Cruising the High Teas

Cruising the High Teas
Jeongdongjin-ri, Korea Rep.

Jeongdongjin-ri, Korea Rep.

As you have probably guessed by now, when Tim and I are researching locations to visit, our most common Google Searches are “Strange places to stay in….” and “odd places to visit in….”.

When we undertook these searches for South Korea we were both giddy with excitement to discover this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article -2341765/The-hotel-thats-ship-shape-Sou th-Korean-holiday-destination-designed- look-like-cruise-liner-perfect-sea-sick ness.html

A cruise ship parked up on a cliff overlooking the sea, seriously how cool. This place is not within our usual budget so that is why I had told Tim we were staying in a cheap Love Hotel down the road from the cruise ship and we could go up and visit it. Oddly Tim agreed to this and my master plan to take Tim here as a birthday present began.

Getting to the Sun Cruise we got to enjoy another of the East coasts magical mystery tours. Whilst the weather was grey, raining and foggy so the views were not the best we took the sea train which is designed with all the seats looking out of the window over the coast. To add to the excitement not only was there a station master costume to play with at the station there was also a TV in each carriage and they played games along the way and asked you to request songs by text (at least we think that was what was going on, as everything was in Korean).

We arrived in Jeondongjin a small beach town at the railway station which is in the Guinness World Records as being the closest to the sea, it is a very popular shooting location for Korean soaps so the locals were all milling around excited to be there. We just wanted to get off the tracks and out of the rain.

We headed out of the station and to the huge TAXI sign and stood for a while before we realised that this town has a distinct lack of taxis. I was still pretty stressed at this point trying to hide the fact that we were going to the Sun Cruise so when Tim was asking how far our love hotel was and could we walk I was having to do my best act of having no idea where we were or how far so a taxi was the only option. A taxi was definitely the only option as the ship was plonked on top of a hill and there was no chance that I was dragging my bag up to it in the rain. Luckily we walked around the little town and soon enough managed to flag a taxi. I thrust the hotel booking confirmation at the driver willing him not to repeat the name of the hotel and luckily he just set off. As we were driving we saw a huge anchor at the side of the road with a sign to the Sun Cruise and the driver turned up the hill. We pulled into the huge car park and Tim was looking around confused as to where our love hotel was. With the driver paid and the luggage in the car park I finally put Tim out of his misery and told him we were staying at the Sun Cruise as a Birthday surprise.

The Sun cruise was utterly awesome, you really do have to stay there to fully appreciate how cool it is, we had a room at the front of the ship overlooking the sea, it even had porthole windows to add to the effect. No detail had been spared on the design making this hotel stay exactly like being on a ship, they even played the sounds of seagulls and fog horns through the day, ha ha.

Once we were checked in we went for high tea in the revolving restaurant, sadly the fog, rain and grey clouds spoilt our view, but not the experience. We braved the rain and played camera club for a while trying to get some good shots of the boat and even discovered and on-board supermarket to buy food to prepare in our little kitchen in our room. Nothing beats a dinner of spaghetti and tomato sauce on-board a fake ship. As the sun began to set the skies began to clear and we finally got to see the proper view over Jeondongjin from the Sun Cruise.

One of the novelties of staying at the Sun Cruise is that it is one of the most special places to see the sun rise. Not really one for sunrises as they tend to happen at 5am when we are deep in REM sleep, thanks to the Sun Cruises 20 minute till sun rise alarm warning system I jumped out of bed like a shot and before I knew it I was joining the masses of Koreans with their cameras at the ready to see the sun rise over the ocean. Tim played the ‘it’s my birthday I’m staying in bed card’ so had a lovely lie in whilst I battled for a photo spot in the sunrise garden.

I am pleased to report that the sky was clear and it was a perfect day to see an absolutely beautiful sun rise. Well worth getting out of bed and when Tim saw my pictures there was a glint of envy in his well-rested eyes.

Our overnight stay in the Sun Cruise was over far too quickly and before we knew it we were on a bus headed to Daegu. We had been so concerned that this was not a deluxe bus like the one we had taken from Seoul bit it turns out that we struck it lucky and this intercity bus was just as deluxe, awesome.

Daegu here we come.