22/11/12 – 23/11/12 – Travel is good for the Seoul. Japan is even better.

22/11/12

Today was our last day in South Korea, or, rather, it was our last morning before we had to rush off to the airport to take our flight to Tokyo. We had one goal for the morning – something which we try and achieve in every country we visit – go to a supermarket, to see what the average person buys and eats. Yunna had recommended one close to our hotel – only two stops away on the subway. While that may seem like a long distance, in a city like Seoul, where everything is so spread out that to get anywhere often takes a 30 minute journey on the subway, this was a very quick trip.

So we headed for Jamsil station. Our goal was to find the Lotte Mart store. Like most small Asian countries, the Koreans like to build vast underground malls, so finding the Lotte Mart was a simple walk out the exit of the subway, without needing to go above ground into the harsh morning cold. Or so we thought. While we didn’t have to surface to find the Lotte Mart, what we did find was an entire Lotte-themed world. For those of you who don’t know, “Lotte” is one of those massive Japanese/South Korean conglomerate companies with fingers in so many pies that they’ve actually inadvertedly created new pies and therefore had to make new fingers to stick in them. Think of Lotte as an Asian version of “Nestle”, or “GE”, or “Samsung” oh wait, scratch that last one.

Anyways, it turns out that not only had we found the “Lotte Mart”, this place was called “Lotte World”. It was this creepy conglomerate everything land, including an entire ripoff Disneyland theme park. They even copied the castle from the “Magic Kingdom” logo. It was thoroughly unsettling.

What Emma and I had failed to take into account was the difference in opening hours between Australia and Asia in general. As Harrry pointed out to us when we were in Hong Kong, the retail sector opens late and closes late – this is a double advantage. Firstly, it means that the city’s infrastructure doesn’t grind to a halt every morning as all of the corporate workers and retail workers try and catch the same bus/train/car, and it also means that they stay open later so that aforementioned corporate workers can actually shop inside these stores on their way home. Why in the hell can’t we operate like this??

The unfortunate side effect of this though was that we were at “Lotte Mart” a good 90 minutes before its scheduled opening time of 10am. By 10am we needed to be well on our way to the airport, so we decided to once again cut our losses and just head back to the hotel.

Before doing so, I grabbed some breakfast at the “Lotte-ria”. It was a McDonalds clone that really didn’t try to differentiate itself from McDonalds, except for their food practices which seemed to be about 10 years older than McDonalds’ current methods. I had a “Lotz Burger”, purely because it had an Asian cowboy on the promotional poster, which I thought was funny. The meal was rather disgusting, and I don’t know what made this burger worth promoting. It was pretty much a cheeseburger with mayonnaise instead of tomato sauce. Yep, cos that’s what cowboys eat.

The decision to forfeit our look around a supermarket did have an advantage – we were able to have a nice slow walk through the park near our hotel for the last time. The autumn leaves were in full bloom in the park, which had made for some very pleasant walks over the last few days, and today was no exception. I was going to miss this park, not to mention Seoul in general.

After checking out of our hotel, we caught a train to Samesong, and then were soon on the bus to the airport. It’s a long bus ride from Seoul to Incheon, but it was one full of interesting scenery and huge South Korean engineering marvels, such as massive wind turbines, huge urban developments, and bridges that defied physics in their size and complexity.

At the airport, we did our usual thing – check in was quick and efficient – we were the only people in the queue at that time. We then headed for the satellite terminal, where Emma made a bee-line for the makeup section, and I quickly ran around the terminal, snapping pictures of all of the different aircraft I couldn’t see at home. It was all very interesting, with a handful of domestic and international carriers (such as Aeroflot, the Russian carrier) that I had never seen (or heard of) before. Unfortunately, it was soon time for boarding, so I had to cut my plane spotting short.

