Underwater Tomb

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After leaving Jeju Island I returned to Busan where I stayed for five days or so just relaxing and enjoying the beach. From there I went to Gyeongju where I had a reservation at a hostel. When I showed up to the hostel they said that it was all full. I felt like Seinfeld trying to talk to this guy. He told me that if I wanted I could upgrade for $10 to another room. I told him that I wasn't going to pay any more money and that I had a reservation. He finally just kept saying that he didn't speak English and to come back at 6pm when someone else would be there. This infuriated me, it was noon and he spoke English just fine to the guy ahead of me and most of the first part of our conversation. I left the place and went to the tourist information center where I would have them call places to see if I could get a room. I told them that I had a reservation, but they gave the room away. The lady called about 5 places then said "I think they are all full, it is the holiday weekend and this is a very popular place, you should have a reservation next time". I explained again how I did have a reservation, but it obviously didn't matter. I left and decided to book a room at one of the love motels around the city. I paid twice as much for a room as the increased price at the hostel and there was only a mat to sleep on the floor. It must have been one of those bring your own bed motels. I left to enjoy the city, looking back it was a nice city, I just wasn't in the right mood for it. It was a city full of tombs, but they just looked like mounds of dirt. Which the first few were nice, but afterwards they all looked the same. I was only going to stay one night and leave so I got a bus ticket to see the underwater tomb of some guy, pretty much the only reason I came here. I missed the bus by 10min so I had 50min to wait for the next one. It happened to be 6pm when I looked at my watch and decided to go back to the hostel and complain to the other guy just because a full day of walking only made me more angry over the situation. Well the guy I spoke with at the hostel said "of course we have a room for you, you had a reservation" well it doesn't do me any good when the first guy told me you were all full, I explained how I had already paid for some motel. He called the motel and got that refunded then showed me my room where I put my bags in and left for my underwater tomb experience. He clearly saw that I was prepared to write a letter to the international hosteling board. The guy at the hostel told me that it was probably too late to go to the underwater tomb, but what did he know, I was going. After 1hr 20min on the bus I get off its almost dark. I was expecting to go under the water and see it, like have some tunnel or something. There weren't even lights on this thing. In fact it looked just like a bunch of rocks, I asked some lady at a restaurant if that was it, and she said yes. That night I came back into the room after a long night out and not in the state of mind to care much about the room, when I woke up I was covered in sweat and dying of thirst. Turns out there was no AC in this room. The second night I am not sure that I slept two consecutive hours, I should have gone out that night as well and just paid for the consequences in the morning. I was only too happy to leave Gyeongyu and take the bus to Seoul.

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