Money, Money, Money!

In case anybody's curious (because I know I usually am)... I want to write about money. I want to write about the money I spent (and what I spent it on) because I for one was a bit surprised at how little money one could actually spend in India. And, cost of living is always interesting when compared across the globe (I think now about a book that fascinated me when I was a kid, a book that my dad brought home from the library called "Material World" that had families across the world lay out all of their possessions in their yard, or on their roof, or in the street... I'm sure you can imagine what the American family's collection looked like compared to a family from Ethiopia). Anyways, I'm always interested and curious, so...

I don't necessarily like to talk about money specifics (I am, after all, American and we don't ask THOSE kinds of things), but I'm going to here anyway. And because I plan to return to India next year for a longer duration, I kept track of everything I spent during my two months so I could have a better idea of how to budget for my next trip.

Starting with the biggest numbers... My grand total (including all airline tickets) was US$2,136 (that's with the exchange rate of US$1 = 50 Indian Rupees) for a 58 day trip.

Airline tickets: $750
Malaysia total (5.5 days): $114
Malaysia daily average: $20.73 per day
India total (52.5 days; NOT including shopping): $872
India daily average: $16.61
India shopping and shipping: $400
*(I shipped a package to the US and two to Korea, for $35, $17 and $22, respectively)

Not to bad, I'd say!