We bid farewell to Guam and our new friends with heavy hearts only to discover our plane was delayed...yet again! This meant we really weren’t going to be arriving into Manila till really late. After what transpired to only be an hour long delay and an uneventful flight we ended up in an inexplicably long customs queue on the other side...this wasn’t starting very well. On advice the advice of Jose we had already downloaded the Grab app (Asian ‘Uber’) so as soon as we were through we jumped in a car and could finally head to our hotel for some much needed sleep (P305/$7.80 AUD/5.70 USD). Worth noting if you don’t have the app already or you can’t connect to the airport WiFi there is a Grab stand where a guy with multiple mobile phones will book one for you...just follow the Grab signs close to the taxi stand outside the airport. Manila is a strange mix of extremely modern and very poor. Driving along the highway it’s all flashing lights, fancy hotels and large shopping malls but as soon as you start winding through the back streets the poverty is starkly apparent. We had booked a hotel near the port as we had an early morning ferry to catch but we may as well have stayed at the port for the night with the amount of sleep we managed to get. I have never heard so many different sounds through one wall...including all night construction, prayer groups, cats, dogs, roosters and bad karaoke!! As soon as one noise would stop another would start and by the time we had to be up we’d managed about 20mins sleep between us. Walking to the port took us through what would normally be a no go area of town in other cities. Makeshift slum houses made from corrugated iron wound through street after street but one thing that is striking about the Philippines is how friendly everyone is and not once as we walked through this part of town did we feel threatened or unsafe. Hot and sweaty, we arrived at the port about half an hour later, ready for our long journey to Coron. We were taking the 15hour 2Go ferry (P) but had read on our tickets that we needed to be there 4hours before our departure time. Although I wouldn’t push it too late this was definitely excessive and you could easily arrive 2hours beforehand with no problems as all beds in all classes are assigned beforehand. The only thing being they do change the departure times with very little notice so be warned it is best to check your departure time on the day if you don’t want to arrive so early. The cheapest tickets (P1550/39.30 AUD/29 USD per person) give you a bunk on the deck and a basic meal, tourist class is inside with aircon. When we booked tickets in advance there was very little difference in price. If this is the case go for tourist class as it gets very hot on deck. If not, you’re in for a long but not too unpleasant night. We managed to befriend 2 other couples (both British) along the way who helped while away the hours. The ferry was actually early arriving into Coron and suddenly and quite unexpectedly we found ourselves out on the street and piling into a trike at 4am heading into Coron Town (P50/$1.25 AUD/0.95 USD but it should only be P20/0.50 AUD/0.35 USD). Having spent the last 3 months in Eastern Asia where booking in advance is essential we were excited about being a little more flexible again. Now, having extensively traveled through both Southeast Asia and Central and South America we have our system down and not once has it failed us! Leave one with the bags and the other goes to check out what is available. Dani headed off in to the dark while I hung out with Sophie and Josh who we had met on the boat. About 50 minutes later she appeared again with a face like thunder. 15 guesthouses she had been to and not one had any room. Very dejected and slightly concerned, we decided to take a risk at head with Sophie and Josh to their guesthouse Maritonies which was quite far out in the hopes that even though they had no rooms online they may have some space. We could have kissed the woman when upon enquiringly desperately, she smiled apologetically and said “we only have fan rooms, is that ok?”(P800/$20.55 AUD/15 USD). After discussions with not only Sophie and Josh but other travellers in the guesthouse it transpired that Southeast Asian travel has changed. People no longer show up and search for a room on the ground, they book in advance online. This apparently means all the good, cheap places are booked by the time you get somewhere which spurs more people to book ahead meaning more guesthouses are getting online and so the disappointing cycle continues! I’m not sure what this means for the carefree traveller but I think it’s sad because the whole nature of backpacking is the beauty and freedom of waking up one morning and deciding to go to another town, city or even country on a whim and if you’re booked in for the next 3 nights maybe you won’t follow your new friend to the next place etc. Having at least found somewhere decent to stay it was time to find some food. There’s not a lot going on when it comes to Filipino food but we found some cheap meals in the market on the way to the port (there are two markets in this area and you actually want to head to the souvenir market not the local fruit and vege market). Our next task for the day was to book a tour to see what Coron is really famous for, it’s surrounding islands and marine life. Dani managed to negotiate a trip for (P1200/$30.80 AUD/22.50 USD) which included snorkel gear and lunch but be careful as a lot of companies try to charge extra for the gear but don’t tell you this when you book. We chose this package because it took us to all the major highlights The next day the 4 of us set off for our excursion and it was this trip that really showed us we were back in Southeast Asia. We had gotten