As I am sure you can guess from the photos above this was not my favourite hostel. I am really not sure how it got 8 out of 10 on the booking.com reviews. The photos on booking.com are the hostel at its newest and tidiest best. The hostel was untidy, uncared for and tatty. It is really in need of TLC and a renovation.
I was pleased when my 5 nights were up and I could move to another hostel. This is what I am going to do today. The new hostel I am going to is the same price (£30 for 5 nights! The standard price I have been paying in South Korea), has a higher rating (9.1 out of 10) and includes breakfast.
The best part of staying at Kimchee was meeting an English/Finnish guy. We chatted about life and how because he has a dual nationality which meant he had to do national service in Finland. Our discussion then moved on to spirituality, a topic I quite enjoy talking about. I then explained to him the story behind my one of my favourite quotes – ‘This too shall pass’.
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations.’ source wikipedia
I went on to say how I find the quote helpful because when things are going poorly I can be sure it won’t last forever and will eventually go. When things are great I can be sure to appreciate that moment because I know it too will pass. All in all our whole conversation lasted an hour.
I hadn’t seen him for a few days, when he came rushing up to me saying “There you are. I am glad I saw you before I left. Look!” I look down and he has the quote tattooed his right foot. He stated that he could not get the quote out of his head and felt it was a great thing to remember for the rest of his life. So that afternoon he had got it tattooed on himself. Pretty cool I thought.
