Around the World in 79 Days: As a Ukrainian Engineer Visited 40 Countries for $ 100 per Day

Pavel Zaporozhets graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Institute at KPI, starting from undergraduate he worked for an international company specializing in the maintenance of electromechanical systems. He built a career from an ordinary engineer to the head of the system engineering department, managed to work as a project manager in Cairo and São Paulo. In 2016, he decided to realize his long-cherished dream - a world tour. For three months, Paul flew around 40 countries and almost 60 cities, with average costs per day at $ 100. How he planned and organized the trip, what services and devices he used on the way - Pavel told this in an interview to the editor AIN.UA.

Photos of the hero of the article

How did the idea of ​​world travel come about?

Photos of the hero of the article

On this price corridor I clicked cheap directions (they are also the busiest), where there is high competition between operators. So I built five routes, all round the world. Then I took these routes and began to count by the day. I estimated the budget for about 80 days, it turned out to be feasible. The route was chosen according to its geographical preferences, but the main factors were: where is it easier to get a visa, where are cheaper tickets, etc. Where there were difficulties - making loops in the track. For example, I had to make a loop in South America, where I was not sure about the adequacy of carriers, instead of Australia, which did not issue me a visa, flew to Indonesia, and so on.

How much did the trip cost you?

I planned the budget at the lowest price and added 30% in case I couldn’t save. And my trip cost about $ 12 000, of which about 33% is spending on tickets, 50% is pocket and 16,7% is overnight.

Photos of the hero of the article

I saved a lot on tickets. On average, the ticket cost me $ 100-150, because I was confused and developed a system for how to buy them. When I picked up all the tickets and realized where I wanted to fly, I began to check the optimal time in each direction. I figured out that there are two windows: spring and autumn, they are the cheapest. I got into the autumn, from August to November, flew at low-cost stations, counted changes in temperature so much that I didn’t take winter things with me, which allowed me to fly around with a single backpack.

It was possible to save money by not going around museums much, it was interesting for me to compare cities, countries, and urban culture in contrasts. Museums are a story about the past, but I wanted to know the present, look at the sights, and then go to sleeping areas, watch how people live.

How many cities in total have you traveled? What route did you travel?

My route looked like this:

Photos of the hero of the article

Photos of the hero of the article

What impressions from different cities and countries do you remember most?

I have never been to Poland before and it struck me. I always thought that Poland is something between Germany and Ukraine, but it turned out that it is much more to Germany. And since I had low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.

And vice versa, I always had high expectations about Germany, but when I was there, I did not like the fact that the historical centers were restored by the scrupulous Germans to the smallest detail, but it is clear that this is a restored, not real.

Very impressed with the architecture of Zurich. Italy seemed untidy, rubbish on the streets, many migrants. After Egypt, I have a shift in the purity of the streets, and I felt myself in Italy about how in Ukraine.

Iceland, the sculpture “Sun wanderer”. Photos of the hero of the article

I really liked Barcelona, ​​the perfect option to spend the weekend at sea. The rest of Spain is fading in comparison with Barcelona. I can understand why the Catalans decided to become independent, they are the brightest there. In no case can you go to Paris by Ryanair, because the airport where Ryanair flies is located approximately between Brussels and Paris - that going there, which takes three hours to reach, is very far. After Paris, flew to Brussels. He seemed boring, but with great beer. If you are in the mood to get bored with a cup of good beer - the perfect place.

And besides Europe, what is remembered?

They all said about the USA that there was a great service there, but it seemed to me that the service was even worse than in Ukraine. In vain we criticize Ukrainian for no reason at all. In Ukraine, you come to PrivatBank, they will look at you with zero emotions, but they will solve the problem. In Egypt, all the staff are very happy to see you, calls them by name, but cannot solve the problem, and this is much more frustrating than the consultant Privat, who forgot to smile.

In the US, it was expressed a little differently. In the Ukrainian cafe without any problems you can ask the waiter what is the coolest thing on the menu. In the States, I have five waiters quite arrogantly pointed out to me, they say, man, read the menu. This is just one example, but felt in all areas. I did not like public transport. The United States is a huge city with an inconvenient infrastructure. I would not want to live, for example, in New York and spend so much time just to get around the city.

Iguazu Falls, the border of Brazil and Argentina. Photo of the author of the article

Brazil is remembered for its high crime rate. After the Olympics in Rio, the government went bankrupt there, they imposed martial law, there are constant wars with drug lords and they are not very successful. In Kiev, in any area you can run into trouble, but it is rather a matter of chance. And in Rio at night it is better not to go home on foot, there are areas in Sao Paulo where it is generally better not to appear. I personally had no problems, but a huge number of people with machine guns and machine guns on the streets were straining.

What Ukrainians might like in Argentina is about Ukrainian prices in stores.

How did you plan the trip, what services did you use? What saved?

