We finished Leg 16 dramatically under-budget, saving over $900 on the 16-week leg. I’ll talk a little more about why in my next post, but here’s a general breakdown of our Leg 16 numbers. 

Where We Were

Countries visited: 2 – Japan and Vietnam (one favorite and one new)

Cities visited (overnight): 13 – Tokyo x4, Nagano, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue, Ha Noi, Sa Pa, Hakone, Atami, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe

Number of hotels: 8

Number of hotel nights: 18 (more than normal due to our travels around Japan, and a few “double-pay” nights where we had an overnight trip away from our Airbnb) 

Number of apartments: 5 (four in Vietnam, one in Japan)

Number of apartment nights: 89

Number of boats: 1 (for one night – not included in lodging nights)

Total lodging budget: $4,628 

Total lodging actual: $4,653

How We Got Around and What We Did

Total transit budget: $5,472

Total transit actual: $5,159 

Number of flights: 6 

Total food/entertainment budget: $6,400 ($400/week for 16 weeks)

Total food/entertainment actual: $5,766 ($360/week)

Totals

Total budget: $16,500 for 16 weeks ($1,031/week average, about 25% higher than our usual weekly budget) 

Total actual: $15,579 for 16 weeks ($974/week, still much higher than our usual budget)

Number of weeks over budget: 4 

Number of weeks under budget: 12

Least expensive week: Week 9, April 7-13, $496, the end of our time in Ha Noi, including half our Sa Pa trip

Most expensive week: Week 1, February 10-16, $1,951, mostly due to half our roundtrip flight to Tokyo

The Best Parts

Best experiences (chronologically):

• Nagano Snow Monkeys!
• Ho Chi Minh City food tour with Den
• My Son ruins
• Overnight trip to Hue to see the Imperial City ruins
• Ha Long Bay cruise, especially sitting on our balcony
• Sa Pa overnight for hiking and Cat Cat Village
• A day with five modes of transit around the Hakone Loop
• Morning at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto
• Experiencing a World Expo once in our lives
• Orix Buffaloes and Chiba Lotte Marines Japanese Baseball

Best meals:

Fancy soba dinner at Sousaku 28 (Nagano), street vendor egg banh mis (especially in HCMC) vegetarian bar snack at Pasteur Street Craft Beer (HCMC and Ha Noi), cau lau at Met Vietnamese Restaurant (Hoi An), French meal at Cabanon (Hoi An), birthday lobster dinner at Art Toilet (Hoi An), poke bowl beach picnics (Da Nang), bun (soup) at Bún chả Hương Liên (aka Bun Obama) (Ha Noi), countless coconut and salt coffees – hot and frozen, many great ramens especially Fuji Ramen (Tokyo), mackerel sushi in Osaka, five course Kobe beef lunch at Red the One (Kobe)