A quick trip to South Korea? I promised you, and what I promised, it was done! We begin our series of articles on my travels by starting at the beginning: preparation! As I mentioned in the last article, I made two trips to the land of the morning calm. To make it clearer, I would address the first and then the second in different articles to avoid getting confused by talking about both at the same time. Is your seat belt fastened? On the way.
Let’s start with a small clarification and not the least: I am French. The administrative parts that I will therefore cite relate to French legislation and the possibilities that a French passport offers me. Let’s go on.
My first trip: fall 2022
I had planned to travel for the duration of a tourist visa, that is to say, for 3 months. Three months on the other side of the planet, alone, with the feeling of going on a great adventure worthy of Indiana Jones (I’m exaggerating, it’s my dramatic side). I’m not known for my organizational skills, however, a trip of this magnitude merited some compromises.
I started planning my trip by purchasing my tickets in February 2022. Proud of myself, I had managed to find return tickets for less than 600 euros. So I had to leave on October 9, 2022 and leave Korean soil on January 5, 2023.
Not being Crésus, I reserved my accommodation gradually over the months before my departure. My plan was simple: I planned to travel from city to city as much as possible to see the whole country and what it had to offer. I was planning to start in Seoul and go directly to Busan. From there, I had to go west, go through the center to go to the east side, go up along the coast to the border, go back through the center before returning to Seoul and visiting the surrounding area. Not everything went as planned but we’ll come back to that.
My budget
My calculation was rather simple:
- 1000 euros for my return plane tickets
- 500 euros/month for accommodation = 1500 euros for 3 months
- 500 euros/month for food = 1500 euros for 3 months
- 1000 euros for 3 months for outings.
- In total: I planned a budget of 5000 euros for the entire stay.
The expenses incurred before leaving were:
- Less than 600 euros for the plane
- On average, my accommodation cost me 400 euros per month.
- Total: out of 5000 euros of planned budget, I had already managed to save 700 euros.
The budget was done, the tickets were booked and while I was booking my accommodations I had to take care of my visa.
In April 2022, Covid-19 and its restrictions were still quite present. If normally, my passport allowed me to not need a visa for simple tourism, there was no question of me doing without it at that time. It was therefore necessary to take steps to obtain the K-ETA to travel during this somewhat complicated period. However, the steps were very simple and I obtained my electronic visa, valid for two years, in less than two weeks.
Visa check, accommodation check, plane tickets check. What do we have left? Baggage, of course!
I was leaving for the fall and part of the winter, I was allowed an 8kg cabin suitcase and 23kg checked baggage. Fortunately, I happily do without several things like cosmetics, hairdryer… Unfortunately, winter clothes take up a bit of space. I tried to take things to last ten days without going to the laundromat. Then, I added some sweaters. The only thing I didn’t take, and didn’t buy in France, was a coat for the Korean winter which is much more important than in my native Brittany.
Where everything didn’t go as planned.
I was leaving on Sunday October 9. On Tuesday October 4, I wanted to find out if it was possible to add additional baggage for extra money, of course. I anticipated the possibility of coming back with more souvenirs. So, to answer this question… I never got an answer. What I did learn, however, was that there was a problem with my flights.
In fact, I was not doing a direct Paris-Seoul. I had a transfer to Warsaw (Poland). The service therefore told me that if my flight arrived in Warsaw at 1 p.m., my Warsaw-Seoul flight would leave at noon. I would not be able to board my second flight. A little nervous, I looked on the internet and saw another Paris-Warsaw flight two hours earlier than my original flight, and with the same airline. Proud of myself, I proposed my solution which was not accepted. I even offered to pay for this additional flight at my own expense (it would still be cheaper than a new plane ticket). But no, if I was not on the first indicated flight, I was considered canceled on the second flight. The only solution was to have my return flight reimbursed to buy a new one: 1300 euros!
New plane ticket, new itinerary.
My flight now went via Paris-Zurich (Switzerland), Zurich-Tokyo. The concern is that Tokyo had fairly high health measures against Covid. I must also say that I was not vaccinated against the virus, however my test was negative. But they wanted my test to be certified in addition to the laboratory by a doctor. Not living in Paris, the time to take the test to go to Paris to sleep there before taking the plane in the early morning, there was no possibility for me to have time to see a doctor afterwards. have received my test results. Also, I was not aware of this condition. Fortunately, after confirming several times at Paris and Zurich airports that, no, I was not planning to leave the Japanese airport before taking my plane to Korea, I was finally able to arrive at my destination.
Here are the beginnings of my first trip. My adventures began even before I left, which explains why I will have to write several articles on the subject.
So, see you next week!!
Chapeau Rouge et Livres en bottes 