One of the landmark hotels of Seoul closed on Dec. 31. As in, the last guests checked out that day, and nobody would be staying there to celebrate the New Year.
1. It sits just slightly uphill from where I live, and my daily commute to and from work is basically a 2.2km circle around it.
2. Every Christmas, they set up a huge toy train display for charity. This was the last one ever.
3. This year the toy train even included a miniature of the hotel itself, and the mountain it stands on (albeit pretty heavily exaggerated).
4. There's the actual view of the mountain out front.
5. They even set up a "museum" showing the history of the hotel, with examples of its past toy trains and things like employee uniforms. But what was missing was any mention of the place's ties with Daewoo Group, a former major conglomerate that was busted up in the aftermath of the 1990s Asian financial crisis.
6. I bring this up because the top couple floors of the hotel host a penthouse that was exclusively for the Daewoo owner family, and as far as I know has been sitting empty -- but well-cleaned -- ever since they parted ways.
7. The entrance is totally unlocked, just accessible by one of the many stairwells. I stumbled on it about a year ago when I was looking for roof access. The elevators are keycarded, so you have to surf up with a registered guest -- lucky for me, everyone this day was going to the restaurant on the 19th floor, so I only had to walk up about three flights.
8. It's still furnished somewhat.
9. Its of items are still on display.
10. There are several fake fireplaces.
11. As mentioned, it's two storeys high.
12. From the top of the stairs.
13. Upstairs I found a room with broken chairs, labelled helpfully.
14. I've been to the heliport door before, but it was always locked. Not today.
15. Turns out because there were workers. They never once paid any attention to me.
16. So I climbed up to the top, hoping to move fast.
17. Here's another view of the mountain. I live in the neighbourhood on the right.
18. It turned out one of my colleagues had booked a room for the final night, costing more than one month of my rent. I got her to invite me so I could show her the penthouse.
19. We found the washroom which was still in working condition.
20. I've used bidets but never this kind before.
21. Here's the room of broken chairs.
22. We found a suspicious stain.
23. The workers were gone but the roof was still unlocked.
24. Afterwards, they walked me out and we stopped by this iconic statue out front.
25. Next day I came back around 5 to see workers crowded in the entrance to make sure guests are only leaving and not entering, and signs pasted over the statue.
26. Two levels of workers, plus a cop car. They were really out in full force.
27. I went to the park uphill from the hotel to get a picture, discovering that they'd not fully completed the task of taking down the sign. As of one day later, it's all gone.
Hoping to have another chance to get inside before it's demolished. But for now it seems like it has a heavily active worker presence on site.
