Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 6

This may go on record of the longest day of my life. We left Kathmandu last night and our first play had a movie station for each seat. Now normally, I am not the movie person but after 2 months of almost no tv, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I ended up picking an incredibly sad movie (note to self read the summary first ’tear jerker‘ is a hint to pass). This had to be followed up with two documentaries: the truth about exercise and the rise of vertical farming (I recommend this one). All was well and good going into Seoul, found our hotel and was excited to check in a take a nap at 9 AM. The unfortunate part was we couldn’t check in until 3 PM. WHAT TO DO!!!??? Shelby ... read more

We had decided to continue our travels in Korea on the trains, and we had booked our tickets earlier, so we were all ready to go. Mrs S, from our travels in Tibet, was Korean by birth and she had described the country as efficient and fast-moving. We asked our hotel to arrange a taxi to take us to the train station which wasn't the main station on this occasion, but another one, Yongsan, a short distance away. Two minutes, they said. Wow, I thought, Mrs S wasn't wrong! She was, as it turned out, because less than 90 seconds later the taxi arrived and I only had time for a very quick farewell to my old man bell boy! Apparently, taxi drivers in Korea don't 'do' luggage so this little chap had to manhandle our ... read more

Today, we were heading to Korea. That would be South Korea because the guy in charge in North Korea is a bit of a plonker and doesn't make visitors very welcome. And we'd heard it was just the opposite in South Korea where everyone was going to be friendly, welcoming, happy, family-orientated and enjoy inter-acting with visitors. I was already imagining a flag-waving, singing, dancing reception along the lines of the Olympic event in that country. Bring it on! I managed to keep my lighter through all the departure airport faff this time so things were already looking up. We had a Cathay Pacific 777 plane which was spacious, had wide seats and a British pilot, which I always find reassuring for some reason! It was only a three hour flight but the smiling cabin crew ... read more

.... read more

I’ve had a fair few friends who have lived in South Korea and all recommended it. But it never seems to be as desirable a place to visit as most other countries in the region. That can’t be only true for me as we saw few foreign tourists during our two weeks in the country. Some nearby countries have their big sights that lure people in, such as Thailand’s or the Philippines’ beaches and Cambodia’s got Angkor Wat. I think other countries are appealing if they have a unique culture that is highly visible in the media, such as Japan. Maybe Vietnam is popular because everyone knows about it from the war and from watching famous war films and they want to go and see it for themselves. So why isn’t South Korea more popular? Despite ... read more