PROLOGUE
8 times of quarantine in S. Korea
My friend and I have been quarantining in South Korea for 8 times so far. Three times in "designated facilities" which means hotel room mostly, and rest of them were done in our own places which is called "self-quarantine". (This happened for work & visa issues of us)
My first quarantine was made two years ago, when vaccine was not published even. Rare information about quarantine space bothered me at that time, yet I cannot tell enough articles about them are out there in Google still. I hope this fractional information I write in this article would give more specific ideas for whom preparing quarantine in South Korea.
S. KOREA QUARANTINE HOTEL DETAILS
OUTLINE
Almost all official quarantine places are just commercial hotels. One difference is these hotels are under control by government associated workers who take care of your health status, PCR test and transfer. In addition, they provide quarantine stuffs such as orange colored waste bag, thermometer. People in quarantine are not able to leave their room until quarantine is over.
Youtube video linked below is showing outline of a quarantine hotel room in Seoul. Every facility has slightly different quality of bed, amenities and foods. This is just one of them which has been recorded by my friend. https://youtu.be/3quMD1Yq0WA
BED
Number of bed sounds just random. In my experiences, one of quarantine rooms got single bed, but 2 beds in other quarantine hotels.
Beside, they all got a desk and a chair fortunately, with smooth Wifi for sure. If you're a computer geek, this might be a perfect environment for your own computer work.
I personally think the hotel room shown in the youtube video above (located in Myeongdong, Seoul) has less quality than two other quarantine hotels my friend and I stayed (window view and food wise). Other hotel rooms we stayed looked like photos below.
WINDOW VIEW
Views through windows are usually fine. One hotel room in Gimpo city was set in the direction of yacht park, so that you could see peacefully flowing stream in your room. Also a hotel in Busan was just in front of wide square of Busan KTX train station. You could see how people spend their waiting time on the outdoor benches. Only one hotel in Myeongdong, Seoul was seeing a gray parking lot side of Myeongdong street though, if you like to observe what’s happening in a street of Seoul, it won’t be that bad.
Speaking wich, I guess quarantine conductors care people's mental health also. They seem to consider view-preferences of people in quarantine when making contract with hotels.
BATHROOM
Do you want to join in a little adventure with electric bidet? Hotel bathrooms might have electric bidet seats. If remote control is on the wall near the toilet, or at the side of the toilet, it's electric one.
Some electric toilet models combine flush buttons and bidet functioning buttons. You can use Google translate to figure out which button works how, button icons would help you to get it too.
My friend sent a photo of "electric bidet remote control" to me, asking how he can use the toilet when he was in quarantine. If you get embarrased for no flush velve like he did, hit one of left two buttons on the top row. The far left one is for flushing full, next one is for flushing urine.
All quarantine hotels rooms have shower booth at least. Bathtub is kind of rare. Only one of three quarantine hotel rooms we experienced had a bathtub.
MEALS
I value on meals. Food quality is different depends on hotel. If your quarantine hotel have their own kitchen, the food quality tends to be better I guess. The photos I attached below are from such a hotel.
MEALS IN ONE QUARANTINE HOTEL
BREAKFAST
In the kitchen-owned quarantine hotel I stayed, breakfast always included egg, bread, milk and sausage as default. Some fruits were provided too.
LUNCH
Lunch is usually a filling Korean meal. Each meal box includes boiled rice, meats, side dishes and soup. Chicken, pork, beef are usual meal ingredients, I guess there's no vegan options. I used to received treats together with lunch box. Treats were sweet bread (donuts) and juice kinds.
Bottled water comes together with meals, if you need more, you can ask it to the reception.
DINNER
Dinner is slightly less filling than lunch which is welcoming. Shushi were given as dinner several times.
MEALS IN ANOTHER QUARANTINE HOTEL
Quarantine meal settings DIFFERS . One of quarantine hotels provided somehow simplified meals. Their meal boxes appears to be from other stores. Super simple videos are attached to show you different types of quarantine meal setups.
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
https://youtube.com/shorts/JeZDgm7PhAE?feature=share
OTHER ISSUES
PAYMENT
Credit card is acceptable. Daily charge is 120,000 Korean won at the moment. I paid it with credit card. One person from hotel reception called me in order to ask my credit card information, and they got me receipt later on. I guess you can pay in cash also.
PCR TEST
You will get post-arrival PCR test twice. One in a day of your arrival, and another on the last day of your quarantine. Usually a person in a protective suit visited the room and do PCR test. But you could be guided to go down to the robby or somewhere else for PCR test.
WHAT ARE MISSING
COFFEE, TEA, SNACKS
Coffee is not sufficient. There are a handful of coffee and tea bags in the room, but I couldn't obtain more of them. If you're coffee or tea lovers, prepare your own coffee/tea sufficiently. Likewise, you might need your own snack/treats.
SPECIAL DIET CONSIDERATION
In my opinion, special diet is hard to be maintained in quarantine hotels. I actually asked not to give me pork because of my allergy, but they can't perfectly remove it from my meal. They might have been confused about room number sometime, and another time, might be embarrassed for no meat substitute.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE AID
For the number of quarantine hotels, foreign language relevant government workforce is in shortage. Verbal communication (call) wouldn't be as smooth as you expected. Also, written quarantine instructions would be provided in English mostly - which is so called "universal language", while partial of them would be made in Korean language.
For specific inquiries to hotel/quarantine workers, getting aids from your Korean friend would be best option. (Worth giving it a shot by yourself first!)
If you simply have difficulties in understanding written Korean instructions during your stay, you might get a quality help by using Korean to English translation apps. Real-time camera function or photo translation function are what I recommend in that case.
Best Korean to English Translator : Google Translate vs. Papago
WHY TRANSLATOR APPS Hardcore language learners and teachers may scold you for using translation apps. This is because best-case scenario, they become a crutch, and worst-case scenario they teach you..
koreanvibe.kr
DELIVERY/SHIPPING SERVICE
One hotel I stayed helped me to get packages my family dropped for me. When I left the hotel, I could see unpacked Coupang(Korea's one of biggest online shopping mall) boxes were placed at doors of other rooms.
However, one hotel my friend stayed said they couldn't handle individuals' shipping services well due to massive guest population. You can ask reception if your friend drop/order some stuffs for you while you're in quarantine.
FINISHING
Quarantine experience could be valuable if it's once in your life time. With this chance, you could have the aimless relaxing time which has hardly given to you so far. That's what I felt in my first quarantine.
You would find out valuable activities you haven't thought of in your daily routine. Idealy, you could have immersive time for building up your own project using this chance.
Finger cross for everyone who need to get through quarantine in South Korea.
HAPPY QUARANTINE EVERYONE !
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