The Park Hyatt, Seoul
September 14, 2011
Arrival in Seoul – well, the airport is awesome, huge and very efficient. It takes at least an hour to get into town by car, I don’t know how the train works, but surely it’s more efficient if you know what you’re doing and don’t have a lot of luggage. We are having to leave the hotel at 7:30 am for an 11 amflight during the week, if that’s any indication of the traffic you are dealing with here.
The Park Hyatt is in a nice central new town location. The room checklist is as follows:
Overall ambiance – A – there are large blackout curtains that rise and fall push button, once you figure it out. And, it’s not easy, esp. in the dark when you arrive. That said, ,the big floor to ceiling windows give a nice city view when you don’t want privacy. The bathroom also has same windows but also curtains for privacy. The room (1502 in a corner) is large with a small shelf for working on computer, kind sized bed, nice round dining table with chairs and 32 inch flat screen TV. Channel choice seems very good.
Internet is expensive, but is fast and easy to log on. The MCI dialing number worked.
Bed has lots of pillows, is nice firmness in a modern scandanavian style with nice mood lighting on both sides, and a phone and clock near the bed. There is a phone on the computer table and several types of plugs for convenience.
The whole operation of the room is challenging to figure out – once you do it’s fine, but all the buttons are flat to the wall and in the dark or low lighting it’s hard to read the labels on them. I and my colleagues spent a lot of time pushing the wrong buttons when we first arrived! Curtains and shades gong up and down in weird directions…. You get the idea.
Coffee pot is provided, along with a pressed coffee mug with grounds – I did not try it since I had my own. The tea selection was very very nice. All the cups and minibar items are set out in special drawer compartments that are all built in to the wall and lots of fun to try opening and finding fun treasures in each! On my last morning I found a drawer with the DSL line, a flashlight and even an extra adaptor in a nice little box! Even the pens with the note pads were nice weight and design, so of course I took one with m e!
So much to write about in this hotel! Bathroom amenities were packed in a nice wooden box, and includes everthing you might need except perhaps toothpaste. Nice hairdryer, make up mirror (not lighted) and a vanity chair. The toilet is in a separate room and its got the “wash front, wash back” features with dryer. I tried it, and it’s very nice! Also heated seat if you like it.
Plenty of good fluffy towels, bathrobes, washcloths and small towels. The bath was open glass with curtains if you wanted them. Rain shower with a hand held and also foot level spout. Huge rectangular edge stone tub with a little TV built into the wall. Stone walls and tile/stone floor with drainage in the cracks. Really nice.
There was no iron in the room, but there was a yoga mat in the closet. Very comfortable all around – bare floor but that was okay.
I did get to the gym one day, and it was well-appointed with nice machines, good selection including recline bikes and elliptical machines.
Breakfast buffet was nice, but very expensive $35!!!
Safe kind of small, too small for laptop. Closet space very good, lots of hangers of all types.
Next day
Lounge (Malaysia/Korean air) at Seoul airport – not bad, but not the best I have ever been in. Pretty open and airy, with these cool squishy rubber foam chairs – I have a couple of photos. I was so tired and jet lagged that I couldn’t eat anything and barely noticed what was going on around me. Flight from Seoul to K.L. (Malaysia Air) was almost empty in first class. I couldn’t eat much – tried to sleep with limited luck. The main thing was that I could use like four pillows and two blankets. That plane was freezing!! They gave us this cool individual movie machine that had limited selection of movies, but I watched a couple. The Beaver (sad, but happy ending) and the end of Super 8 which was really cool.
Lounge Kuala Lumpur airport
Older, but better food than Seoul in the Malaysia Airlines lounge. I was actually able to eat some chicken soup. And I actually got some work done on my Kosovo project. Got the paper in under the wire before my battery ran out. Nothing in K.L. but booze, candy and tobacco products – plus the usual perfume and stuff.
Flight to Male =- seemed like forever, at that point I was dead on my feet tired. So tired after three nights of 5 hr sleep that I fell immediately asleep in my seat. For about an hour I think. Skipped dinner – why do they try to feed you at 9 at night? I guess it’s expected. Alex says it was sate, and if it was the same stuff very heavy sauce. Tried to sleep more, but no luck. So,, then when we arrived Male – not bad really. The lines went pretty fast, and there were probably six or even open. And the bags came out fast too. By the time I was through immigration, Alex had the bags off the belt. Very efficient! You had to put your stuff through the (single) eray machine though – I’ll bet that backs up with big flights. We did not have to get on a bus, we just walked from the plane to the arrivals hall. Thank god. The bus was parked there, but no one used it. Small and older airport – inside the building there was smaller than usual crush of people waiting. Apparently here the main travel is for people to go to Sri Lanka – Colombo – for alcohol and club fun, since there is none of that here. No alcohol in Male! Resorts have to have special permit and taxes are huge. Beer was not too bad, but mixed drinks were $10 plus at the resort we went to for lunch.
The airport is on the other side of the bay from Male so you get onto a launch to take you across to the landing area – Traders Hotel – about two blocks off the waterfront. They bring your bags in a car. Tipping appears to be norm here. No one objected to receiving any tips. USD is fine. I hear there is shopping, and if I get my work done today, maybe I will go check it out later on.
Traders Hotel – Shangri La chain. I think it’s fine, even if it’s overpriced. Good place to stop if you are going on to an island somewhere. Some of the resorts appear to be close enough that you can get your launch straight from the airport arrival. The town is full of motor scooters – FULL!! There are cars too, but they are outnumbered by scooters probably three or four to one. Lobby is small, there is a little café kind of thing where you can get a pastry or snack and drinks. The roof bar and pool is very pretty view of the whole bay and the airport. But, I would not swim there – everyone in the bar would be watching your every move! Apparentlyk it’s a hot spot at night – Alex said that last night people were waiting in line for tables. The gym is also up there, actually it’s a fitness room, but the equipment is quite new and for a small place good selection – bike(both kinds) treadmill and elliptical. Set of weights, mats and ball. Nice view, sort of. The machines had TV attached also.
Room – small, and again totally freezing, but you kind of have to keep it that way in order to keep out the humidity. It’s HOT here, outside for a little while and you are sweating like crazy. Nice dark wood furniture, with ample desk space. Free internet which works great. Two kinds of plugs – one multi purpose so I could plug in U.S. others U.K. Water provided. 22” flat screen TV and to me the channel selection is everything required. I ordered room service, and it was not great. But okay. Arrived reasonably quickly - they said twenty minutes and it was about twice that. The bed is very comfortable and the room is bright with the curtains open. Plenty of light at night too. Minibar is basic stuff, and very expensive. Bottled water provided is good. There’s a hot pot with coffee and tea, and a nice little amenity kit in a box. The toilertries are basic but fine. Bathroom is very attractive, clean and comfortable size. Shower very nice and hot, excellent pressure – big open glass with blinds facing the window. Very nice and new and neat. I like that idea with the bathroom – all glass so that it’s bright and makes the room feel more open even though it’s pretty small. Closet has plenty of hangers of all kinds. Nice large safe.
All in all, I like this hotel. It is expensive though.