"Passion For Korea" Tour
Day 16 (April 20, 2006)
Our Final Day
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Today is our final day in Korea. We need to check out of hotel rooms by noon, so I spend most
of the morning packing. When I finished packing, I ventured outside of the hotel on my own for
about 15 minutes. During that short period of time, I was able to see several things of interest.
Here, is a building with actress Lee Bo Young in an advertisement promoting Asiana Airlines.
Lee Bo Young was in the KBS daily drama, My Sweetheart, My Darling.
There are 3 telephone systems in Korea: KT, Dacom and Onse. The KT pay phones are easy to
spot. I used my Prepaid MCI International Calling Card to call home. If you are planning to used a
Prepaid International Calling Card, make sure you call the toll-free number on your card while
you're still at home (not from Korea) to get instructions on how to use your card in Korea. With the
MCI card, there are different local numbers to dial depending on which telephone system you are
using. If you use the KT phone, you don't need to insert any money in the payphone -- just press
the red button, wait for the dial tone, then dial the local number for MCI which you got when you
called for instructions. You'll need to press a lot of numbers, and after doing so, I was always
connected to an operator who asked me the same questions then connected me to another line
which required me to input the same numbers again. The whole process takes several minutes,
which was frustrating, but the main thing was that my calls did go through successfully. Another
option for calling home that is cheaper than using the hotel phone is to get a telephone card in Korea.
Inquire about this with your tour guide or the hotel concierge.
This bus is called a "chicken cage". Its windows are reinforced with metal mesh to prevent
the occupants from escaping. The chicken cage buses are used to transport unruly people
(i.e., drunk people, rioters, criminal suspects, etc.) to the police station. Which reminds me of
something our tour guide told us: the police in Korea carry guns, but only some of the police
have bullets to put in their guns. You can't tell who has or doesn't have bullets. If a police
officer ever has to use his gun to protect someone's life, you better pray that the officer is one
of those who also has bullets.