The Irish of Asia!

South Korea is great!

We really struggled with getting a Mongolian visa so decided instead to travel to South Korea. We caught the overnight ferry between Dalian, in North East China, and the Korean port of Incheon, just 60 km from Seoul.

Before we came to Korea we had read in a few places that the Koreans were known as the `Irish of Asia`. They love singing, dancing, drinking, watching movies etc. and out and out are full of craic. So obviously this whetted our appetite for the place. On the ferry from China we met a group of Korean retirees who were just returning from holiday. When they asked us where we were from and we told them Ireland, they responded with `....... ah the Koreans of Europe`, so apparently it works both ways.　

The Koreans retireees invited us to try some local snacks with them which consisted of seaweed and a food called kimchi which is sort of like fermented cabbage, actually quite nice. They also tried to ply us with some local spirits, soju etc, which was great fun. The following morning we met the retirees again and they proudly announced to us that they drank the two vending machines on the ferry dry of beer last night. Definitely the `Irish of Asia`.

The first thing that struck us about the place when we arrived is that it was so clean. I suppose when your last port of call is China it would be the first thing you notice. The second thing you notice is that you can see the sky. We could not see the sky for about the last 3 weeks of our stay in China. In some cases in Beijing you could not even see some of the skyscrapers close by because of the smog. The third thing you notice is how organised and efficient everything is - the signage, the public transport, tourist information etc. We arrived in Korea without a guidebook so were literally winging it, but talk about picking the right country to wing it. This place is easy! Tourist information is in abundance. I think we were give about 10 different maps of Seoul - the walking tour map of Seoul, the bus tour map of Seoul, the metro map of Seoul, the bar and restaraunt map of Seoul, and on and on. I think you get my point. And finally, almost every local has some english it seems. At anyone time on a trip on the metro you see hoardes of people with english languauge text books in their hands. There seems to be an all consuming urge to learn english here which of course makes it easier for us.

Our visit to the ICE Bar in Seoul:

Another thing that struck us in South Korea was how polite people are. When you enter a shop every single member of the staff says hello to you! But the traffic attendents take politeness to another level. Very often shopping malls employ traffic attendents beside their car park exits to direct traffic out onto the road. The traffic attendents, normally pretty females, make an elaborate hand signal to the cars to say that it is ok to move out onto the road and then, wait for it, bow to the car!!! I honestly stood still for half an hour watching this in amazement. See the video below and then compare it to the North Korean equivalents.

North Korean Traffic Attendent

Seoul is surrounded by mountains and it being over a month since Nepal I heard them calling me! So I headed off one of the days to climb Mount Dobongsan, one of the holy mountains. I was getting on great until too old women decided to ply me with rice whiskey on the way up. I thought it was milk!!! This slowed me a little. Then I met a local `Kevin` half way up who told me I was very fast??? and so I could trek with him if I liked. So away we headed together. Well `Kevin` was a flyer, and it wasn`t long before my tongue was hanging out. Kevin didn't believe in taking breaks. When I did get him to slow down he did tell me that he has climbed the mountain almost every Saturday and Sunday for the past 7 years. In total he reckons he has climbed it over 500 times. It was a little too late to refuse the invitation at that stage. We made it to the top ahead of schedule where we enjoyed some great views. On a clear day you can seen Seoul from the top. Jeanette opted for shopping that day and highly recommends the shopping in Seoul!

On two of the nights in Seoul we met up with two friends we had met 6 months previously at the start of our trip in Borneo. We had all gone adventure caving in Mulu National park, Borneo, together. Cho Ok is a native of Seoul and Chad is from New York with Korean parents. It was great to be introduced to Korean food by some locals. The food is fantastic. Afterwards we went to a karaoke house and rented a booth and sang to our hearts content before heading dancing in a local club. Another thing we saw which is pretty unique to Korea is the DVD booth. You can rent a little room with a projector and DVD of your choice and watch away. It's like your own private cinema!

Something else that we were both taken by was the Korean version of a hotdog. Basically its a sausage on a stick but covered in french fries. Delicious. We both thought that this would go down very well in Jackie Lennox`s.

And of course it being olympic year and all we visited the Olypmic Stadium in Seoul, got out on the track and pretended that we were Carl Lewis competing in the 100 metre final!

We also paid a visit to the World Cup stadium where the opening game of the 2002 soccer world cup was held. Pretty impressive.

On one of the days we headed out to the Carribean bay water park just outside Seoul. We had some great fun on the slides, water bobsleds. Then we headed over to the Everland theme park where we had a great time on a few of the rollercoasters. Scary!!!

After Seoul we headed to Sorekson National park which one of the Koreans favourite places to go on holidays. It had some lovely walks and apparently some great mountain views but unfortunately the day we were there was quite foggy and we couldn't see a whole lot. Sorekson is only a few minutes drive from Sockho where we stayed. We had some great korean food there. The squid stuffed with fried vegetables was definitely one of the highlights.

Next, we took a 8 hour bus ride to the southern port city of Busan. From here we took the ferry to Japan. We didn't do a whole lot in Busan apart from go to the largest spa in Asia. Korean spas are interesting. Lots of types of baths here - grape baths, jasmine tea bath, salt bathsand well as the regular hot and cold baths, indoor and outdoor. You must go au naturale! There are separate male and female sides to the spa. Very liberating...... and a great way to spend a morning.

Our accommodation in Busan was an apartment on the 29th floor of a tower block. It was great if a little different. I don't think Jeanette was too comfortable with the height and was hanging on to her bunkbed at night, just in case......

After two days in Busan we caught the overnight ferry to the Japanese port town of Shimonoseki.