South Korea 101 - The Preparation and the Budget

ANNYEONG HASEYO!!!All for the love of korean drama and k pop music not to mention the intoxicating Korean foodies and the UNESCO World Heritage sceneries and landscapes of Jeju Island brought us to our Korean adventure. This is it!!! I shall be branding it as NACJJERT- The Gangnam Style Adventures :)

Let’s begin with all the recap of preparations as well as the glimpse of our budget for this trip…

A) Transportation Going to Korea

Thanks to the zero fare offer of Cebu Pacific we were able to get a good deal of PHP 4,575.96 roundtrip airfare to Busan from Manila..Hooray to this offer as regular roundtrip would cost about PHP14,000 est.

Since Jeju and Seoul are part of our itineraries. We also booked a domestic flight from Busan to Jeju via Air Busan at KRW 63,600 (PHP 2,544) for a one way airfare, Jeju-Seoul via Eaststar Jet for KRW 47,100 (PHP 1,844) and Seoul-Busan via Air Busan for KRW 86,200 (PHP3,448)
Thus total airfare cost for this trip are as follows:
            Cebu Pacific (MNL-BUS-MNL)              PHP 4,575.96

            Air Busan       (BUS-JEJU)                       PHP 2,544.00

            Eaststar Jet   (JEJU-GIMPO)                    PHP 1,884.00

            Air Busan       (GIMPO-BUSAN)             PHP 3,448.00

                                                       TOTAL         PHP12,452.00

    

B)   Accommodation
We had various parts of SOKOR in our itinerary, therefore we have to arrange 3 different accommodations for this trip.
1. Sum Guesthouse Nampo-dong (Busan, South Korea)

    Address:  15-5 Gwangbok-dong 1ga Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea 600-031

    Website: http://www.facebook.com/sumguesthousenampo

2. Sum Guesthouse Jeju Airport

    Address:2829-1 Yongdam-1Dong Jeju-Si Seo Gwang-ro 5Gil 2-, Jeju Island, South Korea

    Website: http://www.facebook.com/sumjejudo

3. Namsan 3 Guesthouse 

    Address:32-13, Namsandong 2 ga, Jung gu, Seoul, Korea

    Website: http://www.namsanguesthouse.com/namsan3

C) Visa Application
South Korea is not a visa free country thus, tourist visa is necessary for this adventure. Please note that this is our first visa stamp as we had travelled most only to some visa free countries of Asia :)
Applying for South Korean Visa is easy as long as you provide the complete requirements needed in the application. 

Basic Requirements for Visa Application are as follows:
1. Application Form (Form are downloadable on the Embassy's website)
2.Photocopy of your Passport details
3. Original Copy of Certificate of Employment
4.Original Copy of Bank Certificate
5.Photocopy of ITR or BIR Form 2316
6.Photocopy of your OECD Visa (i.e US, Australia, Japan, UK etc)
   * Applicable only for those with previous travel to any OECD Countries within the last 5 years
Visa Fee                  : Gratis
Processing Time       : 5-7 Days (regular)
                                 3 Days (for those with OECD visa)
Embassy of the Republic of Korea
122 Upper McKinley Road, Mckinley Town Center,
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City 1634
Website: http://embassy_philippines.mofat.go.kr
 
Submission of the applications are received before 11:00 in the morning while claiming of the processed visa are done in the afternoon.

    

               

So there goes our preppies...Next post will be the actual pics of the Gangnam Style Adventure!!!