used to the organisation of Japan and Korea and it was a bit of a harsh reality check when we were suddenly jumping from boat to boat to get to ours at the end of the line as well as having a tour guide who showed almost no interest in guiding us what so ever. In hindsight it was exactly what it said on the tin...transport to Siete Pecados, Kayangan lake, Beach 91, Skeleton Wreck, Malwawey Coral Garden, CYC Beach, and Twin Lagoon, safety equipment (actually more than a lot of countries) and a good lunch. While the spots you get to visit on this trip are incredibly beautiful, the sheer number of boats and tourists in each location makes it almost impossible to appreciate this. There appears to be no limit on the number of people allowed in each place at one time and all the companies seem to follow exactly the same itinerary so there isn’t even a steady flow of people in and out. This made it hard to really enjoy the trip as we spent most of our time battling with other tourists or boats to get to where we wanted to be or see what we had set out to see. That being said it’s not an unpleasant trip, just uncomfortably busy. Coron Town itself leaves a lot to be desired. It’s dirty and dusty as well as personality-less. The town almost entirely caters to tourists and most of it is overpriced and underwhelming. Due to this we felt it would be better to head to El Nido earlier than we had initially planned. After 3 nights we headed back to the port for the fast ferry to take us to El Nido. Having booked online (P1848/$47.50 AUD/34.60 USD and playing totally into the new culture here) we needed to swap our reservation documents for tickets at the office approximately 50m from the port back towards Coron Town on the right hand side. You only need to be there an hour beforehand but also make sure you check that the boat is leaving at the scheduled time on the day as this changed. Pre booking online does cost a tiny bit more than the set rate you are offered in the travel agencies throughout Coron Town but they can only be purchased a day in advance and if the once daily boat you want to catch gets booked up then you’re stuck there for another day. The journey has a reputation for being pretty rough at times but we were lucky and it was smooth sailing the whole way (good news for me who gets sea sick). From the moment we sailed into the entrance of El Nido harbour it was clear we had made the right decision moving on. Although it has the same ‘cater only to tourist vibe’ it is a much prettier place. It’s a sheltered harbour surrounded by soaring cast cliffs and scattered with coconut palms. Everything is walking distance from the port so we ignored the calls from trike drivers, bid farewell to Sophie and Josh who were staying outside of El Nido and headed off to find the guesthouse (that yes we had booked online). The place we had chosen was the cheapest place ($15.70 AUD/11.60 USD) left and had some fairly hit and miss reviews. We found while it was nowhere near luxurious it was definitely a lot better than most of the reviews made it out to be. Again (like in Japan) we had found that booking online via Klook (we’ve found this a great booking website for Asia) was cheaper for the standard trips in El Nido. We had booked on to tour D ($25.80 AUD/$19 USD) which we knew was not the “must visit” spots but having seen how crowded everything had been in Coron we felt it might be better to go to some lesser visited sights. We had this tour booked for our first full day and waited eagerly downstairs a good 30 minutes prior to our pickup time...and we waited and we waited. Finally after calling numerous times we were whisked down to the port not really knowing what was going on. Once there it was explained to us that our guesthouse had our names wrong and had told the tour company that we weren’t staying there. Due to this we had missed our chance to go on a trip but that they actually weren’t running tour D due to lack of demand at the time and offered us places on want of there other trips for the next day instead. It made sense to choose the most expensive tour so we decided on tour A. After reading reviews it turns out they never seem to run tour D so it’s a great way of saving money on doing the more expensive tour by booking D through Klook and then choosing tour A! This actually turned out to be a really good day despite 10 minutes in, it pouring with such heavy rain that you couldn’t see more than 3 or 4 meters in front of the boat. It was quite scary being on a fairly rickety boat with bamboo stabilisers being lashed with rain but none of the crew seemed in the slightest bits phased by it and within 20 minutes it was blue skies and sunshine again. The crowds actually felt a lot less offensive on this trip and the snorkelling was a lot better than it had been in Coron. It’s not quite the stunning coral reef it’s made out to be (everything is damaged or dying) but the fish are really beautiful. El Nido is quite a nice place to chill out and relax. We didn’t feel any pressure to go on any other trips or explore the surrounding area so we spent our spare days just walking out along the beach and having a few San Miguel’s at sunset along the waterfront. After 4 relaxing nights it was time to head to our last stop in the Philippines, Puerto Princesa. We had booked one of the minivans in town (P500/$12.65 AUD/9.35 USD) and understood that we needed to make our own way to the bus station (which is definitely walkable from town) to start our journey. Our problems began when we arrived to be told our minivan wouldn’t be going, but that it was ok because they would happily buy us a ticket for the bus instead. Now, the fact that the bus is cheaper, slower and arrives 7km out of town meaning we would need transport on the other