Phoenix Park is a resort located about 2 hour away on road from Seoul. In winter, it becomes a ski and snowboarding park. In off-snow seasons, people go there for golfing. I went there for a conference during ski season in the middle of winter. The experience of planning and preparing to get there was well worth it upon arrival in Phoenix Park. Alhamdulillah I enjoyed the 2 days of thick powdery soft snow there.
The conference that I attended (icact.org) is held annually during skiing season in Phoenix Park, so there might be IT grad students or academics or anybody who need to present IT related paper in a conference who want to join this conference. Unfortunately the instructions on how to get to Phoenix Park in icact website does not include info about Phoenix Park's ski bus, although using the sky bus is a lot less of stress compared to using multiple buses as featured in icact website.
So if you need to use public transportation to get there for work or just want to enjoy the snow, here are among the English websites I know that give info on how to get to Phoenix Park
1. Phoenix Park's ski bus - possibly during skiing season only, 2 months in a year. http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/global/english/phoenixresort/contactus_transportation01.aspx
Click on the "bus booking" button for bus schedule and locations. Booking is not really necessary but may be done to secure a seat.
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2. If we depart from other places and time or outside the skiing season, we may use this general info from icact's website here. http://www.icact.org/VenueInfo/transportation.asp
3. As Phoenix Park can also be reached from Wonju, you may want to try the train to get to Wonju. Info and booking here http://www.korail.com/
My experience
When i decided to attend the conference, my SV asked "are you sure? it's not easy you know, this place is far from Seoul, and most Koreans do not speak English!" But the obstinate me said, insyaAllah, I'll make proper planning. I will follow the website instruction. And she said "but the real thing will not be as easy as the website instruction, and I myself will be using taxi, although I have studied in Korea myself"
Oh so demotivating. And when i studied the instruction in icact's website (link #2), it was actually not easy. I chose one route and plan the time that will be taken: half day. I googled to find tourist guides among malaysians in korea if they want to help me, some of them agree but requesting for a big payment.
Alhamdulillah taking multiple buses and worrying about the right bus station was not the only way to get there. I found Phoenix Park website (link #1) which tells that they have one bus departing at 930am daily from the glass tower near Samseong station. So I booked a hotel that i think is the nearest possible to the glass tower, Samsung Casaville Residence.
When I got out of Samseong station on the evening I was supposed to check in at the Casaville, I was somewhat disoriented. Following my logic according to the google map in the handphone as well as Fadzlin's (muslimbackpackerseoul.com) map, I entered and exited some alleys. After about 10 minutes of confusion, I looked back and saw two men walking in the same direction. I approached them, asking "excuse me, do you speak English?" to get the reassuring answer of "of course we do" "do you know how to get to .." "yes, we are going to the same place!" Alhamdulillah.
That night after coming back from sightseeing in Coex the biggest mall in Seoul which is just across the main road, we tried to locate the bus stop. Locating the exact spot as I remember shown in Phoenix Park's website, we saw a signboard with the symbol of a bus and some Korean wordings. We took photo of the signboard and get back to hotel. At the hotel's reception desk, I wanted to confirm what I saw. I asked the staff if he knows the exact location of the bus stop. He said that there's no bus stop for Phoenix Park here. I showed him the photo we just took, to which he said, "hey I am very sure that there's no such signboardat Glass Tower". Oh how shameful. I changed my question to "Ok no problem if this signboard does not exist. But can you please translate for me what it says?" And his answer was something like "board the bus for Phoenix Park here. Get ticket from the basement level, Glass Tower". So it confirmed the location of the bus stop. I wanted to show the staff the Phoenix Park's website which states that the bus stop is at the back of Glass Tower as he did not want to believe it, so I asked to open a website. He pointed me to the computer stationed opposite him so I opened Phoenix Park's website.
I was quite surprised to find a "book the bus" button already added to the page, which did not exist a few days before when I last checked the website. There were also no bus schedule in the last few days. I was quite unhappy why Phoenix Park did not do the update earlier and also worried if I could not board the bus because I could not book it, as the page said booking should be made two days earlier.
The next morning I went to the bus stop and proceed to go inside the Glass Tower to buy ticket like stated in the signboard. Apart of the empty lobby (it was Sunday) there was a man who greeted me. He was also heading for the same destination for the same conference. He told me that he also did not book the bus ticket. Then many others arrived, most of them maybe local people who wanted to go for ski. We managed to know other conference presenters from Hong Kong, India, and also Malaysian Saiful who brought along his wife, son, and parents in law to enjoy Korea for 10 days. (Incidentally Saiful's mom-in-law looked very much like my advisor) It seemed that they stayed in other hotels farther than the Casaville like Ibis Ambassador. So for those who need to take morning bus from the Glass Tower, i think Samsung Casaville is the nearest place to stay, although the hotel staff know nothing about this.
The bus finally arrived. I was relieved that the bus driver took everybody in without asking about booking. Only after reaching Phoenix Park that the bus driver started to ask to pay for the ticket. Upon getting in Phoenix Park area, Dr Lau from Hong Kong who came for this conference for the 3rd or 4th time showed us the ticketing counter for the bus to get back to Seoul. We bought the ticket the next day after choosing which bus to take based on the bus schedule in the website. It was good to have studied the schedule and chose earlier rather than asking the person at the ticketing counter. The guy seemed to understand the basic English that we said "two tickets for Seoul, 11am" and answered "Jamsil, twenty cheon" but could not answer when we asked where to take the bus. Luckily he had an English-speaking friend who came out and answered all our questions.
So to conclude, I thank Allah for making the trip easier for me. For those who need to get there by public transport like me, find (and read) the related info in websites, do not think that we can always rely on any local as they don't know everything and also because the language barrier. Also check the website often for updates.
Assamualaikum. I'm going to Phoenix Park with my 2 children end of Dec 2015. I've been trying to reserve the shuttle bus to phoenix from seoul for the last few days, but that has not been easy.
ReplyDeleteWould it be possible to have your email so that I can ask further questions. I've been trying to call the resort, the bus company but still futile. Thanks