Annyong ha seyo readers! After only just getting back on the gravy train that is the blogosphere, I thought I would be timely to regale you all with a tale of my adventure up to Seoul - that capital of the country I now call home.
Three weeks ago was Naw Ruz - Baha'i New Year - and as there are no other Baha'i's in Ulsan, I decided to head up to Seoul to celebrate the occasion with the community there. Although it seemed a bit early to be travelling away from Ulsan as I had only just moved into my new apartment and hadn't had any time to explore the local area, I thought that I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet some of the Baha'is in Seoul and surrounds.
I left the apartment at a reasonable time in the morning and caught a cab out to the train station - it took about half an hour, which isn't too bad considering I had no idea the station was well out of town.
You may have heard that in countries such as Korea and Japan, they have installed these "bullet" trains that are super fast to go between major cities - in Korea it's called the KTX - and I took this up to Seoul. It took about 2 hours and 15 min and cost roughly $50 one way - pretty cheap and quick considering the alternative is an hour or so flight that costs 3 - 4 times as much. For another comparison if one were to drive to Seoul, it takes 4-5 hours I've been told - almost the same distance between Perth and Albany! The train even felt kind of like flight - a flight that stopped to swap out passengers every half an hour, had no safety briefing and had wireless internet (that I couldn't figure out how to connect to).
Unfortunately, my goal of looking out the window mindlessly and appreciating the Korean Kountryside for 2 hours was hindered by being assigned an aisle seat - so instead I enjoyed the company of my iPad - Apple saves the day! Considering the other option was the in-ride magazine which had oh-so-helpful English titles but had absolutely no English in the body of the text - way to appeal to the foreigners. All in all, a fairly pleasant experience and very convenient method of getting around the country.
Now - my first day was a bit of a different one in a tourist sense. In short, I ended up taking an extensive tour of Seoul's subway network - which is top notch - and not really achieving my objective.
The longer, and more interesting story, goes like this... leading up to my trip to Seoul, I spent some time trying to look for accommodation. I was hoping to stay with a friend, but due to circumstances, I was unable to and I had to look for a place to crash for the night. In vintage style, I left it to the last minute (as us engineers always say, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done) and so I was poking around on the internet the night before to find a hotel to stay at. As I begin to scroll through the numerous options on a recently discovered and very useful website, asiarooms.com, I stumble across a deal that I could not refuse! Some hotel had slashed the price of its rooms from W120,000 to W700!! In AUD that equates from discounting from $120 to 70 CENTS (I'm highlighting this because I mentioned it to friend and it did not compute). Naturally, I was curious as to whether it was a typo, thinking it cannot be physically possible to rent out a room for 70c a night - surely even turning on the lights cost more than that! Maybe half the room was missing? or it was a closet? or something - I felt like I had to make it my personal mission to find out - I mean what was the worst that could happen? Either it was fake and no harm done, I pay a bit more for a room, or I could find out it was an absolute shocker and I move somewhere else and I lose 70c (oh no!) OR I could gain the eternal fame of having gotten THE bargain of the century - somewhere in my mind the benefits of this scheme far outweighed the negatives.
(Note: I'm not a complete idiot - this website is legit, the crime rate in Korea is extremely low and I know how to avoid dangerous situations - but as they say, curiosity killed the cat - I think it was all for a good cause :) )
With my mission clear in my mind, I set out to find this mysterious hotel.
As I mentioned before, Seoul's subway system is great - at first glance it seems like a confusing network of multi-coloured lines and it involves a complicated version of joining the dots and a bit of keen linear programming to figure out the best way to get from point A to point B - especially when your super cheap hotel is located in dingo woop woop, relatively speaking - relative because as the crow flies, its still a shorter distance than making your way from one end of Perth CBD to the other.
I determined my path of least resistance, with the aid of a giant iPad-esque information screen at the train station which was conveniently in English, bought a ticket at a measly 90c (winner) and made my way to where the website advised of the hotels location.
