HINDI naging maganda ang karanasan ni Joshua Hong, member ng K-pop boy band na Seventeen nang minsan siyang bumiyahe kasama ang ina sa Pilipinas noong nakaraang buwan.
Sa isang live, inisa-isa ni Joshua ang mga bagay na hindi niya nagustuhan sa kanilang paglalakbay.
Kuwento ni Joshua: “I went on a trip with my mom recently. We were actually initially planned to go to Da Nang, Vietnam, but we ended up going to Manila, the Philippines, and a lot of things happened there.”
“Since I had never gone on a trip abroad with my mom until then, I was really excited about it. I planned everything ahead. I booked our flight and hotel rooms. I also looked into places where we could go together and stuff,” dagdag niya.
Pero sa airport ay hinanapan siya ng visa para makapasok sa Vietnam dahil isa siyang American citizen.
“While we were checking in, the staff asked us, ‘You have visa to Vietnam, right?’ I didn’t. When I was planning our trip, there was nothing about visa anywhere. It turned out that I searched things on a Korean site and Koreans didn’t need visa to go to Vietnam, but I did, as I’m American. I had totally forgotten that I wasn’t Korean,” aniya.
“So, we couldn’t go to Vietnam. I blew like 3.5 million won on that day. Since we were already at the airport, I thought we should still try to go somewhere,” sabi ni Joshua.
“The closest flight with seats was a flight to Manila, so we decided to go there instead. We didn’t have time to exchange our money and stuff, because our flight was taking off soon. We thought we’ll be able to sort it out once we get there,” dagdag niya.
Paglalahad ng singer, pagdating sa Ninoy Aquino International Airport ay nagtangka siyang mag-withdraw sa ATM pero hindi gumana ang card niya.
“There were like six of them, but none of them worked. We were like, ‘Okay, then. Let’s find a hotel, then check in to it first. We’ll withdraw money near the hotel or something.’ We got into a taxi, thinking that they would accept cards. But it was cash-only. I panicked so much,” sabi niya.
Dagdag kuwento pa ni Joshua, halos triple ang siningil sa kanila ng taxi driver para ihatid sila sa hotel.
Pagdating sa hotel ay agad humanap ng restaurant na kakainan ang kanilang grupo. Pero hindi rin maganda ang naging experience nila sa nasabing establisimento.
“We walked around the hotel to find a decent restaurant for dinner, but none of them looked very good. We ended up going to the nicest-looking one out of all, but it tasted horrible. It was a dim sum place, and I paid over 100,000 won for that meal. Following our dinner, we discovered that there was a huge mall with great restaurants only a few minutes away from the restaurant we went to,” aniya.
Ipinaliwanag naman ni Joshua na hindi niya sinisiraan ang Pilipinas.
“I’m not saying that Manila is a bad place to travel. I’m just sharing my own experience, and that is what sort of thing that could happen to you if you go on a trip without making any plans in advance,” pagkaklaro niya.
Kaya ang payo niya sa mga kababayan niya:
“Always make plans first! Make sure to take cash with you, especially when you’re traveling to a South East Asian country as well.”
Magtatanghal ang Seventeen ng concert sa MOA Arena sa October 8 at 9.
