Obviously, this isn’t a postcard. Maybe I can get a photo from QOTPE to paste in at the bottom. Anyway, did you realize there aren’t many postcards being produced anymore? I only found a very few in all of South Korea, and none that were photographs. Of course, as a volunteer in our local post office this shouldn’t have come as a surprise; I think I’ve only seen two official postcards (as opposed to the annoying ads and appointment reminders) in the years that I’ve worked there. I gather people just email and text photos now.
But I have a little preparedness-related thought to share that only came to me because of my recent travel there.
Due to being involved with Ellie’s wedding and working to get Armageddon Pharmacy published, I didn’t research and prepare as well for the trip to Korea as I otherwise might have. My only previous travel abroad was to the former Soviet Union, and the rules for currency exchange at that time stipulated that we do that in country, not before leaving. And besides, we’d be using mostly dollars anyway, as that was what the hard-currency stores demanded. Long story short, we could have exchanged dollars for Korean won at the credit union before leaving. I didn’t know this; Becky did know, but she didn’t tell me. And she didn’t understand the need to give the bank advance notice. (I could have told her that there was no way our little credit union would be stocking Korean won.)
So I got to exchange some dollars for won at the Seattle airport. I sure took a haircut there—not only with their service fee, but also with the dismal exchange rate. I knew that would be the case and just chalked it up to one of the costs of travel. I could have skipped that and been just fine; however, I didn’t want to enter South Korea, especially because we were arriving at night, without any won and thought it would be prudent to have at least $100 worth of won. We had credit cards which were said to be widely accepted everywhere, so I wasn’t super concerned. We were glad to have that won, because it was necessary to buy the widely used transportation cards (T-cards)—we couldn’t have taken a bus the next day without them. And credit cards cannot be used to buy T-cards.
So having spent most of our won, our first task as we began exploring Busan was to find a place to exchange dollars for won. First stop: “Closed today.” Ugh. The second stop, a gold and jewelry store that offered a much better exchange rate than the Seattle airport (and very comparable to the banks) didn’t open for another hour. We ended up trading about $200 there. That gave us a nice cushion to work with. However, even though our currency may soon be worthless, it is still the nicest looking nag in the glue factory. I didn’t want to trade it into won if we didn’t have to. So then we were looking for an ATM where we could, as we understood, use our credit card to withdraw Korean won. And glorious day when we found one of those. I withdrew 500,000-600,000 KRW, equivalent of $400-500, which lasted our entire trip.
At no time ever was I panicked. Life was chugging along beautifully for us and everyone else in Busan. We had credit cards, dollars, a few won (and then plenty), a place to stay, and food everywhere.
But then I started pondering what prepping lessons could be learned from this experience.
1. Advance research and communication/networking. Had I done some research on the topic, I could have exchanged won at the best rate before leaving and not used precious sightseeing time looking for an open bank. (However, I did enjoy the experience, so it wasn’t a total waste.) Had I raised the topic with Becky, she could have told me about exchanging at the bank as well. I’ve got to learn to talk to people, even my own family, more.
2. Not being prepared meant getting that bad haircut at the Seattle Airport. I took it as merely a cost of travel and a price to be paid for failing to prepare (or being too busy to prepare adequately). It wasn’t a big deal to me. But what will it be to another person who hasn’t prepared and is shocked to find some businesses will exact a much higher “exchange rate” from the less-informed?
3. Because we weren’t prepared, we could only focus on obtaining the Korean won to meet our needs for the next two weeks. Not sightseeing. In an economic collapse, people will panic when they realize they won’t be able to meet the physical needs that their currency used to buy. They may be focused on procuring the new currency to obtain the items their old currency used to buy and not necessarily paying attention to what else is happening. Focusing on meeting immediate perceived needs will interfere with addressing actual needs. It’s the stuff doomer movies are made of. It’s what we prepare to prevent.
So how do I make doubly sure to have the “currency” we need when disaster strikes? Naturally, we make sure we meet all those immediate needs of being self-reliant, come what may, so that we aren’t out in the public when chaos ensues. All the water/water purification supplies, food, clothing, shelter, fuel, medical needs, in their various forms.
However, the time will eventually come to most if not all of us, when we need something. We forgot to prepare something. You know, like that Far Side comic of the couple in their bomb shelter under the mushroom cloud. “How many times did I say it, Harold? How many times? ‘Make sure that bomb shelter’s got a can opener—ain’t much good without a can opener,’ I said.”
We prepared with something, but it got ruined by exposure. We prepared, but heck, how could anyone have predicted that we’d need that much Preparation H? Or the kids found the chocolate stash and now the wife is out?! Or we knew we needed more—of everything—but the funds were exhausted or TEOTWAWKI arrived a bit too soon. Or, you know, you were like Harold and planning to pick up the can opener on your next trip to the grocery store.
Having prepared the basics of self-reliance well affords us the time to figure out our “currency” for procuring the other items we may eventually desire without going into panic mode and “spending” more than is necessary.
And maybe this topic makes no sense at all. Keep in mind travel to the other side of the world involves a bit of jet lag and loopy thoughts. It made sense to me at the time.
