Budget – Traveling Mark

Mercado de Abastos – The Cheapest Place to Eat in Aguas Calientes

Having been made into the tourist trap that it is, the city of Aguas Calientes is stuffed full of restaurants. But they all have one thing in common – they are geared for tourists and offer food at tourist prices.

But a smart traveler realizes that all those locals who stick around Aguas Calientes in order to take advantage of the tourists lured by the overblown promotion of Machu Picchu also need to eat, and they surely don’t dine in any of the tourist restaurants.

Here’s where the Central market of Aguas Calientes, otherwise known as Mercado de Abastos (Food Market) comes to play.

Photo: Building Housing Mercado de Abastos in Aguas Calientes

Located close to the train station in the Machu Picchu Pueblo (the name into which the Peruvian government is trying to rebrand Aguas Calientes), Mercado de Abastos towers rather inconspicuously a little bit up the stairs, in a building that hardly attracts any tourists, despite thousands passing in front of it literally on a daily basis.

On the main floor of Mercado de Abastos one can encounter sellers of fresh fruits, however just as everything in Aguas Calientes, these are all heavily overpriced, having been shipped to the pueblo by train. Once done asking fruit sellers for prices but not buying anything because of the ridiculous price, an unlikely tourist can walk up the stairs to reach the market’s upper floor, and encounter stalls selling cooked dishes for the locals who work in the many of Aguas Calientes’ tourist establishments.

Even though at 12 Soles for a menu consisting of a soup and a main dish, the prices up there are still high by Peruvian standards, Mercado de Abastos is the cheapest place to get fed in Aguas Calientes, and truly the only somewhat economical way to eat while waiting to go up to Machu Picchu.

Photo: Sign in Food Stall Where I Ate Saying "Welcome Tourists, Locals, Foreigners, Extraterrestrials" — Photo: Sign in Food Stall Where I Ate Saying “Welcome Tourists, Locals, Foreigners, Extraterrestrials”

I definitely took advantage of it, and even though during my 3 day stay in Aguas Calientes I was the only tourist who took said advantage, it didn’t bother me one bit being surrounded by locals slurping loudly their food and chewing it with their mouth open like a pack of cows on a field, because it came with the good feeling that I wasn’t allowing the overpriced services of Aguas Calientes take advantage of my being there entirely.

Cost of Budget Accommodation in Laos

Accommodation is usually one of the biggest tickets budget traveller has to pick up day after day so its cost vastly determines daily budget one needs to work with when visiting that particular country. Compared to much of South East Asia, true budget accommodation options are not only limited in Laos, they also end up being more expensive which increases your daily spendings yet you end up staying in rooms of significantly lower standards than in neighboring countries.

On an overall scale, traveling through Laos is far more expensive than traveling through Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand. Not taking into account small, but pricey SE Asian countries of Singapore and Brunei, Malaysia is the only country in the region that’s comparably costly for a traveler on a budget. While budget accommodation in Malaysia is on average 10% to 20% more expensive than in Laos, Malaysia offers additional money savers for money tight travelers with its plentiful camp sites and dormitories.

If prior to visiting Laos you had already gone through Cambodia, Indonesia or Thailand, then you have probably tasted the pleasures of having a decent, clean, bed bugs free room with its own ensuite bathroom with hot shower for up to $5 a night. You may have also enjoyed a spacious room with a king sized bed, air conditioning, fridge, safe, large screen TV and a nice view for up to $10 a night – which would also include daily room service. But after coming to Laos, your $10 will buy you a measly, uncomfortable bed in a tight room without a window that doesn’t even have enough space for you to turn, nevermind to store your backpack, with questionably clean, shared bathroom containing an overused squatting toilet bowl, a broken shower outlet and a slew of mosquitoes all over its mouldy walls.

It’s hard to get used to paying so much more money than you had paid before but get so incomparably less, but that’s the way it is in Laos. I don’t suppose it had always been like that but as the number of tourists visiting the country kept growing, so did the prices for tourism related goods and services but the delivery of quality seems to have gotten stuck.

If you’re like me and started traveling around the world in circa 2009, then you have missed out on the golden age of tourism. Nowadays, no matter how remote and unmentioned a place you get to is, there will be thousands of blog posts about it all over the internet from the travelers who had visited it long before you. And… nowadays, even seemingly poor countries like Laos, after experiencing tourism boom, had adjusted their prices so cost of travelling is out of proportion to the country’s gross domestic product. Too bad this increase did not go hand in hand with increase of quality.