After several changes of trains, I arrived at where the "pin" marked the sport (side note - imagine google making a treasure map - haha) and low and behold - I was in a fish market! I looked through every back street for this damn hotel and all I found was rows of stalls with seaweed and dried fish. Not only did it stink to high heaven, I repeatedly walked past the same blank faced locals who must have been wondering why this random foreigner, dragging along noisy luggage, was wandering in circles and I still couldn't find the bloody hotel!
In desperation, I turned to my iPad for a solution - thankfully some ignorant or generous locals hadn't locked their wireless (I sometimes wonder why people don't do that, but I wasn't complaining in this situation) and used the ever useful Google to revise my destination coordinates. With a bit more searching it turned out I was way off - the updated location was another 20 min subway ride away! *sigh* I set off again, not willing to give up on my quest for the cheapest hotel in history! I was getting tired at this stage and having delusions about what the hotel would be like... needless to stay at this time I began questioning whether the hotel even existed, and whether I was a sucker to some sort of scam... I imagine if you get enough people giving you 70c, eventually you'll defraud millions, but you have to be a dedicated fraudster to turn a profit.
I eventually made my way to the new location, which as you'd expect from the Google Maps application, seemed highly vague, mainly due to the fact Google Maps for Korea is in, you guessed it, Korean and not English-afied Korean - I had determined I was on the right street but for all intents and purposes had no idea how far along the street the hotel was. I walked for what felt like an eternity and passed countless motels (many of which are the infamous "love" motels - more on this in another post) and hotels, none of which were my mysterious hotel - I felt like I was searching for platform 9 3/4! (insert nerdy reference).
At this point, I decided to loosen the purse strings, excusing myself from the principle of my adventure temporarily, and hopped in a taxi, hoping that the driver would at least have some idea. He plugged it into his GPS and we drove back down the way I had just walked (sigh again with the waste of energy) and drove around the corner with the GPS indicating it was just there... but alas the street ended just before the supposed street number of the hotel! Where on earth was this freakin hotel?! Finally, with no internet nearby to recalibrate and feeling tired after a few hours of investigation, I curtailed my search, and came to a sudden realisation that I wasn't really THAT tight. I was satisfied that I put in a solid effort, with the side benefits of seeing a part of Seoul I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise and figuring out the subway system.
Tired, disappointed, but mildly content, I made my way back to central Seoul, found the nearest hotel and rested.... in preparation for more adventures! To be continued in part 2.... Stay tuned!
Three weeks ago was Naw Ruz - Baha'i New Year - and as there are no other Baha'i's in Ulsan, I decided to head up to Seoul to celebrate the occasion with the community there. Although it seemed a bit early to be travelling away from Ulsan as I had only just moved into my new apartment and hadn't had any time to explore the local area, I thought that I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet some of the Baha'is in Seoul and surrounds.
I left the apartment at a reasonable time in the morning and caught a cab out to the train station - it took about half an hour, which isn't too bad considering I had no idea the station was well out of town.
You may have heard that in countries such as Korea and Japan, they have installed these "bullet" trains that are super fast to go between major cities - in Korea it's called the KTX - and I took this up to Seoul. It took about 2 hours and 15 min and cost roughly $50 one way - pretty cheap and quick considering the alternative is an hour or so flight that costs 3 - 4 times as much. For another comparison if one were to drive to Seoul, it takes 4-5 hours I've been told - almost the same distance between Perth and Albany! The train even felt kind of like flight - a flight that stopped to swap out passengers every half an hour, had no safety briefing and had wireless internet (that I couldn't figure out how to connect to).
 |
| "Anyonghaseyo, this is your kaptain speaking... prepare for horizontal take off" |
Unfortunately, my goal of looking out the window mindlessly and appreciating the Korean Kountryside for 2 hours was hindered by being assigned an aisle seat - so instead I enjoyed the company of my iPad - Apple saves the day! Considering the other option was the in-ride magazine which had oh-so-helpful English titles but had absolutely no English in the body of the text - way to appeal to the foreigners. All in all, a fairly pleasant experience and very convenient method of getting around the country.
