Frugal Travel Reports
March 2010 (includes Pre-Travel expenses)
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010

***

At the beginning of the month, I took an unplanned three day trip to visit two small towns in the mountains north of Kathmandu where an NGO is helping build schools for children in Nepal. That last minute decision turned out to be the highlight of my entire six month journey.

After returning to Kathmandu, I went with a friend to Pokhara where we spent six days trekking in the Himalayan mountains. When we were finished, my friend returned to Kathmandu but I stayed behind to spend an extra week in Pokhara.

I then took a bus back to Kathmandu where I spent one week in the now familiar backpacker district of Thamel. Of the eight weeks I’ve spent in Nepal, five were spent in Thamel. Although it’s probably one of the most expensive places to spend time, it removed any need for transportation and made getting online easy and (at least somewhat) reliable.

***

Lodging

At the beginning of the month, I spent two nights visiting the schools in Kahule and Bhalche. The two brothers from the non-profit organization provided me with free lodging for the trip (once in a guest house and once in their private home, perched on the side of a mountain above the clouds).

While I was trekking outside Pokhara, my friend and guide paid for all the expenses. I paid him back at the end of our trip in one lump sum, however I estimated the lodging cost at $4.50 per night (350 NRS).

In Pokhara, my friend negotiated a good rate for a guest house right on Lakeside (the main tourist strip of Pokhara) at $3.30/night (250 NRS). The room wasn’t very clean, the toilet required manual flushing (I had to reach my hand into the tank and pull the lever manually), and there was no room service, but it was a place to sleep. After spending several weeks in a room without a bathroom (the cheapest room at Kathmandu Guest House with shared bath/shower), I now consider any room that has its own bathroom to be a plus.

When I returned to Kathmandu, my friend invited me to stay at his place for free. However, it would’ve meant commuting into the city every day to get Internet access and since Kathmandu Guest House offered me a cheap rate ($6/night) and they had in-room WiFi, I decided to stay in Thamel.

The last three nights of the month I won’t be incurring any expense as I will be staying with my relatives at their home in Delhi.

Food

As with last month, food expenses this month were exceptionally high for Nepal. I attribute this to the time I spent in the Himalayan Java cafe in Thamel, the Olive Cafe in Pokhara, and the higher priced food during the trekking. I estimate that it cost me approximately $6.60 a day (500 NRS) for my meals during the six days of trekking.

I was sick for most of my stay in Pokhara, so skimping on food or trying to watch my food expense was the last thing on my mind. In Kathmandu, I returned to my routine of breakfast and lunch at a cheap Nepali restaurant and coffee and dinner somewhere more expensive (an organic cafe).

The first three days of the month when I visited the schools, and the last three days of the month where I stayed with relatives, there was no food expense.

Transportation

The eight hour trip to and from visiting the schools at the beginning of the month was covered by the two brothers who showed me around (I rode on the back of a motorcycle on the way there and took a micro-bus on the way back).

For the eight our journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara, we took a comfortable tourist bus for $6.60 (500 NRS). We then took a local bus to and from Nayapul (the village where we started and ended our trek). There were a few other local buses in between while we were in Pokhara. My bus from Pokhara back to Kathmandu was a cheaper $4.70 ride (350 NRS).

Taxis were used a few times in Pokhara to get from the bus station to the guest house and three times in Kathmandu to get from the bus station to Thamel, from Thamel to Bhaisipati (where I watched traditional Sherpa music being recorded by BBC Radio in a private home), and from Thamel to the airport to catch my flight to Delhi.

When I arrived in Delhi, the taxi from the airport to my relatives home was a tad expensive at $10.66 (480 RS) for the 20km trip (12mi). But we got stuck in traffic for two hours (yes, two hours to go 20km/12mi) so I guess it was worth the price.

The plane ticket from Kathmandu to Delhi was the most expensive transportation cost, but when I learned there was a huge Japanese encephalitis outbreak in the same district that I would’ve passed through had I stuck with my original plan to make the trip over land, I was happy to spend the extra money. Japanese encephalitis was one of the vaccines I decided to skip six months ago because of the cost.

Total Distance Traveled: ~1,528km (~950mi)

Other Expenses

That’s quite a list! As a minimalist traveling with one backpack who advocates frugal travel, you might wonder what’s going on here. Let me explain.

The first six items on the list are related to my decision to go trekking. My friend and his cousin, both trekking guides in Nepal, paid for all the expenses during the six days we were gone. At the end of the trip, he said the total expenses were between $150 and $200. I estimated that $70 of that amount were my own expenses and the remainder were my friend and his cousins’ expenses. (I had no problem paying for their expenses since they did such an awesome job showing me around.)

The trekking permits were non-negotiable and were required at checkpoints along the trail. It rained on and off during the trek, so the dry cover for my bag was essential. I only had my Vibram FiveFingers for shoes, so hiking shoes and socks were also needed (I originally bought two pair of cheap wool socks, but after the trek both pair were full of holes; I bought one more pair of higher quality socks for the rest of my trip). Hiking in the heat with a long-sleeve shirt is no fun and since I had no t-shirts with me, I picked one up.

The laundry detergent, shampoo, toothbrush, mobile phone refill, and AA batteries should all be self explanatory. Since the hotel had shared showers and no bucket to wash my clothes, I used the laundry service twice in Kathmandu. I also got tired of trimming my nails using the knife on the multitool that I bought last month, so I finally gave in a bought a nail clipper. The multitool and nail clippers couldn’t be taken on the plane, so I gifted the multitool to a friend and left the nail clippers for the maid at the hotel.

The iPod Shuffle was an item that I spent several days contemplating when my iPhone died just after we arrived in Pokhara. I was left without any way to listen to music and I knew that I had an eight hour bus ride back to Kathmandu, a plane ride to Delhi, and then a 20+ hour flight back home ahead of me. I love music and it really helps pass time, so my options were to buy a cheap knock-off MP3 player for $30 or an iPod Shuffle for $67. I realized that I’d be able to resell the Shuffle for at least $40 when I got back home, while the knock-off MP3 player wouldn’t resell for anything.

And finally, the Jack Wolfskin shirt was a replacement for the brown long-sleeve shirt you’ve seen my wearing in a several photos and videos. That brown shirt is two years old and has several tears. When it began smelling of mold even after being washed, I knew it was time to replace it. Good quality shirts that would sell for $80 back home can be found for $20 in Nepal, so I picked one up to replace the brown shirt.