Japan Airlines flight JL954 ICN – NRT

Boeing 767-300 JA651J

Captain Watanabe

Scheduled Pushback: 1340

Actual Pushback: 1350

Scheduled Arrival: 1600

Actual Arrival: 1604

Today we were on one of JAL’s retrofitted Boeing 767-300’s. For those of you who aren’t plane geeks (so everyone reading this blog), this means that they have been recently refurbished with JAL’s newest hard product. The cabin was nice and spacious, and each seat had a whopping great big seatback touchscreen entertainment unit thingy to play around with, meaning that this was going to be an enjoyable flight. One thing I was really looking forward to about this flight was the fact that they were screening an exclusive Studio Ghibli short on board, only viewable on a JAL flight, and at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. Unfortunately, as we were taxiing out to the runway, I read in the in-flight magazine that this promotion ended in October. Damn. Oh well, I’d have to watch it when I went to the Ghibli Museum at the end of this trip.

The plane soon roared into the atmosphere, with Emma and I grinning ear to ear as we went. We were finally on our way to Japan again – a place that we had been missing oh so dearly from the second we left in April, 2011.

What followed was to be a very comfortable and enjoyable flight with JAL. Firstly, the meal I got was easily the best economy class meal I’ve ever eaten. We got a neat little bento-box, filled with about six or eight different Japanese dishes, all of which, while cold, were very tasty. Emma’s gluten-free meal consisted of fruit and soy-yoghurt, which was incredibly sad looking. As they handed out the rest of the meals to other passengers, I asked if Emma could have a regular meal as well and she’d risk the gluten content. The flight attendant happily obliged.

As another note, the flight attendants were considerate enough that when Emma’s gluten free meal was brought out in advance of everybody else’s, they also brought out my meal as well, so that we could dine together. Very considerate.

I then sat back and half watched some anime show, and half watched the views out the window as we cruised towards Tokyo Narita airport. The show was made up of two twenty-minute episodes, and I stopped it after one of them as I didn’t really follow what was happening in them, and also because we were now cruising over the Japan Alps, which were captivating to look at from above. I snapped as many pictures as I could of the snow-capped mountains.

As we approached Narita, we were put in a holding pattern, but by the time we descended, we had touched down only four minutes later than our scheduled arrival time. As we taxied to our gate, the flight attendant spoke over the P/A, apologising for this unsightly delay due to congestion of the airport. Apologising profusely for a four minute delay? Yup, we were officially in Japan.

Immigration and customs were fairly quick, but not nearly as quick as our previous visit, but this was more to do with the fact that Narita Airport arrivals hall wasn’t a ghost town like it was last time, due to the disaster.

We were soon speeding towards Tokyo onboard the Keisei Skyliner, and about 30 minutes later, we were at Nippori station. Having already done this previously a year ago, this procedure was quite easy. It helped that we weren’t jetlagged out of our minds as well, but we quickly found our way to the correct train, and one highly-squeezed rush hour train trip later, we were safely checked in at the familiar Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku.

Sticking with our accidental tradition so far on this holiday, we had our first dinner from a convenience store. Lawson’s was our choice for tonight. However, unlike Hong Kong and to a lesser extent Seoul, this meal was actually quite tasty. Even Japan’s shitty convenience store food tastes amazing!

I wanted to track down a copy of a videogame so that I could play it on my travels throughout Japan. I was after “Ouendan 2”, a very crazy rhythm-based Japanese game for the Nintendo DS. I knew the perfect place to find it, so I set out to explore Akihabara – Tokyo’s infamous electronics district. Emma decided to sit this one out, instead deciding to stay home and watch crazy Japanese TV.

Unlike last time, I didn’t go into any buildings selling creepy anime statues or pillow girlfriends – I mainly stuck to the lower floors of video games and the like. Unfortunately, I had come at the wrong time of night, as most stores were either closed or in the process of closing. I did find one store that was open and that had an extensive range of Nintendo DS titles, but they didn’t have it in stock. Oh well, I’ll try again in Osaka, or when I’m back in Tokyo later.

After I left the store, I managed to get completely disoriented, and ended up walking through some of the seedier crossroads of Akihabara. I saw several young Japanese women standing at an intersection, clad in the typical “School Girl” uniform. I’m not sure if they were prostitutes dressed as schoolgirls, Escorts dressed as schoolgirls, or actual schoolgirls dressed as, well, schoolgirls. Either way, they were handing out pamphlets of some description, and I saw some of them go home with someone after giving him a pamphlet, so I didn’t really want to stick around and find out what they were doing. In my confused wanderings through the back streets of Akihabara, I did manage to see the coolest thing ever – a guy taking his pet duck out for a walk. On a leash. It was amazing. Quite possibly the most amazing thing ever. I even asked him if I could take a photo of it, which he was fine with. Awesomest. Duck. Ever.

