Great idea Mark! I'll run it by Master Chung.

Casey makes an interesting point as well...

It would be nice if some of the profits from the summercamp and tournament were used to help the Canadian team get to Korea. Like having a 50/50 or something like that.

I was looking into the plane ticket and it seems to be north of $2100. How much plane ticket price are you paying from Moncton?

I'm looking at around $2400CND. Any ideas Master Gihm? I don't suppose you'd have an extra 30,000 Air Miles to float me, would you?

Ouch!

hmm...you can go through States and that wll save you about 500 dollars. Take a route of Moncton - Toronto - Chicago - Tokyo - Seoul. The travel time would be about 30 hours of flight plus transit (which would be abou 20 hours) but you will have a ticket around $1800.

How about someone just buy my last jingum and that will seriously give my change of going to Korea a boost. Also, people participating in the event will enjoy a working simultaneous translator that will eliminate a lot of sign language practice.

Master Gihm, can I take this route through any travel agency? You say around 1800$ from TO? So add to that an extra 200$ from Moncton. That's still a lot better than 2400$

I also wouldn't mind having an option without all the silly tours and stuff. I just want to go to the tournament. Period. I don't care for visiting temples and such; I had to go to the temple every Sunday morning at 4am when I was in Korea. Doing that every week for nearly a year pretty much takes the novelty out of temples.

I wonder, is there such an option where I can just go up for a week and stay at a minbak or something? It seems ridiculous to force foreigners to pay such an obscene amount of money for something they don't even want. It would be nice to be able to compete as "Charles, The Human Being", instead of "Charles, The Foreigner From Canada".

If it was my first trip to Korea I would definately want to take the tour, no question.

But you're right Charles. It would be nice to have the option for people who just want to compete to pay the registration fee (and any appropriate fees associated with the competition) and IF you want the tour then tag it on.

Perhaps organizers have assumed that this may be the first trip to Korea for most foreign competitors lumped the two together for administrative reasons. There could of course be many other reasons but hopefully in the future with growing foreign participation there will be more options to choose from.

Charles,

Take to the travel agency about the route. It's actually $1650 from Toronto to Seoul via US. The airlines that had seats were United Airlines and Japan Airlines. You want to book fast because the route between Tokyo and Seoul sell out in the summer

Thank you so much Master Gihm. I've checked Expedia and it's around $1650CDN, just like you said.

Now if I can find a way to attend the tourney without having to pay for all the bells and whistles. My Korean is certainly good enough to find my way to Gangwon and find to find myself a minbak.

If you can go, meeting and training with other people would be a valuable experience. After all, $1200 or so for 10 days of accomodation, travelling, food, etc is not a bad price. (Actually, it is a really really good price) You will be spending close to that amount even if you take your own transportation and stay in minbak. It's summer time and Gangwondo is the vacation spot in the summer.

Yes, I understand you point, however I was told the price was $1600CDN ($1300USD). I find that strange, because I was under the impression that the $1000USD price was available as well. Any help would be appreciated.

If it's simply 1650$ Airfare, plus 1000USD and spending money, then I'd have no problem funding the trip.

(*sigh* I really want to go. 2004 I was IN Gangwon, and I didn't get to attend, due to "political reasons")

Inquiring minds want to know more.

Casey, I'm pretty sure $1000USD is for 4th Dan and up, because they won't be able to attend all of the regular seminars and stuff. I've been wrong before.

ok...I may be late on this...but ...from chicago we found a trip from chgo to tokyo and then seoul...$944.00 round trip on American Air!!!!! YIKES!!!! good price...if this helps anyone...