My husband, Andrew, and I quit our jobs in May 2022 and began traveling the world full time on May 31st. We took a road trip around 10 US National Parks before heading to Europe for four months. In November we finally made it to Asia and have officially been traveling for half a year! That also means our Year Long Honeymoon is half over which I definitely have mixed feelings about. It will be a hard adjustment from experiencing something new nearly everyday to getting a job again. However I will be very happy to see my family and friends often and of course being able to eat Chipotle whenever I want to.
In this November update post I give an overview of our time in Georgia and the first half of our Nepal trip. I also touch on our budget, our credit card points, the top three meals of the month, and what we’re getting up to next.
Georgia
Georgia is a beautiful country in the Caucasus Region, situated between Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Georgia was one of the countries I was most excited about visiting during my trip planning phase, and it really lived up to my expectations. The country is known for beautiful mountain scenery, friendly locals, and an amazing culinary scene.
Tbilisi - 5 nights
Our Georgian travels started in the capital city, Tbilisi. We had a quick 2.5 hour flight from Istanbul and hit the ground running. Our mission in Tbilisi was to start stocking up on items we’ll need for our trek in Nepal. Silly me, I figured items like hiking boots and trekking backpacks would be cheap in Georgia. Boy was I wrong! We checked a couple of stores selling new hiking boots and didn’t find a single pair under $200! Finally we found a street with several second hand shoe stores and both found a pair of used hiking boots for just under $100 each.
Besides our search for hiking boots, we also did a walking tour and wine tasting through Airbnb Experiences and a big eight mile hike through a park just outside of town. We also got our first taste of Georgian food including the famous dumplings called Kinkhali. Kinkhali are typically filled with a mixture of pork, beef and herbs, but they come in other varieties as well such as mushroom and potato.
Sighnaghi - 4 nights
After our time in the capital we headed to Sighnaghi, a small town in Georgia’s Kakheti wine region. Our journey from Tbilisi to Sighnaghi was one we wont be likely to forget. We found a blog post that explained how to take a “shared taxi” and we did just that. We showed up to a line of taxis outside a metro stop, walked up to them and said “Sighnahi.” They said ok, quoted a price and told us to wait beside an 8 passenger van. The drivers then begin to find other passengers going in a similar direction and once the van was full we were off! Everyone got dropped off in different towns, and we almost ran into a cow in the road, but we made it to our destination in about two hours for $20.
Andrew and I stayed in a guest house with a lovely host family. The lady that ran the guest house made an amazing dinner spread that we partook in three of our four nights. It was such a treat to get homemade Georgian food. We spent our days relaxing, walking around the city and to a beautiful convent. Of course, we also tried the city’s main attraction, the wine! We visited a few local wineries plus had a lot of our host family’s homemade wine.
Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) - 4 nights
Kazbegi is a small town in the mountains near the Russian border. We hired a driver to pick us up in Sighnaghi and drive us north for five hours to reach the town. There are many cheap option to travel between Tbilisi and the smaller towns, but because we were traveling between two small towns the private driver was our best options. Our driver stopped at a few beautiful lookout points on the drive and we had a great experience.
Once in Kazbegi we didn’t do much besides hike, eat, and lounge around in our guest house. I think there is more to do in Kazbegi in the summer, but as it was there wasn’t a whole lot going on when we were there. The most famous hike and place to visit is the Gergeti Trinity Church. You can drive up to it or hike, but of course we chose the hike!
Tbilisi - 2 nights
Andrew and I took a “marshrutka” from Kazbegi back to Tbilisi. They are large vans that fit about 20 passengers. There was a sign in town with departure times, but we had to wait 30 minutes past because our driver wouldn’t leave until every seat was full. It only cost 15 GEL each, or $5.50 each for a 3 hour drive.
Once back in the city our main concern was getting all our laundry done and packing up our bags for our flight to Nepal. We also had time to squeeze in a cooking class on our last night in the country. We made khinkali (not very successfully) and khachapuri. Khinkali are juicy, meat filled dumplings and khachapuri is cheesy flat bread.
Nepal
We flew on Qatar Airlines from Tbilisi, Georgia to Kathmandu, Nepal with a long eight hour layover in Doha, Qatar. Our main reason in going to Nepal was to hike in the Himalayan Mountains. We chose to do the Annapurna Circuit.
Kathmandu - 3 nights
Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and our main objective in the city was to prepare for our Annapurna Circuit trek. We went to the tourism office to get our trekking permits, and went shopping in the Thamel neighborhood for backpacks and warm clothes.
Aside from preparing for our trek, we also got our first taste dal baht, a famous Nepalese staple dish. It consists of rice, lentil soup, curried vegetables, and various other vegetables and condiments. Dal baht typically costs between $2-$4 and comes with unlimited refills. In the photo below the papadum chip is hiding the curried vegetables and sautéed spinach.