The only place in Laos where reasonably cheap accommodation can still be had is Don Det of Four Thousand Islands, in south Laos, near the border with Cambodia. Bamboo room costs as little as 25,000 Kip (about $3 US – based on 2010 conversion rates) per night and represents the cheapest accommodation in the country.

Once you have left 4,000 Islands, the mainland will welcome you with room prices typically starting at 60,000 Kip (roughly $7.50 US) for which you will get a pretty run down room with small, hard bed, no windows hence strong smell of mould, shared bathroom with cold shower somewhere within the complex and a rattling fan with grate so dirty, you’ll think it’s been used in a car shop since the 60’s.

To get a room $7,50 US equivalent would get you in Cambodia, you would have to shell out 80,000 to 100,000 Kip per night (roughly $10 to $12). I went through many less traveled areas of Laos yet Don Det was the only place where I was able to find a private room (aka not dorm) for an equivalent of $5 or less per night. And that was in off season when guesthouses and hotels were struggling to get bookings. What it would have been like in high season when rooms sell out quickly I dare not imagine. By South East Asian standards, accommodation in Laos is very expensive but lack quality you would get in other countries where rooms usually cost less.

Weekly Car Rental Deals

I only had a little more than a week until my ultimate departure which would take me away from my home country of Canada for an extended period of time, so I figured that perhaps I could rent a car one last time and go to the Rocky Mountains I loved so much. I didn’t have my car anymore and the weather was beautiful so I really thought I should take advantage of it and head to the mountains while I’m still here. Renting a car was the only option at this time so I started looking around for the best Weekly Car Rental Deals.

My primary thinking behind renting a car for a whole week was that I would be able to use it to go to the Rockies and after I had returned, I would still have an automobile to take care of the items I needed to find a storage solution for. I was still going to work and was going to stay employed until the last day of August – literally until my departure date.

Another thing that got me looking for Weekly Car Rental Deals was a billboard ad I saw by the Westmount Mall in Edmonton which advertised weekly rental of a compact sized car at Budget Canada for mere $99 a week. Considering that weekend rental would cost me half of that, I figured I might as well rent a car for a whole week and have myself set not only for the trip to the Rockies, but also to move all of my possessions to wherever I end up storing it.

I phoned Budget to find out about the deal advertised but it was as I suspected – restricted as to the kilometers you can put on the car and the deal only applied to very small cars. Plus the Budget Rent a Car office near me was not open during convenient hours. I kept it in mind as an option, but didn’t dwell on it too much. Instead, I’ve spread my search for better Weekly Car Rental Deals across other providers and it did prove to be a good strategy. Don’t follow the billboards.

I ended up renting a car from Hertz. Weekly rental of a mid size sedan with unlimited kilometers was less than $120 with all fees and taxes in. Considering that I didn’t need car insurance because my travel visa card had worldwide coverage, this was an amazing deal for a week long car rental of Toyota Corolla. Yes, I could have had a car for a week for $99 plus fees and taxes, but it would have been Chevrolet Aveo (a miniature car) and I wouldn’t be able to take it to the Rocky Mountains because I would go over allocated distance quota.

Photo: Silver Toyota Corolla I Rented for a Week from Hertz to Drive Through the Canadian Rockies

Hertz is usually one of the more expensive car rental companies but you get what you pay for. They clearly don’t focus on people who are cheap (aka myself), but will go out of their way for people who are willing to pay for the luxury of preferential treatment. Weekly rental of a mid size sedan through Hertz would normally cost around $250. I was able to push it down to its 50% level through the use of a time limited coupon code (it’s already expired). The use of it has not been questioned anytime by any Hertz representative, their car was superior to comparable models rented through other companies by having more options and paperwork necessary to rent a car through them was minimalistic. Hertz is clearly geared to get you behind the wheel of a car you desire without much hassle.

This was the very first time I have rented with Hertz and it was a pleasant experience. I had rented car many times before, including rentals at international locations but always with different companies to save money. This time timing was on my side so I was able to get a deal I would not get with any other provider, yet I still received Hertz treatment. It is likely I won’t be renting with Hertz anytime soon, if at all, but I’d definitely rank them as one of the finest car rental companies in existence. Saves you a lot of hassle not having to deal with crap when renting a car.

