Why you need a tour guide in Korea?

*Million thanks to Ashraff (one of my guests) who is very kind to allocate his precious time in sharing his two cents.*

Ashraff, Dida and Ika at Nami Island

To travel blindly in a non-English speaking country is the last thing I would do...I seriously did some research like a month before flying..

The thing that concerned myself most would be the local foods :-)

Maggi, tuna spread, ready-made rendang ( u name it..haha ) would be the last resort to survive but I brought none of them :D.

I prefer my travel to be filled with local touches especially food since I enjoy trying something which is not so "Malaysian" ( must be HALAL of course ) :-P

To get a local English-speaking guide is quite interesting but I would probably end up having fast foods or something doubtful I guess.

The best way I would say is to get someone who speaks local language and share the same rice-bowl with me ^^.

Although she is not 100% local ( no offense Zarina ;-p ) , at least I did my best to enjoy local food which is religiously acceptable..Million of thanks to you :-)

Traveling free and easy with so-called "local guide" is highly recommended in Korea so that you don't get tied up to less flexible package which usually cost  you more.

Since I did backpacking, this is considered the better option than packaged tour unless you really have to :-P Free and easy without guide is ok if it's not your first time there.

For me, first-timer would spend more time getting lost and asking for directions plus the language barrier..so much time wasted.

If the time is all yours, go ahead then :-P

Korea is worth visiting again because I really enjoy eating healthy local foods..not including the weird and raw one which I don't dare to try...haha

Locals are friendly and if you ask for direction, they would try to help even if they don't speak a word of English.

A Daiso girl helped me to call serviced-residence I was looking for,
a guy at a bus stand Google-ed the map for me...this dude used to work in Singapore before.

That could be the reason his English is quite ok and he's been to Tioman!!  I myself never did..embarrassing moment  for me...haha

These helpful strangers on the street really impressed me.

I will definitely be back...Saranghae Korea ^^

Post a Comment

8 Comments

tuts said…
it wud be easier if u hire zarina as ur tourist guide :P
Unknown said…
The locals there are really friendly even if they dun understand a single word u say..haha..I had my challenge there a couple months ago. But still Korea is definitely a must-go again place! Just hoping Zarina unnie will be my tour guide wen i'm there nex year! Maybe?! hahaha... =D
baby beaver said…
thanx for the info... but i myself travelled in a group of 4 last year without a local guide... the 1 thing that we, the wives did was learning hanguk as much as we can, because we really love the language, the people n the country, ;P

Alhamdulillah, kami x sesat! Tp kami enjoy jd org sana... bhahahaha... N kami bangga pd diri sdiri sbb boleh survive n communicate dgn baik di sana... syukur...

N sememangnya saya sgt jeles dgn kak zarina, sob sob...
Azie.Fauzi said…
but luckily we survived :) managed to hop from one place to another without tour guide..maybe because our itenerary is very detailed with how to go to one place to another place such as train line..to exit at which lane and so on..:)..and we do eat korean food after reading zarina's blog as reference :)

thanks zarina for your very informative blog entries abt korea..will step again in korea land in 2 years time insya allah :)
sarina saleh said…
how did u contact zarina? i'm interested to have her for my vacation. i drop her an email but unfortunately she didn't reply.
zarina,
nak pergi korea tahun depan...3 org, services still ada lagi ker ? how much ?
fiqahlee88 said…
Hehe,betol2..xmaw guide is ok kalo time is ours. Like my trip,redah je.. tiap2 kali org tny,mst tekejut..tp sy xtekejut sgt,sbb dh lma follow blog akak,n dh konfiden utk pegi.hehe.tq yer kak! ;D
hanani said…
Kak zarina!!boleh x kalau kakak atau mana mana kwn muslim malaysia kakak jadi tour guide?might be going to korea this july 2013 along with my frnds.and im the only muslim.its just the halal food intake that im concerned about and at the same time we can easily move around korea wherever we want to.sbb kalau ikut tour mcm a bit restricted.thanks kak!kalau hire pun xpe.
Please email me at clowzkingdomz01@yahoo.com:)