Summary

If you subtract the iPod Shuffle, the expenses from trekking, and the plane ticket to Delhi, it brings this month’s expenses down to $430, much closer to my monthly target of $250. However, I didn’t try very hard to stay within budget this month and several unexpected expenses cropped up.

I also made the slightly more expensive decision to fly back to India instead of going over land. However, it’s a decision that allowed me to avoid an area where an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has already killed more than 200 people.

Of my initial $3,000 six-month budget for this trip, I’ve now gone about $2,000 over and that puts my average monthly expenses at around $600 a month. Of course those expenses included several plane tickets (from India to Vietnam, Vietnam to Nepal, Nepal to India) and also Visa expenses (Vietnam and Nepal).

This is my last full month abroad and by the middle of September I will be back in the United States. Once I get back to the States, I will do one more report to summarize the entire six month trip. If you haven’t subscribed, be sure to get on the email list or grab the RSS feed to stay updated.

***

I will spend the next two weeks in India relaxing and working from the comfort of my relatives home in Delhi. Their home is located on the top floor of a gated community, next to the brand new metro line which goes squeaking by every ten minutes or so.

The journey from Kathmandu to Delhi was uneventful, with the exception of going through security at the Kathmandu airport: Twelve security checkpoints, three metal detectors, and my entire bag emptied not once, but three times (they weren’t singling me out, they did this to everybody).

For most people, emptying their backpack wouldn’t be a big deal, but when every single one of your possessions is in that bag — everything you’ve carried with you for the past six months — emptying your bag becomes quite an ordeal and a bit more personal.

Arriving in Delhi, there was something about smelling the air that brought back a surge of memories, emotions, and a sense of familiarity. I’m not sure if it had something to do with having spent my first three months abroad in India or if I was feeling a strong sense of connection; a sense of belonging.

I can’t help but wonder what smelling the air back home will be like when I return in two weeks.

For days after returning to Pokhara, my stomach was upset and my body refused everything I fed it. My head was on cloud nine and my body was endlessly tired. My inner energies were dissipated and my life felt out of whack.

Any attempt to reply to emails, work on writing, catch up with social media, or even explore the city, was met with solid mental and physical resistance. All I could focus on was eating healthy and resting until my health improved.

I could have struggled. I could have sucked it up and battled through it. I could have ignored the fact that my temple was in need of repair and instead focused on work. I could have ignored my own needs and told myself that I needed to sacrifice.

But what good would that have done? How would being selfish towards myself help me in my quest to help others?

The words “be the change you wish to see in the world” are easy to say, but the danger behind the simplicity of those words is that changing ourselves is not an easy task. It’s a complex and oftentimes difficult endeavor. In fact, it can be so difficult that neglecting ourselves and choosing to help others is often the easier option!

But there’s a good reason why change starts with us. Our body is our temple. If we neglect it, we won’t have anywhere to go for shelter. We won’t have a vehicle to deliver our good actions. We won’t have an instrument to spread our positive energies.

If we let our homes deteriorate, we’ll be too concerned with what’s wrong at home to spend time working on anything else. We’ll become our own distraction.

Are you interested in helping others? Then begin by helping those close to you, starting with yourself. When you’ve become a professional at helping yourself — when you’ve become a pro at being you and fully understanding how you work inside out — only then will you have the skills and resources to help others.

If there’s something close to home that doesn’t feel quite right, take care of that first. If your health isn’t in order, focus on fixing it. If your family life isn’t in order, make the changes necessary to start improving it.

Every day do one thing that improves your situation close to home. Leave your ego behind. Leave your pride and your grudges by the wayside and start making progress forward today. One step today. One action that moves you forward.

When you do this, those around you will feel the energy of the progress you’re making and be inspired to improve their own lives. You’ll become a tractor of positivity that helps uplift them.

***

It took a bit longer than I expected to get my health back, but I’m feeling much better now. It probably had something to do with how my body was still recovering from the strenuous five-day trek.

While I was recovering, I decided to cancel my one week train adventure at the beginning of September around north India. I had already booked seven trains that would take me from Darjeerling, to Varanassi, to Agra (Taj Mahal), and then to Delhi, but my heart is no longer in it.

I have absolutely zero interest in doing anything even mildly touristy. Going against that feeling is only going to make me less capable of helping others, not more capable. Since all the train tickets were refundable, and since canceling them would pay for a plane ticket from Kathmandu to Delhi, changing plans seemed like this most sensible thing to do.

Now my plan is to go to Kathmandu this weekend to watch a traditional Sherpa dance and, after spending a week in Kathmandu, I’ll hop on a plane to Delhi where I’ll stay for two weeks before returning to the United States.

I still hope to catch a few classical Indian music concerts in Delhi and I have plans to have lunch with a school teacher to talk about education, but otherwise I’ll be relaxing, exercising, and planning what comes next when I return to the States.

Frugal Travel Reports
March 2010 (includes Pre-Travel expenses)
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010

This month has seen me travel more than 6,000 miles in three countries: India, Vietnam, and Nepal. As a result, the expenses this month are the highest since I paid for my round-trip ticket to India when I started my journey back in March.

However, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had free lodging, food, and transportation for my last two weeks in India, free transportation, food, and some free lodging during the two weeks in Vietnam, and now free lodging and some free transportation in Nepal.

Lodging

At the beginning of the month, I spent two weeks in Delhi staying with my adopted relatives. They provided free lodging at their home along with free home cooked meals and free transportation. I took the opportunity to relax after spending the previous two and a half months living and traveling on a budget.

In Vietnam, I stayed at a hotel in the backpackers district (District 1) of Ho Chi Minh City. It was $16/night for a private room, or $8/night for a dorm-style room. I like my privacy and the security of being able to leave my backpack in the room, so even though it was more expensive I opted for the private room.

The second week in Vietnam, I went with my friend David and his wife Mai to visit relatives and family in Hue, a city in central Vietnam. David and Mai paid for the hotel room where David and myself slept (Mai stayed with her family).

In Nepal, my former boss and good friend offered to let me stay at his parents house in the northern part of Kathmandu. His parents are visiting the States at the moment, so I literally have the entire house to myself.

