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Christmas 2009

Happy belated Christmas 2009 and hope you have a great New Year too!

Below: Scenes from the Christmas Peace Declaration in Naantali.

Below: MoominWorld surrounded by the frozen sea.



Below: The frozen sea at the summer house, Jen and her sisters, our Christmas Tree and Jen with a burnt hand - it's fine now.

Video below: the first clip shows us crossing the frozen sea on the way to the summer house. The next clip is the last half mile to the summer house (Silent Night just happened to be playing on the radio). Clip three is Kimi the dog welcoming us, clip four shows the log fire and the final clip shows the inside of the cottage – just before the crowds arrive.

Round the World (RTW) Trip Costs

Many people have asked us along the way how much the trip has cost. In a spirit of openness, here's the final figures. You may be surprised to find out what good value a year of travel is, both on the mind and on the purse. All data is for the period 14 May 2008 to 14 May 2009 and costs are for two people unless stated otherwise.

Table 1: Expenditure by country (GBP)
Table 2: Expenditure by country (Local Currency Equivalent)
Table 3: Trekking costs in Nepal
Chart 1: Total Costs per country (GBP)
Chart 2: Average daily costs per person by country (GBP)

Downland data as an Excel Spreadsheet.

Table 1: Expenditure by country (GBP)

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Country	Days in Country	Total Cost		Average cost per day per person
Flights1		3,904.05	GBP
Insurance2		592.95	GBP
Vaccines		826.00	GBP
Australia	37	2,802.24	GBP	37.87	GBP
Brazil	14	1,197.75	GBP	42.78	GBP
Cambodia	10	435.53	GBP	21.78	GBP
Chile3	1	144.59	GBP	72.3	GBP
Finland4	8	330.42	GBP	20.65	GBP
Hong Kong4	11	700.33	GBP	31.83	GBP
India	51	2,534.58	GBP	24.85	GBP
Indonesia	47	2,031.43	GBP	21.61	GBP
Japan	21	1,578.55	GBP	37.58	GBP
Laos	12	492.48	GBP	20.52	GBP
Nepal5	75	3,876.63	GBP	25.84	GBP
New Zealand6	38	2,970.48	GBP	39.09	GBP
Thailand	40	2,504.06	GBP	31.3	GBP
Total	365	26,922.07	GBP

Notes
1 Two OneWorld Tickets (at 1,840 GBP per person) plus costs of ticket changes (totalling 224.05 GBP).
2 Insurance includes BMC Travel Insurance (513.95 GBP) and Worldwide Car Hire Excess Insurance (79 GBP).
3 Chile includes one night at Holiday Inn Express at Santiago Airport (197 USD / 133 GBP).
4 Stayed with friends and family in Finland and Hong Kong. Therefore zero accommodation costs.
5 For a breakdown of trekking costs in Nepal, see Table 3.
6 Includes New Zealand Car hire at 43 NZD per day.

Table 2: Expenditure by country (Local Currency Equivalent)

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Country	Days in Country	Total Spent		Average cost per day per person		Exchange Rate to GBP during trip
Australia	37	5,713.50	AUD	77.21	AUD	2.04
Brazil	14	3,783.50	BRL	135.13	BRL	3.16
Cambodia	10	644.00	USD	32.2	USD	1.48
Chile	1	124,978.36	CLP	62489.18	CLP	864.36
Finland	8	400.00	EUR	25	EUR	1.21
Hong Kong	11	8,068.20	HKD	366.74	HKD	11.52
India	51	205,833.00	INR	2017.97	INR	81.21
Indonesia	47	36,760,000.00	IDR	391063.83	IDR	18095.63
Japan	21	326,000.00	JPY	7761.9	JPY	206.52
Laos	12	5,929,678.84	LAK	247069.95	LAK	12040.45
Nepal	75	490,301.05	NPR	3268.67	NPR	126.48
New Zealand	38	7,990.72	NZD	105.14	NZD	2.69
Thailand	40	126,140.00	THB	1576.75	THB	50.37

Table 3: Trekking costs in Nepal

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Equipment bought in Nepal	67,000	NPR
Annapurna Circuit and Base Camp (no guide or porters)
Duration	30	days
Living Expenses (2 people)	98,000	NPR
Average living expenses per day per person	1,633.33	NPR
Island Peak, Everest Base Camp and Gokyo Valley (no guide or porters apart from Island Peak course)
Duration	22	days
Island Peak Expedition Cost (2 people). Five day self acclimatisation course.	1,400	USD
Flights to Lukla (2 people)	340	USD
Living Expenses (2 people)	145,000	NPR
Average living expenses per day per person	3,295.45	NPR

Chart 1: Total costs per country (GBP)

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Click on chart to view a larger image

Chart 2: Average daily costs per person by country (GBP)

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Click on chart to view a larger image