PART N 1
Punctual as never before from Milan Malpensa at 11.10 am my plane of the Qatar Airline Company towards Seoul, with a stopover in Doha in Qatar (round trip price including taxes Euro 570).
The beautiful and very young Hostesses with the characteristic red headdress. Honestly, they didn't seem to be citizens of Qatar, but from other countries of the world.
Very nice and friendly they fill you with food and drink continuously.
The plane is full and therefore I cannot lie down.
I therefore arrive at 19.10, with impossible heat in Doha, the capital of Qatar (2 hours time zone, compared to Italy).
I remain in the very large and well-maintained transit area for 7 hours. It is a sea port as from here direct planes pass through for the whole world. At 1.55 am I have a plane to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
In Doha they are very precise and therefore begin to board passengers 1 hour and 20 minutes before the flight. The plane is packed and so once again I can't lie down on three places to sleep.
The hostesses this time are all Korean and bring the food twice.
A little spicy on one occasion but pleasant.
After about 9 hours of flight, I arrive at Inchehon Airport.
It is 16.30 '(6 hours ahead of Italian time). Logically, my cell phone doesn't work here too.
At Inchehon International Airport, I go downstairs, where I buy the ticket for the Train, for Seoul Achasan (east of the City) at the vending machines. (cost 4750 wo, including 500 won deposit, which are returned to you when you return the magnetic card to the appropriate "Refoundable" distributors, located in the Hall of each metro and train station. Logically the cost of the ticket depends on the distance you travel and it calculates it automatically when you buy the ticket at the machine. There are also indications in English).
Train change at the Gimpo Airport Railway Station.
Inchehon International Airport remains on an island more than 50 km away from the center of Seoul, but my hostel remains close to the Achasan metro station (east of the city) and therefore it takes almost 2 hours to reach it.
The Seoul subway is state of the art, it is one of the largest in the world and there are also written in English.
I am surrounded by Koreans that I have never even seen so many together. Nor of Westerners
However, they are very kind and helpful and I have always liked Korea.
I leave the subway at 8 in the evening. It is dark and there are 7 degrees centigrade.
In 2 minutes on foot (about 100 meters) I am at Phil Guesthouse (price of 8.81 Euros per night including breakfast, free internet and sheets.
Beautiful, very clean: inside each room there is a refrigerator, kitchen and bathroom. The electrical outlet is adjacent to the bed and is like the Italian one. The kitchen and common room are beautiful, spotless and very spacious.
Now that I have reached the dream of a lifetime, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, I can also go to sleep, because tomorrow is another day and I have to reach Gyeongju, in the south-east of South Korea, where I booked the hostel as this time I went back to basics and decided to book all hostels from home.
I go through a hell of a night because of the time difference and the impossible heat. I sleep almost nothing but despite this at 6.30 am already up to have my say.
I have a hearty breakfast with bread, jam, tea and coffee and then at 7.30 am I leave in pursuit of the next hostel.
At Achasan Station, I buy the metro ticket to Cheongnyangni (1,400 won) with the machine with the writing in English and then I throw myself into the ocean of Koreans going to work.
We are all piled up like sardines. I arrive at Cheongnyangni Station, after a good half hour. The first difficulties arrive there as I have to take the train to Chuncheon, but there are no counters to buy the ticket but only the machines but with the writing only in Korean. I try to stop someone to help me but everyone is in a hurry. Logically, I am the only foreigner and in fact I wonder where all the foreigners who get off the plane every day by the thousands end up. Anyway, in the end a compassionate girl stops and helps me get the ticket.
I therefore take the train at a cost of 6,000 Won, which also has the written stops in English.
Eventually I arrive at the Chuncheon Railway Station which is located near Uiamho Lake, in the north-east out of reach of everything and therefore I take the train to Nam Chuncheon Railway Station (1100 won, including 500 won deposit, which they are returned when you return the magnetic card to the special "Refoundable" distributors, located in the Hall of each metro and train station). Then I walk for a while and reach the bus station where I take out my Korean translations to book the bus to Daegu. (18,300 won).
After 3 and a half hours of travel I arrive in Daegu but logically at the only bus station in the city that is not served by metro and train and moreover located in the ass of wolves.
So with my translations in Korean I book the bus to Gyeongju (5,500 won one way) which leaves at 19.30. In this bus station there are few buses a day for the aforementioned town.
I arrive at the Gyeongju bus station at 8.30 pm and look for a taxi to reach the hostel as city buses are very difficult to understand where they go. But even the 13 taxi drivers don't charge me because they don't understand where my hostel is located, even though I showed them the maps in Korean, downloaded from the Internet, but they don't understand them.