Food

As I mentioned previously, I had no food expenses during my last two weeks in India. When I arrived in Vietnam, I tagged along with David, Mai, and David’s brother and family to various touristy places during the day and they paid for the meals and water (thank you again!). The hotel room in Vietnam included free breakfast, so I took advantage of that.

I spent two days working from a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City (Highland Coffee) where I easily racked up an $18 bill over the course of twelve hours (the coffee drinks were so good!). A few times I ate dinner at other random restaurants around the hotel.

When David, Mai, and myself went to Hue for a week to visit family, we ate home cooked meals every single day.

I’ve only been in Nepal a few days now and Sanjay has provided breakfast and dinner cooked at home. When I was dropped off to explore the touristy Thamel region of Kathmandu for a few hours, I had lunch at a cafe that ended up being more expensive than I expected ($10!).

I definitely could have spent less money on food this month, but since I paid for so few meals I didn’t try very hard to keep the food costs down.

Transportation

Clearly the largest expense this month has been transportation. Traveling by plane is definitely the most expensive way to travel, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I would’ve loved to do everything over land, but that would’ve required lots of money for Visa’s and lots of time, neither of which I had.

I had no travel expenses in India this month besides the plane ticket to Vietnam. In Vietnam, I paid for a taxi to the hotel which cost me $7.50. After that, David and Mai paid for all the travel expenses, including several tour buses, taxis, and even the round-trip plane ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Hue and then back! (Thanks again David and Mai!) I think I might have paid for one or two of the taxi rides with them, but otherwise they took care of everything.

The only other taxi I paid for was the one from the hotel to the airport to catch my plane to Nepal.

It was 3,040 miles from Delhi, India to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with a connecting flight through Kula Lumpur, Malaysia. While in Vietnam, we took a plane to Hue and then back to Ho Chi Minh City, which was about 900 miles round trip. Then from Vietnam, I took a plane to Nepal with a 7-hour layover in Guangzhou, China, about 2,700 miles.

Total Distance Traveled: 6,640 miles

Other

This is the longest list of other expenses since I began doing these reports, not to mention the most expensive — almost my entire $250 monthly budget!

In India, I visited several museums and other attractions, including Red Fort, Qutub Complex, and the Akshardham temple. I also paid for some of the places we visited in Vietnam (the Cu Chi Tunnels is all I can remember paying for).

I bought two 4GB SD cards for my camera in India. I ran out of room while taking pictures at one of the weddings (luckily it was towards the very end of the wedding), so I wanted to make sure I had backup storage for my trip to Nepal.

In Vietnam, I bought some dandruff shampoo (Head and Shoulders). I think my scalp isn’t used to having hair on it! (I’ve kept it cut for the past 10 years, but decided not to cut my hair or shave during my entire six month trip.)

The Visa expenses should be self-explanatory.

I bought a Nepal SIM card so that I’d have a phone in case of emergencies. To get the SIM card, I discovered that I needed a copy of my passport and a passport photo. I already had both, but they were in my backpack which I had left at home. So I paid $4, made a copy of my passport, and waited about an hour to have the photos made (I’ve now got an extra seven passport photos, but they’re always good to have).

Summary

The expenses this month are a lot higher than I would’ve liked, but they were mostly unavoidable expenses. If I had paid for lodging, food, and transportation for the entire month, I would’ve easily spent several hundred dollars more.

For all the places I visited and all the things I got to see and do, this month was a bargain!

The Visa expenses for Vietnam and Nepal totaled almost $150, so you can see how quickly a tight budget can be eaten up by those!

Unfortunately, I’ve now gone over the six-month $3,000 budget that I set for myself. This month has been extremely tight for money. Last month when I anticipated going over budget, I began spending more time seeking freelance work to continue funding my travels, so things are a bit better now.

I have free lodging in Nepal for the next two months, but there are several multi-day treks that I’m interested in doing. Those will incur lodging, food, and some transportation expenses. Also, when I return to India for two weeks in September, I have a multi-train itinerary planned.

Other than what’s planned, I will continue living and traveling as frugally as possible. I have a very comfortable place with free WiFi here in Kathmandu and I plan to spend lots of time writing, relaxing, exercising, meditating, and otherwise keeping my expenses low.

Funds came dangerously low this month and without the kindness and generosity of people like Karmal & Mudita in India, David & Mai in Vietnam, and Sanjay in Nepal, I wouldn’t even have been able to make this month happen. Good karma and good fortune have a funny way of appearing when you need them most!

This past week marks three months since I left the place I called home for the first twenty-eight years of my life. I spent the past three months in India, a world away from my familiar home in the Northeast United States and I’m currently staying in Vietnam for two weeks before going to Nepal for two months.

Part of the reason for leaving home, changing my lifestyle, becoming a nomad was to rediscover myself; to strip my life of everything that might distract me from the process of inner discovery.

I was beginning to feel as though my life had gone down the wrong road; as if I had accidentally walked down the wrong path and I was watching the correct path disappear through a thick forest. I had to cut across. Whatever it took, I had to get to the other side. I felt an uncontrollable urge to follow my inner compass.

So I quit my job, sold all my stuff, and planned to live abroad for six months on a tiny budget of $3,000. What happened after that wasn’t important to me. With the entire world knocking at my door and absolutely no experience traveling abroad, my new lifestyle started in India. I had no idea what to expect of the following six months — I only knew that my life would never be the same again.

The first 90 days of my new life

I spent the first week in Bangalore, staying with a close friend of the family. He’s a social entrepreneur who runs a solar energy business that helps provide remote villages in India with power. Their work enables kids to study at night by providing safe lighting and even powers water pumps so that water doesn’t need to be carried long distances by foot.

Mingling with the employees at Selco and talking to the interns, I began to feel how their work had a sense of purpose; their work was changing lives. What do I do? How does my time help people? I felt selfish.

Just one week after arriving in India, I found myself living in a remote farmhouse in a tiny town where few people spoke English and even fewer people had probably seen or met a white person. I walked more than six miles a day, rode precariously packed jeeps with the locals, and learned many other interesting things that an isolated life in the States would never experience.

The days of solitude and many hours of walking by myself to and from the farmhouse gave me plenty of time to contemplate and analyze my life up until that point. I found myself in very reflective state of mind, easily learning lessons from the nature around me.

