Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Welcome to Seoul, Korea!

We arrived tonight at 9:00 pm in Incheon International Airport to a cool, pouring rain night. The weather is around 11 C, which is quite a nasty surprise for me, since I expect it to be hot at the beginning of May, I didn't bring any coat, not even scarf.

I mean, it was humid hot in Hong Kong, so I didn't even buy any coat there for Korea, expecting it to be at least the same temp. But it was a hot 28C there and half of that here.

Oh well...

We took number 11B bus from the airport to COEX Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, which costs us 14,000 Won each person one way, which is WAY cheaper than the 140,000 Won the hotel charge for hotel pick up.

There were only three of us on the bus, Ming, me and another guy who stopped at Imperial Palace hotel. The bus is actually quite comfortable, the seat is certainly more comfortable than the economy class at Cathay (no business upgrade this time :P). The driver is polite (he bowed before he drove!!) and the trip is practically traffic free.

We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 pm, and the hotel is nice. I mean, you can't compare it with Grand Hyatt Dubai or Ritz Carlton Singapore, but like Ming said, since this time we actually have to pay for it and not being treated by our customers, stuff it!! ahahhahaa...

Well, from the outside, the hotel is way more impressive than hotels such as Shangri-La or Sheraton Surabaya, but actually, the inside is not. And we've stayed in Lotte World before and that one is WAY WAY better than this one. and here we have to pay US$30/24 hours for internet connection.

again. not complaining. I mean, at least not nearly as chronic as Sheila's complaints (sorryyyyyy huahuahuahuahuaaaa.....)

We bought a Fren number in Indonesia who claimed that we can use it in Korea, being CDMA and all. And we did get the signal here, but somehow we failed to make the call. I forgot to bring the instruction manual for making international call from the number, oh well. Anyone knows how to use it? tried +82, +00182, 00182 (without plus), but still not working.

okay, am off to bed now...am tired...

6 comments:

vini said...

in private train in japan, during peak hours, the train officer will go check each cart. when he enters the cart, he will bow, the walk, then before he goes off ento another cart, he will turn, and bow, and then off to another cart. i think its very impressive as well. too bad now im used to it and taken it for granted.

imoet said...

Bowing is part of Japanese and Koreean culture. Dulu aku juga terkagum2, tapi sekarang udah terbiasa liat orang terbungkuk2 :p

Vi...Seoul biasanya masih dingin sampai akhir mei :p.

Aku waktu tinggal di Korea pake telkomsel kok. Kalo Handphonemu pakai teknologi 3G, bisa. Cuma ya menurutku kalo kamu aktif harus telpon2 lokal disana, mending kamu rental mobile phone di airport. lebih murah. Bawa nomer dari indonesia kedobel2 chargenya. Ya international, ya roaming....Maap gak bisa bantu cara nelpon pake fren. mungkin bisa tanya customer servicenya. coba di email? Udah coba 0082...?

Duh...COEX...tempat main2 kita dulu. Jadi inget2 Iki yang baru belajar jalan nyemplung di kolam kecil di foodcourtnya hahaha. Biasanya nginep diseberangnya Intercontinental hotel, Park Hyatt. Nyaman, gak serame intercontinental, tapi tinggal nyebrang kalo mau ke COEX.

Vivi said...

iya Moet, barusan liat jendela diluar, windy banget....duh, cuman bawa celana tiga perempat!! oh well...

iya juga sih ce, mumpung yang di indo gak bisa telpon ngriwuki hahahaha...

The Diva said...

hihihi bowing dulu baru nyetir??? lucunyaaaaaaaa...

kalau disini malah tempat supir ditutup rapat, ditulisin "dilarang berbicara dengan supir selama perjalanan" hihihi.

aneh nggak sih Mut, Vin, waktu pertama kali harus bow tiap ketemu orang gitu?

Btw Viiii, kamu tuh posting tapi nggak pake fotoooooo... mana fotooo????? Some people have never been to Korea you know!
FYI you'll be the bravest and the most encourageous person in Seoul at the moment, suhu segitu pake celana 3/4, gpp lah, hehehe...

Vivi said...

belon sempat foto nih...sekarang jam 2 pm waktu setempat, baru mau cari makan siang en ke temple seberang jalan mau liat liat.

halah korea ya gitu gitu lah. gak beda sama Taipei/osaka/hong kong (pssst, jangan kasih tau Atsushi en Hiro aku ngomong gini ya hahahaha).

Diva, kamu ngapain jam segini wes online?! kirim aku email opo'o timbang nganggur!

En Moet, tadi baru ngerasakno juajine orang korea. pas ke toko souvenir, aku liat liat guci ijo keramiknya mereka seng cute banget, plus ta ambil ta liat hargane. habis gitu liat kotak perhiasan satu seng lucu banget.

terus seng jaga itu nggremeng en langsung benerin barang-barang seng tadi taliat, seng wes ta kembaliin dan mungkin cuman geser 0.5cm dari tempat asale!!

memang sih aku ketok laen soro dari cewek korea seng lain. luweh ayu adoh. tapi mbok ya gak usah sirik gitu hihihi....

vini said...

maybe you should just show them your wallet to shut their big smelly mouth up??!!

they thought that im japanese here, but when i speak, they will ask me, where i am from. darn!!! padahal aku wes gambatte soro lo to speak japanese. and their pronunciation is not difficult. i dont understand....
but when i was in china and speak chinese. they dont know that im not chinese. well of course if i speak too much they will know since my vocabs are limited. or maybe its due to lots of dialects in china? so even if i speak weird chinese they thought that i was from somewhere in china??? hmmm...could be...