The only sightseeing we did in Kathmandu was visiting Swayambhu, or the monkey temple. We walked there from our hostel in Thamel and paid the 200 rupee ($1.50) entrance fee. I honestly couldn’t believe how many monkeys lived there considering we didn’t see any anywhere else in the city.
Pokhara - 2 nights
From Kathmandu we hopped on a quick, 30 minute flight to Pokhara, a medium sized city west of Kathmandu. Pokhara is a popular city to start many different treks in Nepal. It’s a big tourist hub, with hundreds of small hotels, restaurants, stores, and a gorgeous lake right in town.
Our main focus while in Pokhara was to finalize our packing for the trek. We rented sleeping bags from our hostel (not camping but needed for warmth at night) and bought our bus tickets to Besishahar, the city at the beginning of the Annapurna Circuit.
Annapurna Circuit Trek - 7 nights
What was supposed to be an amazing two week trek through the Himalayan Mountains quickly turned into a week I would honestly rather forget. However I’m sure someday I will look back on this week and laugh. Hell I’m laughing about it already because of how truly awful it was!
On Sunday the 20th Andrew and I took a five hour bus ride from Pokhara to Besishahar. We grabbed some lunch then got in a jeep to skip the first 25k of the Annapurna Circuit. We got dropped off one town prior to where we wanted to sleep for the night so we started walked and immediately went the wrong way. It took us a mile directly uphill to realize this so we turned around and ended up staying in the town where we got dropped off. No big deal, but little did we know it was indicative of how the rest of the week was going to go.
The next day we went the wrong way again but only half a mile out of the way that time. After the brief wrong way the rest of the day went pretty well and we walked about 8 miles. With one mile to go for the day I realized the soles of my shoes were starting to peel back from the shoe and come unglued! Luckily the owner of the guest house we stayed at that night had rubber cement that he let me use.
The second full day of the trek started out really well. Andrew and I met a new Austrian friend and trekked with her for the day. A big portion of the walk was flat so we made really good time and ended up hiking over nine miles. Unfortunately about two miles out from our final stop for the day I got sick and “had some issues” on the side of the road. After another mile it happened again. The last bit of the trek to find our guest house for the night was extremely hard for me as I could tell I was developing a fever and was already so weak. By the time we reached our guest house I all but collapsed in bed and didn’t get out for over 24 hours. I had a bad fever and couldn’t eat anything.
Andrew and I stayed in our little guest house for four nights while I recuperated. We tried to leave after three nights but we couldn’t get a ride off the mountain. There is only a single, one lane road down the mountain and only jeeps and other four wheel drive, high clearance vehicles can manage the road. After four nights we got a ride in a large truck. There were four people in a three person cab for five hours and it was a truly miserable experience, but we made it.
Pokhara - 3 nights
After all the trek disasters and setbacks, we ended up back in Pokhara. We decided to keep our original flights back to Kathmandu so we’ll end up staying in Pokhara for ten nights which will probably be the longest we’re staying anywhere all year. Luckily we’re staying at a hostel we really like that has good wifi. I spent the last few days catching up on my blog and Instagram and just relaxing. Other than that we’ve just been enjoying the local cheap restaurants.
Top 3 Meals of the Month
#3 BeBa Bar, Kazbegi, Georgia
We ate at BeBa Bar twice while we were in Kazbegi. It’s a small restaurant with two Georgian grannies in the kitchen. Their khinkali were excellent and we enjoyed their other dishes as well. We tried a bottle of local wine one night and glasses of their homemade wine the other night and enjoyed both. The prices are very reasonable and for how small the kitchen is, everything comes out in a reasonable time.
#2 Dal Baht, Nepal
Andrew and I have spent 15 days in Nepal in November and I think we’ve had dal baht at least half of them. Our favorite places so far have been Paru Thakali Kitchen in Kathmandu and Yarsa The Thakali Kitchen in Pokhara. The photo below is from Yarsa. It has been my favorite in Pokhara because the dal (lentil soup) was thicker and richer than most others. The papadum was also very fresh and crispy!
#1 Indian Food in Pokhara, Nepal
We’ve eaten at Marwadi Restaurant Pure Vegetarian three times already and plan to go back several more! The location we go to isn’t on google maps for some reason, but there’s another restaurant with the same name on the same road and I’m not sure if they have the same owner or are completely unrelated. So far we’ve tried the chana masala, palak paneer, dal makhani, chana curry, and garlic naan. They also have fresh juices and smoothies and a bar.
Honorable Mention - Zandarashvili Guest House
Honorable mention to our guest house in Sighnaghi! We stayed at Zandarashvili Guest House and loved our time there. We ate dinner there three out of our four nights. The woman that runs the guest house makes so many different and excellent homemade Georgian dishes. Another huge plus was the homemade wine and chacha (liquor made from the grape remnents) they made too.
