Day 90 – Seoul to Hong Kong
Seoul
Today we left Air Hostel in Seoul, which was a really good Hostel. I highly recommend it. Upon leaving the Manager, David gave us some biscuits and chocolate saying it was a good bye gift. I am such a cheap recommendation!
We went to the airport, looking to top up our T-Money card with just the correct amount of money. We tried at the CU convenience store and at the Subway station machines to top up only 2,630 WON (which would add up to the correct amount for the ticket), but the CU staff member just kept saying “No”, and the machine would only take amounts of thousands. So we added 3,000 WON. We had heard we could return the cards and get our excess money back, but we were running a little late, so we decided to just leave the country without doing this.
The Flight
This was our first flight with budget airline HK Express, which was pretty good. After all my years of travel this was the first time I was put in the emergency exit row (that I can recall) which had excellent leg room, but horrible views. The window was on the emergency door and was tiny so we couldn’t see anything. Besides that, the 4 hour flight from Seoul to Hong Kong went without incident.
When we were close to land it was announced that the temperature was 27 degrees! We literally jumped for joy.
Hong Kong
Once we arrived at Hong Kong it was a smooth process and we were able to cash out at the ATM machine. While walking out, I saw a tourist information with Maps. We were approached by a friendly trainee who was super helpful with plenty of ideas on how to spend our time. Her advice is basically what we decided to do tomorrow.
We then bought an Octopus Card (which is like the T-Money Card in South Korea and Myki in Melbourne) from the Train Station counter. Then we bought a SIM card from Travellex (of all places) for $68 HKD / $11.95 AUD which has 3GB and lasts 5 days.
We took a bus, from the airport which was recommended by our hostel, The Majong. All the buses we saw are double decker and the one from the airport is really comfortable with areas to place baggage on bottom level and screens on the top level to watch your bag.
The country looks really pretty with an amazing combination of mountains, seas and skyscrapers. We passed heaps of bridges and what felt like thousands of container ships.
When we arrived at The Mahjong Hostel, we were welcomed warmly by the staff. There is a nice common area, and the double beds in the dorm we had booked were really spacious. The room had a place to store the bags and even to chill, with two bathrooms for the 6 double beds. The one downside, was the screen, was like a security blind, so whichever side had more light, would be visible, so turning the light on a night, means you can’t see out, but everyone else can see in.
We then walked close by to find a dinner spot. After Japan and South Korea, we are back into the familiar Asian / China Town vibe we are used to back home.