side, meant we really weren’t happy with accepting this offer of a bus ticket in exchange without a refund of the difference (P120/$3.05 AUD/2.25 USD). After about a 20minute stand off (and almost missing the only bus) the man grabbed our tickets and sped off on a motorcycle muttering something about a refund. Pretty sure we’d lost our money and resigning ourselves to having to pay for the bus as well, the man arrived back at the station with a full refund just as the bus choked into life ready to leave. What we learned from this was that an earlier minivan is a better choice and you would be best getting to the bus station and getting on the next one that is leaving rather than prebooking a specific minivan through a specific company. We saw 4 other sets of tourists in the same boat as us and only us and one other couple got on the bus so hopefully the others found alternative solution. The bus is painfully slow but it gets you from A to B. We were told that the road quality was terrible but from our experience it’s now well constructed the whole way. It’s the constant stopping that makes this bus so slow. When we arrived into Puerto Princesa we found ourselves a trike (P120/$3.05 AUD/2.25 USD) and set off for our guesthouse Fanta Lodge. Now, this place is functional enough and walking distance from the airport but the basic rooms ($8.15/6 USD) are literally concrete cells under tin roofs and are roasting hot. The nicer rooms with private bathroom and aircon were well worth the sneaky upgrade for our second and final night ($12 AUD/8.85 USD). Puerto is a town really only good for transiting through. We were flying back to Manila from there and we hadn’t wanted to spend 3 days in transit (El Nido - Puerto - Manila - Bali - Timor-Leste) so had opted for a rest day in Puerto. We did our best to explore what it has on offer but that isn’t a lot so I wouldn’t recommend spending any more time here than necessary. On our final day in the Philippines we walked to the airport and checked in for our flight. Surprise surprise we were delayed again but luckily we had plenty of time between our 2 flights for the day. We were also flying into the right terminal in Manila so wouldn’t even have to change. Our flight landed an hour after it was scheduled to meaning we now only had 5 hours to kill at Manila airport before boarding our flight to Bali. It turns out that there is a pretty decent food selection for reasonable prices here but we ate back at our newly discovered favourite Chow King. The time passed surprisingly quickly and soon we were on our 2 leg of 3. Because you can only fly to Timor from Bali, Singapore and Darwin we would be spending the night by Bali airport before getting on our final leg. We actually were really stoked by our airport accommodation Chillin Kuta Homestay which had only cost $17AUD (12.55 USD). It had comfortable beds, good WiFi and a decent ensuit bathroom. Best of all it is only a 3 minute walk from the airport (you can see the airport from the balcony). Definitely a great deal if you happen to have an early flight. It was time for our next adventure in Timor-Leste which would be the last country in Southeast Asia for us to visit. Overall, we had enjoyed our time in the Philippines but both left wishing we had explored it when we were on our big Southeast Asia trip in 2013. Back then the Banana Pancake trail hadn’t hit the Philippines and it was still a little undiscovered. That being said the people are wonderfully friendly and very chatty and I bet there are still some wonderful undiscovered gems but Palawan certainly isn’t that. LGBT: The Philippines is a conservative Catholic country but overall we found them to be pretty accepting. There was a lot of misgendering of Dani which got frustrating at times but it was never with malicious intent. The Philippines has also been ranked as one of the most gay friendly nations in Asia. The marriage equality debate is currently being argued in the Supreme Court and they have a female openly trans politician serving in congress who was elected in 2016. Budget Time $$$The Philippines was an interesting location in terms of setting a budget. Prior to going I had looked at a couple of backpacking blogs which stated that if one was to island hop around the area then a much more generous budget than the average South East Asian norm would be needed. Seeing as we were going to be in The Philippines for less than two weeks we decided to punt for a higher daily budget than our standard $35AUDpp/day. Knowing that we didn’t need anything too extravagant once we were on the ground in terms of accommodation and food we agreed on $45AUDpp/day, which gave us flexibility in terms of how we would get around but didn’t push us out of a backpacker’s spending power. As has become a bit of a trend for us, we came in under this. In fact, as you can see below we only very very slightly came outside of our standard South East Asia zone.
