I already know this is going to be "the" most expensive trip I have ever done, only the one way ticket from US to South America to Australia to HK cost me nearly US$3000. (Please don't let my mom ever see this post, she will honestly kill me for doing that). Haha... Mind you I don't really have that many $3000 to begin with. But I still think it's gonna worth it, I am the type that I want to see things with my own eyes, get experience from actual actions instead of reading a book, or browsing internet. I mean as a child, I already learned about the moais (the gigantic stone faces standing like guards) on an isolated land called Easter Island somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Always felt proud that I was able to locate it on the map, always found it a mystery and dreamt about visiting there a thousand times, but never expected that I will be "actually" going to see the moai myself one day. For that, I already think it's worth for the whole trip. But the truth is, unless I'll find a really good-paying job in Hong Kong, I highly doubt I would be able to do this kind of trip again. Not even that, once I will have a regular job back home, it's quite impossible for me to get 2 months holiday. It is almost like a bacholar party, I feel it's the last time I can do extensive trip like this. I am not getting any younger too. So, I really hope to get as many experience and absorb as many sceneries in my memory as possible in this trip.Expect to spend another 3500-4000 dollars, literally clearing the last penny in my pocket! Just my 3 weeks Spanish class + homestay will use up 820 already. There are still 40 some nights hostel fee awaiting. So, this is a fairly tight budget. I may have to skip some cheesy museums and focus on the biggies - the places that I must see. Now, the problem is how I should bring my money down to South America. For instance, for the spanish class & homestay, I already got the invoice, I can pay by credit card online or on location (plus an extra 6% admin fee), or I can pay cash when I get there. If South America is known to be pretty safe, I would just pay everything in cash. However, the reality is just the opposite, both my guidebook and the spanish school do not recommend me to carry a large amount of cash because of the notorious pickpocketing. To use credit card, you may avoid the human robber, but you encounter the other kind - electronic robber. For every transaction, the bank charges you 3% of the amount you spent as transaction fee, plus they would apply the low exchange rate of course. For that spanish class bill, for instance, the transaction fee is gonna be US$25 already! Not including the extra 6% admin fee the school will charge me for using credit card on top of that. That's like adding 10% to the bill. To a frugal chinese man, this is ridiculous. I could bring a debit card and use ATM to withdraw cash down there as well, there is still a 1% transaction fee + $5 admin fee for each transaction. The local bank might add a fee as well.
I can accept the fact you pay a fee to buy the so called "security", now the task is to balance how much I want to pay for that security. I think for the spanish class, I would probably pay in cash, half I will bring with me and the other half left for withdrawal down there. For the hostel, provided that there is no 6% admin fee from using credit card, I may just use credit card. Everything else is just gonna be cash from the ATM machine. I will try to keep no more US$500 cash with me at any time. Hope that is secure enough. With 6 admin fee + 3 % transaction fee is a big no no for using credit card.
I have not mentioned traveler's cheque, per Lonely Planet, because of the common use of the ATM card nowadays, the traveler's cheque is becoming obsolete. It's still available of course, and has security I needed, but I still need to pay a fee to get it and then pay a fee to redeem the value. So it does not really do much saving. There are also something called traveler's check card, kind of a mixture of traveler's cheque and visa card, kind of like a stored value card, most of them has some kind of transaction fee. So, I might as well just use my credit card.
Believe me, for shorter trips, I wouldn't really care about all these. But this trip is different. I really need a good management on how I spend my money.