After a month in Ujire, I went the small beach town of Gokarna where I stayed for two weeks and discovered the link between frugality and gratefulness. All the poverty I had seen up until that point was beginning to have an affect on me — I was beginning to feel frustrated.

It bugged me that I wasn’t doing more to help. How could I spend time relaxing on the beach when mothers were begging for money to feed their undernourished children?

For a long time I have had a vision for a better world trapped in my head — a vision for what I believe the world should look like. The frustration drove me to write down this vision and begin brainstorming for ways that I could make a difference; ways that I could leave behind a world better than I found it.

Leaving Gokarna, I took the train north along the western coast of India to Bombay where I stayed for a few days. More beggars, more poverty, more frustration. I felt guilty for sitting inside an air-conditioned cafe drinking iced coffee and working on my laptop. People were suffering. People were fighting to survive just a few feet from where I was comfortably lounging. What makes me so special?

On my way to Udaipur, I stopped in Surat where I had the toughest experience of the past three months. Toughest experience? In retrospect, just saying that seems absurdly ignorant and selfish. The poverty level around the bus and train station seemed even worse than in Bombay. Who am I to complain about being a little uncomfortable? Big deal. At least I’m wearing clothes.

Udaipur was incredible. Upon arriving, I immediately felt a strange energy to the place — an energy that others confirmed they also felt. Perhaps those good vibes are what allowed me to be a little more spontaneous than usual. I roamed around the old city walking for hours through tiny unmarked ally’s trying to avoid the patches of tourists; trying to get myself lost in search of a life-changing experience.

A random shopkeeper started a conversation with me and before I knew it I was inside having lunch and watching TV with him and his friends. When I was younger, I had trouble talking to strangers on the phone. Now here I was in a foreign country, in foreign city, eating lunch and laughing with strangers. Isn’t this how friendly and welcoming every city should be? Isn’t this how friendly and welcoming every person should be?

I arrived in Delhi a few days later to meet my adopted grandfather who I hadn’t seen in several years. He had invited me to Delhi to attend the wedding of his granddaughter. My adopted aunt and uncle let me stay in their home until I left for Vietnam.

Their family follows the same traditions and values as my family and living with them for two weeks brought back so many memories. The love, kindness, warmth, and generosity they expressed not only towards me, but towards each other, really had a huge impact on me.

Saying good morning, good night, and taking a moment to be thankful for each meal were the norm. They seemed to treat each day as though it was their last, making each greeting as loving and warm as the previous. Taking a few extra moments out of the day to really express genuine gratitude and compassion to each person you meet has an enormous impact on the atmosphere around you.

Discovering a new meaning for existence

The past three months have not only been an incredible inner journey, but also an incredible outer journey through India. I’ve seen the progress happening in Bangalore, the slow life in Ujire, the increasing trash problems in Gokarna, the poverty in Bombay and Suart, the energy and friendliness of Udaipur, and the love, kindness, and warmth of family in Delhi.

The biggest thing I learned over the past three months, however, was that we really need to work towards a world of sustainable abundance; a world were people genuinely care about each other and the world around them.

Three months in a third world country has had a huge impact on my thoughts about life, work, and family. My inner foundation and core — my inner sense of purpose and direction in life — have been shaken. But the tremors haven’t subsided and I sense the inner changes have only just begun.

If more people spent time traveling to third world countries to witness firsthand the changes that are needed in the world, I think we would have more people talking about ways to help the homeless mothers and their starving children instead of arguing over who might be the next American Idol or spending hours of their day talking about the World Cup.

Three months ago I left home to fulfill a lifelong dream of nomadic world travel with a goal of rediscovering myself and finding my purpose. Instead, I discovered the family of four that lives on a sidewalk underneath a piece of plastic; I discovered the children walking up and down the train cars begging for food; I discovered a world in dire need of people who give a damn.

Ten percent of the richest people in the world own eighty-five percent of all the wealth; half of the world’s population owns less than one percent of all the wealth. Does that sound sustainable? Does that even sound ethical? I may not have discovered myself, but I definitely discovered a new meaning for my life — a new purpose for existing.

I now feel more concerned with how I can use my life to help others instead of looking for what interesting things the world has to give me. I now see my lifestyle of travel as a visual guide to help me assess where my energy is needed. Life is short. Others will follow. What better way to live than to work towards ensuring a better future for those who will be here after we’re gone?

I read somewhere recently that bloggers should be transparent to ensure authenticity. It made me think about my own writing and question whether or not I was being fully transparent with you, my readers.

I wondered, what does it mean for me to be more transparent? Since I’m traveling, does it mean writing about the little things that I generally avoiding talking about? Does it mean sharing my thoughts more often?

Perhaps I could write about my worries of running out of money or the several cases of mild travelers diarrhea that have started to get annoying. I could write about how I sometimes feel guilty for spending too much time in high-end cafes, enjoying the air conditioning and delicious coffee when I should be outside exploring the small local shops. (In my defense, it was a safe place to work on my laptop.)

What about writing how I felt for ignoring the handicapped guy with no legs who extended his hand and asked for money while I was in the beach town of Gokarna? If I help him, I thought, why shouldn’t I help all of them? How do I choose who receives help?

What about the mother holding her undernourished child in her arms who approached me begging for money with a desperate look in her eyes? I looked her in the eyes and smiled. I wanted to at least treat her human; if nothing else, that was the least I felt I could do. But it almost made me feel evil, as if I was smiling at her misfortune.

Or what about the little boy who came to my seat when the train stopped at a station between Surat and Ahmedabad, who repeatedly tapped on my shoulder for five minutes asking for money while I looked out the window trying to pretend I didn’t know he was there?

Or the little girl with scraggly black hair and skin that looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks who stood in front of me putting her tiny hand to her mouth trying to tell me that she was hungry? I gave her all my remaining crackers but she still stood there asking for money. What should I have done then?

What about the young man from Jaipur, about the same age as myself, who approached me on Marine Drive in Mumbai and walked with me for ten minutes while we chatted together about where we were from and how we came to be in Mumbai. He talked about how difficult it was to find work without proper paperwork and that he was forced to take up the only job he could find: shining shoes. Towards the end of our chat, he asked me again if he could shine my shoes. Ten rupees? Five rupees? He says he is hungry. He just wants to eat.

What do I say to him?

