I came to CNU three weeks ago. I know, I am a bit lazy with updating the blog. But I finally feel motivated to write about my first weeks in Daejeon.
I arrived in Daejeon with an Express Bus from Incheon Airport, where I had parted with my boyfriend. The Express Bus is an easy way to get to Daejeon. It only takes about 3 hours and is very comfortable and not expensive. For me it was very helpful to memorize the Korean name of the stop I had to go off, because the bus driver won't tell you, which stop you are at. He will just open the door, get out and open the trunk, so that you can get your luggage. At the second stop I asked the Korean man next to me "Jeongbu-cheongsa?" (Jeongbu-cheongsa is the Korean name of the station Government Complex Daejeon). He didn't know that much English, but it was enough to tell me that he was also getting off at the Government Complex stop.
After getting of the bus at the right station I heaved my suitcases out of the trunk and got away from the bus. The next destination was a motel. I arrived in Daejeon on March, 1. That's a national holiday in South Korea and because of that I couldn't move into the dormitory on this day. I didn't have to look for a taxi. A taxi found me and I handed the driver a piece of paper with the motel's address and a Korean sentence stating I want to go there. We agreed on a fix price (he didn't speak any English, he just showed my a 10000 Won bill and I agreed). He had a hard time finding the motel, but we finally managed to get there after he called the reception.
The guy at the reception didn't speak English. So I just showed him the booking confirmation and got a key. Until then everything was running smoothly, but after opening the door to my room my good mood was ruined. On the first sight everything seemed okay. I went into the bathroom to check it. Except from the toilet everything was dirty. Cleaning the whole bathroom is apparently not necessary for the Cityone Motel in Daejeon. There was also dirt and rubbish under the closet. Why did I look there? Because I searched for the Internet socket, which should be there according to my reservation. And I found the socket behind the TV... I had to move the TV to connect my cable. Then I found the dirt and rubbish... And guess what??? No Internet connection. The socket wasn't connected to a router.
After seeing all this and not being able to tell anyone, I was pretty worn-out. So I left the motel to get some fresh air and to search for an open WIFI spot with my smartphone. Luckily, I found a tourist information near the motel. I could use the PC there and wrote an inquiry to the agoda service and an email to my family. I also tried to get in touch with my supporter at CNU. So I spent over an hour there and even got hot green tea from the staff. They were really friendly. Then the tourist information closed and I had to leave. So I went around until I found a cafe and stayed there. I really didn't want to get back to the motel. At the cafe I had WIFI. I received a reply from agoda. They told me to check out of the hotel if I want to get a refund... I had hoped for more help. Where should I find a new, better hotel at 7pm in the evening and carry my suitcases there? That's what I replied. Then I went back to the motel. I decided to stay there, because the bed sheets were for the most part clean. I watched TV until I was really tired and then went to bed. I woke up really early, collected my stuff and left the motel. I managed to tell the guy at the reception that I need a taxi (but it took me 5 minutes). I handed the taxi driver my piece of paper with the Korean sentence of where I wanted to go. I got it from the university. And then he took me to the dormitories of Chungnam National University.
Later, I received an email from the agoda service, where they apologized and offered me a discount on my next booking with agoda. You may think, that the story ends here, but no. One week after I left the Cityone Motel I got an automatically generated email from agoda, giving me the chance to write a review about my stay. I didn't let go off this chance and wrote a detailed review, stating everything that was wrong at the motel. I wrote at least 10 sentences. A view days ago I got a new email, saying that agoda approved my review. Today I checked it and wanted to upload some of the unpleasant photos I took. First of all, you don't get the chance to upload your own photos - nice. Secondly, and worst, my review was censored!!!! Only two sentences are left from my review. Agoda took out all my descriptions of the unacceptable things I found at the motel room. What's this??? How can they do this??? How can a customer trust such a booking website, where they won't post the whole reviews? This is unreasonable. I will never, ever again use agoda from booking and hope that I can stop other persons from doing so with this post.
Of course, I complained about this by email. My complain was forwarded to a manager. I'm curious about the answer.
