and about 200 euros !)
Here is the list of the bottles we bought since January 2nd:
Russia : 2 bottles 1,5L. In the transsiberian train, water is usually available. But that day, it obviously was not drinkable. A very kind young Russian offered us two water bottles.
China : 1 bottle 1,5L. in Beijing. We renewed one of our old Russian bottles that we used for 1.5 month.
Laos : 1 bottle 1,5L. Same reason
Thailand : 7 bottles 1,5L. On Koh Tao, tap water is barely desalinated and has an awful metallic taste. We could not find refills.
Cambodia : 1 bottle 1,5L at the border in Poipet. Yes, that s the story about the water bottle forgotten in the car of the crazy lady ! We had to buy a new one to stay hydrated!
2 bottles 1.5L in SiemRep. Tap water was extremely dubious and had a terrible metallic taste.
4 bottles 0.5L in Angkor. Thinking 3L for a whole day is enough is plain stupid !
That is 18 bottles total. We are proud of this and we try to make good use of our experience to still buy less!
We nevertheless have two remarks: One, tap water is not mineralized and we are currently testing various ways to enrich water. To be followed ! Two, in South-East Asia, tap water is known to carry heavy metal, that are toxic in the long run. We thus are still trying to refine our strategy!
jb