Ann & The Guesthouse

From the Seoul Trip...

Before arriving, I didn't know where I would stay in Seoul. I mean, I didn’t book anything in advance. I figured it would be easy to find a place and it was. It seems that one of the main attractions in Seoul is to tour the street markets. There are plenty of them and they each carry their own personality. After checking out the Hyeoung-Dae Moom market, which is more upscale than the others, my friends and I went on a short hostel hunt.

Someone recommended to our translator that I stay at a place called Ann’s Guesthouse. We made our way into a high-rise with a Dunkin' Donuts on the first floor and found Ann and her husband, up on the fifth floor. She looked a bit startled when she answered the door and I could see why. There found five different faces, all of different colors, shapes and sizes staring back at her. Once she found out it wasn't all of us seeking shelter - just the balding, innocent looking American who needed a bed - she chilled out, and said she thought she could make room for me.

I enter and find a small, but well-kept apartment. There isn’t a lot of space, maybe 25 square meters, but it’s used well and smells cozy. There are two sets of bunk beds along the white-wallpapered walls and I crash on the bottom of one.

When I went to sleep, one of my other “roommates” was still awake with the light on. I asked her when she’d be going to sleep. “Sorry, I no English,” she replied. “Well, how about Chinese?” As it turns out, she was from China, living in Shanghai at the moment. Her grandfather was from North Korea so she also spoke fluent Korean. We toured the Han Jiang that night and took the subway around town.





Overall, it was a steal for 20,000 won ($15) a night, especially when you consider that breakfast was included. Another thing that was included and unbargained for was unlimited snoring throughout the night. I think the first person to wake me up was her husband, but the Taiwanese woman across from me soon chimed in, completing the chorus. I tried a few things to break up the cacophony, including sneezing and going to the bathroom, but coughing seemed to work best. Somehow I got them to stop long enough to slip back into a cradle of slumber.