joykid

Thanks mikesaidyes, so for once in a lifetime experience, it's worth it, isn't it?

oh and go to Hakone if you can while you are in Tokyo. It's beautiful with natural hot springs and sceneries overlooking Mt. Fuji. Only 1,5 hr from Tokyo.

mikesaidyes

I would say yes. I mean, you can go to the normal places for the 6,000W train, but doing the JSA is a privilege Koreans don't actually get. You might as well get as close as you can.

(And yes, I know you can actually go to N Korea, but it's insane expensive IMO.)

shinjukuflyer

For me it was worth it. They take you right up to the border and yeah technically you will step inside North Korean territory. It is quite intense to see the ROK soldiers in their taekwondo pose. Sure it's mostly showboating but at the end of it all you are in the border zone of two countries that are technically (from ROKs perspective) still at war. If/when they unify you can probably go there freely but it won't be the same.
And they also take you to an observatory/museum beforehand where you see a slideshow, learn about how life is inside North Korea. It's a bit of propaganda but at least for me I learnt a great deal about history, the Korean War etc. if that is something that interests you. So it isn't just the border and conference room.
Also I liked the timing of this tour since it left Lotte Hotel at 10 so you had time in the morning to wake up normally, have breakfast, and then head out. As opposed to some of the other tours that start almost at the break of dawn.
These tours don't leave every day so if you are really thinking of going I would recommend checking their schedules asap in case they get filled.

Blueskyheaven

dOn't want to ruin the topic but just a quick question.
I was recently in seoul for 6 days. I just checked my credit card statement and I am seeing multiple charges/transactions on a same day and the business shows


"JEOIILMOJIK(JOO)EBEOLA"

Description: JEOIILMOJIK(JOO)EBEOLA
Merchant Category: COMM. SPORTS, PROF. SPORTS CLUBS,ATHLETIC FIELDS,SPORTS PROMOTER

Anyone in seoul or who has been to seoul know what this is?
Thanks

joykid

That's weird....what kind of purchase and what kind of store in seoul did you use your credit card for?

mikesaidyes

The English romanization of the Korean name is hard to peg exactly what it could be. As in, some stores have slightly different English spellings than the Hangul, so it's not always an exact match. Also, it could depend on how the words are spaced in Korean. You can get wildly different meanings. I looked on Naver and tried a few spellings. No dice.

Blueskyheaven

I used my credit card very few times at restaurants in Seoul that accepted cards and couple of big attraction sites. I do see those charges separately and shows lotte and the site's name. I didn't do any shopping in store.

@ mikesaidyes,

I want to thank you for your advise, tips and suggestions you provided me and the answers.

Loved seoul. The only inconvenience was hardly anyone spoke English there. Not even the employees at Seoul Royal. We had to ask for english menus at some of the restaurants. But despite that what I really liked and was impressed was the tourist information providers on streets of Myendong. You also have tourist information center where you can go and ask for directions and also have free tourist info hot line number. I called the number to get information on some food and how to get to lotte . I ate at a chinese restaurant called china town right next to our hotel, ordered some Chinese dishes like fried rice, it looked real but the taste of fish sauce ruined it and wasted money. I never thought they would use fish sauce on chinese menus in fried rice. I tried korean dishes and liked them. So we were eating thak galbi, and bibimbap most of the time.
My gosh the trains there lol, We carried baby stroller on train to go to palace and it was so stupid , but than we didn't know. We walked all the way with our baby on stroller from the palace back to Myendong with a stop over in Insadong for a lunch. It didn't seem like we walked too far though. After that, we used baby carrier to visit places like Lotte world and Everland. I borrowed stroller for free from the Lotte dept store and rented a stroller at Everland for hours for just 3000 won.

joykid

I think as long as you keep the receipt then you can dispute it with your credit card company in case if they charged you incorrect amount.