What it Cost: Mongolia
Aug 15 – Sept 2, 2015 + 1 night we slept over in Beijing on our transit
<This is a breakdown of the money we spent exclusively in Mongolia. This Post will give you the broader look at how we planned, saved, etc. for the trip in general.>
Total Cost: $7148.05
Nights in Country: 20
Cost/Day: $357.40
Exchange Rate: 1985 Tagreks = $1 (all amounts are in USD)
Total Per Day
Transportation* $0.50
Housing* $244.37 $61.09 (for three nights)
Food* $115.22 $28.81 (for three nights)
Entertainment* $6457.53 $322.88
Gear* $12.69
Postage* $147.20
Art/Souvenirs $170.53
* A couple of notes and lessons learned in travelling Mongolia
Transportation – We are tracking inter-country transportation separately. In the case of Mongolia, we flew from Cape Town, South Africa to Ulanbataar, Mongolia for $1882 on Emirates Air. The $0.50 was a shamefully low tip we gave a driver who dropped off our lost luggage. We hadn’t figured out the exchange rate yet and screwed up. Sorry driver.
Housing, Food, Gear – We arrived three days before the horse trek began and paid for housing, food and incidentals on our own. We were in Ulanbataar making the time adjustment, purchasing items for the trek such as bug spray and waiting for our lost luggage to arrive, so we are not breaking these costs out separately as we did in Tanzania. All costs in Mongolia were for the purpose of getting to the trek so we are including all the costs together.
Entertainment – Cost of the 17-day horse trek + tipping guides.
Postage – Shipping home the carpet we bought, along with a few other items, ended up costing more than the items themselves! Totally worth it, though.