Sweet Korea :)

THE PREPARATION  

Actually this journey was have many struggle inside it. I and my friend, yessy almost didn’t go because of many obstacle. But with belief, miracle and faith so finally we can backpack to korea. :D

There re no many things to prepare actually. We just made Korean visa in Korean embassy, Sanlitun, Beijing. We need to pay 210 RMB each and bring our itinerary, photos 3x4, our bank account, passport, student card, and the copies of them. Its so easy to make visa in china than in Indonesia. After that, you just wait for 1 week, and the visa will be done. J

Anyway, firstly when I and yessy count the budget of backpacked and with tour(china travel agency) we found it’s almost the same. It wasn’t surprising actually, because its well-known that china travel agenct is so cheap. Its aonly cost 2500 RMB for 5 days! Imagine! Then because we’re foreign student, so we need to pay another 1000 RMB each. And after that we will extend another 5 days to explore by ourselves. I remembered how we’re so happy at that time, because we could visit korea with the lowest price ever. But our happiness wasn’t last long. We felt strange when 1 week before the day, we called the travel agency and they still don’t know what time the flight is and they still don’t gave us the fix itinerary. We should aware at that time, but we didn’t. we just felt weird, how come they didn’t make it fixed? And 2 days before our departure, we called again with the anxiety. And our anxiety became reality. They said that we can’t join the tour, not because they didn’t have enough participant, but because we’re foreigner, and the Korean government didn’t allow foreign student come to korea during the lunar new year. They said the Korean government only allow the Chinese citizens. Okay, to be honest it sounds ridiculous for us. We tried hard so we can go, but it was useless. They said that they couldn’t do anything, so they just can give our money back. We said okay. Because we’re insist and insist but that’s useless, so we tried to go by ourselves. And I can said its so hard, because every ticket is fulled booked, and the week after, the price was so expensive. Its kinda depressed us. We’re really mad with the travel agency, because they’re so crazy. They inform us about the ‘nightmare’ only 2 days before our departure. Wasn’t that so crazy? I felt so, and how do you guys think? We feel disappointed and anxious with this kind of thing if we have to travelling with this travel agency. And our nighmare wasn’t done yet, the money wasn’t sent to our bank account, even til our days in seoul. They promised us to sent our money on 18^th jan, but they said theres problem, and they keep phostponement. Again again and again! Finally we got quite okay air fare price on 27^th, so we booked it. And we need to get our money back from the travel agency, so we could pay the air fare, but they didn’t sent it. At that stressful time, we really think that they could be deceive us, and it made us even more terrifying. But we ensure ourselves that they will gave back our money, because they still keep contact with us.

So, after that I changed my date of arrivals with the host. Its quite cofusing, because they can’t on these date, but we tried to figure it out and finally we can fixed the date, and on our first date of arrival, because we don’t have any host yet, so I search on wimdu.com to get the cheapest price, we found it. But because we don’t have credit card or paypal to pay so its kinda hard, but the guesthouse’s was really nice. His name is jae hun, and he said that we can pay when we arrved later.

Actually we got many miracles there. I really thanks God for this. He really give us the best. J and the second good thing when I was searching  jeju local tour. Firstly we plan to explore jeju by ourselves, but the public transportation there is quite hard, and the air fare was really expensive, so when we got the great deal in www.sallytour.co.kr , we’re so happy. The price was really a great deal, and the payment is kinda confusing, at first. But ms sally was so kind to us, she really give her trust for us. She booked the tour which include the hotel, breakfast, lunch entrance fee and air fare. And we don’t have to pay the deposit. She said that we can pay all the money later in jeju. Its so sweet of her. I will recommend her to anyone that wanna visit korea.

So, after the visa, tour,air ticket, we searching the top destinations in seoul. After that, we arrange it based on the area, the time and the subway so its easier to us to go. We write all the information, from the name of place, the address, phone number, website, entrance fee, how to get there by bus or subway. Then after we finished made the itinerary, we count all the costs there. It’s a bit expensive then our first plan. Its because we cant get the cheap price when theres a big day in korea, especially when the date was so closed. You must booked 1 month or 2 months before to get the cheap price rite?

And because its winter, and when we checked the weather channel, seoul’s temperature is colder than Beijing, so we have to bring many warm clothes, and heater pocket.

PS: don’t forget to bring the chargers! And the chargers in korea with china re have different shape. So don’t forget to make sure. ;)