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My Eight Days Trip To South KoreaThe content written in this page is solely my view and interpretation of my recent trip to South Korea. There are some facts which may be disagreeable or inaccurate by some.Promotion by Korean Air and korean TV series were very popular among the Malaysian TV viewers. (I am from Malaysia) The Korean Air promotion attracted me with a reasonable package so I decided to take the trip. I usually travel alone but in considering the pricing and also the language barrier I took up the group tour package. The sale's pitch was very soothing and all was in order when I place my booking in late January 2005. Actually I rarely like to travel with group tour arrangement, you will understand why as you read along. My flight was a direct flight with Korean Air from Penang to Seoul and the departure on the 13th April 2005. Then two weeks before departure I received a call from the tour agent that they had to change my departure date to the 6th of April giving various explanations and reasons for the changes. Since I was not busy or occupied I agreed to the change of date. The itinerary was also ammended. ( The first setback of traveling with group tours.) Another surprise on the 5th of April barely 24 hours before departure yet another call from the tour agent. This time is the change of flight schedule, instead of taking the direct flight I was told that I had to take a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur. That means I had to check in two hours earlier for my flight to Kuala Lumpur and to wait another three hours in KLIA for the connecting flight to Seoul. I was given the most ridiculous reason for this change. "Korean Air had overbooked the seats for the Penang - Seoul flight". The overbooking was not two or three seats but 18 seats as 18 people from the same tour group were also rescheduled. I just could not believe it, with the latest high tech computer systems, the airline can overbooked by 18 seats and I make reservation 3 months early!! Over to you Korean Air. (The second setback of traveling with tour group.) I always travel light, as mentioned in my Travel Tips page. I had only one hand carry briefcase for the eight days trip. I did not bring with me bathing towels and hair shampoo as these items are provided by hotels. Wait for the surprise!!! We had a smooth flight and landed at about 7am local time. (South Korea is one hour ahead of Malaysian time, i.e +8 GMT). We than board the tour coach and our sites seeing start without having a rest or wash up. After a hectic day of sites seeing and dinner we finally reach our hotel. (The third setback of traveling with tour group.) We are told that the hotel is a five-star hotel except that the room is a little bit small. I enter the room and although it looks small it is clean and comfortable. I find the room exceptable but the real surprise is waiting for me in the bathroom. After the five hours flight and a full day of moving around I needed a real hot bath before retiring to bed. I enter the bath room, no long bath just shower, it's ok, fine. Then I start to look for a bathing towel, no bathing towel but just small hand towels. I need to wash my hair, no hair shampoo. I was really mad and after the shower and using the hand towel to dry my body I went straight to the tour leader's room. I ask why there is no bathing towels and hair shampoo and to my disbelieve, this is what he told me. "The South Korean Authority does not permit hotels to provide bathing towels and hair shampoo". I just could not believe my ears. The next morning I woke up very early before the morning call alarm. I went down to the front desk to try and find out whether it is true that hotels in South Korea are not permitted to provide bathing towels and hair shampoo. I could not get a confirm answer as the personel at the front desk speak very little English. ( I tried searching the internet about this ruling but no where can I find such ruling being mentioned.) Would appreciate if someone or any Korean can confirm whether this ruling is true for the benefits of future travelers. Update: Response from Korea National Tourism Organisation. Most of the countries that I had visited depended on tourism as part of their country economy. There are english speaking personals at the hotel frontdesks, entrance to places of interest, entertainment centre and shopping complexs. Brochures, maps and transportation informations have written english apart from their local language. From my own observation and point of view, South Korea economy does not depend on tourism and they are not so open as yet to welcome tourist. Here are some of my points.
The Korean Cities that I had Visited: Busan Daegu Jeju Seoul |
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