So I have to go it alone and use the last remaining energy and my orientation skills to find the hostel, walking in the middle of the mountains of earth that are the tombs of the Kings.
Then in the end I arrive near but I can't find it and I can't even call because my phone doesn't work. It's 10pm and a very kind Korean who speaks English calls for me (not many speak it). Thanks to him I find the Guesthouse Santa, located in the center and I go up but when I get up, the owner is not there, but instead a Japanese guest welcomes me who does not want me to enter and says I have to go to the office and takes me down in the office but logically it is closed. I try and try to explain to him that I have already booked and insist and in the end she lets me in. Then comes the boss, I pay my 11.20 Euros for one night including breakfast, free internet. I also pay the bike rental for the next day (5,000 won one day). The hostel is beautiful and very clean and I am here. In the end it took me 15 hours to reach the Guesthouse Santa hostel and now I can still have my say. Tomorrow I have to arrive in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea, by evening and I will do everything to get there on schedule. Anyway, not even the shadow of Europeans.
In Guesthouse Santa it's just me and the 30 year old Japanese girl.
Unlike Seoul, it's colder inside, but I prefer it that way.
In the end even though she doesn't speak English very well and I don't even make friends and I show him my blog.
Tira, mola, tambala (by the way we discovered that it means tambala ????) it is 2 o'clock.
This time I sleep little but well and at seven I am ready to leave with my Graziella bicycle rented at the hostel for 5,000 Won a day.
I visit Gyeongju with the Graziella in the midst of the tombs of the great kings and go also to Lake Bomun, located 5 km north of the City.
Then I take the Bus n. 10 for the Bulguksa Temple for the price of 1500 Won (you pay on the bus by putting the money in a box). Bus number 11 is fine too. Buses 10 or 11 can be taken at Gyeongju Bus Station or at 100 meters. about from that railway.
The bus takes about half an hour to reach the destination. Tell the driver where you want to get off otherwise the bus may not stop.
Anyway from the bus stop at the main entrance of the Temple you have to walk uphill for about 500 meters.
The entrance to the Bulguksa Temple, a World Heritage Site, costs 4000 Won. The temple is full of steps but is wheelchair accessible. It is located in the woods.
With the same bus mentioned above I go back to Gyeongju Bus Station, where I take the Bus Bus to West Daegu (Seobu bus Terminal) for the price of 5,900 Won one day. There are many of them a day. The journey takes an hour.
From there I then take the bus to Haeinsa (7,100 won one way), I despair in the Palgongsan Provincial Park in the middle of the mountains. An hour and a half the journey.
Arriving at the tiny Haeinsa Bus Station, you have to walk for 1,500 meters, of which 1000 uphill to reach the Hapcheon Haein Temple, protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but I make do with hitchhiking.
I'm out of this world and it's also late and I absolutely have to get to Busan before night falls.
I take advantage of the enormous kindness of the locals to get out of difficulties. Koreans always help you a lot. One even, since unfortunately I don't have a working phone, and he doesn't have a cell phone either, he asked all the
bus a mobile phone and then he found it and called the hostel for me saying I would be late, then he acted as a guide in Daegu buying me tickets
by metro from Seobu bus Terminal to Dongdaegu Railway Station (1200 won) and by the slower and cheaper train to Busan (7,200 won one way) and thus saving me a lot of time.
Eventually me
he accompanied the platform and also gave me a box of Ferrero Rosche; I'm
the only European in these situations and many guys want to make friends with me and exchange i
contacts even if few speak English.
Arrival at Busan Railway Station after 1 hour and a half. I take the metro, located 100 meters. about outside and get off at Kyungsung University Puky Metro Station (1,400 won). The hostel is located just 200 meters away. from it but I can't find it but then thanks to the usual help of the people I can reach it
at 24.30.
There is a sea of people still on the streets. South Korea gives me the
feeling of a very safe country.
The Lzone Hostel is beautiful, is run by an American girl and costs only 14,500 Won per night including free internet.
I sleep well but little and at seven I leave from the aforementioned hostel to take the flight to Tokyo. I try to get out of the door but the lock is jammed and
then I ask for help from the first awake loser but he too fails and has to call the boss who miraculously unlocks it.
I then take the metro to Sasang for the price of 1,400 Won and there I take the train to the Gimhae Airport in Busan for the price of 1300 Won.
At 11.05 am, the plane is punctual as never before of the Air Asia Company (71,100 Won one way) leaves half empty for Tokyo. It goes without saying that I am the only European.
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