Korea Safari

I absolutely had to blog about my recent snowboarding fiasco. It was all around a disaster. It was through an organization called Korea Safari, they plan trips (mainly for foreigners). The group was about 40 and took 2 buses.

E and I head over to Bundang Friday night to meet up with Dan, since we have to be in Seoul (which is about an hour away) for an 8am bus to the ski resort. E and I have a few drinks then run over to Pub 210 to find Mr. Dan. Mr. Dan is...well...drunk by the time we get to him. It takes about 2 hours for us to coax him home into bed. By this time it's probably around 3am or so...keeping in mind that we have to wake up at around 630 to make it to the bus on time.

We go to sleep.

I hear the alarm go off, but don't even think about the significance of it.

I wake up at 715am.

Not as frantically as I should have, I roll over and wake E up.

"E..it's 715...it's 715." I whisper in a drunken/sleeepy haze. He sits upright and looks at the clock before letting out an obscenity or two. We both get up and attempt to wake Dan.

Fail.

Dan is unconscious. Nothing will rouse him.

I decide to call the company to see what our options are. I thought E was awake with me in this decision. But after I get off the phone with a guy who tells me we can take a train, I look over and E is asleep again.

Anger begins to boil up inside of me..but knowing we can take the train, sleep takes control and I fall back onto my pillow.

I awake again at 9am. Both guys are still unconscious. I sit around debating what to do. The decision was to go to the store and buy water, as I was a little dehydrated from the drinking. I get up, leave the apartment and go to the store, come back a few minutes later only to realize I'm locked out. I don't know the code to Dan's apartment.

So I sit, fuming, in the freezing cold hallway, guzzling my water...again, debating on what to do. I get too cold after about 30minutes and knock on the door. No answer. I wait a few more minutes. Knock again. No answer. I call while knocking, Dan answers his phone, grumbles and hangs up. I call again. Finally an answer. I ask for the code he gives it to me and I go back into the warmth of the apartment. Still, they are asleep. I give up and lay back down.

We wake up at 1215. I'm angry. Dan's angry. E's angry. I tell them that we can catch the train, the ski resort is only an hour away (ish...) from Seoul. E and I agree it would still be worth it to go. We start to get ready. All the while Dan is asking us what we're doing..what's the plan? Where are you going?

I needed food in my system as well, so the plan (that we repeatedly said) was to get McDonalds and then head to the train station. It took about 30 minutes to get the boys dressed and out of the apartment and walking in the right direction.

By this point I'm furious.

We get McDonalds, jump on the bus into Seoul. The bus is too crowded, so we jump off the bus and onto another, slightly less crowded bus. We get to Seoul Station, get on the subway and head to ChangDong Station, where the train to the ski resort should be. When we get to Changdong Station, some kids tell us we're at the wrong station that we should go to Chongyangni Station. So we get BACK on the subway and go back down to Chongyangni Station. At Chongyangni Station, we run to get a ticket to the train (there's a difference between the train and subway, by the way..train is faster). The ticket lady tells us there's no train. It's canceled since they built a new subway line.

So we get BACK on the subway. Ride for two stops. Transfer to a different subway line. Then ride for an hour to the station. Catch a cab to the resort. And wait for the guy to bring our gear.

All in all, what should have taken 2 hours took 6 hours.

Once we got on the slopes though, I felt much better. Dan however, forgot to bring gloves. So he buys a new pair and loses them 10 minutes later.

The next morning they serve breakfast..a make it yourself breakfast with Eggs and bread and onions and lemons (random...weird Koreans). Again..big surprise, we slept in. So by the time we get downstairs there's only 1 egg left. We make an egg sandwich and split it between the three of us. So..needless to say, we're still hungry and in desperate need of coffee.

So we walk down to the convenient store. Get coffee and a small thing of eggs to cook. Get back to the hotel, cook the eggs make new sandwiches. And as we're eating those sandwiches, they bring a whole new tray of 24 eggs.

It was an adventure...a very memorable adventure. I can't wait to go again!...maybe no drinking next time around!