Day 14: We got Seoul....
Our ride to the airport is scheduled for 7.30am; we have a quick breakfast and share the taxi with a couple from Australia and Tony. They are off to Hong Kong, Tony is going home to his family in Xi`an and we are off to Seoul in South Korea.
A view from the train; it looks a bit like Scotland!
We made it to Myeongdong, it was only 2 further stops. We had an offline map to follow to the hotel; now everything would have been fine had there not been two Ibis hotels in the same district! You can obviously guess, we went to the wrong one (so did the Chinese couple in front of us though!). We had to re-trace our steps back to the station we had just got off at; it was a 15 minute walk but the place was crazy busy, plus we forgot it was Saturday!
We eventually made it to our cabin in the sky; our room is on the 18th floor but it feels more like an airline cabin or ship cabin than a hotel room. It is perfectly clean and again has various options for the toilet! There is also a strange message on the window, you can see below...how did they know; although we aren’t getting married until December!
We decide to go for a wander and try and find a pub; we start walking through Myeongdong shopping street. I am slightly hungry so we buy a BBQ chicken skewer like the locals; there is so much food and drink, I am making a list to figure out what I want (lobster, squid, corn on the cob, egg buns, watermelon, fresh pomegranate juice, etc etc)
We walk around for a bit but can`t really find anywhere; you get charged extra if you just want a drink in the restaurants; we found it out the hard way! We eventually found a bar called “Tavern,” its really quiet and the beer is expensive; we opted for a Carlsberg, just because it`s the cheapest! We decided to leave after one drink and wait until the bar crawl tomorrow! We headed back to the hotel, it was only a few minutes away, and see if the bar was decent. There is also a rooftop bar but as it was raining, we were stuck in the restaurant. We had a local beer called “Cass” but it was £11 for 2 330ml bottles so we thought a visit to the 7Eleven would be a better idea!
Our flight is scheduled for 11.10am with Korean Air but we have to be at the airport 3 hours before. Our drive to the airport is quick and we get through security around 9am. We only have 100 yuan left so its a Diet Coke and a choco-dip for me and a beer and chocolate-dip for Iain! The flight leaves slightly late but it only takes 1 hour 30 minutes so we are going to make it up...apparently! As we take our seats, we are given 3 different forms to fill out for immigration, quarantine and customs....they are obviously thorough!
The flight goes without incident and we land in Seoul on time. My first impression is that its very clean and a bit more hi-tech than China; I say that because the toilet has 6 buttons to press! We clear quarantine and get to go through the diplomatic immigration line, so far, so good! We decided to get the express train into the city so after collecting out baggage and clearing customs, we follow the signs for rail. We get some cash out of the ATM, its about 1,430 KRW to £1 so we feel super rich! We then head over to get a ticket, all the machines have an English option so it seems simple so far! We catch the next train to the city; its on-time, has free wifi and is very clean! We get to Seoul central station around 4.30pm but need to change to another line (line 4) in order to get to Myeondong; the only problem is the lack of escalators! Poor Iain had to carry my case as well as his....
The airport default toilet. A Poo-gatti of engineering
A view from the train; it looks a bit like Scotland!
We made it to Myeongdong, it was only 2 further stops. We had an offline map to follow to the hotel; now everything would have been fine had there not been two Ibis hotels in the same district! You can obviously guess, we went to the wrong one (so did the Chinese couple in front of us though!). We had to re-trace our steps back to the station we had just got off at; it was a 15 minute walk but the place was crazy busy, plus we forgot it was Saturday!
We eventually made it to our cabin in the sky; our room is on the 18th floor but it feels more like an airline cabin or ship cabin than a hotel room. It is perfectly clean and again has various options for the toilet! There is also a strange message on the window, you can see below...how did they know; although we aren’t getting married until December!
We decide to go for a wander and try and find a pub; we start walking through Myeongdong shopping street. I am slightly hungry so we buy a BBQ chicken skewer like the locals; there is so much food and drink, I am making a list to figure out what I want (lobster, squid, corn on the cob, egg buns, watermelon, fresh pomegranate juice, etc etc)
We walk around for a bit but can`t really find anywhere; you get charged extra if you just want a drink in the restaurants; we found it out the hard way! We eventually found a bar called “Tavern,” its really quiet and the beer is expensive; we opted for a Carlsberg, just because it`s the cheapest! We decided to leave after one drink and wait until the bar crawl tomorrow! We headed back to the hotel, it was only a few minutes away, and see if the bar was decent. There is also a rooftop bar but as it was raining, we were stuck in the restaurant. We had a local beer called “Cass” but it was £11 for 2 330ml bottles so we thought a visit to the 7Eleven would be a better idea!
I can assure you, it was! We ended up with some random things, including tiramisu in a tube, chocoballs and coffee in a packet (like soup). Back to the hotel to sample the delights and catch up on the blog; thankfully, we have CNN but some of the Korean entertainment is interesting. We have a tour in the morning so it`s time for a reasonably early night.
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