seoul
left shanghai to go out to Pu Dong airport aboard maglev that peaked (according to onboard display) at 431 km.h^-1 in the company of american (pacific northwestern) chick from hostel who had a flight at about the same time as me. the maglev didn't start running until 0830 so our early departure from hostel was wasted as we had to sit at the station drinking yogurt (mmmm) for 40 minutes, swatting away taxi drivers.
Possession of same-day airline ticket gives one-off 10 or 20% discount (can't remember) on maglev ticket - my stack of 15 boarding cards (all my remaining flights from here to LHR) confused the ticket seller a little, as he tried to work out where he could put the stamp to show I'd used my discount...
when I got to airport, despite the maglev delay, I found I was still too early to check in, so sat in "CoffeePort" drinking western-priced coffee for an hour. Eventually moved airside to the Star Alliance gold lounge, where (in true backpacker form) I stuffed myself on free sandwiches, beer and coffee.
Arriving in Seoul, I had even less idea than previous places about how to get to hostel. Fortunately their was a computerised bus information machine into which I typed the name of the hostel/hotel and was given a selection of buses to take. Turns out it even gave me the right information!
The hostel is actually a few converted hotel rooms in the big nice Olympic Parktel; converted means "had some bunk beds put in", with the satellite TV, telephone, ensuite shower&lavatory all left in place as well as free postcards, daily linen change and other such hotel-like properties. Unfortunately its got a hotel rather than hostel atmosphere -- no common area with people reading LP and getting drunk on the cheapest alcohol they could find -- so I've spent much more time wandering round the city looking at stuff, getting food from FamilyMart and wondering why its so hard to find an internet cafe (found one now... seems to be about 1300 Won per hour)
Also found details of an Irish pub, O'Kims, which I will investigate this eve if not too exhausted by the heat.
Possession of same-day airline ticket gives one-off 10 or 20% discount (can't remember) on maglev ticket - my stack of 15 boarding cards (all my remaining flights from here to LHR) confused the ticket seller a little, as he tried to work out where he could put the stamp to show I'd used my discount...
when I got to airport, despite the maglev delay, I found I was still too early to check in, so sat in "CoffeePort" drinking western-priced coffee for an hour. Eventually moved airside to the Star Alliance gold lounge, where (in true backpacker form) I stuffed myself on free sandwiches, beer and coffee.
Arriving in Seoul, I had even less idea than previous places about how to get to hostel. Fortunately their was a computerised bus information machine into which I typed the name of the hostel/hotel and was given a selection of buses to take. Turns out it even gave me the right information!
The hostel is actually a few converted hotel rooms in the big nice Olympic Parktel; converted means "had some bunk beds put in", with the satellite TV, telephone, ensuite shower&lavatory all left in place as well as free postcards, daily linen change and other such hotel-like properties. Unfortunately its got a hotel rather than hostel atmosphere -- no common area with people reading LP and getting drunk on the cheapest alcohol they could find -- so I've spent much more time wandering round the city looking at stuff, getting food from FamilyMart and wondering why its so hard to find an internet cafe (found one now... seems to be about 1300 Won per hour)
Also found details of an Irish pub, O'Kims, which I will investigate this eve if not too exhausted by the heat.
posted by benc at 05:06 GMT
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