That being said – there were a few things I did not like about Hertz. First of all – they did not offer customer pick up. I had to take a bus all the way to downtown Edmonton (I did it because savings I was getting in this weekly special were worth it). I don’t know whether all Hertz offices do it this way, but that was a crappy part of their business. Second thing I did not like was not really their fault but it still made it a bit annoying. When I came to pick up my car, there were two people there before me, each occupying one of the available agents. Those people kept asking irrelevant questions and one of them didn’t even end up renting, but they kept me stuck there for an extra half an hour. I had my car pick up booked for 5pm but I didn’t get my car until 5.30pm. If I had something important to catch, I would have missed it. That would have spoiled it for me entirely. And even though I can’t really blame it on Hertz as a company, being a customer you still wish you got what you booked at the time you booked it for.

Photo: Beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains

Other than that, everything about Hertz was perfect. Perhaps a little too perfect to be true. Either way, I had my car and was ready to hit the road from Edmonton to Jasper to enjoy my last weekend in the Rocky Mountains. The feeling was amazing especially since I knew that the weekend after that would be the weekend of my departure to South East Asia. Whoaaaa.

Best Country to Start the Around-The-World Travel In

I had the best time to start travelling worked out, now I just needed to work out where to go to start my around the world travels and to find the most affordable way to get there from Canada. Because I didn’t have much budget due to rather low positive cash flow at the time, I figured that the best country to start my round the world travel in would be one of those I am familiar with, one I have recently visited. If you go to a whole new country for the first time, you are rather overwhelmed by its culture, its people, its way of life and if that is a third world country, you will be harassed by touts since you first step foot on their soil so falling for overpriced deals is easy. However if you go to a country you have previously visited, you will know where you are going, what you are doing, what’s around the corner, where the best place to get a ride is, whom to talk to to get cheap accommodation, etc. Many of these can be chosen wrongly if you are in an unfamiliar place because you are under time stress and with a backpack on your back – you often have to take what comes your way and touts are very skilled at getting the most out of each tourist.

Based on the above, I basically only had two countries to choose from: Cuba and the Dominican Republic. I have also recently visited Iceland but not only Iceland is not a third world country (far from it), it is also one of the most expensive countries in the world so my budget would not handle it. I’d love to revisit Iceland as it’s by far the best country to travel to, but it wasn’t an option at this time. Plus because of budget issues, I had to keep it within close range because the further you travel, the more expensive the plane ticket and since Caribbean countries are popular tropical locations for many Canadians, flights there are frequent and far less expensive than flights to Europe or Asia. So in order to keep the initial cost low, Caribbean would be the best choice.

Out of other two countries I have recently visited, Cuba was the least favorable option. Their economy is too dependent on tourism so prices for accommodation are regulated by the government and locals are not allowed to offer foreigners any services for which a foreigner would normally have to pay. For example even if I had a good Cuban friend, I would not be able to crash at his place for if Cuban police found out, he’d get in serious trouble. Same goes for offering foreigners a lift or any other service. If you are a foreigner, you should only be seen riding in taxis or buses. If you are seen in a regular car, the owner/driver of that car could get in a lot of trouble for offering a tourist services for which that tourist should pay. That’s the way it works in Cuba which makes it one of the most expensive countries in the Caribbean (unless you decide to go illegal on everything and risk getting kicked out, but then you can be there on so cheap that even India is more expensive).

I’m not much of an illegal guy. I couldn’t even jump over the fence to join a festival in my home town when all my buddies went that way. I could jump it, I wasn’t lacking there, I just could not bear the thought of doing something that’s not right. That’s just the way I am. Cuba would otherwise be an amazing option as it can be done on the cheap and it’s a safe and beautiful country. But right now it looked like that’s not the best place to start. I didn’t have the budget to retain legal accommodation, even if I stuck with Casas Particulares, which are significantly less expensive than hotels and offer more authentic experience. They are still charged on per day basis so monthly it works out more than you would pay for rent in Canada. I had to ditch Cuba for this very reason.

Whether I liked it or not, I was left with only one option – Dominican Republic. I didn’t mind that as after visiting the country in January, only a few months prior I really enjoyed my stay there and had wonderful time. Unlike in Cuba, unless you have high expectation and desire comfortable lifestyle, you can live in the Dominican Republic on very cheap. I was familiar with the country and the way it operates so ripping me off by offering me overpriced deals would be difficult. I could definitely survive there even though my monthly budget was low and since weather is warm year round and internet connections are decent, I’d be able to both enjoy myself and get some work done on my websites to boost my positive cash flow. Seemed like I have found the best country to start the around the world travel in and even though I did not ditch all other options, I kept all of my senses firmly focused on this nation. Now it was only a question of scoring the plane ticket and making other arrangements for a price I would be comfortable paying.