Unsurprisingly our greatest expense was transport and accounted for nearly 50% of our total spend – something which has never been the case before. All of the blogs out there are absolutely right; ferries/flights between the islands in The Philippines are not cheap. As we have said in the main blog, booking in advance stands to save you a really decent amount of money! Obviously the name of the game when visiting the islands is to go out and explore and that means organised trips. What we noticed about these trips on both Coron and El Nido is that the prices within the budget range are pretty much standardised and what you get for your money is all much of a muchness. They go to the same places and pretty much include the same things – boat, ‘guide’, lunch (watch out for snorkel and mask hire extras). You don’t need to do much shopping around or haggling if you’re just going to follow suit and do the standard day trips. All of these trips are reasonably priced and can easily be fitted into a basic backpacker budget. Food throughout the country was inexpensive but also generally pretty uninspiring. We paid $3-5AUDpp/meal at local places and this got us satisfactory portions of rice/noodles with meat, fish or eggs and veggies. Budget accommodation throughout the country was fine. It was in Coron that we discovered that pre-booking is almost a necessity in parts of SE Asia now which I find incredibly disappointing, but fortunately this does not appear to have affected the price too much, as long as you get your booking done in time to catch the budget options. We paid an average of about $15AUD/room/night and this got us comfortable and satisfactory rooms every time. They didn’t always have en suite bathrooms, or aircon, but they were always acceptable for the price. The jump to get all the real comforts in the Philippines is pretty significant, so on a budget you really can’t expect it all. Overall the Philippines was not as expensive as we had been lead to believe it would be on the basis that we did island hop and we weren’t there for very long so we crammed a lot into a short time. You definitely don’t get as much bang for your buck as you do in certain other SE Asian countries, but it is absolutely doable on a reasonable backpackers budget! What we actually spent: $781.82 AUD in 11 days Transport: $358.09 AUD Accomodation: $147.14 Entertainment: $123.67 Food: $97.17 Drinks: $42.29 Souvenirs: $7.30 Miscellaneous: $6.17 This works out at $35.53 AUD per person per day.
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So I’m not going to lie…the reality is we panic booked our flight to Guam. We were looking into ways to fly from South Korea to Timor Leste (we know, not your average route) and while trying to avoid a ridiculous layover in Kuala Lumpur I discovered you could fly from Busan to Guam (that’s totally the same place as Timor right?). I’m going to be totally honest now and say at the time I really didn’t know either where Guam was or anything about it (Dani at least knew it was a U.S. overseas territory) all I knew is that the tickets were on sale and if we missed out it was going to get a lot more expensive to get there (without really knowing why I had a sudden desire to go to a place I knew nothing about). I kind of briefly ran the idea past Dani and we made the decision that we needed to book these tickets quickly in case the price went up. One thing we maybe should have checked was where you could fly to from Guam before booking but hey life’s an adventure right..?! Within 30 minutes we were proud purchasers of tickets to Guam and still had no clue as to how to get to Timor from there. This is when we discovered that the only way we could do this was Guam to Manila, Manila to Bali and Bali to Timor. Also at the time it looked like United was the only option to Manila and it was not going to be cheap (after booking these expensive flights we discovered that Cebu Air do much cheaper ones at a much more sociable time of day). Also another thing we hadn’t thought through was that in attempting to avoid the long layover we were now going to be arriving in Guam at 3am…joy. This was perhaps not our strongest of planning circumstances…but…what you gonna do? Well, it turned out that in panic booking a random flight we were now heading to what would become one of our favourite destinations of the trip. Not only this, but we were now going to finally be seeing the Philippines afterwards on the way to Timor 5 years after we had initially planned to see both. We arrived in Guam early and knew that we weren’t able to check in to our AirBnB until 9am. I had also looked at a map before arriving and seen that it was only 5km from the airport to our apartment…totally walkable. So, at 4am we ignored the catcalls from taxi drivers and set off into the dark…along a highway…in the rain...with our 16kg backpacks and 7-10kg front packs and no sidewalks or pavements in sight! Why I hear you ask…we’ll get back to you on that one! Our only saving grace was knowing there was a Denny’s that we prayed would be open 24 hours like they are in the rest of the world waiting at the end. I’m not sure how but we made it just before sunrise and not only were the staff the friendliest people we had met in months but they had peanut butter, chocolate chip pancakes the size of my head and best of all they weren’t pickled or spicy. Now, I’ve been rambling on a little about how we got to Guam but for those of you who like previous me know nothing about Guam it is a U.S. overseas territory that has 2 large U.S. military bases that take up about a third of the land there. The rest is a stunning tropical island with amazing locals including the indigenous Chamorro people. Think…maybe Hawaii without the ridiculously high prices. The beach in the main tourist area is practically deserted, with white sand and turquoise water and some really good snorkelling just off shore. Just about asleep on our feet we made it to our AirBnB for 9am and checked in. The house was basic but had a kitchen and good aircon and it wasn’t long before I passed out. Accommodation is expensive in Guam so the $74.25AUD ($56USD) a night was steep for our backpacker budget but with the ability to cook for ourselves we hoped would greatly reduce our overall costs. After having a decent nap I thought that the best plan of action would be to leave the house to avoid falling back asleep. I’m not sure why I thought after the 5km walk in the morning a 4km round trip was the smartest idea but the need to stay awake kept us going. We were off to the worlds largest Kmart. Yes you heard me right Guam has the worlds largest