You may have realized that this blog has not been updated for about a week. That's because I went to South Korea for a holiday with the Buggers."First Japan, now Korea?!", I can hear many of you yelling into your computer screens. Yes. I went to Japan and Korea. Yes, both countries were awesome. No, I am not rich. Yes, I enjoyed myself very much. No, I did not buy any of you souvenirs. And that answers all the questions you have asked me.
Here's a reindeer and a guy vomiting tissue paper. Your argument is invalid.
Now before I go any further, I just want to inform you guys that I will not be putting most of the Korea pictures and posts on this blog. Everything here is designed to be sarcastic, and there's a limit to sarcasm when it comes to traveling. Instead, if you want our full Korean experience, you will have to head on down to our other blog,
Forever Hungry. Because in our Korea trip, the Korean cuisine is what mattered the most.
Now, I just want to write about the first time I stayed in a guesthouse. It was a real experience for me because I have never stayed anywhere outside a hotel or a friend or family member's home in another country.
A guesthouse is exactly like its name. It's a house for guests. Ha, I kid. I'm so funny that way. But a guesthouse is a cozy and relatively inexpensive place for travelers to bunk while traveling around a country. A guesthouse is usually modeled around the fact that they provide their guests a warm and friendly atmosphere of their own house.
The guesthouse we stayed in was Lee & No in one of the most happening areas of Seoul. Located in the nightlife area of Hongdae, Lee & No is a surprisingly quiet guesthouse.
That's because they are located in a neighborhood area, and as all neighborhoods require, silence is golden. Our arrival did not, however, signal the end of that peace.
We were in a foreign country and did not know how to speak the language properly. We had to respect their rules or risk irritating the locals.
And the rules were plenty. I kid you not.
They even have a rule to have fun.
When I say our guesthouse is cozy, I am not joking. We were given the family room, (because all the Buggers are bros). Lee & No names their rooms after the seasons. Ours was Spring.
Other seaso-I mean rooms included Summer, Fall and Winter. Though who would want to stay in the Winter room during winter baffles my mind.
Stay in me. I need some warmth.- Poor Winter room
But, the room was honestly quite small for us. C'mon, Marcus alone ate up almost half the room. His bag, roughly the size of a small refrigerator, ate up the other half.
Marcus not giving a hoot about anything.
Seng Jun trying hard to move around the room.
ECF had to sleep on the floor. Poor guy.
I mean, look. I had to sleep on the top bunk of the double decker bed which is so close to the ceiling that I leave holes whenever I wake up. It is seriously that low.
Every single morning.
But a guesthouse is more like a place for you to rest before you head out to hit the streets. No one goes to a guesthouse and stays in the room all the time. Plus, we spent most of our time either walking outside in the cold or sleeping. So Marcus and his fridge were not really much of a problem. Here are some pictures of our Spring room.
One thing I really like about the guesthouse is the toilet. It is called Nature, because that's where you answer the call of Nature.
The toilet is a shared toilet and in the mornings, it is so incredibly cold that a shower session is like bathing in the icy lake of Alaska.
I skipped a good many showers just because it was too cold. I would almost have caught my death in the toilet of ice.
Pictured: A murder weapon during winter in Korea.
The greatest thing about it is that it wakes me up completely in the mornings. And I totally feel refreshed too. Shivering uncontrollably counts as refreshed right?
The best thing about staying in a guesthouse is the guaranteed good service you will get. The friendly staff of Lee & No really put a lot of hotel services on the back foot. I got this on our table when we reached late.
If you can't read it, it's a letter nicely typed out welcoming us to the guesthouse. Even if it's already late at night, we still felt so welcome. Hotels can't give you service this personalized. Does your bellboy stop and talk to you about where you went to drink the night before? Does your clean up lady joke to you about your friend's hangover? No? I thought so.
This is Isabel.
She is the awesome manager at Lee & No. She is also the one who prepares breakfast for us, sits down and chats with us in the mornings.
She's also the person who gives us directions to places, teaches us drinking games and laughs at our hangover stories the next morning. She's a really fun person to talk to and really nice too. Plus, she makes a different Special Sunday breakfast.
And...she's still single.
I'm not counted. I've been guest-zoned.
So any guys out there want to get to know Isabel? Leave a comment below.
Overall, my first stay at a guesthouse will definitely not be my last. I know the Buggers agree with me. Marcus especially because we found a place to accommodate him and his fridge. If we ever drop by Seoul again, we'll be sure to stay at Lee & No.
The outside on a bright and sunny day.
They have a money wall too. Mad insane.
ECF checking out the message wall.
Find our message!
The outside pond. Frozen.
Half of our experience in Seoul took part in Lee & No after all. It's a great place to stay and experience the hospitality of the Korean people. If not, you'll be sleeping on the streets like shown below.
Poor Seng Jun.
Here's
their Facebook page. Stalk it. We're on that page too.
Flattering picture with Isabel.
Cheerios!
And here's a little bonus preview to the next Korea blog post. I planked...a bear? What?
Prepare to be planked, bear.
