Final chapter

Back home, the trip's over, and I'm looking for a job. Bummer.

But before I get back in to the fun of building a project team and delivering some piece of IT kit, it's timely to recap on the purpose of the trip - the acquisition of paper knives!


And here they are. In the front from left to right are:

• A kris from Malaysia. A curved edge knife with a sting in the tip. Ideal for bills and letters that look like they're inflicting pain
• A buffalo bone knife from Laos, the land of the elephants. This big knife will be useful for those extra large envelopes
• A nicely decorated knife from Cambodia. Given that its source was the Tuol Sleng torture museum, this knife will be for letters from lawyers, accountants and the Inland Revenue Department.
  

And in the back row, two remarkably similar knives, though the vendors swore they were produced locally. To the same Chinese design and components perhaps? Anyway, cynicism aside, from left to right:

• A knife from Vietnam, a land of lovely people, but also the source of the greatest number of scam attempts. I'll use this knife for all those come-ons to contribute and donate to some worthy cause
• And finally a knife from Thailand, a land where love is in the air, and more so in the massage parlours and ping pong shows! Be that as it may, this knife will be for letters from friends and family.

The blog would not be complete without a quick financial summary. I totted up my expenditure from cash and credit cards, and it turned out like this:

	Cash/ATM	Visa	Total	Days	$/day	$US/day
Pre-travel	$0	$1,946	$1,946
Indochina	$4,012	$1,384	$5,396	68	$79	$62
Australia	$540	$1,452	$1,992	10	$199	$155
Total	$4,552	$4,783	$9,335

Some observations:

• Nearly $2,000 went in to clothing, equipment, and in particular, vaccinations before I even left New Zealand. I was vaccinated for rabies and Japanese encephalitis - certainly potentially fatal diseases if you contract them, but the risk is very low. I didn't take any malaria pills - all the advice I received said put the money in to preventing mosquitoes from biting in the first place - nets, deet, and clothing that covers arms and legs. This protects against dengue as well, for which there's no vaccination
  
• Costs don't include airfares to/from Indochina. I was traveling on Frequent Flier points
• Typically I was spending around $15/day on guesthouses, and a similar amount on food and drink. The balance was taken up by package trips, internal travel, entry fees and a few souvenirs.
• 80% of my expenditure was in cash. It's not easy or practical to use Visa for small expenses, and when you do, you're immediately paying a 3% surcharge. Worth it for some expenses though.
• What a huge difference when I got to Australia! And that's only half the story, as Pauline had already prepaid a lot of the cost. It does reinforce the fact that Asia is an incredibly cheap place to visit if you're prepared to rough it a bit as a backpacker.
  

My advice to anyone enthused about visiting Indochina - do it now! It will only get more more westernised, more polluted, and more expensive if you wait. Go while the natural charm of these countries can still be experienced. And have a ball!