Kmart. What this Kmart didn’t have wasn’t worth knowing about. We stocked up on snacks and started the hot walk back. Just for future reference there is a shuttle bus that takes you to all the major shopping malls for $4 USD ($5.30 AUD) per journey but we thought that would add up too quickly to start using it on day one. That night we slept like the dead and woke up really ready to explore. The main tourist beach and shopping district was not far down the road from our apartment so we set out to wander. Guam is a bit of a shoppers dream. It has the convenience of the U.S but set in a tropical paradise. It’s a good place to get new clothes, eat a bit of western food and then immerse yourselves in with the friendly locals. There are so many shopping malls and souvenir shops it isn’t funny but the good thing is that unlike the states they actually include all the tax in the prices. As the closest U.S territory to Asia it has become a bit of a shopping haven for the Koreans, Japanese, and Filipinos. The best way to see the island is by car as there aren’t many buses running (although they do exist). One option is to hire a car but this is quite expensive so the option we decided to go with is booking a tour through Tropical Tours Guam. This turned out to be the best decision we could have made. Our first tour was the island tour and was to include the history of Guam. The company’s owner José picked us up and there were already 2 other guests in the car. One of who already had a can of beer in his hand and was already hammered at 8.30am. I think this was a bonding experience for José and the 2 of us and by the end of the day we were laughing and joking like old friends. This tour was a great introduction to the island though because it showed this history from Chamorro traditional architecture (Late Houses), Spanish forts, Japanese occupation and how Guam became a U.S Territory. We also visited a very cool WWII museum that showed the perspectives of the Japanese and the U.S in Guam and told the story of a Japanese soldier who didn’t realise the war had ended and hid out in the forest for 26 years. By the end of the day we felt like we had really started to get more of an understanding of where we had ended up. After dropping off the other 2 guests José invited us out to have dinner with his family. Not just him, his wife and his kids but also a collection of aunties, uncles and cousins as well. It was so nice to hang out with them and really get to see a different side to the island and feel like we’d made some real friends. We also signed up for the cave tour ($45 USD/59.70 AUD pp.), which took us to a beautiful cave set in a very pretty part of the island. You can snorkel in the fresh water, which is amazing and it is the perfect way to cool off in the tropical heat. The only thing is I would recommend doing the cave and waterfall tour together rather than just the cave as I feel it would give you a better-rounded trip. I can’t really explain just how much we needed Guam when we arrived. We have been on the road for 22 months now and it was so nice to arrive in a place that felt distant, fresh, new and exciting all while still feeling a little bit familiar. Guam is suffering a little after the Japanese stopped coming due to tensions with North Korea and it doesn’t deserve it. It is a warm and welcoming place with a total island vibe and a place where you can unwind and relax. We learnt it wasn’t as expensive on the ground as we thought it would be and if you are traveling around Asia and want somewhere that’s a little bit different why not give this Micronesian Island a chance. It is after all only 3 hours from Manila and 3 hours from Busan. LGBT: We were welcomed with open arms in Guam and we learned that the churches view of homosexuality is one of the reasons people in Guam are turning away from the church (the other reason being the continuous child abuse scandals). There is even a weekly drag night at one of the bars in Tumon. Budget Time $$$What it actually cost:
$1,088 AUD for 7 days. Accommodation: $445.54 Entertainment: $297.09 Food: $238.41 Souvenirs: $62.89 Drinks: $24.86 Miscellaneous: $19.78 This works out at $77.71 AUD per person per day. Guam is not a budget backpackers destination. In fact, it’s not really a destination at all for many people. So unsurprisingly it isn’t cheap! Being an American overseas territory you basically need to be prepared to pay American standard prices for things. Our daily budget for the two of us was $200AUD ($150USD). We did manage to come under this but that was largely the result of staying in an Airbnb with a kitchen and therefore cooking most of our meals ourselves instead of eating out. This is definitely a good tip if you want to visit Guam on a budget as supermarket groceries for the most part aren’t particularly expensive. In terms of the cost of activities on the island, again you have to accept they are going to be pretty standard American prices. We did a couple of tours with the fabulous Tropical Tours Guam which offer a multi tour discount and are absolutely worth looking into for your planned excursions while on the island. Your only other real alternative is to hire your own car which a lot of visitors to Guam opt for as their transport option, although we decided this was not necessary for us. Honestly, Guam does not cater to the backpacker crowd, it targets package holiday makers from nearby Korea and Japan. That being said it is a fabulous and very worthwhile off the beaten track destination to visit, you just have to be prepared to pay for it! Touching down on the tarmac and careering side to side as the wind and plane struggled against each other. We were in South Korea, which had been on Dani’s list since she had begun teaching 8 years ago. Our