The final task

Now there really isn't much left, and the journey is about to begin. There were still a few things to do in the past few days. I managed to buy a ticket for the English guided tour of the Cheonggyecheon Secret Garden. This is the only way to gain entry. Tickets can be purchased 6 days in advance, and at 10:00 AM Korean time, the opportunity opens up on the palace's official website. They issue 50 tickets online for the designated time. I had to start the ticket purchase at 3 AM. I registered the night before, so the purchase was relatively quick. By the time I finished, about 10 minutes later, only 38 tickets were still available for that time slot. So sometimes speed is important.

The last task before check-in was registering the online arrival card (e-Arrivalcard). This can be done 72 hours prior to entry. I prepared for the questions in advance, so I finished relatively quickly. This card should only be filled out on the official site. The first step is to take a photo of the passport or upload its picture. Then comes the travel information (dates of arrival and departure, and flight numbers), and you have to select the purpose of your visit to the country. Next comes perhaps the 'hardest' part, you must provide the address of your accommodation. For this, you need to use a search tool; first, enter the postal code, then the house number, and the subsequent name (the accommodation address in booking), that's enough for the search. It instantly provided the hotel address; however, if someone is unfamiliar, they might think the address shown is incorrect. It's important to know that South Korea uses two different systems, and what the search provided is precisely the address used according to the other system. Fortunately, I had already marked the hotel on NAVER maps, and they also use this system, so I was reassured that this was indeed my accommodation's address. Since we don't have a Korean phone number, we need to enter the hotel phone number and provide the hotel name beforehand. The last question is about our occupation, which can be selected from a dropdown menu. If someone can't find their job, they can choose the Other option to write it in. The card is now completed, and the system will send the access details via email.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive about filling this out because many people in various groups complained that they couldn't complete this card online. I found it very helpful that I researched this in various ways beforehand, so I didn't feel that filling out the e-card was complicated.