Budget $$$
Georgia
Budget: $1,200 or $80 per day
Actual Spent: $1,268.79 or $84.59 per day
This is the first time we’ve been so close to hitting our budget without using credit card points for hotels. I am really proud of us considering we still ate out at restaurants every day! Luckily our favorite Georgian foods are the cheapest ones (dumplings, beans, and cornbread lol.)
Nepal (So Far)
Budget: $1,200 or $80 per day
Actual Spent: $1,656 or $110.43 per day
We’ll still be in Nepal for about 10 more days in December, and have time to made up some of the budget. We spent more at the beginning of our time here buying our visas, trekking permits, and trekking gear. We don’t plan on spending much money in our remaining time here, hopefully keeping our spend around $40 per day for both of us. I think we should get our budget down to around $85 per day.
Six Month Budget (Total Spent So Far)
Budget: $26,120 or $141.96 per day
Actual Spent: $29,342 or $159.47 per day
Difference: $3,222 or $17.51 per day
I don’t think we’ll be able to totally make up this difference in our remaining 5.5 months, but I think we should be able to stay in budget and not increase the difference any further.
Credit Card Point Updates
I am going a little more in depth this month than I normally do to give a complete round up of all the credit card points I’ve used on the trip so far. Please let me know if you have any questions about accumulating or using credit card points.
Total Points Used in the Last 6 Months
8 Free Flights (each destination we booked for me and Andrew)
London to Prague on British Airways – 18,500 Amex points transferred to British Airways
Warsaw to Amsterdam on KLM – 20,000 Delta points (Delta and KLM are in the same airline alliance)
Dubrovnik to Berlin on Austrian Airlines – 33,000 United Points (United and Austrian are in the same airline alliance)
Istanbul to Tbilisi on Turkish Airlines – 15,000 Citi ThankYou points transferred to Turkish Airlines
These 86,500 points have saved us $1,345 on flights!
21 Free Hotel Nights
4 nights at the Holiday Inn Express Warsaw – The Hub – 36,000 IHG points
4 nights at the Crowne Plaza Budapest – 70,000 IHG points
2 nights at the Hotel Aqaurius Venice – 25,000 Citi ThankYou points transferred to Choice Hotels
3 nights at the Hyatt Regency Sofia – 21,000 Chase points transferred to Hyatt
4 nights at the Holiday Inn Plovdiv – 33,000 IHG points
4 nights at the Holiday Inn Istanbul City – 40,000 IHG points
The 21 free hotels night were worth approximately $2,668. I am hesitant to say we “saved” $2,668 because if we didn’t have the points we most likely would not have stayed at these hotels, but somewhere cheaper like an Airbnb or hostel. Having these breaks at nice hotels is always such a treat, and one that wouldn’t be possible without credit card points.
Points Used for Future Travel
In addition to the points I’ve used for our travels in the prior six months, I’ve also booked most of our flights for the rest of our Year Long Honeymoon and a few of our hotel stays.
I’ve used 447,500 points to book 13 future flights, three of which are business class and two are premium economy. This has saved us $13,931 on flights.
I have also already booked 17 free hotel nights using 163,690 points worth $3,624.
Updated Point Totals
After booking 21 flights and 38 free hotel nights we have the below points remaining.
Kailyn American Express: 222 points worth ~ $3
Kailyn Chase Ultimate Rewards: 7,493 points + Andrew Chase 42,940 points worth ~ $756
Kailyn IHG: 46,628 points worth ~ $233 + one free night certificate
Kailyn Hyatt: 6,322 points worth ~ $126
Kailyn Delta : 39,796 points + Andrew Delta: 20,800 points worth ~ $788
Kailyn United: 6,552 points + Andrew United: 21,137 points worth ~ $313
Kailyn American: 5,076 points + Andrew American: 46,459 points worth ~ $618
Kailyn Turkish Airlines: 55,000 points worth $825
Kailyn Citi Thank You: 4,954 points worth ~ $74
Kailyn Capital One: 53,981 points + Andrew Capital One: 32,582 points worth ~ $1,298
Total Rewards Points Remaining: 389,934 redeemable for about $5,035
What's Next For Us?
We will still be in Nepal for first part of December, then we’re flying to Singapore! I am so excited to try all the amazing food Singapore is known for! We’ll only be in Singapore for five days before we fly back to the States for Hanukkah and Christmas. We’re so excited we get to see our families for a few weeks before continuing on our travels for a few more months. At the very end of December we’re flying back to Singapore before connecting up to Thailand to ring in the year.
See you next month,
– Kailyn (& Andrew)
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