No matter how many times it happens, it’s just as difficult each time. I wonder if I’m being cold-hearted turning these people down. What is the right thing to do in such situations? What is the moral thing to do? I can’t possibly take everyone out to eat or give money to every person that appears to need it.

The more poverty I see, the more my brain goes crazy looking for solutions — looking for ways to help all these people. There must be a way.

There is so much wealth in this world that nobody should need to go hungry. No mother should need to beg to keep her undernourished child alive. No child should need to plead with strangers for food.

Why, with so much abundance in the world, is there such a large population of human beings who are living in poverty and fighting for the most basic human needs?

Why, with so many natural resources and so much scientific advancement, is planet Earth slowly decaying and becoming a galactic waste dump?

Why, with so much understanding of the human body and medical know-how, are people becoming less healthy and more sick?

It’s absurd. It makes absolutely no sense.

Sustainability? The priorities are all wrong!

There is so much talk about sustainable energy and economic growth because politicians and businesses see those as the most profitable ones to talk about. They allocate money, energy, and time for those and ignore everything else.

What about sustainable growth of the human race?

What about sustainable diets and sustainable health? What about sustainable agriculture? Anyone who does the math can see that meat-based diets are not sustainable long term; we will simply run out of room and resources to feed the animals.

What about sustainable wealth? Sustainable equality? Sustainable living? Sustainable relationships? Sustainable families? Why don’t we hear discussion for sustainability stretching out 200, 300, or 400 years? Why the short-term perspective of only a few decades?

The accumulation of abundance is something that comes naturally to us, but sustainability is something we need to work at. We need to plan for sustainability. It needs to be a forethought, not an afterthought.

We can’t obtain abundance and then think about sustainability. It just won’t work. By the time we start thinking about sustainability, our abundance will already be slipping away. You can’t fill a small cup with a gallon of water and then decide to get a bigger cup. You need to start with a bigger cup in the first place!

Life is the same way. Abundance will come. Wealth will grow. Science will advance. Populations will expand. What we need to be focusing on is how to make that abundance sustainable long-term.

On an individual level, the abundance we accumulate — be it in the form of wealth, possessions, knowledge, and even skills — should only be accumulated to the point where we can provide for our families. Anything beyond that point should be given back to the community, to those who need it.

Wealth of any type, just as love, must be shared to be fully realized.

Giving back to the community

Even though haggling comes naturally to me (I come from a family known for getting the best deal), when I purchase something from a local market here in India, I don’t haggle the price. I realized something traveling in a third world country for the past three months: The one sustainable way for me to help those in need is through the local businesses.

If I give the local shop owners extra money, I’m improving their lives in a small way. They in turn are more likely and more able to support the people who are even poorer. (Of course when it’s obvious that I’m getting ripped off, I might haggle the price a little lower, but for the most part I don’t argue.)

Of all the people in the world you could haggle with, why would you do it with those who need the money the most? Penny-pinching big corporations, chain stores, or people who are genuinely greedy and already living above their means is understandable. But haggling with people who will use the extra money to feed their undernourished children? That just seems morally wrong.

As I travel the world, my own excess value — the abundance that I have too much of that needs to be given away — is beginning to emerge. I see that I have a unique perspective, endless ideas, and the ability to communicate to others through writing.

In comparison to the entire world population, my technological knowledge and ability to use a computer — the ability to publish online, to connect with people from all over the world, and to spread ideas — is extremely valuable. I am extremely fortunate to be in a such a position.

How can I use those skills to help the poor people who are trying to feed themselves? What can I do that will improve the world?

Over the course of my entire life, where can I put my time and energy to ensure that I leave behind an Earth where people don’t have to beg to survive; where all children get education and food; where everyone has equal opportunities?

I find myself asking these questions more and more with each passing day and my head is simultaneously flooded with ideas for things to try and frustration for being unable to flip a switch and instantly make everything right.

–

The first thing each of us needs to do is identify what we have in excess and figure out the most efficient way of passing that on to those who need it.

Think about what you have a lot of — be it physical things, monetary things, knowledge, skills, experiences, ideas, wisdom, love, happiness, anything — and ask yourself, how can you give that value to someone who needs it?

Hoarded abundance isn’t sustainable; shared abundance ensures there will always be enough to go around.

Frugal Travel Reports
March 2010 (includes Pre-Travel expenses)
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010

In my recent reader survey, several of you mentioned that you really enjoy these Frugal Travel Reports. This month, I have been even more meticulous with tracking my expenses and I have discovered that it really helps me see exactly where my money is going. I’ve been keeping a single page in my notebook dedicated to all the expenses for the current month.

The month of May has seen me travel the most since I arrived here in India more than 80 days ago. In fact, I moved around a lot more than I would have preferred. However, I was invited to a wedding in New Delhi and decided to take advantage of the journey and stop in several places along the way, including Gokarna, Mumbai, and Udaipur.

Transportation

Total Distance Traveled: 2,503km (1,555 miles)

In addition to the transportation expenses, I’ve decided to also start tracking the total distance traveled. This total only includes transportation by bus, train, and airplane. Distances traveled by taxis or rickshaws around the cities are not included.

Since I booked things at the last minute, several of the train rides were more expensive than they needed to be. The better class seats sell out less quickly, but are about three to four times more expensive. Planning ahead here in India is absolutely essential to get the cheapest seats, as they often get booked out months in advance. Tickets can be booked up to 90 days in advance.

From my experience so far, I prefer riding the better AC2 or AC3 trains for long overnight journeys, but opt for the much cheaper Sleeper class when taking shorter day trips.

Another unusually high transportation expense came from the rickshaws and taxis. While I was in Mumbai and Udaipur, I used a taxi several times to explore parts of the city that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen with the short duration that I was staying there.

This month I also purchased the two plane tickets for Vietnam and Nepal. However, I’ve decided to include them in next months budget since that’s when I will be using the tickets.

Lodging

This was another unusually high expense. In fact, it ate up almost my entire $250 monthly budget! My target goal for lodging is between Rs.200 ($4) and Rs.400 ($8) a night. Whenever possible, I look for a private room that includes a bathroom but I never care about having an A/C. The only other thing I look for is security: I prefer to feel comfortable leaving my laptop in the room when I go out during the day.

