I just came back from my 9-day trip to South Korea where I spent 4 days in Seoul, 3 days in Jeju Island and 3 days in Busan. It was such an amazing trip (and also damaging to my wallet)! In terms of places to see, I prefer Beijing as there were many places to go. What South Korea lacks in places of interests, they make it up with places of shopping, hence my poor wallet. I got the ticket in June last year during the Free Seats sale AirAsia (always) threw so there were many months of waiting and planning for this trip, which was worth it. The total ticket price inclusive of luggage, travel insurance and meals was RM750, I flew in to Seoul and flew out from Busan.
I have been reading countless blogs and tips and whatever thing you name it while planning for this trip. I have changed my itinerary maybe up to 5 times before settling with the one I used while I was there.
Before going, I went to the Korea Plaza in Menara Hap Seng to get some brochures and also to collect my discount coupons and free T-Money card (pre-loaded with 2,000KRW) under the Discover Korea Your Way 2016 organized by the Korea Tourism Organization. More info on this via this link.
And then came the hard part, exchanging your currency. As everyone knows, MYR performs badly recently and it is not helping in my case. The cheapest rate I got was RM3.48 to 1,000KRW which was when North Korea decided to launch attacks on South Korea. The rate now is getting better as MYR is gaining its strength so if you're planning to go to South Korea, exchange your money now. I exchanged around RM2,500 which left me with around 600,000KRW. Also, I decided to leave my credit card at home and use my debit card instead so I have deposited some money into my CIMB Kwik Card to be used in South Korea. In South Korea, whatever I can pay with my debit card, I used my debit card as I like the sense of security extra cash gives me. You never know what's going to happen so it's good to have extra cash on hands.
I packed for early spring weather so I brought a few coats and a lot of thin long sleeves for layering. Seoul was still chilly when I got there but it got warmer once I got to Jeju Island and Busan. I learnt from the mistakes I made when packing for Beijing so this time around, I only carried what I want to wear. I also packed a few canned tunas, some Brahims pre-packaged food and Maggi but I only finished up the canned tunas and only used a packet of the Maggi as food was easily available during my stay. I had a lot of seafood, banana milk, bread, kimbab and kimchi!
For this trip, I spent around RM3,000 all-in, minus my shopping. It actually can be done for less than RM2,000 but I wanted to enjoy this trip so I splurged.
I will explain in details my itinerary and expenses in my next posts (hopefully).
For now,
back to reality
and work tomorrow.
