May Guesthouse (메이 게스트하우스)

Bittersweet feelings last week - checked out of May Guesthouse (MG) - [396-41 Seokyodong, Mapogu, Seoul, South Korea +82 10-5167-0555], moved in with host family! After staying at MG for 2 weeks, I was quite sad to move out. Why?

*Too Comfortable!

The people from the hostel are really nice people! They're very helpful and friendly, and the location is great! Most of them can speak English as well. I didn't realise how happening the surroudings were until I met my friends at Hongdae. It was just a short 5-10 minutes walk! It took me a few days to realise the convenience of the location. Sighs! 

During my stay, I met more locals than foreigners, and it's probably the reason why there's only a few reviews on hostelworld. 

Cafes around the area

It's definitely my favourite guesthouse so far! I'll go back there again when I'm on holiday here!

I reserved the female dorm with shared bathroom via hostelworld. My friends decided to stay in another hostel as they preferred the convenience of having an ensuite bathroom, but I wanted to save some money and I really liked the looks of the hostel from the photos I saw! Haha! Photos of the dorm (pardon the untidiness). I requested for the lower bunk, and was shifted to it after 2 days. It was my cosy corner for the rest of my stay! 

Curtains were installed a few days after I arrived! It was quite funny when Yang and Tae Yeong wanted to install the curtains initially, as both me and Michelle were still sleeping. They came in, looked at the mess, and said "Nevermind.. Tomorrow", and left me wondering what they wanted to do to the room. The next day, I saw the curtains when I was back!

The female dorm is on the second floor (don't worry about your luggage, the helpful staff at the guesthouse helped me with my heavy luggages! :)), and there's 2 bathrooms shared among about 7 guests. Throughout my stay, I probably waited for the bathroom less than 5 times. Most of the time, I felt that it was my private bathroom. :) The bathrooms are really clean too because they're cleaned everyday!

You can also get your laundry washed on the first floor (3000 krw per laundry bag). No dryers - you hang dry your clothes on the first floor.

Despite it not being stated on hostelworld, there are security lockers in the room! The approx. 30cm X 30cm locker was enough to put my laptop, cameras, documents, hard disks. You just need to give a 10,000krw deposit for the key. 

The only thing that I find inconvenient is that there's no water dispenser on the second floor. I don't survive well in winter since I'm from the sunny island in the tropics, and I have to fetch my water from downstairs twice a day at least (staircase is outside the building). But then again, I should not be so lazy because it's just like 9 steps down to Level 1 .

Area outside the guesthouse

View from the common area on Level 2

Level 1 living room / kitchen / reception - Running Man time!

If you're a light sleeper, I think the place is perfect. The room is dead quiet at night despite the activities happening around the area. It's so quiet I felt that I was in a vacuum. It's probably the reason for my long sleeping hours. Half the time I was still sleeping when the staff (Tae Yeong) came in to clean the room. Oops! 

Candy that May gave me while I was studying for the placement test in the living room :D While I was studying for the placement test, they also helped me explain some of the terms I didn't understand. Part-time Korean teachers! :D

Breakfast is free (toast, butter, jam and coffee / tea) from 8am to 10am everyday! I ate waffles a few times too! Made by the staff!

What I really liked about the guesthouse is the people there. When I first arrived at 11am (check in time was 3pm), I didn't realise that I was too early for check in. Since I didn't sleep much during my flight here, I really just wanted to check in and sleep! Initially I was a little upset that they didn't let me check in earlier. Later on, I realised why! Their part time staff only starts work at 1pm! I got to check in as soon as he finished cleaning the room! As they were preparing lunch while I was there, they also invited me to eat with them! How sweet! The few times I was at the kitchen area while they were eating / drinking, they offered me food and drinks! Nice nice nice!! 

And, I am really grateful to May and Jin Min for helping me get the SS5 tickets! I asked them about it a week before the ticket sale since I saw their facebook post, and they actually recorded my request down in their schedule spreadsheet! 15 minutes before the ticket sale, I came down to Level 1 and May briefed me on what to do (she opened 3 separate browsers, put them in tiled mode and told me, if the first one fails, use the second one, then the third. Like a boss!) 3 of us were stationed at 3 different PCs to get ready, and Jin Min did a countdown to 8pm! It was really exciting and fun! And I got the tickets on first attempt! Wheee~ May helped to purchase the tickets with her card and I passed her cash. The tickets should arrive at the hostel soon!! Seriously, how do you find such friendly and nice hosts at a hostel! 

Really happy with my stay, and will definitely want to go back there again! 

Ooo their facebook page! --> here and here