After finally getting directions from a store security guard, I made my way back to the Akihabara station, and caught the train back to Shinjuku. There, I bought some ice cream for Emma and I, and headed back to the hotel, for an exhausted sleep.

23/11/12

There was no rest for the wicked though – my next day started bright and early once again. We had an absolute heap of travel to do today, so we checked out of the hotel early and headed straight for the station. Our destination today was Shibu Onsen, the small town up in the mountains where the snow monkeys bathed in the hot springs. We went there last time on our trip through Japan, and we were so spellbound by it that we just had to visit it again.

This meant a whole heap of travel. Firstly, it was a train to one of the outer stations of the Tokyo Ward area. There, we transferred to a Shinkansen, which took us to Nagano. Unfortunately, the previous day, I was unable to secure us reserved seating, which meant we had to just hope for a seat in the unreserved section. It was not to be. We ended up standing up for about half of the 80 minute journey. It’s a strange sensation standing upright, watching the world hurtle past you at 300+ kilometres per hour, just inches away from your window. Shinkansens were still damn fun though, even when you’re forced to stand.

After the first stop, we managed to grab a seat, and watched as the landscape outside changed from urban plots, to farmland, to alpine towns and more. Sadly, no snow to be seen this time, but the experience was fascinating nonetheless.

In Nagano, we then had to quickly transfer to our next train, which would take us the rest of the way. The great thing about travelling to places you’ve already been is that you have this instinct as to where to go. It took us only about 5 seconds to get our bearings as to where we were in Nagano, and then we were easily able to find the next train station.

Another hour on the train later (and a bento box from a convenience store for lunch), and we were finally at Yudanaka. We then caught one of the local buses, and we were back at the same Ryokan we stayed at last time.

They greeted us, and the little old man who ran the place showed us to our rooms. There, his wife, took us through the various procedures and customs of our room, all of which in Japanese, and then left us to our own devices. It was a struggle to ascertain exactly what she was saying, but we got the general idea, and we managed to communicate fairly alright between each other. We then dressed in our Yukatas, and hung out in our traditional Japanese-styled room for an hour or so, sipping on green tea.

We then got ready for the long trek to the Snow Monkey park, but before we left, we prepared a small gift for the Ryokan owners. I had read in the past that it is customary for guests to give the household owner a gift upon staying with them. And, while we weren’t really staying in their house, as we were paying for the room, we did still want to show our appreciation for us being able to stay there – it is fairly rare for Ryokans like this to open their doors to foreign travellers.

We presented them with a gift of Tim Tams and Vegemite – a small token of our appreciation, and things that are undeniably Australian. We also showed him a photo that he took of us on our previous visit to this Ryokan. It was difficult to get my point across through the tangled thicket that is the language barrier, but I was sort of able to communicate that we had stayed here in the past and that we were thankful to be able to again. He was very chuffed with his gift, and they seemed very grateful for it. It was quite an awkward exchange, but with smiles all around, it was definitely a fun experience.

We then put on our boots, and went for a stroll through the town. We bought an apple each from a local store, before heading up the mountain road towards the snow monkey park. The apples we bought were massive. Easily two to three times the size of apples in Australia. It took me a good 30 minutes to eat mine, as we walked along the forest road.

Unfortunately, there was no snow on our hike this time. I was praying for snow, but I knew given the time of year we were visiting at, it was very unlikely to see snow. What we did get though was just as nice – the most cool, refreshing alpine air I’ve ever breathed. Every inhalation was like sniffing a car air freshener. Every exhalation had a little puff of condensation to remind you that you were breathing in cool, crisp mountain air. I like to think that this is what parents mean when they say “go outside and get some fresh air”, because believe you me, that was by far the freshest air I’ve ever breathed.

