[billy8988]

Another destination: India. If you are a female, then south India. You can stay at descent hotels in Bangalore or Chennai for $25/day. Another $20 per day for food. Watch how multinational IT companies treat their employees. Feel good about yourself and come back rejuvenated.

[lifeformed]

My destination recommendation would be Taiwan. Not quite as cheap as Thailand or India, but still very inexpensive. Eat some of the most amazing street food for a dollar per item; take super convenient, clean and cheap public transit; and hell, there's even cheap and good quality health care. Spend $20 to get your teeth cleaned and cavities fixed while you're there. You'll also meet some of the nicest people you'll ever know. It's like a cheaper, friendlier Japan.

[solvedit]

I don't spend $20/day on food in Boston or Paris. Does it really cost that in India? Are my nationalist blinders on? Somehow I imagined that it would be much cheaper there.

[owenversteeg]

Although the third world can be surprisingly cheap, it is often surprisingly expensive. Add that to the cost of flights (a $990 round-trip flight to a place equals $33 a day if you stay a month) and things begin to add up. And although billions of people in the third world do eat for cheap, the cheap/local food and what you want to eat may not match up. Combine that with different prices for foreigners and your lack of local knowledge about cheap, good places and you'll be paying a lot more than you'd think.

Only go to places that maintain an illusion of hygiene and prices will rise fast. For example, you might pay the equivalent of $3 more per meal for a place whose employees wear gloves. But in reality, the dirty-looking place next door is actually cleaner; they throw lemon juice on their boards after cutting meat. At the same time the nicer-looking place lets raw chicken touch everything while handling money with the same gloves they use for food.

[parennoob]

You can easily spend a tenth of that and get good food in India if you eat at places where the average local person does. However, speaking as an Indian, most foreigners probably don't want to play that crapshoot, because there is always a chance you'll get sick due to lack of hygiene in food prep.

The hotels that cater to Westerners typically charge a lot more, and rates are more comparable to hotels in a cheap European city. Theoretically, with them you get a guarantee of food that is prepared with better safety standards. Whether this is practically true I have no idea.

Ironically, the cheapest way to live and eat in India would be to rent an apartment and get a trustworthy cook to come in and cook fresh food for you every day. Your daily bill will be way less than $20. However, setting this up requires a fair amount of legwork and contacts, which (understandably) someone who is looking for a vacation will not find attractive.

[crdb]

> Theoretically, with them you get a guarantee of food that is prepared with better safety standards. Whether this is practically true I have no idea.

Anecdotally, working in Maharashtra with Indians in an Indian company for a few months I was never ill. This was eating $1 "luxury" 8 course meals brought to me in the morning by a dabbawalla on his motorbike which - as with all my co-workers' food - stayed out in the searing heat for a few hours before lunch; I also eventually had him bring me dinner. I lived in the same company housing as everybody else. No idea how you'd find a dabbawalla though, I just took the stack of leaflets dropped at the office and tried them all until I found a good one.

Coming back for 2 weeks to Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore staying at a famous and very nice 5 star hotel chain and eating only in their restaurants, I caught the worst bout of my life. Bit wary of hotel kitchens since then.

[paulmd]

I realize this is a fucking gross idea that amounts to poop pills, but there is probably a market for a market for digestive inoculations against local bacteria. Being able to build up a resistance to the local gut bacteria in advance - before you have to commit 100% to all of the local fauna - would be invaluable. Gut bacteria almost certainly play a large part in that balance.

[Tsagadai]

They exist. Cost me $15 at a local chemist (in Australia) to get an immunization for common stomach bugs in Southeast Asia/India). It also isn't impossible to buy antibiotics before you go and to take them with you.

[tedmiston]

> Ironically, the cheapest way to live and eat in India would be to rent an apartment and get a trustworthy cook to come in and cook fresh food for you every day.

I met a seed-stage startup person who has this setup (somewhere in India) while traveling through a hostel in SF recently. Two meals cooked per day and cleaning. It sounded like a great setup and much more affordable than what that would cost in the US.

[ska]

If you are travelling in Boston or Paris (e.g. not cooking your own meals) $20 is really a pretty restrictive budget. Scaling your expectations elsewhere similarly will mean you can probably also do it on a lot less in India...

[TeMPOraL]

You mean eating out? When I'm traveling on a budget, I tend to just buy bread and cheese in a grocery store, and use a knife (or whatever I can improvise) to make a meal on the go.

[ska]

Sure, you can do that - but there are other experiences you are choosing not to have that way, which are also valuable.

[x0x0]

Many travelers -- me included -- find it interesting to try the local food.

[owenversteeg]

Although I agree with you it's also worth pointing out that very often the bread and cheese _is_ the local food. Even in places that aren't known for their cheese, if you head to a market you might find an inexpensive, unique and rather tasty cheese.

[emodendroket]

I mean, would you recommend someone coming to America try eating nothing but fruits and snacks?

[x0x0]

no doubt, but some of the best experiences I've had traveling have been going into restaurants and letting wait staff choose what I eat.

[billy8988]

$20 is equivalent to 1300 rupees. You can get a descent meal for 200 rupees per meal.I should have added food and other expenses for $20.