And we're off!

[0evg0]

have fun man

[mlagoo]

btw this trip is getting more expensive by the day. originally i anticipated spending like 15k, its realistically looking more like 25-30 because i cant resist spoiling myself at every opportunity.

going busto through traveling seems like an ok thing though, at least ill have some sweet memories [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

as far as you guys that were asking about intrepid.... i was introduced to them by a friend who traveled through asia using intrepid, much like i'm doing. her review was basically like, a good % of young people, pretty decent tour guides, not the best tours you'll ever take, but pretty good. and for me, with no other information to go off of, that sounded good enough. she basically said that they were great, but in a couple of the countries the tour guides were obviously new/inexperienced and not as helpful as they could have been.

they are, however, really cheap. all told, i'm going to be on one intrepid tour or another for about two months. they cover all travel/lodging and probably like 30-40% of food while you are on your trip (and in these countries, food is ridic cheap anyway), and all told, the tours came to around 4k. so like i said, really cheap. and i think going with cheaper tours is better, because there's a higher likelihood that there will be other young people on your trip, rather than a bunch of rich retirees.

also the trip is like... i looked, and it looks like the size of each of the tour groups is gonna be 12 people. so not huge. the structure of the tours is fairly rigid... like the itinerary for each trip is mapped out, except what will happen is in certain cities they'll be like "ok, here's what's going on in this city. meet back at the hotel in 8 hours. have fun." but i think that's more than the exception than the norm, most of the time they just take you around and show you stuff. and then at nights take you to a bar or whatever and just like encourage you to go to bed at a reasonable time as you usually have to wake up pretty early the next morning.

oh and

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I think I'm going to start updating my blog at mlagoo.blogspot.com

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ban for spam pls

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for some real spam, ive decided to post my blog updates on tworags.com rather than my blog. so if you visit there, someone other than 2p2 will be making money. eat your heart out david sklansky.


so far korea is really cool. bought a really neat korean-style lamp for my mom for her birthday, and shipped it home. also ate at a great korean place this afternoon, had some babimbap (or something like that) and some bulgogi this afternoon. the bulgogi was siiick. definitely going to have more of that.

gotta go to a travel agent this afternoon to book my ticket for hong kong, because i apparently need to go there in order to get a visa for china. whoops.

[Stumpy]

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going busto through traveling seems like an ok thing though, at least ill have some sweet memories [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Kind of like going busto through paternity suits.

Babimbap was about the only thing I found I could actually eat (vegetarian) in Korea. They hide fish in everything.
I don't know if you're getting up to the DMZ, but I definitely thought it was worth a day trip.
If nothing else, it's pretty crazy to see an area in such a hostile yet stable state...

[IWEARGOGGLES]

Be safe Matt!

[KingDan]

Sick trip, I'm jealous.

[ASPoker8]

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Sick trip, I'm jealous.

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[Highn]

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Sick trip, I'm jealous.

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[g-p]

hope you have a really cool trip !

[gobbomom]

have a great time Matt!