As you likely ascertained from both our blog and episode 201, money is and will be a big issue in Tokyo. Before launching into that discussion, I’d like to catch everyone up on our financial situation, and I should start by summarizing the cost of Season 1.

A core thesis of Jet Set Zero is that a lifestyle of travel is possible on poverty-level wages: we started with $0 cash and have funded all our travels with easily accessible jobs. After a summer of suffering, we had saved enough to land in Vietnam with $3,859, to support us until we had steady income. We actually found teaching jobs within weeks, and while it took some time to accumulate a sustainable set of teaching hours, we did manage to refill our funds. So our travel-budget thesis was proven for Vietnam.

Dan used his teaching income to journey back home, so all the numbers I’ll include here are just for Rob, Brian, and I…

Budget Gourmet

From Seattle: + $3,859
In Seattle, we lived as spartan a life as possible, eating on less than $1.20/person/meal, utilizing the public bus system, and foregoing restaurants, movies, long trips, even decent beer. It was hell, but it was only 3 months and you’d be surprised how far camaraderie can carry you: being poor is brutal, but being poor with your friends is a lot less miserable. In total, we pulled in $12,451 on 11 weeks of work. We managed to spend only $4,140 during the summer – food, utilities, transportation, phones, insurance, and 5 outings. Our total preparations for travel–tickets, VISA’s, vaccinations, expat insurance–came to $4352. So we survived the summer to land in Vietnam with $3859.

Mayhem

Teaching Revenue: + $6,788
In three months, for a combined total of around 450 hours of teaching, we made almost $7,000. We would have made more, but because we were only in Vietnam for 3 months, our school gave us limited hours. When YOU go to Vietnam to teach, you’ll stay for 1 year, so you’ll make far more money in 3 months’ time…

Minh Guesthouse

Accommodations: – $1,940
In our first guesthouse, we spent about $15/night for 2 doubles for a little over a month, but then Brian, Rob, and I moved to a new neighborhood, where we paid:
* $240/month for Brian’s single
* $280/month for Rob’s and my double, pictured to the left
* All in all, around $230/person/month is pretty damned good.

Turtle Dove

Food: – $1,652
Our eating adventures took us from 25 cent donuts to $30/lb fresh lobster, but we ate almost exclusively at local (non-western) food places, so we generally didn’t pay much. This food budget amounts to $6.12/person/day, which treated us to fried noodles, numerous hotpots, fresh avocado shakes, bird head and goat’s penis, dog, beating snake heart, small Vietnamese sandwiches, the occasional egg omelet, and of course, tons of Pho.

Rob's Coffee

Coffee (Cafe Sua Da): – $102

Given that each coffee is roughly 55 cents, I thought it would be worth acknowledging that we purchased around 200 coffees in our time in Saigon. This also doesn’t include the innumerable coffees Rob and I made in our room in an attempt to save money, using a simple single-cup coffee drip. I suppose it’s a sad state of affairs when you’re making coffee to avoid a 55 cent price tag…

Seriously.

Beer: – $150
I know this may not seem like an intimidating number, but it doesn’t include the many beers our friends bought for us…and considering that beer costs about 50 cents for a big bottle, Saigon may have been harsh for both our lungs (pollution) AND our livers. Our favorites were Saigon Green – the domestic rice beer – and Bia Hoi – the fresh local beer on tap. We had to adjust to drinking beer with ice, but after awhile – eh, it’s beer, get used to it. Some of my favorite memories were sipping beer with friends, watching the lifeblood of Saigon flow through the streets, listening to the chorus (cacophony) of sounds, and letting the worries of the day slough off my shoulders.

Little Motorbike

Transit around Saigon: – $470
Lyhn (a.k.a. Bonus Hog) cost us $125 to buy and probably another $30 in repairs – she was a demanding mode of transit, somewhat like a sleek sports car…somewhat. Our rental bikes cost $50/month each, but we didn’t actually rent them until October. Gas cost us 60 cents/liter ($2.20/gallon), so we only spent around $45 total. Helmets were $10/each. Finally, there were some times we couldn’t motorbike, so we spent another $90 in taxi rides and Xe Oms (motorbike taxis).

Mounting

Random Adventures: $100
Riding ostriches, grass skiing, amusement parks, waterslides, a couple dates, a LAN party, a movie or 2, a Thanksgiving celebration, some Karaoke mishaps, and a couple other rounds of fun at Saigon prices. Also, despite our best efforts, we didn’t actually pay for lots of this stuff due to our friends’ overwhelming hospitality, so the number above doesn’t necessarily reflect actual prices. It does, however, further demonstrate that our friends made our time in Vietnam what it was.

Phu Quoc

Trips Out and About: – $744
In truth, the only major trips we paid for were the journey to Nha Trang and our trek to Phu Quoc island. $744 paid for the following:
* Trains to/from Nha Trang; transit to/from Phu Quoc
* Chartered boat around the islands of Nha Trang
* Guesthouses in Nha Trang and bungalows on Phu Quoc
* Sustenance, including food, beer, and coffee
* Motorbike rentals for ripping around Phu Quoc island

Miscellaneous: – $125
* Cell phones ($30 each), sim cards ($5 each), and a handful of minutes recharges ($3 each)
* Totally legit software and DVD’s ($1 – $7 each)
* Shampoo and soap (very cheap, and certainly not expensive enough to justify how little we bought)
* Laundry (50 cents/kilogram, also not expensive enough to justify how little we did laundry)
* Tailored shirts ($15/each)
* Odds and ends from various markets

So in 3 months’ time, we had $5,364, meaning VICTORY! Starting with $0 in Seattle, we made enough to travel to Vietnam and not go broke. Moreover, in our last month, our teaching hours were ramping up, our spending was going down, and were getting a taste of what a lifestyle would be like for 1 year in Vietnam. We proved it can be done in Vietnam. So if what you’ve seen on this blog and in our episodes intrigues you, go do it now – Vietnam is waiting for adventurous travelers. We did a lot in 3 months – imagine what you could do in 1 year.

Next, I’ll explain how much we landed in Tokyo with to restart our experiment.