He approached the journey as if he were going to some big project, created a Google-table with prices. At first I tried to search for the cheapest hotels by aggregator, but it turned out that there could be up to 10% prices depending on the site, so I looked for everything on Booking.

Also used Skyscanner. There is a trick: Skyscanner has a top location switch. If you buy a ticket from Miami to Rio de Janeiro, and Ukraine is on location, it costs $ 700-800. If you switch the location to Brazil, the price will drop to $ 250. I saved about $ 1000.

How to solve the problem with transport, rented a car on the ground?

I spent one or two days in each city, did not rent a car, drove Uber in poor countries, sometimes it was cheaper than some other transport to the airport. For example, in Argentina it is cheaper to leave the airport for Uber than by bus. I do not know why this is so, but according to my observations, if a poor country is, Uber works well for the price, and in America, Europe it is expensive.

Used Wikitravel и Google Trips, at the airport before departure read about ground transportation applications, as a rule, I had to be confused to find cheap buses and trains.

How to organize mobile communications, the Internet?

The last two years I travel a lot and stopped using TravelSIM, they are ineffective. I rode with the Kyivstar SIM card, used the Internet for roaming, costing UAH 1500 per month, it is very cheap. I tried to save traffic (I loaded maps, did not watch YouTube), but in most cases I did not limit myself to google something.

Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo of the author of the article

Important: you should always have a SIM card, which is booked hotel and tickets. If something went wrong, the airline will call you, and if you do not pick up the phone, you can skip an important flight.

Tell us about payment systems, maps, calculations - were there any difficulties or problems?

Each country has its own characteristics. When you travel around Europe, you can pay by card anywhere. But in the same Brazil, you can not just take and pay off the card, you need to take into account its type. In half of the places there is only a debit card, which means only the Brazilian card.

I traveled with a PrivatBank card, in North and South America, before each transaction, I was blocked by a card and called from a bank, and I was asked if I was paying it. It seems that you can travel freely and withdraw money from a privat card all over the world, but in India and the USA they called me regularly, apparently, they consider these countries to be a risk zone. And if I had TravelSIM, the bank would not be able to call her, and I would be left without money.

Usually there were no problems with payments, but there were difficulties with cash withdrawals. There is such a feature: MasterCard and Visa have an international transaction system (Visa Plus and Cirrus) and if you see its sticker on an ATM, the commission will be at the level of 5%, very cheap. But if the ATM converts the payment through its system, it can mean horse commissions. I tried not to withdraw a lot of money so that there was no “dead” cash, I took off $ 20-25 to pay where the card is not accepted. When the ATM was not working on the Visa Plus / Cirrus system, the commission could sometimes be $ 25 for $ 10.

Did not keep a lot of money on the card, which paid off. The main amount was on the electronic card with which I connected the constant replenishment. I calculated how much I need pocket money for every day at about $ 100 or a little less, and I automatically set this number in the system. From the electronic card to the main each day a certain amount dripped. I did this for security reasons: if they are enclosed, then it is $ 100, and not all the money available.

Another trick: there are so many places where you need to leave a deposit: car rental services, hotels. They block some amount of money on the card, as a rule, for 14 days, but the joke is that if you quickly travel around the cities, the money on the card will end quickly. Therefore, it is better to have a credit card with a limit of $ 3000-4000, on which to issue these payments.

Have to buy something on the go?

No.

Was everything so perfectly planned?

I did not miss a single flight, I am proud of my punctuality. By the way, I am very glad that I managed to travel in the direction to the west. When you fly west, it’s like translating the arrows all the time back, all the time you just want to go to bed earlier. If I flew to the east, for the fifth or sixth plane I would have slept trivially.

What can you advise to those who would like to go to the Around the World?

In the autumn I gave a lecture to the KPI about it. In short - here is a list of online services that may be useful to you:

• Rome2rio.com - planning of transport in difficult trips.
• Visalist.io - interactive visa requirements map.
• goeuro.com - aggregator of bus and train tickets in Europe.
• Skyscanner.com - search for tickets with switching countries.
• google.com/flights - A convenient ticket search engine.
• Google Trips - planning the day in the city.
• Wikitravel.org - good introductory for each city.

From things I advise:

• Promate PowerCore-C - the only and compact phone and laptop charger (USB-C PD) with nozzles to all countries of the world.
• Rock W2006T - large (20 000 mAh) also with USB-C PD.
• LG G5 is the only non-ancient phone with removable batteries known to me. One in the phone, the other in the pocket, the third is charged in the hotel. For travel - perfect.
• Urban Planet B4 is a very roomy rolltop backpack, durable, lightweight and convenient. Ideal in size for all low-cost posters of the world. Bobby Urban, as an alternative.
• Banana - at times safer and more convenient than keeping everything in your pockets.

Would you like to go around the globe again?

Not. To visit the Around the World - it's cool, but to visit the Around the World twice is not twice as good as it once was. There are many more things that I want to do.

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