****UPDATE****
I received an answer. They will give me a refund of 50%. I think I only got this, because I told them that I would publish this incident on the Internet. I told them again to publish my whole review, but they still didn't do it. See you never agoda!
****/UPDATE****
PS: I won't post any photos here, because that would be too disgusting. And I really don't want to look at the photos again >____<
Friday, March 22, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Missing photos from our vacation in South Korea
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| Fried bell pepper with filling and fried squid |
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| Korean side dishes (don't know what the yellow sauce is) |
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| Bibimbap |
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| Jeon |
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| Galbi <3 |
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| Restaurant cooking their food outside |
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| Very very very spicy Ramen |
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| Yakisoba |
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| Matcha Latte and Cappuccino with cinnamon |
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| Samgyeopsal |
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| Salad... I'm missing you soooooo much!!!!! |
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| Cheese cake |
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| Bulgogi on rice |
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| Korean Shabu Shabu |
Seoul
From Busan we travelled to Seoul with the fastest train in South Korea, the KTX. It took us just a few hours to reach Seoul. The seats were very comfortable and we could put our suitcases into a luggage rack. It was a bit hard to get the tickets, because the man at the counter didn't really understand us and our special needs with big luggage. But just keep talking and they finally get somebody, who you can communicate with ^_~
On our way we also came through Daejeon. It's the city I am living in right now. What I saw wasn't really that good. Run-down houses, but definitely a big city. But I will talk about Daejeon in the following posts.
So we arrived in Seoul. It was pretty easy to find our hostel. They have a good description on how to access the hostel on their homepage. Compared to the hostel in Busan, this one was luxury. We had our own clean bathroom, a clean bed with linen on it, a heated floor, television, a refrigerator and enough space to open more than one suitcase. NICE (*＾▽＾)／
We visited the following sites in Seoul:
Gwanghwamun Plaza 광화문광장
Gwanghwamun Plaza is over 40 meters broad and over 550 meters long. It begins at the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and ends at the main gate of Gyeongbokgung palace. The street once had 16 lanes, but they were reduced to 10 in order to create the Plaza. The Plaza is open to the public an also shows a statue of King Sejong. You might be wondering who I'm talking about. I'm not familiar with Korean history. I did some research for you.
King Sejong: He is called Sejong the Great and was king from 1418 to 1450. What's so great about him? For one thing, he was the one who introduced the Korean alphabet Hangul in Korea and helped actively to create a simple alphabet, which everybody could use in the country. Up till then only Chinese Kanji were used for writing and not everybody could read them. He was also interested in science. What I remember from the small museum under the Plaza is, that he always thought of the people living in his country. The museum itself is a bit propagandistic in my eyes, but Koreans are very proud of their country. There's more information about King Sejong in the Wikipedia entry.
Admiral Sun-sin: He was a naval commander and is famous for his victory over Japanese warships. A story they tell in a 4D-cinema in the museum is about the Battle of Myeongnyang. His fleet was outnumbered 333 ships to 13 against the Japanese but he won anyway.
Cheongwadae 청와댸
This is the Blue House, where the president of Korea lives. We took some pictures. But there were a lot of police and you are only allowed to take pictures, while standing on a certain spot. Of course we didn't see it and were scolded by police, while they shoved us away.
Cheonggyecheon River
You can take a nice walk along the river. It was reinstated in 2003. While we were there a lot of Korean people went for a (power) walk during their lunch break. 22 bridges can be found along the river. But parking is allowed on the bridges. They were full with motorbikes. This took some of their beauty away.
N Seoul Tower 서울타워
N Seoul Tower allows you to see Seoul from above. But I think you can imagine, that because of the smog you won't be able to see a lot of it. Around the Tower is a famous Lovers' Sanctuary, which was a setting for some Korean TV dramas. You can either walk up the hill or take the cable car.
