Life in the Philippines

Ok maybe the title is not totally true but Korea’s energy conversation methods sure made me think.  I arrived late in the evening and took a bus to my hotel in Itaewon.  If you ever travel there and stay at the Hamilton Hotel, you can learn from my lack of knowledge. First, when the bus drops you off, you may have no clue where you are going.  Just cross the street and follow the sidewalk past the Hamilton Shopping Center. You can’t miss the hotel but arrving in a strange location and just being dropped out the bus door sure doesn’t make you feel secure!

Anyhow, back to energy conservation. I checked in and headed to the room. Opened the door and looked for a light switch. Could not find one other than this little push button to turn the entrance way light on. I moved over to the lamp, no switch.  Just as I started to check it, the hall light went off. Hmm ok, headed back over, pushed the button again and started looking for the switches. Light goes off again.  This is not good. The light doesn’t stay on long enough to find the switch.  I tried to turn the bathroom light on instead. I could find that switch, but nothing happened.

Just beside this little push button there was a card slot.  It mentioned securing your valuables etc. I thought it was an odd place to put a slot for your key when there was nothing there to open.  Just for the heck of it, I put my room key in the slot and guess what?  Lights came on all over the room.

Pull the room key out, lights go off.  Instant energy conservation for those who leave the room and want the key with them!  At a later hotel the same thing happened only it didn’t occur to me that the key not being in the slot was why I could not get the TV to start.  No key inserted must meanNO POWER.  In fact I confirmed the no power theory later on because I forgot that night and left the laptop on but plugged in. It shut down because it was getting no power.  So Go Green has real enforcement at Korea hotels, you have no choice to turn the lights off when you leave!

Here’s a snapshot of the key holder, power starter.
 

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