Seoul Day 3

This was taken by Dior while we were standing in front of Dong Dae Mun and it began snowing. Listen to Hyung-wook's English!


There's a bit of Hyung-wook singing at the start, but it's mostly Shin. Super enthusiastic! And least his voice is not bad!

I took about 5 years to upload this video I took at the KTV in Seoul. Okay not 5 years, but it was a massive chore. I tried uploading to Facebook first (just because the first video is ripped from Dior's Facebook and I'm anal about congruity in that way) but the first time Safari crashed midway, and the subsequent 3 times (I'm reallyyyyy anal about having both videos be from Facebook) it stopped loading halfway. FML.

So I resorted to Youtube. Which is like 50 times better. I mean at least it's uploading it you know?! And it isn't stating some half-hearted lie saying a vague "about 24 minutes remaining". Screw you Mark Zuckerberg! Your video uploader lied to me! 20 minutes later it says "about 23 minutes remaining"! Guess we aren't gonna get Facebook Video celebrities anytime soon huh huh huh. No Facebook Video-discovered Justin Biebers.

Anyway, here's getting to the main point of my last post on Seoul: Novotel Ambassador Gangnam has shitty customer service (is that what it's called?).

I was meant to report at the hotel lobby on the last day at 12.30pm. At 12pm, the front desk called my room and said I was to be checking out already. I had packed most of my stuff before going to sleep, but had to rush to gather the last remaining items.
In my haste, I left behind my Chanel ear studs and necklace (as well as another necklace but that one was just from Bangkok - didn't cost much - and I didn't really like it) in a small black Chanel box. FML.

I realised just before the plane took off. Every day my main concerns were always my camera, my phone and my Chanel ear studs + necklace (my wallet never really as much, cause it's somehow too big to misplace). On the plane it suddenly hit me - I didn't recall packing it into my handbag.
I panicked, messaged Shin (to this day I actually never asked if he got my msg) and Alaric. Then I had to turn my phone off for takeoff.

Alaric contacted Shin via Facebook + Twitter (what a quick thinking boyfriend I have!), who then called up Novotel. Who said they hadn't found it.

Now, I am 99.9% sure I left it in my room, down to the exact location. So basically either the housekeeping lady took it (then screw her too, cause I already left her a whole bunch of skincare, vitamins etc from the goody bag) (and no she can't possibly think I meant to leave her my jewelry cause the Bangkok necklace says "Sophie") or whoever checked the room/asked the lady kept it.

When I got back to Singapore, I checked my suitcase (not there) and called Novotel up myself to give them more specific details since my items were actually in a box and not just lying around.



I didn't expect to get my items back. But what pissed me off really badly was the fact that the Novotel staff COULD NOT GIVE A SHIT. Novotel is not a 6 star hotel, but it's still a 4 star one. And anyway star rankings should have nothing to do with honesty. Star rankings however, do have something to do with how professional the hotel is. Even motels can exhibit great customer service; much less an internationally established hotel chain.

I've heard of cases where hotel staff find items (whether expensive or not) and immediately mail them back to the occupant - without even having been called. Novotel Gangnam? Can't even be bothered to process my phone call. You stayed in my hotel, and you left something here. I don't care! Your loss, my gain! (or my staff's)

Typical of most MNCs located in Asian countries, the higher positions are given to Caucasians. But for the sake of my email I was grateful the manager is Caucasian because most Koreans really speak very little English.

2 days later, I got a missed call from the hotel. A few minutes later I received the email below:



I have no idea why the image is so bad; think it's cause of the weird spacing in the email that made resizing difficult. Anyway it saves you from reading really bad English.

I have no idea whether Mr Stubert ever actually saw my email or if it was just handled by this Mr Kim. I got one or two more missed calls from the hotel. I couldn't be bothered to pick up because I had already received the email. Why waste an international phone call on an apology I couldn't care less about?!

But I still held a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe, they had gotten my stuff after all. So I finally picked up and wasted 10 minutes of my life listening to the audio version of the email, which was just even more jarring to my senses.

And basically the email just says - "additional training will be given to room attendant and front desk receptionist" -> IDGAF (check urbandictionary if you don't know what this means) and that I will be offered free daily breakfast on my next visit -_-
You have got to be kidding me. Do you still think I would ever want to step into your hotel again?! PUI!

It's only cause I sent a complaint to the manager that they even started to take it more seriously. But by that point obviously I have zero interest in the hotel since they had zero interest in my loss prior to my complaint.

UGH annoyed at myself for being careless, and annoyed at chancing on a crappy hotel that couldn't help me get my items back!

Anyway the flight back was utterly uneventful. I watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice which is yet another lousy movie in Nicholas Cage's recent string of lousy movies. I mean seriously. It's like he was hit with some lousy-movie curse. If you don't know what I mean, you HAVE to go watch Ghostrider. (Ok why am I recommending a lousy movie - but it's so bad it's worth watching -> like a slice of history)


Alaric surprised me with a bouquet of flowers when he picked me up at the airport! I really didn't expect it. So either he's really sweet or my expectations are too low haha kidding!




He also had to wait while I bought the above massive 400ml bottle of Clinique toner from the DFS! Inside DFS it's around $47. Okay the bottle looks more intimidating IRL despite my attempts to juxtapose it with my much smaller Blackberry Bold 3.

P.S. My Chanel ear studs + necklace cost a total of around maybe S$440? It's not a massive fortune but I'm still a little sad. But I think it beats losing my camera or phone so oh well.

Okay typing this while the part time maid cleans my room. Have a good start to the week!