hi all travellers enthusiast..am heading to Korea end of May till 3rd of June..check the weather there is around 20-23 Celcius...normal wearing is enough? or it is bit windy?

Hi there everyone! =)

I'm going backpacking to Korea this July for 3 weeks with my friend and cousin..

Read the whole thread and just wanna say thank you for all the valuable info!!! =) My head is swimming with all the info I read in this thread haha..

I have a lot of questions to ask but I guess I'll ask the questions later..

Thanks again! =)

you can try to visit Sokcho town which is 2 hours away by bus from East Seoul Bus Station (Gambyeon station in Seoul Metro). Sokcho is a nice town and you can visit Mt.Sorak which is nearby the town as well.

Thanx tiketbas =) This is the bacically our rough itinerary:

-Arrive at the airport n spend the night there(don't want to trouble our hosts) start our travels the next morning =)
-Seoul 5/6 days, then off to
-Busan 3/4 days
-Gyeongju 1 day
-Jeonju 2 days, go back to Busan if we get the free shuttle bus(round trip) and head to Seoul.
-From Seoul either spend the day there/ head straight to:
-Gangwondo 4 days
-The last 5 days in Seoul =)

Its basically the frame of our itinerary but subject to change if we don't get the free shuttle bus tickets to Busan =)

Hi

i am currently in Seoul. was wondering if withdrawing cash directly from Citibank ATM using my Malaysian Citibank ATM card a good idea?
Will it give me the best exchange rate? Also, is there any transaction/service fee ? As the citibank website does not state much information on this.

Thanks!

Hi Turion64,

There is a charge if you withdraw money from a foreign ATM using a Malaysian card. If not mistaken the charge is Rm30 (correct me if i'm wrong as i got charged this amount before) and no, you dont get good rates. Would suggest you email to Citibank customer service to get a clearer detail.

My friend and I will be in Seoul from 18th-24th June I was supposed to be solo-ing too until she bought a ticket recently to join me haha

Hi all,

May I know if I should bring sweater as I'm travelling next week to South Korea...

Thanks.

hi guys,any of you stayed at these hotels before??

1) Incheon Beach Hotel
2) Kensington Flora Odaesan Hotel
3) Younngrangho Resort
4) Biwon hotel

Hahaha, good for you then. Enjoy your trip=)

Probably will bump into each other in some major destination without knowing each other, hahaha

Hi im travelling to seoul next week with my family.
We did not book a tour. Just wanted to go free and easy.
My concern is language / sign boards / transport.

I heard that there are limited english signs and most koreans do not know english. we only know mandarin and english. any advise on travelling, ordering food and bargaining during shopping .etc ?? how do 1 overcome the language barrier....

Where will you be staying? We're staying somewhere in Hongdae lol
Are you sure its that easy to bump into people, especially in another country? Haha.

Well we can always makan something together if you don't mind because I heard that Korean restaurants aren't really keen to serve tables for 1?

Sigboard not to worry. All comes wth English just below every korean words. Communication yes abit difficult but certain area such as Myeondong & even hotels, the receptionist & Sale girls are able to speak mandarin. Well, if you use hokkien (or lesser mandarin) to speak to those Korean sellers, they can understand abit as well bcos lotsa similar sounding hokkien words in Korean..such as their counting system for eg..for payment ..let say 12,000 won..they pronouned it

Sip yee bang .....similar hor....like a mix hakka-hokkien.. ..Hokkien Chap ji bang.

learn abit of Korean should be OK.

I hope my blog can give a little bit info to other traveler who will visit Korea after this. but, my travel log is on winter season. Nevertheless still you can get a brief idea traveling as backpacker at Korea.

http://mafilee.blogspot.com/

*stimix can include my blog at front page arr as additional info?

This post has been edited by mafilee: May 19 2011, 06:08 PM

Thanx mafilee!

Ur blog really helps =)

i tried swipe my citibank card at the machine but it asked for PIN numbers.
It is not the CCV number.

Haha, isn't hokkien supposed to be Chap ji cheng? Lol..I guess the counting system is not very hard...........................I hope

err..its not advisable to swipe your credit card at the ATM as this is considered a cash advance and the interest on this is calculated on daily basis. If you dont pay up when you get back to KL, the bill will shock you. As for PIN, your credit card will have its own PIN number too. If you dont get it with your card, you can always ring them up and request.

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Added on May 19, 2011, 5:03 pmOn top of Stimix's advice, you can also go to Borders and get the Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook. It'll save your ass at times you need it. Only Rm30 like dat nia.

This post has been edited by tiketbas: May 19 2011, 05:03 PM

hi all reporting from seoul,

to withdraw money with best exchange rate, try this to get a citibank ATM card. there is citibank ATM everywhere in korea.

no transaction fee on Big Citibank ATM machine (those with 2 screens)
small ATM machine (Citibank) with only 1 screen charges Transaction Fee of 3000Won for every 300,000Won withdrawn.

weather here are dry and not that cold at day time. u can wear t-shirt at day time and a light jacket at night.

will report back here if find out more things here.

cheers

Funny..Only citibank ATM working...I'm not sure about others but I failed to withdraw using my Maybank ATM..sigh.