We had a number of ‘discussions’ while packing for this adventure about what to bring and what to leave behind, one of those revolved around towels. Sarah was determined to bring a massive bath towel while I thought it was a bit of waste of space and weight. Needless to say, I lost this argument. We had both heard that bath towels in Korea were a bit different to at home and Sarah wasn’t taking any chances.

The towels are tiny, not much bigger than a glorified hand towel.

Surprisingly, despite their stature, they manage to still dry you without being saturated. I can only imagine the Koreans have invented some incredible new towel technology that allows this to occur. Needless to say, Sarah’s decision to bring her massive towel has been vindicated.

The dorm rooms we are in are very reminiscent of the ones we have all seen in American college movies; two single beds in a small room, and a shared bathroom for the two occupants. The only thing is as this is Korea everything is shrunk down to ‘Lilliput’ size. I’d say the rooms are maybe 15 square metres in total, including the bathroom. PHOTOS BELOW.

The most amazing feature so far is the underfloor heating. Now I know that this isn’t a new thing and cold places all over the world have them. But we’ve never really benefitted from the awesomeness of it before, so let us have our moment :). Now remember those shitty towels from before, well they are needed for tip number one. Once you have finished the massive effort of drying yourself, without freezing your feet off or falling over, you need to find a place to dry the towel. What better place than the warm toasty floor, that bad boy is dry in no time and you’re good to go!

Tip number two. When you run out of clean socks as it’s too damn cold to wear your thongs and you didn’t pack enough, hand wash them in the sink before you go to sleep, put them on the floor and they will be bone dry by morning. The bonus is they are toasty warm for the cold frosty morning.

The last quirky thing about the dorm rooms is the bathrooms themselves. It is very standard in Korea for the shower to not be in a separate part of the bathroom. So every time you shower you drench everything in the room. This includes the toilet, toilet paper and any clothes you have in the room. Clothes need to be hung on a hook and fingers crossed that they don’t get splashed too much.

Chris