How NOT to get back to your hotel in Korea

I am printing 30 copies of the Metal Threaded Fastener Training that I will give to about 30 engineers tomorrow, so I've got some time to write. Getting around in Korea is in theory very easy; Seoul has a veritabe spiderweb of a subway system, and you can get from the station from our weekend hotel to Bukhansan National Park for some drunken and ill-advised mountain climbing, about 20 miles away, for about a buck and a half. Telling a cabbie to take you back to your hotel, however, is a different story.

I am staying during the week at the Rolling Hills Hotel in Namyang, which is really more of a dormitory for Hyundai employees and suppliers, so it doesn't show up on hotels.com or any other website, no matter how many different ways you spell "Namyang" or "Rolling Hills." The address on the stationary is 4-21 Hwal-Cho Dong, Hwa-Sung Si, Gyung-Gi Do 445-150, Korea. Sounds innocent enough, right? 4-21 Hwal-Cho Dong sounds like a street address, Hwa-Sung Si sounds like a city or town, Gyung-Gi Do sounds like a county or region of some sort (like a state in the US, perhaps), and 445-150 sounds to me like it's analogous to a zip code. Korea is obviously the country. Not so fast, my friend. From the Lonely Planet series of travellers guides, on Korea:

"...In Korea, an 'address' exists in nam only. There are almost no signts labelling street names. Indeed, most streets do not have names at all. Nor do houses have numbers on the outside, although every house does have an official number. Unfortunately, these 'secret numbers' mean little - numbers are assigned to houses when they are built, so house No 27 could be next to House No 324. Many larger buildings have names - knowing the name of the building will often prove more useful than knowing the address."

What does this mean to me? In Namyang, not much, since KB or YG drive us wherever we want to go (although the only places we go are the R&D Center and the hotel). In Seoul, however, if you find yourself at Namdaemun Market and you want a taxi back to the GangNam Best Western, the address on the stationary will elicit little more than an exasperated look from your cabbie. And no, saying "GANG...NAM...BEST...WESTERN" real loudly and slowly does not help - they're not deaf. The address just means nothing to them.

What to do the first time in a cab? Hope for the best. The second time? Realize that your hotel is near the Kyobo building and across the street from the Novotel Hotel and also near the Ritz Carlton; most cabbies know about these hotels and can get there. So if you are north of your destination, tell him you want to go to the Novatel, and make sure he turns left near the Kyobo building (I think you can probably see the lettering on the side of the building from space).

Also realize that Mr. Hurr has terrible handwriting, and his chicken-scratch directions he told you to give to the cabbie are just as useless as circling the Best Western logo on the stationary about 50 times.