It's been a month since I came back from my trip. I've promised to blog about it and now here I am writing and reminiscing my 8 days trip to the Kimchi-Land, South Korea. Initially, South Korea was not in my wishlist as my friend and I wished to go to Jakarta or Depok to be exact. Eis, is a friend whom I met 3 years ago during my student exchange programme in Universitas Indonesia and we have been in contact since then. So it was natural for us to decide to go back to the memory land, pay a visit to our boarding house and meet our host's family.
However, our wish blew away right after we went to the Travel Fair where found out from one of the travel companies that the ticket to Indonesia reached BND450 or even BND500 if I'm not mistaken. Little did I know that other companies sold the ticket much cheaper, but the promotion was over after I heard about it. Maybe I was a tid bit surprised when I heard about the price and with little money in hand we skipped other companies' booths. So not to disappoint myself, I just checked other airlines whether they have any promotions, and it turned out AirAsia offered a pretty good deal considering South Korea is thousand miles away from Brunei. Actually we could have gone to Indonesia, but since we have been there and so why not be adventurous and just give it a go. So the journey to South Korea started here..
Preparation
We bought tickets from AirAsia at a very affordable price, approximately BND550 each, 2 months prior to our departure. The price include a total of 60kg worth of luggage (20kg for departure shared for two and 40kg for arrival; 20kg each), 2 flight meals from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon and Incheon to Kuala Lumpur and travel protection. Since there is no direct flight from Brunei to Incheon, we opted for flight from Miri, Sarawak in which we have to transit to Kuala Lumpur first before heading to Incheon.
As my friend and I only had 10kg baggage each, we brought minimal amount of clothes and food because exceeding it means more MULA which I really couldn't afford (dilemma of an unemployed graduate T.T). I only brought 1 jacket, 3 pants and the rest are clothes for layering. As for food, I filled it with few canned foods such as baby clam and spicy tuna, 3in1 Milo, Nestum and the must-have instant noodles. Also, this is my first time that I purposefully made use of the 7kg hand carry allowance which is useful especially when you're heading back home!
Independent travel means that you have to do research, research and research. Yes, it is a must! That was my initial thought. However, my sister used to complain why do I have to plan beforehand and advised me that plan usually won't work like you want to because I would left with disappointment and regrets if I missed them. The reason for this is because I tend to worry too much and thus I tend to change plan over and over again. So taking her suggestion into account, I took my time in planning and did not packed our itinerary full with activities and opted for free and easy vacation instead.
Speaking of budget, we limit the amount to BND800 (KRW700plus) for 8 days in which my friend succeeded to stay within the budget but I exceeded by BND150 I think (I did not count my exact expenses, I only counted my remaining money). One important piece of advise that should be take into account is that you have to convert BND to USD in Brunei because they do not accept BND. It was my mistake that I forgot to tell my friend to convert to USD in Brunei but fortunately she converted all her money in KL from BND to MYR to USD (do note that the rate will be much lower). Later on you can change USD to KRW in Myeongdong which has a better rate according to my research prior to my departure. We also tried our luck to find money changer that would accept BND but there was none to no avail. Even the bank wouldn't accept BND although we could see a one hundred Brunei dollar sitting on the display.
We also prebooked our accommodation beforehand via booking.com. We stayed at two different places namely Eid Guesthouse and Incheon Airport Hotel Oceanview for 6 days and 1 night respectively. I've been eyeing the Eid Guesthouse from facebook due to positive feedback from my sister's friend and colleague. So when we suddenly decided to go to South Korea, Eid Geusthouse is our first choice as the Muslims community is prominent and hence, halal food is easily available. As we have to catch a morning flight, we decided to stay at Incheon Airport Hotel Oceanview.
So preparation is done and will continue writing about my trip on the next post.
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