This month was once again split between two countries: Nepal and Thailand. It was an amazing month that saw me finishing up my Everest Base Camp trek, flying to Thailand, and having Thanksgiving on a tropical island. Not too shabby! Even my travel budget was happy.

NEPAL (Everest Base Camp Trek, Kathmandu)

I spent 21 days in Nepal during the month of November (on top of the 18 I spent in October) which was split between hiking to Everest Base Camp and hanging out in Kathmandu. I’ll be posting a much more detailed travel budget about the EBC trek alone at a later date.

Total time: 21 days

Accomodation: 7015 NPR (Nepalese Rupees) or $70.86 (avg. 334.05 NPR/day or $3.37/day). Again all of my accommodation was spent in hostel dorms (where I could get my own room for about $5/night) or in the tea houses along the Everest trail (and most accommodation on the trail we received for free).

Food: 30331 NPR or $306.37 (avg. 1444.33 NPR/day or $14.59/day). The food here in Kathmandu is amazing and relatively cheap! Though when I got back from the trek and was staying in Thamel there was a lot of treating myself going on so that upped the food bill a bit. Also the food on the trek gets more and more costly the higher up in elevation you go so that became the most expensive part of the trip (though we’re still only talking about $5/dish).

Transport: 41950 NPR or $423.74 (avg. 78.41 NPR/day or $20.18/day). This includes two flights - one from the Himalayan town of Lukla back to Kathmandu at the end of our trek, and the flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok, Thailand.

Sightseeing: 1250 NPR or $12.63 (avg. 59.52 NPR/day or $0.60/day). Once I returned to Kathmandu from trekking I was exhausted so my additional sightseeing was limited to a few temples.

Other: 14928 NPR or $152.33 (avg. 710.86 NPR/day or $7.25/day). When I got back to Kathmandu there was a fair bit of Christmas shopping for the family that occurred. It also cost about $67 to send a 5kg package from Nepal to the U.S. so that’s why this category is high.

Total spent: 95474 NPR ($964.38)

Average spent per day: 4546 NPR ($45.92)

Average spent per day if you take out the 2 expensive flights: 2596 NPR ($26.51)

So as you can see, living in and traveling around Nepal would have been much cheaper if I hadn’t done any flying - definitely travel budget friendly. But the flight at the end of my trek was necessary unless I wanted to trek all the way back out to Jiri as well (hell to the no!) - though it was a super pricy $165 for a 35-40 min flight.

Then of course I decided to make my way to Thailand for a bit of recovery instead of heading south to India which was much more costly. Nepal is not an overly popular destination so getting to and from the country is expensive. I was able to get a decent price from Nepal Airlines (though getting the ticket was a bit of a pain in the ass) - $250 for the 3 hour direct flight to Bangkok.

I opted not to use any miles for this flight either as I have multiple flights coming up over the holiday season that I wanted to save them for instead. Therefore I paid full price for both these tickets jacking up the overall price of my stay in Nepal.

However without taking the flights into account you can see the country is quite inexpensive to live and travel in.

THAILAND (Bangkok, Koh Lanta)

I spent 10 days in Thailand during the month of November including 3 days in Bangkok and 7 on the island of Koh Lanta.

Total time: 10 days

Accomodation: 4560 THB (Thai Bhat) or $138.98 (avg. 456 THB/day or $13.90/day). Most of the time I stayed in relatively cheap hostels but for two days over the Thanksgiving holiday I splurged a bit and stayed in a swanky resort with my new American (and 1 French) friends. Normally the cost of the room would have been $72/night but I used some airline miles and ended up paying $24/night. Normally accommodation has been about $10/night.

Food: 3334 THB or $101.62 (avg. 333.4 THB/day or $10.16/day). Thai food is cheap and delicious. Most meals only cost a few dollars and give you HUGE portions.

Transport: 2035 THB or $62.02 (avg. 203.5 THB/day or $6.20/day). This includes use of the Sky Train to get myself around Bangkok, a taxi to the airport, a flight and transfer from Bangkok all the way to my hostel dorm on Koh Lanta, and tuk tuk rides around Koh Lanta itself. Thanks to the amazingness of the budget airline AirAsia I was able to score a flight + island transfer for a grand total of $45.

Sightseeing: None. I got a little bit of food poisoning in Bangkok so that knocked sightseeing there off the to-do list for the time being. Then going to Koh Lanta the whole point was lying on a beach so no real sightseeing as of yet in Thailand.

Other: 2981 THB or $90.86 (avg. 298.1 THB/day or $9.86/day). This is mostly sunscreen, snacks, a SIM card, movie day with The Hunger Games, a massage, and a few articles of summer clothing I picked up at the market in Bangkok.

Total spent: 12910 THB ($393.12)

Average spent per day: 1291 THB ($39.35)

So far my time in Thailand has been a bit on the expensive side but that’s what happens when you do a bit of market shopping and live at the beach so you are constantly running out of sunscreen and a bottle here costs like $8.

ENTIRE MONTH OF NOVEMBER (Nepal and Thailand)

Total (30 days): $1357.50

Average (31 days): $45.25

Definitely the most expensive month I’ve had so far but still not that bad when you consider almost $400 of that total came from flights AND I bought Christmas presents and sent them halfway around the world. It’s so true that travel (and shipping) is the most expensive part which is why I try to keep my movements to a minimum (or use airline miles).

It’s now high season in SE Asia as well so I’m planning for the next 2 months to remain around this monthly total as prices are significantly higher over the holiday season.

Do you plan your travels out so you fly as little as possible? Or does the amount you have to fly not really effect where you want to go?