Hongdae
Hongdae is a district of Seoul. You can find the Hongik University there, a very famous art and design university. In Hongdae are a lot of young people, interesting shops and good restaurants. Our guesthouse was here. It's a very convenient are for travelling. You have easy access to the subway and the express train to Incheon Airport. The most funny thing you will find in Hongdae is the Trickeye Museum. We took some really hilarious photos Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ
Gangnam
Since Psy everybody knows Seoul's district Gangnam. We went there to see the Korean World Trade Center and the Coex building. Underneath Coex you will find the Coex Mall. It's a big underground shopping center, that contains a cinema and an aquarium and a small Kimchi Museum. Now we know all about Kimchi ^_~
On our way we also came through Daejeon. It's the city I am living in right now. What I saw wasn't really that good. Run-down houses, but definitely a big city. But I will talk about Daejeon in the following posts.
So we arrived in Seoul. It was pretty easy to find our hostel. They have a good description on how to access the hostel on their homepage. Compared to the hostel in Busan, this one was luxury. We had our own clean bathroom, a clean bed with linen on it, a heated floor, television, a refrigerator and enough space to open more than one suitcase. NICE (*＾▽＾)／
We visited the following sites in Seoul:
Gwanghwamun Plaza 광화문광장
Gwanghwamun Plaza is over 40 meters broad and over 550 meters long. It begins at the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and ends at the main gate of Gyeongbokgung palace. The street once had 16 lanes, but they were reduced to 10 in order to create the Plaza. The Plaza is open to the public an also shows a statue of King Sejong. You might be wondering who I'm talking about. I'm not familiar with Korean history. I did some research for you.
King Sejong: He is called Sejong the Great and was king from 1418 to 1450. What's so great about him? For one thing, he was the one who introduced the Korean alphabet Hangul in Korea and helped actively to create a simple alphabet, which everybody could use in the country. Up till then only Chinese Kanji were used for writing and not everybody could read them. He was also interested in science. What I remember from the small museum under the Plaza is, that he always thought of the people living in his country. The museum itself is a bit propagandistic in my eyes, but Koreans are very proud of their country. There's more information about King Sejong in the Wikipedia entry.
Admiral Sun-sin: He was a naval commander and is famous for his victory over Japanese warships. A story they tell in a 4D-cinema in the museum is about the Battle of Myeongnyang. His fleet was outnumbered 333 ships to 13 against the Japanese but he won anyway.
Cheongwadae 청와댸
This is the Blue House, where the president of Korea lives. We took some pictures. But there were a lot of police and you are only allowed to take pictures, while standing on a certain spot. Of course we didn't see it and were scolded by police, while they shoved us away.
Cheonggyecheon River
You can take a nice walk along the river. It was reinstated in 2003. While we were there a lot of Korean people went for a (power) walk during their lunch break. 22 bridges can be found along the river. But parking is allowed on the bridges. They were full with motorbikes. This took some of their beauty away.
N Seoul Tower 서울타워
N Seoul Tower allows you to see Seoul from above. But I think you can imagine, that because of the smog you won't be able to see a lot of it. Around the Tower is a famous Lovers' Sanctuary, which was a setting for some Korean TV dramas. You can either walk up the hill or take the cable car.
Hongdae
Hongdae is a district of Seoul. You can find the Hongik University there, a very famous art and design university. In Hongdae are a lot of young people, interesting shops and good restaurants. Our guesthouse was here. It's a very convenient are for travelling. You have easy access to the subway and the express train to Incheon Airport. The most funny thing you will find in Hongdae is the Trickeye Museum. We took some really hilarious photos Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ
Gangnam
Since Psy everybody knows Seoul's district Gangnam. We went there to see the Korean World Trade Center and the Coex building. Underneath Coex you will find the Coex Mall. It's a big underground shopping center, that contains a cinema and an aquarium and a small Kimchi Museum. Now we know all about Kimchi ^_~
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| Interesting bread |
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| Art in Hondae |
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| Gwanghwamun Plaza |
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| Gyeongbokgung Palace main gate |
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| King Sejong |
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| In front of the main gate |
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| Kimchi pots |
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| Advertisment |
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| Admiral Sun-sin |
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| Blue House |
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| Trickeye Museum |
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| Coex Mall |
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| Coex building |
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| In the Kimchi Museum |
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| Korean World Trade Center |
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| At N Seoul Tower |
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| Cheonggyecheon River |
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