The food was incredible and they came round with hot towels almost every hour. I told Adrian I could easily get used to this, so he’d better be careful! ;)
After arriving in Seoul we got given a set of directions to get to another terminal to catch our flight to Busan. The steps seemed simple enough, 4 steps and we’d be there. It didn’t turn out to be that easy though. We had to stop on five separate occasions to ask people where to go. Everyone had given different answers and every place was wrong. We sort of started to panic as we only had 30 minutes til our next flight and no tickets, we weren’t even sure if our bags had made it here and we had to pick them up or if they were going straight through to Busan. Finally we saw a tiny little sign in English (the first one we’d seen) hidden behind another board and it said ticket collection upstairs. We got our tickets and were assured our bags would be waiting in Busan. All we could do was get on the plane and wait to see what happened at the other end. We flew Korean Air for the last leg, in economy and were surprised at how much leg room there was. How can Australian aircraft, whose passengers are quite a lot taller have such a big difference, it seemed odd but I certainly wasn’t complaining. For once I was in an economy seat where my knees didn’t touch the chair in front, it was great! When we arrived in Busan we went straight through customs and collected our bags, I think the whole process took under fifteen minutes. So far I was very impressed with South Korea.
Our next mission was to find our driver so when we walked out to the pick-up area we went in different directions to try and find him faster. I saw the sign with our names and yelled out to Adrian and while waiting for him to walk back I went up to the driver and said hello. He didn’t look at me or talk to me and I was starting to think he hadn’t heard me so I said hello again, but still no answer. Adrian reached us then and said hi and introduced us both and we found out his name was Elvis. As we got in the car for our ninety minute drive south I remembered friends had warned us that Western women weren’t well respected over here and maybe that was why he hadn’t acknowledged me. It was going to take a lot to get used to if this was the way I was going to be treated over here. Time would tell.
When we got to the hotel we were impressed by the clean and comfortable room we were given. It was probably equivalent to an Australian 3 star hotel but we were expecting something a lot worse so were very happy. In fact the whole journey had impressed us so far, the roads were better than Australian roads, the highways were three lanes wide and there didn’t seem to be many crazy drivers, not like you see in Bali or Thailand anyway. The drive to Geoje Island even took us through the longest under water tunnel in the world (impressive). It seemed very western and high-rises were everywhere. Adrian and I were expecting tiny little towns with not many mod cons but it seems we were wrong. Maybe South Korea would be easier than we first expected.
It was 9pm when we arrived at the hotel and our bellies were grumbling. We had driven past a big shopping centre and had spotted a McDonalds so decided after sitting for all those hours on the plane and in the car it would do us good if we walked there. After a quick freshen up we noticed the only ‘towels’ in the room were the size of hand towels, ‘great’ I thought ‘shower time is going to be a soggy affair!’.
As we walked in to town we realised every shop was open and every one was dressed impeccably. All the women were in stunning fashionable clothes with their hair and make-up done beautifully. I suddenly felt a little insecure, my hair and make-up was a mess after travelling for the last 24 hours and my comfy travelling clothes just didn’t look right amongst these glamorous people. Not only was I going to stand out for being so tall and pale but also because of how bourgeois I would’ve looked. Great!
We walked into the shops and past all these people but to my relief no one stared or even looked our way. Phew, I just must remember from now on to dress up before leaving the house, shame I can’t go back and repack my suitcase though!
Adrian directed us into McDonalds and we ordered our two meals. There was a bit of confusion over the word meals but we paid and waited. Our order came up and on our tray sat two burgers and milk. We quickly realised that they must’ve thought we said milk instead of meal. Adrian then had to use lots of hand gestures and pointing to explain that we wanted chips, drinks and burgers not burgers and milk. We learnt that they don’t say meal but set menu – something to remember next time.
After we finished our meals, I mean set menus we went for a quick walk through the shopping centre. I couldn’t believe how great it was! There were shoes and handbags everywhere, not to mention Dior, Chanel and lots of other good brands in the makeup department. We went down to the Homeplus level and realised it was a big supermarket and was like a Kmart and Coles mixed together. It had everything, familiar items lined the shelves. We even found a linen area and quickly picked up some towels (normal size) to use.
As we walk back to the hotel the fatigue hits me like a ton of bricks. Time to sign off. Write soon xx
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