I was fortunate to find a nice place to stay for two weeks in Gokarna, the Sarvitri Guest House, for only Rs.300 ($6.60) per night. But when I got stuck in Surat, I ended up paying Rs.680 ($15.11) for one night in a hotel room.

The most expensive lodging on my trip so far has been my stay in Mumbai. I suppose that’s no surprise though, since Mumbai is known to be expensive (similar to New York City). While I definitely could have found cheaper accommodations, the New Bengal Hotel was right in south Mumbai, within walking distance to most of the places I wanted to visit. At Rs.1100 ($24.80) a night, my three night stay cost me almost a third of my entire monthly budget. At least it’s not $508 a day in Equatorial New Guinea!

In Udaipur, I found a lovely place to stay for three nights called Hotel Kumbha Palace for only Rs.380 ($8.48) per night. This place might as well have been a five-star hotel in comparison to the other places I’ve stayed. The rooftop restaurant was beautiful, the hotel service was excellent, there was a backyard with grass and flowers to relax on, and the room was clean and comfortable.

And finally, I arrived in New Delhi on the 28th of May and have been fortunate to have free lodging at my friends’ house. I will be here for the first two weeks in June, so hopefully I can make up for the unusually high lodging expenses for May.

Food

I’ll admit, I indulged a little more than usual this month. In Gokarna, I discovered the food cost was a lot higher, at least three times higher, than in Ujire, no doubt because Gokarna is a tourist attraction. I splurged on delicious mango and pineapple juices almost every day while I was there. Idli for breakfast, and a big south Indian thali for dinner.

In Mumbai, I discovered the Barista Lavazza cafe, a place a lot like Starbucks back in the States (and comparatively expensive too!). I enjoyed iced mango smoothies, delicious lattes and cappuccinos, and various snacks every day I was there. It was a comfortable place to get some work done too!

In Udaipur, the rooftop Kumbha Palace restaurant was irresistibly beautiful and served as my preferable place for breakfast and dinner. I discovered Cafe Coffee Day further north of the old city, and spent a few hours working there on two of the days. On my last day, my new friends Zaheer and Shakti treated me to a delicious traditional Rajasthani lunch at a place called Apani Dhani.

Other

Thankfully this months Other expenses are much lower than the previous two months. As I’ve mentioned before, I try to keep other expenses to a bare minimum.

Before I left Ujire, I shipped a box of stuff back to the USA that was weighing my bag down. I realized there were several things in my bag that I wasn’t using and lugging them around everywhere was becoming a chore. The box included a fleece, a pair of wool socks, a second external hard drive, and a bunch of small miscellaneous items.

In Mumbai I visited the the Prince of Wales Museum and the Nehru Science Center where I watched the Odyssey film “EVEREST” (basically a movie in a dome theater exactly like the Omni Theater in the Boston Museum of Science).

In Udaipur, I spend Rs.110 ($2.40) and watched a Rajasthani dance show. The show was nice, but it obviously catered to tourists (90% of the people there were foreigners) and it was much shorter than I expected (45 minutes).

Report Summary

As anticipated, this months expenses were much higher than the prior two months. In fact, I spent almost double my entire $250 monthly budget!

Traveling more frequently makes it a lot more difficult to find cheap places to stay and cheap food to eat, however with a little more planning I think I could have stayed within budget. I didn’t expect train tickets to be so difficult to book and I splurged a little on coffee and juices. If I had planned ahead of time, I also could have found cheaper places to stay.

Early in the month, I realized that I needed to start bringing in some income to make up for going over budget, so I began looking for freelance work. I have since secured several PHP and Web Development projects. I’m also a capable copyeditor, so if there is something I can help you with please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’m staying with close friends whom I consider family and they have been incredibly generous to me; tea in the morning, home cooked meals for lunch, afternoon naps, a nice place to sleep, and an abundance of love and kindness.

Their home is located in a relatively new area of Delhi, with gated communities, wide streets, and a partially running metro that is still under construction. The wedding itself took place between their home and the only five star hotel where pure vegetarian food is served.

–

A few weeks ago I announced that I was doing a reader survey to help me better understand what you were interested in hearing more of on this blog. The response has been fantastic and I really appreciate everyone who took the time to complete the survey.

As promised, here are the results:

The current publishing schedule is three times per week (Mon, Wed, Fri). Are you happy with this frequency?

• 89% said I’m happy with the current posting frequency.
• 10% said I want to see more!

Would you like to see more travel-specific content about the places I’m exploring, or do you enjoy reading about the philosophical life lessons that I learn through my travel experiences?

• 52% said I’m happy with the content; don’t change anything!
• 37% said I would like to see more travel-related content.
• 10% said I would like to see more life lessons and philosophical-type content.

I’m working on a free eBook about how to be the master of your own destiny. It’s basically going to use bits and pieces of my own life to show how you can live more independently and grow your knowledge without limits. Does this sound like something you would download?

• 84% said Yes you would download my upcoming ebook
• 16% said Maybe you would download my upcoming ebook

Why do you read my blog?

• 79% said For the different perspective you bring
• 74% said To read about the places you travel
• 68% said For inspiration & motivation
• 63% said To read about being a minimalistic nomad
• 47% said For personal development content
• 31% said Just to see what you’re up to

What would you like me to write more about? How can I help you?

There were several overlapping suggestions in response to this question. I will list the most common ones here:

• Continue writing the Frugal Travel Reports, as they are both insightful and motivational
• Make my posts more conversational and encourage commenting and discussion
• Write more about my past adventures, life, and lessons learned
• Write more on my view of happiness and the day-to-day things that influence my mental and emotional states
• More photos
• Write more about the social interactions and people I encounter during my travels

This survey generated exactly the type of feedback I was looking for and I have already begun to implement some of the suggestions. I’m considering doing a quarterly reader survey to keep the feedback coming in. What do you think?

–

The new experiences over the past two days have left me in a very reflective state and my head has been overflowing with ideas, observations, and blog topics since arriving here in Delhi.

I will spend the next two weeks exploring the city, writing, catching up on several freelance projects, working on my ebook, and relaxing before hopping on a plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia en route to Vietnam. I don’t know what the Internet situation will be like when I arrive in Vietnam, so I’m trying to get as much done as possible before I leave.

I spent the first two days walking around the old city and exploring the three lakes from various points. All three lakes were far more dry than I expected and I was later told that there had been very little rain in the past five years and that the lakes were getting drier and drier each year.