first stop was a town an hour south of Seoul called Dongtan where we were staying with our friends Ana and Hambit. We had met Ana on our last big backpacking adventure while in Laos and we were really excited to be able to see her again as well as have a really local introduction to South Korea. We spent three days with them and were absolutely spoiled throughout! They showed us wonderful hospitality, introducing us to a range of local traditional foods, taking us to a beautiful bamboo grove, Damyang (yes it absolutely rivals the one in Kyoto) and down to Jeonju, the area that gave the world the famous Korean dish, Bibimbap. Because we were driven we can’t give you an idea of how to get to or where to stay in Jeonju but I can say it is definitely worth a visit. It has a large set of hannok houses, which give the town an old world feeling and it is very pretty to wander around. Also, if you have time to really explore, head up the hill that overlooks the city. At the top you will find the most wonderful selection of unusual and eclectic street art, it is certainly an interesting place to see. Probably the best advice we can give you is to go to Jeonju with an empty stomach. The area is known as the kitchen of Korea and food is certainly King here. Everything from street snacks to full sit down restaurant meals can be got there and it is some of the best you’ll find in Korea. After 2 great days with Ana and Hambit we had to bid farewell and head to Seoul. Our main reason for visiting Seoul was to go on the JSA and DMZ tour on the border of North Korea, however, we received and email just before we got there saying that our trip had been cancelled due to preparations for the talks between North and South. Unfortunately for us the email explained that they would not be going to the JSA until May meaning we had no hope of setting foot in North Korea this trip. This was deeply disappointing for Dani, as she had been looking forward to this for ages but there was nothing we could do. While in Seoul we were staying near Seoul station in what we truly hope will be the last dorm we ever stay in (we’re far to old these days for dorms)! Kimchee Station Hostel was only W10,800pp ($13.05 AUD/10.10 USD) for a mixed 6-bed dorm, which is amazing value for Seoul. Unfortunately, we ended up sharing with potentially the least considerate (we’re talking lights on at 3am, eating loudly through the night and rustling plastic bags at every opportunity) loudest snorer we have ever come across. As a basic hostel that is cheap, well located and functional we would say Kimchee is fine but I think there are probably better options out there for only a little more money. Having planned to spend our 7th anniversary together crossing into North Korea we were at a bit of a loss on how to celebrate. We decided a silly day at the Trick Eye museum sounded fun so we headed to Hongdae to check it out. As funny as it was it wasn’t really worth the W15000pp ($18.60 AUD/14 USD), but it was a decent enough way to spend a couple of hours. Hongdae is the trendy youthful area of Seoul and it has some great streets to wander around as well as good shops for souvenirs like fun Korean socks which I developed a bit of a thing for in Eastern Asia and now have an ever expanding collection of. We hear it’s a 24-hour kind of place that has some great nightlife and some good accommodation options so if you’re into nightlife it’s probably a good place to base yourself. Not the anniversary we were hoping for in the end but we decided we’d make up for it in our next destination. Another thing we had planned for Seoul was to visit one of their many palaces. It was going to be interesting comparing the architecture to the Japanese castles we had just come from and we thought the best way to learn about the history was to book onto a guided tour. We booked onto one online but the guide never showed up. Lucky for us Gyeongbokgung Palace (entrance: W3000/$3.64AUD/$2.70USD) also provided a free hour long guided tour around the complex at midday, so we waited the extra 30 minutes, which allowed us to also see the changing of the guards before we started. This was an enjoyable and interesting introduction to Korean architecture and history. At the end of the tour you can walk out the back entrance to the Blue House where the president lives. There are a plethora of palaces you can choose from on your visit to Seoul and they even have the option to buy a multi palace pass costing W10,000 ($12.50AUD/$9USD). This gets you entry to Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung, Changdeokgung, Huwon Secret Garden, Changgyeonggung and Jongmyo Shrine which would cost W14,000 ($17 AUD/12.60 USD) if bought separately. After our palace tour we decided to explore the city on foot and walk back to our hostel (there are really good subway connections around Seoul if this isn’t your kinda thing). While walking back to the hostel we came across Lotte Mart in Seoul station and discovered a real trick to keeping the budget down in Korea. Supermarket samples! The supermarket handed out so many food samples we didn’t need to eat that evening. Everything from instant noodles to vegetables was available for sampling. Watching the locals dig into multiple samples of everything also meant we felt comfortable grabbing a few slices of pepper or a whole square of chocolate rather than half. Also we noticed that all supermarkets appear to have a food station with tables that you can eat at which offer basic but decent looking meals at very reasonable prices. As per usual we signed up for a city walking tour while in Seoul and with a range of options available we chose the one that took us around the older district of the city. The strange thing we discovered about the free walking tours in Korea