A Shoestring Traveler's Basic Arithmetic

When you're young and free (read: broke and on the road), this kind of math makes perfect sense to you:

-Spend $2 and 6 hours on a train (instead of $20 and two hour on a bus)

-Spend $30 and 4 hours on a local train (instead of $60 and 2.5 hours on a high speed train)

-Spend $400 on a 15-hour each way trip Tokyo <-> Kuala Lumpur <-> Perth, Australia (instead of twice the price for half the travel time)

-Spend ___ on a 12-hour each way overnight train Beijing <-> Shanghai (instead of ___ on a ____ highspeed train)

-Spend $600 on flights for a trip intended for Tokyo -> Bali -> Kota Kinabalu -> Tokyo (even though with transfers, it includes Tokyo -> Osaka -> Taipei -> Singapore -> Bali -> Jakarta -> Kuala Lumpur -> Kota Kinabalu -> Kuala Lumpur -> Tokyo, and 48 hours of that 1-week vacation is spent in an airplane, on a bus, or at an airport)

-Spend $100 on a 10-hour overnight bus to Kyoto instead of ___ on a highspeed and bullet train to Kyoto

-Spend 6 hours and $0 overnight at an airport (many, many times) to save on a hotel and catch that god-awful early bird flight

-Spend 5 hours researching blogs, travel sites, and tour agencies to save $200 on a trip up and down Mt. Kinabalu

-Spend ____ on public transportation and shared rides to see the Great Wall of China on your own instead of ___ with an organized tour 

-Spend $27 on a night sleeping like a vampire in its coffin in a capsule hotel instead of $50+ at a hotel

-Spend $2 on a meal on street food in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Singapore, or Korea instead of ___ at a restaurant.

-Spend $7-20 per night in a crowded, noisy, less-than-clean, hostel instead of $30+ in a hotel.