For the first two days, I roamed for hours on foot, through small, unmarked streets that were not even on the map, passing tiny nooks that looked as if they had been transported directly from Venice itself. Incredible artwork of royal elephants, horses, kings, and princes graced the entrances to each house. The colors were usually faded, but you could always see how vibrant and striking the original paintings were.

Once in awhile, a group of pack mules would trot by, transporting loads of dirt from some other part of the city on their backs. Huge cows, six to seven feet high, would stand in the doorways of houses, sheltering themselves from the heat of the mid-day sun. The further north I go in India, the bigger the cows seem to get!

The hawkers did there thing and I did mine. The rickshaw drivers tried to overcharge and I always talked them down to something more reasonable, sometimes beating “the Indian price”. I picked a destination a little bit outside the old city to give myself a feel for more than I could discover by walking. Taking a rickshaw through a city is a great way to get a quick feel for the place.

Once the shop owners recognized that I wasn’t going to buy anything, they became genuinely friendly and very interested in me. On several occasions, I stopped and talked to them about where I was from, where I was going, about the weather, and even about American politics. One even invited me into his shop where I had lunch with him and his friends.

I watched the sun set at Sunset Point, with Udaipur Palace in the background. Clouds of huge bats emerged as the sun went down and by dusk, all the loud chirping birds that owned the sky over the lake were replaced by quiet bats, dodging each other and trying to steer themselves in the strong evening wind.

On my last day in Udaipur I met with Zaheer, the founder of Udaipur Times, a blog dedicated to the city of Udaipur. Zaheer found me through Twitter when I mentioned I would be visiting the city.

After having coffee and chatting for a while, Zaheer and his friend Shakti drove me to a place about 15km outside the city called Aapni Dhani, where we had a delicious traditional Rajasthani lunch. The kindness and generosity of my two new friends showed me another part of Udaipur that I would not have otherwise discovered.

Of all the places in India I’ve visited thus far, Udaipur is the one place I’ve really felt a connection with (Gokarna and Ujire are close behind). The state of Rajasthan, where Udaipur is situated, has a distinct feel to it — the desert, royalty, and history seems to seep through every wall, road, and inch of dirt. It feels so much different than the other states I’ve visted.

As the train left Udaipur on its way to New Delhi, I stared out the window and watched the city slowly disappear into a vast barren landscape, littered with rocky hills and random clay and brick houses. It had only been three short days, but I felt certain a bond with Udaipur and it left me knowing that I would return.

Several passengers used their laptops during the journey and listened to music on their smart phones. Each seat came with a complementary bottle of water, a blanket, a pillow, and even dinner! Talk about luxury.

As we left Mumbai, the man sitting next to me asked me where I was going.

“Surat.”, I replied.

“Surat? I am also going to Surat. Be prepared for hell getting off!”

As we approached the Surat train station, the passengers filled the hallways and lined up to get out. They moved their luggage as close to the exit as possible and seemed to prepare for battle.

Pulling into the station, I could see what they were preparing for: crowds of people were ready to push into the train in an attempt to get any available seats. (It’s still not entirely clear to me how these people can fight for seats without already having an assigned ticket.)

I felt lucky to only have one bag. Other passengers had to manage getting several bags off the train through the crowds, which were ruthless with their constant pushing and shoving. I was pushed several times and almost fell over when I tripped on someones luggage.

As I made my way up the crowded stairs towards what I could only guess was the exit, I felt my backpack move in a strange way. Since I was in a huge crowd, I was already extremely alert to any strange movements of my bag or the feeling of foreign hands in my pockets.

I spun around and caught a pickpocket red-handed trying to open my bag. I turned so quickly that I caught him by surprise when I slapped his hands away from the bag. He immediately turned around and walked back down the stairs into the oncoming crowd.

This was going to be a long night.

My final destination was not Surat, but rather Udaipur. However, I couldn’t find any available trains from Mumbai to Udaipur, so my plan was to take a train as far as Surat and then find an overnight bus that would take me from Surat to Udaipur. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the ten-plus hour journey by bus, but I was already used to discomfort.

Approaching the exit to the train station, I asked a young man which way to the bus station and proceeded to walk in the direction he pointed. After walking a few hundred feet, I asked yet another person, once again walking in the direction they pointed. This zig-zag approach to finding places was becoming a regular way of finding my way around in India.

It was just after 8pm and the traffic around the train station was thick, noisy, and fast moving. It looked like a river of cars and horns. Crossing this river to reach the bus station involved standing in the middle of the traffic and making small quick steps to avoid oncoming cars.

The bus station wasn’t much better than standing in the middle of the traffic. Big clunky buses moved slowly blaring their horns as people weaved through them. I looked for signs that might indicate where I should go for the Udaipur buses, but nothing was in English. Nothing. Not even one sign!

I walked over to what looked like the ticket counter to inquire about a bus to Udaipur. From my experience in India thus far, the ticket attendants nearly always speak some English.

A response comes back to me in some other language, not even remotely similar to English. I spoke again in English, and once again the official behind the counter replied in a different language. The situation was not looking good.

“People only speak Gujarati here, you’re going to have a tough time.”

I turned and saw a young man. He was a bit taller than me, thin, and wearing glasses. His English wasn’t perfect, but it was a relief to hear a familiar language. I was at first skeptical that he might try to take advantage of me, but I didn’t get that vibe from him. He seemed like he genuinely wanted to help.

After I explained that I was trying to get to Udaipur, he proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes asking uncooperative bus officials and staring at the train schedules trying to find a bus to Udaipur.

Eventually, he gave up and said that he couldn’t find one. He suggested that I take a bus to the next major city up, Ahmedabad, and then find a train to Udaipur from there. That was actually my own backup plan, so I agreed and he began looking for a bus to Ahmedabad.

Five minutes later he tells me that all the busses to Ahmedabad have already left and he suggests another, slightly smaller city, with a name that I don’t recognize.

“Hmm, adventure”, I think to myself as I quickly try to assess the risk.

After thanking the young man for all his help, I climb into the bus to this unknown town. Looking around, I see that the bus is mostly filled with younger people. This is usually a good thing, since younger people seem to be more likely to understand English.

The ticket attendant comes over and I tell him where I’m going. He says something in Gujarati and gives me a disgusted look. I tell him again where I’m going and this time he ignores me and continues collecting money from other passengers.

