Tuesday was Children’s Day in Korea. The schools were closed so we had no classes. Monday night my friend Mike and I discussed what we wanted to do for Tuesday, we didn’t want to stay in Shinchon (the area where we live in Seoul). We decided since the weather was going to be nice that we’d head into Incheon and go to the beach. But for Monday night we decided we’d make a visit to Doctor Fish. Doctor Fish is a cafe where you go and soak your feet in water that has fish in it that eat at your feet. Supposed to be good for your feet. Mike and I headed out there and met up with Samuel and we went together.
It was ok, but I felt like I had more dead skin left on my feet when I got out of the water than when I went in. I think just from being in the water for quite a while. It feels so strange. It definitely tickles, and at first you want to pull your feet out immediately because it’s unbearable, but you just leave them in there and get used to the light pinchy feeling allover your feet.
Tuesday morning Mike and I met up and we headed out to Incheon. It took only 45 minutes on the subway, then we had to take a bus to go out to the island where the airport is and beaches. The bus ride seemed like a long time, it must have taken another 45 minutes. We noticed when we passed the airport that the bus went by the Hyatt Regency hotel and in the hotel was a casino. This would come into play later.
We got to the beach, but as we approached the beach on the bus it appeared very foggy out. When the bus stopped at the beach we got out and immediately felt the cold chill of the temperature. The beach was all foggy and cold. Everyone out at the beach was in jeans and hooded sweatshirts or jackets. The two of us are in flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. As if we didn’t look like foreigners already…
So the beach was too cold, we found a restaurant and had some seafood which was good. We noticed the convenience stores sold fireworks, so we each bought a firework, just because. We then decided since the beach was so cold we would go at least check out the casino. We got back on the bus and headed back toward the airport. As we were coming up to the hotel I told Mike that I had seen the hotel online and saw that they had an indoor swimming pool, so I said maybe we could go sneak in and go swimming.
We went inside and went up stairs to check out the swimming pool. It was fairly crowded but we found out it was open till 10, so we decided we’d go to the casino first then go swimming. We went into the casino and went to the blackjack table. We gambled for probably an hour and a half or two. I was down about $55 and Mike was up about $60 or so. We decided to take a break and go for a swim.
We went up to the swimming pool and noticed the entrance was through a fitness health club in the hotel. The club had a workout center, sauna rooms and sauna pools and then the main swimming pool. The club was for members or hotel guests only. Mike asked how much it was and they said “Oh it’s free for guests, are you a guest?” and Mike wisely replied “Yes.” The man then handed Mike a sheet of paper and said “We just need your room number and signature.” so Mike signed the paper, made up a room number and we got our locker keys. We went in changed and then worked out on the weights for about 30 minutes. We then went to the jacuzzi, soaked for a few and then swam some laps in the pool. After that we went back the locker room went to the sauna room and went in the sauna bath, then in the sauna rooms. We showered, used all the fancy amenities then headed out.
We thought we’d get some food first before going back into the casino. The restaurant in the hotel was doing a special that day for Children’s Day. They were having a buffet for $16 a person. The lady who seated us asked Mike if we had vouchers, I think vouchers were given to guests to use at the buffet. Mike said we didn’t have any vouchers. We were seated and later the waiter came to ask if we’d like any wine to drink. I asked him how much the wine was and he said $10, I then asked how much the buffet was and he said “Oh it’s free with your vouchers.” Because he said that, I decided I wouldn’t order any wine. Mike and I helped ourselves at the buffet. They had roast duck, pork, BBQ ribs and all kinds of great stuff. They had a desert buffet with several different kinds of cakes, fruit, gelato, pudding and everything. It was one of the nicest buffet’s I’ve ever had. We filled up, then went into the kids section where we wanted to get our faces painted. Mike wanted to get the ace of spades playing card on one cheek and ‘BLACK’ on the other cheek. I would then get the Jack of spades on my cheek and ‘JACK’ on the other cheek. We asked the lady to paint that on our face but she didn’t know how to or didn’t understand. She told us we could paint eachother’s faces so we did. Mike was definitely better at it than I was and it was his loss, but it looked alright.
They then gave us icecream cones and cotton candy. And the whole thing was free with the vouchers we didn’t have!
In high spirits and feeling lucky we went back into the casino with painted faces and sat down at the blackjack table. We must have been there for a few hours. I had won all my money back and Mike was up a total of about $200 for the day. We decided it was a good time to leave, it was 11:30 and we had class the next day.
I went to the concierge at the hotel and asked what was the best way to get to Seoul at this time and he laughed and said “there’s no transportation going there now.” I asked about the subway, bus, airport shuttle, anything and he said the only way was taxi, which would cost about $100. I asked how much a room was at the hotel and he said “$250 is the cheapest room”. I couldn’t believe it… we had been enjoying this hotel all day and in the end we might actually have to pay for a room. We thought for a while, we hunted around the hotel looking for a place to sleep and thought about all our options. We did find a big couch on the second floor we figured could be a serious option. I suggested we go to the airport and hitch hike a ride back to Seoul. Some people had to be going from the airport to Seoul. We decided we’d do that, we walked over to the airport and we were lucky to find that a bus headed for Seoul had not left yet and we were able to get on for $14 a person. We fell a sleep a bit on the bus ride back, got to Seoul, took a cab to our dorm. We got to the dorm and lit off a firework in celebration of a successful day. We had for a little bit really thought we would be stranded in Incheon till morning. But we got back.
Our day didn’t turnout like we imagined, relaxing on a sunny beach, drinking beer, reading and listening to music. Instead the beach failed and when we were discouraged we turned the day around and turned it into a good story. Not only did we get to enjoy the hotel hospitality for free, we got more money out of them from the casino and came home with more money than we had left with.
