Seoul to Pohang

After deciding against a palace tour in the rain. We started today off with a very good lunch at a nice little restaurant. It really displayed the value of picture menus for tourists, because even the “English” menus leave some mystery to the exact dish (like the “tunny salad” I had the other day in a town nearby Changzhou). Getting to see a picture of what a tourist is about to eat really allows him to make a much better decision. The rain let up a bit, so we checked out a ‘traditional’ (aka touristy) market street near our hostel. It had more handicrafts than most can handle. I kept the tourist stereotype alive and bought some small gifts and postcards. Because both of our phones weren’t really low on batteries, thus unreliable as alarms we went to try and buy one. They were way too expensive, but the store was in the same mall as the e-Sports Stadium, so we went up to see if there was any computer gaming going on. And there was. The studio was taping once again, but this time to a packed live audience. We had to budge through the crowd just to get close enough to get good pictures. The crowd was due to the fact that this was the real thing: one on one Starcraft. Each player was inside a pretty cool looking sound cube that looked a lot like a cable car. What you won’t believe, but what I have a witness (Danethemanstan) to prove is that later that night, at our hotel, we saw the exact game that we had been watching on TV. That’s right, I have been a studio audience member of a Korean gaming network prime time event. Try and act like you’re not jealous.

In the early afternoon we grabbed a train to Pohang, which would be the taking off point for our ferry trip to an island of the east coast of the peninsula. Before it even started I was lauding praise on the Korean rail system. The day before, we had only bought the ticket to Pohang, having been ingrained in the archaic ways of the Chinese system. But, as we waited, we bought our return tickets-from a different city and to a different station than where we were. What should be the norm for a ticket system seemed like a miracle to us. The train was delightful, comfortable, and had ham sandwiches in the food cart (a nice relief from the ubiquitous instant noodles of the Chinese trains). If you don’t think having a long standing military presence in a country isn’t good for tourists, I would give these ham sandwiches as a one example of the benefit (to me) of having American soldiers somewhere for 50 years. Another stark contrast to the trains in China was how quiet they were. We were actually told to be quiet when we started laughing loudly about something. Quite the opposite of the clamorous amalgam of sounds on the Chinese trains. A funny occurrence was that our tickets were not checked a single time during the entire journey, and not at either station. Apparently there aren’t too many whiteys trying to jump trains in South Korea.

We made it to Pohang and took a taxi to the area by the coast, to make the morning ferry easy to catch. We had quite the interesting experience getting a hotel. In the end we received a “special” price! We checked out one room, which was nice, but had a double bed-whereas Danthemanstan wanted two singles. But it was late so we said okay. I left my bag in the room when we went back to the lobby to do the paperwork. Well, when we were down there, the owner offered us the “special” price for a room with two beds. This keen minded old man was operating on pure opportunity cost, and as it was late and the hotel pretty empty-as long as we paid a penny more for the second room, he most likely made money. So after copying my passport, he took us up to the “special room” but my bad was on the other floor. So he literally fought me away from the elevator buttons and door. I was able to succeed, and then when he saw I did know what I was doing and was just getting my bag he was incredibly apologetic. But he was also pretty darn strong for an old man, and I barely did get past him in the elevator. The Rich Hotel in Pohang was actually one of the nicer hotel rooms I have ever stayed in, and at a pretty good price. From the looks of it, tourist season in Pohang must be a little later in the summer.