is that they do not expect tips. It actually appeared to embarrass our tour guide when we attempted to tip her and although she took it she did say that it really isn’t the norm. This tour took us through the older hannok styled area of the city, which was really pretty in comparison to the modern surroundings. It really wasn’t the most informative tour but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. As we aren’t really city people we were looking forward to heading out to less busy and hectic parts of the country. Our next destination was Sokcho, on the east coast of the country. We had found out that there was a direct bus to the station we needed from Dong Seoul station that would cost W12,800pp ($15.50 AUD/11.55 USD). To get to the station from Kimchee was really easy as it was on the green line, which goes directly to the bus station. The bus journey was comfortable and easy. Arriving at the bus station we were elated to find that the motel we had booked was actually right next to the bus station. We loved our motel (‘Rocustel’ $41.25 AUD/30.70 USD) but it was here that we discovered that in Korea motels are not simply cheaper hotels like they are in the west…they are actually for couples looking for some…alone time. I’ve got to say if you’re looking for reasonably priced accommodation, that’s of a high standard (for a backpacker) and has good amenities these (love) motels are definitely a great option! Our main objective for stopping in Sokcho was to visit the national park. The number 7 and 7-1 goes all the way from the city to the park entrance for W1,200 ($1.45 AUD/1.05 USD). The national park entrance fee is only W3,500 ($4.20 AUD/3.10 USD) and the park itself has many different trails you can take, most of which split off after the giant Buddha statue. We decided to take the trail up to the poetry inscriptions which is 3.8km. This park is beautiful and we really enjoyed the time we spent there. Sokcho itself has few noteworthy points of interest but we really liked it mainly for the chilled vibe it has. Following Sokcho we were off to Gangnueng, from the bus station on the other side of Sokcho (W6,300/$7.60 AUD/5.65 USD) to go to Unification Park. This meant us checking into another love motel aptly named Sketch ($41.20 AUD/30.65 USD and this one came with a little pouch at check in that included condoms, his and hers toothbrushes, lotions, potions and soap). Gangneung has a wonderful market that we stumbled across, full of weird and wonderful snacks which we loaded up on for dinner on our first night. The next morning we caught the number 113 bus to the park to see the infamous North Korean submarine…I’m not sure what either of us were expecting but this wasn’t really it. It had an old navy ship you could tour (W3000/$3.65 AUD/2.70 USD), the submarine which you could look at and after a walk up the hill you could visit the museum, which was entirely in Korean. This also did have a number of retired military planes you could check out. This place in short was weird, but not a total waste of time if you’re in the area. I feel like if you’re short on time Gangneung could be skipped altogether. From here we were off to Andong so that we could visit the traditional village of Hahoe. From Gangneung there are only a few buses a day direct to Andong (W19,200/$23.50 AUD/17.50 USD) so we’d actually bought our tickets on the day we arrived. This probably wasn’t necessary but it helped us relax. Andong was to be our last motel (‘Queen Motel’ $40.55 AUD/30.20 USD) and we received another great pouch full of goodies from the shy girl who wouldn’t make eye contact with me from behind the desk. I’m going to say Hahoe is another place I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit. Sold as a traditional Korean farming village it really does feel more like a movie set than anything else. There are no people around and it feels slightly voyeuristic wandering around, peeping over fences and in through windows wondering why you’re there and what you’re missing. If you are going though its fairly easy to get there as there is a bus that leaves from opposite the supermarket in Andong and goes all the way to the ticket office for Hahoe (Bus: W1,300/$1.55 AUD/1.15 USD Village: W5,000/$6.05 AUD/4.50 USD). If you’re really looking for traditional head to Jeonju, Geongju or the area in Seoul that has maintained its older houses, in many ways this just felt like a bit of a constructed tourist trap. Andong itself is actually a nice town and does hold a more traditional vibe than a lot of other towns in South Korea. We heard they are very conservative here but we found everyone warm and welcoming. They also have a great food street to find a cheap dinner. Our last stop on our South Korean tour was Busan and we had planned a side trip to Gyeongju. Fairly fast to get to from Andong on both bus and train we decided to take the slow cheaper train (W15,000/$18.15 AUD/13.50 USD) there for the more scenic route. This takes you as far as Napo station on the outskirts of Busan and then you need to take the metro from here into the city (W1,400/$1.70 AUD/1.10 USD) and we had chosen to stay by Busan Station. It looked really central when we booked it and it was incredibly good value at $29.60 AUD ($22 USD) for a private room with ensuite at the sister hostel to where we had stayed in Seoul. It turned out that this location is actually “Little Russia” otherwise known as the red light district (I know I’m good at finding us these places to stay), which has a pretty dodgy reputation after dark. Luckily we’re not night owls so this worked out fine. Our only real plan for Busan was Gyeongju and this is just about doable in a day trip from there. However, in hidsight we really liked it in Gyeongju and wished we had stayed and