Now - my first day was a bit of a different one in a tourist sense. In short, I ended up taking an extensive tour of Seoul's subway network - which is top notch - and not really achieving my objective.
 |
| Seoul central station - home of the KTX |
The longer, and more interesting story, goes like this... leading up to my trip to Seoul, I spent some time trying to look for accommodation. I was hoping to stay with a friend, but due to circumstances, I was unable to and I had to look for a place to crash for the night. In vintage style, I left it to the last minute (as us engineers always say, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done) and so I was poking around on the internet the night before to find a hotel to stay at. As I begin to scroll through the numerous options on a recently discovered and very useful website, asiarooms.com, I stumble across a deal that I could not refuse! Some hotel had slashed the price of its rooms from W120,000 to W700!! In AUD that equates from discounting from $120 to 70 CENTS (I'm highlighting this because I mentioned it to friend and it did not compute). Naturally, I was curious as to whether it was a typo, thinking it cannot be physically possible to rent out a room for 70c a night - surely even turning on the lights cost more than that! Maybe half the room was missing? or it was a closet? or something - I felt like I had to make it my personal mission to find out - I mean what was the worst that could happen? Either it was fake and no harm done, I pay a bit more for a room, or I could find out it was an absolute shocker and I move somewhere else and I lose 70c (oh no!) OR I could gain the eternal fame of having gotten THE bargain of the century - somewhere in my mind the benefits of this scheme far outweighed the negatives.
(Note: I'm not a complete idiot - this website is legit, the crime rate in Korea is extremely low and I know how to avoid dangerous situations - but as they say, curiosity killed the cat - I think it was all for a good cause :) )
With my mission clear in my mind, I set out to find this mysterious hotel.
As I mentioned before, Seoul's subway system is great - at first glance it seems like a confusing network of multi-coloured lines and it involves a complicated version of joining the dots and a bit of keen linear programming to figure out the best way to get from point A to point B - especially when your super cheap hotel is located in dingo woop woop, relatively speaking - relative because as the crow flies, its still a shorter distance than making your way from one end of Perth CBD to the other.
I determined my path of least resistance, with the aid of a giant iPad-esque information screen at the train station which was conveniently in English, bought a ticket at a measly 90c (winner) and made my way to where the website advised of the hotels location.
 |
| The ridiculously cheap and extremely convenient Seoul subway... |
In desperation, I turned to my iPad for a solution - thankfully some ignorant or generous locals hadn't locked their wireless (I sometimes wonder why people don't do that, but I wasn't complaining in this situation) and used the ever useful Google to revise my destination coordinates. With a bit more searching it turned out I was way off - the updated location was another 20 min subway ride away! *sigh* I set off again, not willing to give up on my quest for the cheapest hotel in history! I was getting tired at this stage and having delusions about what the hotel would be like... needless to stay at this time I began questioning whether the hotel even existed, and whether I was a sucker to some sort of scam... I imagine if you get enough people giving you 70c, eventually you'll defraud millions, but you have to be a dedicated fraudster to turn a profit.
I eventually made my way to the new location, which as you'd expect from the Google Maps application, seemed highly vague, mainly due to the fact Google Maps for Korea is in, you guessed it, Korean and not English-afied Korean - I had determined I was on the right street but for all intents and purposes had no idea how far along the street the hotel was. I walked for what felt like an eternity and passed countless motels (many of which are the infamous "love" motels - more on this in another post) and hotels, none of which were my mysterious hotel - I felt like I was searching for platform 9 3/4! (insert nerdy reference).
 |
| One "love" motel aptly located next to the sexy club. No funny business here |
70c/night... way too good to be true!
ReplyDelete