I turn to the young man sitting next to me.

“Bharuch?”, I ask.

He replies in Gujarati.

“Is this bus going to Bharuch?”

This time he shakes his head no and replies with another name I don’t recognize.

OK, great. So it looks like I might be on the wrong bus. For a moment, I try to decide whether or not I should just see where the bus takes me. Then I realize that I will probably regret doing that when I arrive in some random place with absolutely no one who speaks English and no way of figuring out exactly where I am.

I get off the bus and start walking around. I ask several other ticket attendants for “Bharuch” and eventually one points me to a bus. I climb in and sit down in what looks like the only available seat.

Two minutes later, a man comes over holding a bag and what looks like a bus ticket in his hand. He motions to my seat and says, “Assigned seat”.

Great.

As I climb out of the bus and start walking around again, I realize how mentally exhausting all this is becoming. I wonder to myself if I should just find a place to stay for the night and resume looking for a bus in the morning when I can think clearly.

Walking away from the bus station into the great unknown of Surat, I start looking for a hotel. I find one close to the bus station that has prices on a sign outside: 200 Rupees ($4) a night. Perfect.

The receptionist gives me a dirty look and says there are no rooms.

The next hotel over seems much more expensive and out of place next to the bus station, with a fancy lobby and marble floors. Out of curiosity, I walk in and ask for the room prices: 680 Rupees for one night!

I leave and check with several other small hotels, each time getting a dirty look and being told there are no rooms. The people here seem much less friendly than any of the other places I’ve been to in India.

After walking around for another forty minutes, I finally give up and check into the Rs.680/night hotel. At this point it’s almost midnight and I’m just happy to have a place to lay down.

The simplicity and reliability of trains was starting to look more and more appealing.

Hoping my luck would change, I opened my laptop and spent the next hour trying once again to find a set of available trains to take me from Surat to Udaipur. To my amazement, I find two trains that will work: Surat to Ahmedabad and then six hours later, Ahmedabad to Udaipur.

After purchasing the tickets, I fall asleep comforted by the fact that the remainder of my journey is not only guaranteed, but that I’ll also have a comfortable place to sleep during the twelve-hour journey from Ahmedabad to Udaipur.

–

This post was a bit different that what I normally post here. If you enjoyed it and you want to see more like this, please let me know. Oh, and if you read the whole thing, thank you! :)

I was lucky to be on this train. Sixteen hours earlier, I learned that the last bus to Karwar, the town where the train to Mumbai departed from, had left Gokarna earlier that morning.

After asking a random travel agent, I discovered that my only option was to take a forty-five minute bus ride to Ankola (a bigger town further north) and from there catch a bus to Karwar.

When I arrived in Ankola, I had just under an hour and a half left before the train departed from Karwar. Approaching a random bus driver, I asked which bus was going to Karwar. He looked around and said that none of them were — I had to wait until one arrived.

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, a bus finally arrived and the ticket attendant confirmed it was going to Karwar. When I inquired how long it will take to get there, he said in a very unsure tone, “Uh, one hour”.

Just under one hour goes by and we arrive in Karwar. I look at the time: the train leaves in twenty minutes. I have no idea where the train station is, how far away it is, or if it’s even possible to walk to it. I ask a rickshaw driver and he tells me it’s 8km away and it will take fifteen minutes to get there. The cost: 90 Rupees. I have no time to bargain, so I jump in and tell him lets go.

We arrive in exactly fifteen minutes and I board the Karwar-Mumbai Express Train with just under five minutes to spare.

This was my first overnight sleeper-class train in India and my first experience sleeping on a train in general. I was glad to have been assigned the upper berth because that meant I didn’t have to wait for the other passengers to sleep. There are three berths: lower, middle, and upper. When the lower berth is being used as a three-passenger seat, the middle berth is folded up. The upper berth always remains folded down and available to sleep on.

It was a twelve hour journey to Mumbai. Between the constant vibration, the blaring horns of passing trains that seemed to be going a little faster than they should be, and an already upset stomach from a three-day-old case of travelers diarrhea, I only managed to get about two hours of sleep (a Ciprofloxacin pill has since cured the upset stomach).

I stepped off the train in Mumbai with no hotel reservation and nothing more than a few hotel names in my head — names that I was struggling to remember due to the lack of sleep. I was literally making up the plan as I went, which probably wasn’t a great idea with so little functioning brain capacity.

However, walking around the second most populated city in the world at 4AM looking for a hotel didn’t seem like such a great idea, so I decided to hang out in the train station for an hour and pretend that I was waiting for another train. I remembered reading that the taxis charged an extra 25% between midnight and 5AM and I also figured that waiting a little while would ensure that there was a receptionist at whatever hotel I ended up going to.

About an hour later, I decide that I’m going to fall asleep if I stay in one place any longer, so I make my way to the exit. Despite my best efforts at looking like I’m not interested, several several taxi drivers immediately approach me. Even though I know I’m going to take one, I tell them “I’m walking” and pretend I’m using my cell phone.

An older gentleman follows me out. I ask him, “How much to the New Bengal Hotel?”, hoping that’s actually one of the names I memorized and that my memory hasn’t entirely faded. He tells me 90 Rupees. I knew the hotel was close and that 90 Rupees was excessively high, but I didn’t much care at that point.

Five minutes later I check into the hotel after paying a lot more for a room than my budget allowed. But the room was clean. The sheets were clean. I was tired. And I knew the hotel was within walking distance to the places I wanted to visit during my three days in Mumbai (or Bombay, as it is formerly called).

Wow. I was in Bombay. In India. Both places that a few months ago were nothing more than an area on Google Maps, a section of my computer screen to explore with my mouse and wonder what it would be like to actually be there. A place so far away and so foreign, full of sights and sounds and smells that I could not even begin to imagine. It felt equally as unreal as it seemed.

In a few days, I will be in New Delhi, another place on Google Maps that has yet to become real. And when it does become real, my perception will expand. My reality will grow. Earth will become a little less unfamiliar. The world will feel a little bit bigger. The places and the people will seem a little less foreign.

The more I travel the more reality itself seems to expand, like I’m painting darkness with a flashlight, opening up new possibility and new perspectives. With each passing day, the abundance that is life continuously seems richer and more diverse than I had previously imagined possible.