explored it from there rather than on a rushed day trip. To get there you need to catch the metro back to Napo station (W1,400/$1.70 AUD/1.10 USD) and then get a bus to Gyeongju (W4,800/$5.80 AUD/4.30 USD). From there if you are planning on visiting Bulgaksa Temple it’s another bus (W1,700/$2.05 AUD/1.50 USD) and entrance to the temple is a further W5,000 ($6.05 AUD/4.50 USD). Our favourite part of Gyeongju was actually wandering through the park where the tombs of old emperors are found and the old village which is really pretty. It’s a long round trip from Busan (6ish hours all up) so again I would say you’re better off staying there but it’s totally doable if you’re stuck for time as the connections are frequent and easy. We also did another walking tour in Busan run by the lovely Ben. He gave us a great tour around old Busan and it’s version of Hollywood. We had a great time with him and he was able to show us another side to Busan we wouldn’t have got otherwise including the famous Gukje market. Overall I think I speak for both of us when I say I’m glad we’ve been to South Korea but I’m not sure it’s somewhere that needs to be high on anyone’s travel bucketlist. Our favourite part of the trip was spending time with our friends and we were really shown a different side to the country that I’m not sure is possible to get without a lot of time here. We found 2 very distinct sides to this culture that very much seemed to contradict themselves. When with Korean friends we were welcomed and treated so well by not only them, but everyone that they introduced us to. When we were on our own we found that people could often be rude, abrasive and unhelpful. I read something that seemed to resonate with our experiences which was if you have been introduced to someone you become a person and are shown the upmost warmth and respect. If there has been no formal introduction, then you don’t count as a person so you are not awarded the same social courtesies. There are weird and wonderful things to discover here but it’s not an easy place to be and the national treasures seem to miss the mark in comparison to their neighbours. That being said you should definitely go and check it out for yourself because you may just find something we didn’t. LGBT: We didn't face any problems while we were here and didn't even get questioned when checking in to love motels (they even gave us the condoms). This being said there is an extremely present Christian community here that makes you feel as if discression is neccessary. There has never been any legal discrimination against the LGBT community in South Korea but it really is more of a don't ask don't tell culture. Budget Time $$$Korea’s budget was a nice $45AUD ($35USD) per person per day. By the end of our trip we came in nearly $300AUD under budget for the whole 16 days, however, I’m not sure this would have been the case had we not spent 3 nights staying with a friend just outside of Seoul at the start. That being said, I think we would have been pretty much on point with our budget, making Korea a very affordable destination in terms of a backpacker’s range. Unsurprisingly (and as was pretty much the norm for the whole of Eastern Asia), accommodation was our greatest expense in Korea and accounted for almost exactly 30% of our budget, which is what we aim for as a maximum. The cost to quality ratio wasn’t always what we hoped for but we found that ‘motels’ were a great option for budget comfort. Solo travellers will definitely find hostels and dorms a good deal but as a couple we could pay as little as a dollar more than two dorm beds a get a private room. In terms of transport costs, Korea is pretty reasonable. We opted to use the bus to get around the country and on journeys between 3-5hrs long the average cost was around $15AUDpp ($11USD). It’s not the cheapest but it certainly wasn’t anything like the expense of Japan and the buses were always comfortable. Korea does also have it’s own version of the JR pass but it is much more limited in terms of the ground that it covers so for us it wasn’t even worth considering. Inner city transport like buses and metros are also very reasonably priced with journeys averaging no more that $1-2AUD ($0.75-1.50USD). We were pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive activities in Korea were compared to Japan and Taiwan. Entrance to National Parks, museums and other tourist locations of interest rarely surpassed $5AUDpp ($3.50USD). The combination of reasonable transport and entrance costs meant that doing all of the things that interest you in all locations around Korea is absolutely affordable! Food is not the cheapest in Korea, and if you want to eat any fresh fruit or vegetable then you can absolutely forget about any budget! If it’s not yet fermented then you pay a premium for it!! Obviously Korean noodle pots are a bit of a thing in Korea and these are incredibly cheap to pick up from a supermarket ($1AUD/0.75USD average). If you are looking to eat in a restaurant, even the cheapest local places will set you back $10-15AUDpp ($7-11USD). While that’s not astronomically high, on a budget of $45AUD/day that quickly eats into your budget...pardon the pun! Generally Korea’s budget travel accessibility it much greater than it’s popular neighbour Japan. All aspects of travel life (accommodation, transport, food and entertainment) can be found for reasonable rates with limited effort. This makes it a comfortable and relaxing place to enjoy exploring. What it actually cost: $1,250.87 AUD for 17 days Accomodation: $443.81 Food: $375.25 Transport: $246.84 Entertainment: $85.91 Drinks: $73.65 Souvenirs: $13.31 Miscellaneous: 12.10 This works out at $36.79 AUD per person per day. |
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