With 151 days, 15 hours, and 15 minutes of travel from the minute the first plane departed until walking into the door upon return, I collected a lot of numbers during my trip. From the amount of money spent (Part 2), to miles traveled and everything in between, I kept track of it all.
For new readers to this blog, the RTW Tally was created to measure some favorite and unconventional metrics of long term travel. The list was shaped by reader input and suggestions, and details of the list can be found in this post.
The types of data collected can be separated into two categories: financial related, and not. Part 1 into this series features the final numbers of all things non-currency related as measured by the RTW Tally.
Reading the RTW Tally for what it is worth gives a great snapshot of long-term travel, but elaborating on it a bit further is necessary. Condensing an entire trip into one sidebar feature doesn't do it justice, and thus this series was born. Let's investigate the list, and find out the highest, lowest, and average numbers of the trip!
152 Days, 50 Cities, and a lot of adventure!
Days on RTW Adventure: 152 Days
Highest Country: Thailand - 42 Days
Lowest Country: Macao - 3 Days
Average - 17 Days/Country, 3 Days/City
Highest Country: Thailand - 4,269
Lowest Country: Macao - 112
Average: 79 Pictures/Day
54 GB of Pictures and Videos
Nationalities Met: 46
Notable Countries: Zimbabwe (China), Serbia (China), Reunion/Mauritius (Singapore)
Miles Flown: 20,096 (32,153.6 km)
Average: 132 miles/day (211.5 km/day)
Miles Overland: 9,628 (15,404.8 km)
Average: 63.3 miles/day (101.3 km/day)
10 Planes, 26 Trains, 19 Buses, 12 Ferries
Days of Rain: 11
Probability of Rain: 1 in 14 Days
The actually number of days rained is quite a lot higher than this. For the purposes of this tally, I only counted the number of days of rain that physically deterred me from site seeing. Staying under 10% is a good goal and meant that I planned the itinerary well in terms of weatherproofing.
Probability of Cold Shower: 1 in 30 Days
I actively tried to avoid rooms that had reviews with cold shower. Still, a few bungalows and accidental settings on my part (oops) resulted in some unfortunate shower play. Single digits, good enough!
Squat Toilets: 13
Probability of Squatting: 1 in 12
This number is highly concentrated in China, and only includes unique squat toilets regardless of the number of times used. Unlike most metrics, this one is likely estimated low. I've already been told that I treated myself like royalty for keeping this number too low, but I actively tried to avoid squatters whenever I could, including paying extra for rooms in the process.
Sick Days: 2
Probability of Being Sick: 1 in 76 Days
I have a high tolerance for pain, because there were only two days of solid diarrhea that made life unbearable to not want to go out site seeing. Considering I spent a month in China, I am impressed with myself for going forth anyway. That is to not say that I only had two days, but only two days worth talking about that disrupted plans.
Itinerary Changes: 9
Probability of Change: 1 in 17 Days
Even though I decided to come home early, I still changed my itinerary quite a bit. I'm not surprised, because many of these were forced by the weather or meeting someone who uttered the famous "YOU MUST GO HERE" phrase that dictates most traveler's plans. Without changing my original plan, I would have missed the crystal clear waters of Koh Lipe, and I would have been sorely upset in the process.
Blog Related
Total Blog Posts to Date: 283
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Have any other numbers you'd like to know about? I likely have them tallied in one form or another, but forgot about it. Comment below and I can try to include them in this post! The second entry in this series will feature the most important aspect of long term travel: the financial aspect! The third entry in this series provides a country to country breakdown of all things spending, so check out the entire series for the full picture of long term spending!
7 comments:
I have from the beginning told my self I will track all monetary expenses on my trip because that is what I love to see people write about in blog post. I now love this idea and may keep track of these things too.
This is funny yet very interesting as well.
Some good numbers! especially for squat toilets, I think I maybe encountered double that number!!
My best recommendation for that would be to decide on what you want to measure now, and keep up with it every single day. Backtracking to estimate numbers is a pain, and I've seen several people who had good intentions to measure a Tally like mine just never keep it up. If you want to do it cost wise, get a journal and write down all your daily expenses even if it is just loose like "Lunch 35 baht" Makes life so much easier.
Thanks Kirsty! I think my squat toilet number is low for sure, but I definitely dont think I had double (unique toilets, that is). I tried to avoid them at all costs. Most of the clean ones were quite fine, but the dirty ones I dont even wanna talk about.
Wow, I don't think I could keep such a good record if I tried.
It is pretty difficult after a while, I'll say that for sure!
Wow. You really like the numbers! I went for 314 days, and that and the money I spent are the only real numbers I've got. I wouldn't know where to start calculating the miles, or number of buses/ferries/taxis/planes/trains I took.
Thanks Ian! I would never be able to look back on the trip and calculate any of these numbers other than money spent and number of days gone. While I was traveling I kept a sidebar tally of these metrics and kept updating them daily to reflect the count. Other than that and a very heavily used journal, I would not have been as accurate!
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