Numbers are great for wrapping our heads around all the experiences we’ve had. So, here is our 3rd leg represented in numbers:
Countries visited: 5, all new for us – Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia
Cities visited (overnight): 9
Number of hotels: 8
Number of hotel nights: 17
Number of apartments: 4
Number of apartment nights: 68
Total beds slept in: 12
Total planes slept in (overnight flights): 4
Total lodging budget: $3,085
Total lodging actual: $3,133
Number of flights: 8, a roundtrip from US to Asia and 6 one-ways (with only 4 nonstops)
Number of long train trips: 2 (Tokyo to Hiroshima and Hiroshima to Osaka by bullet train)
Total transit budget: $4,700
Total transit actual: $4,368 (savings mostly due to a refund on an overnight flight when the lie-flat seating we’d paid for wasn’t available)
Average weekly food/entertainment budget: $286
Average weekly food/entertainment actual: $281
Average weekly total budget: $885
Average weekly total actual: $858
Total budget for 17 weeks: $11,500
Total actual for 17: $11,160 ($340 under!)
Number of weeks over budget: 6
Number of weeks under budget: 7
Most expensive week: Week 1 (April 1-7), $1,984 (included half our roundtrip flight to Singapore and our trip to Cambodia)
Most expensive week not including first/last: Week 6 (May 6-12), $1,845 (first week in Japan including flight and bullet train)
Least expensive week: Week 3 (April 15-21), $299 (in Chiang Mai, when we were working A LOT; our least expensive week ever!)
Best experiences:
✔ Angkor Wat
✔ Songkran Festival (Thai New Year) city-wide water fight in Chiang Mai
✔ the bright lights of Tokyo
✔ feeding the bowing deer at Nara Park
✔ feeding the monkeys at Itawata Monkey Park
✔ karaoke in Osaka
✔ Hanshin Tigers baseball
✔ Chad having a monkey on his back at the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud
✔ Ubud rice paddy walks
Best meals: Maya Mall lunches (Chiang Mai), conveyor belt sushi (Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka; we liked the chain called Kura best), Nakajima (Tokyo Michelin-star sardine set lunch), Nakiryu (Tokyo Michelin-star ramen), Sushi Wataru (8 courses in Osaka, but left Chad still hungry), mie goreng and nasi goreng from Bali warungs (mainly the Ubud ones), Singapore hawker food (especially at Haig Market and Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle)