On October 2, SEVENTEEN held a live broadcast following the group's concert in Bangkok, Thailand.
When JOSHUA, JUN and SEUNGKWAN were talking together, JOSHUA stated that there was one story that he wanted to tell fans.
JOSHUA said, "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."
He went on, "On the day of our trip, we headed to the airport. 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."
He continued, "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. 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."
JOSHUA commented, "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."
The K-pop star resumed, "When I found out about it, I saw an ATM on the street, so we stopped there to try withdrawing it again. But it didn't work. I told the taxi driver that I would buy him a meal or something if I was unable to get cash anywhere soon, just please take us to the hotel. At that time, I got really thirsty, so I went to grab something at the convenient store. And you know what? It was cash-only there too. Unbelievable, isn't it?"
He said, "We went to this five-star hotel, and I asked the hotel staff to overcharge my card and give me some cash with the amount that they overcharged my card. Thankfully, they did that for me. The taxi driver asked for like a thousand something in the Philippine peso, and I later found out that I had paid like three times more. Gosh..."
"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. Ah...", he added with a sigh.
JOSHUA commented, "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. Always make plans first! Make sure to take cash with you, especially when you're traveling to a South East Asian country as well."
The SEVENTEEN member stated, "I came to appreciate all the stuff that our staff do for us whenever we go abroad. They must have spent so much time and effort into planning our trips. I felt really grateful for that."
(Credit= SEVENTEEN WeVerse, 'joshu_acoustic' Instagram)
(SBS Star)