After a long trek through the winding road, the smell of the fresh air was soon replaced by the unmistakable smell of sulphur. We were getting close to the hot springs, and to the monkeys. As we got closer to the park, we noticed that there were a lot more people here than there were last time we came. Once again, this was probably due to the disaster of the previous time we visited. It was good to see this many people here this time, but it also made us feel good about coming the previous time, as we were supporting them when they really did need the patronage.

As observed on our last trip, the monkeys were super cute. I decided to give Emma full creative control over the camera, and she went hog wild. She took countless photos of the monkeys scratching, bathing, eating, climbing, and just being generally monkey-like. There was a small pathway down to an area which was at water-level with the famous hot spring they sit in, which allowed for some really spectacular photographs. Pictures will come soon, I promise!

We also saw a guy almost get mauled by the monkeys because he put his face far too close to them. He was literally a finger length away from one of them. He then made the mistake of using his camera with its super blinding multi-flash photography, which caused the monkeys to scream angrily at him. Make no mistake – while cute and fluffy these animals are, they are still very much wild animals. Emma managed to get quite up close and personal with a little baby monkey, which had decided to perch placidly under a railing. It didn’t seem to mind Emma taking about a thousand photos of it – probably because she had the common sense to turn the flash off.

One note though on one of the less enjoyable parts of this experience – the smell. It smelled bad. Really bad. There was a stench of monkey urine in the air, which mixed in with the sulphur, and then in addition to that, the monkeys that bathed in the hot spring were very relaxed with their bowel movements, so while these monkeys sat in the steamy water, placidly playing away, you would see a great big turd float by – they were literally bathing in their own boiled shit.

The shortened northern autumn days were working against us though, and it was starting to get dark. We had to hurriedly walk back along the long trail to our town, and we managed to get back to the hotel just after dark. Being a hot spring (or onsen) town, means that there is almost always an abundance of steam and running water to be seen and heard. This steamy atmosphere mixed with the dimly-lit street lamps incredibly well, to give the town this beautiful but mysterious look.

It was soon dinner time, where, much like our last visit here, we were treated to another amazing feast of food. We each had about twelve different dishes on our plates, ranging from the delicious to the downright bizarre. Thankfully though, my palette had improved since our last visit, and I was able to finish almost every dish on my table. The only real shock of the meal came from the egg custard dish. This is quite a subtly flavoured dish, which does exactly what it says on the packet – it’s about halfway between the flavour of eggs and the texture of custard. What I wasn’t expecting was the super sour maraschino cherry at the bottom of it. Upon eating this, it caused me to screw up my face in disgust. It was like my tastebuds had been ambushed and then napalm-bombed by some horrible, vinegary cherry flavour. Very unpleasant.

After eating dinner, we returned to our rooms, where our futons had been set up for bed. We decided to head out into the town for one last walk around before bed. During our stroll, we found a hot spring foot bath. Emma and I were still not keen on the whole “get naked in front of everyone” concept of the bath houses, so we decided to stick to the happy medium that was a good soak in a foot bath. It was nice and hot, some sections more than others. As the water had literally come up from the depths of the earth, it obviously had no temperature control. I made the mistake of putting one of my feet in the very back section of the bath, the one closest to the spring. I scalded my foot pretty bad, and I now have one lobster-pink coloured foot.

And so, I limped back to the room, where we fell into our highly inviting futon beds, for another restful night’s sleep.

Up next: Lots and lots of train trips! Mountain gorges! Japanese seaside!

20/11/12 – 21/11/12 – South Korea. *Insert Seoul-based pun here*

20/11/12

Firstly, it’s amazing how quickly this stuff gets away from you. Every day that I’ve been on this trip so far has been packed full of adventures, and when I think back on what I’ve done, I’ve done so very much, and it seems like even a mere 24 hours ago feels like an entire week ago. But yet, every night when I get in to bed, I think to myself “I’m too tired to blog. I’ll do it tomorrow.” BAM! Three days’ worth of blogs have piled up on me. I’m aiming to get to sleep before midnight, so some parts might be regrettably a bit hazy.

Our first day in Seoul started quite late. We were exhausted from our travels from Hong Kong to Seoul the previous day, so we had a good sleep in in the morning. When we did finally awake, I threw together a rough plan of what we wanted to see and do that day. We started off by heading to Techno Mart, in the Gangbyeon district. I was interested in seeing Seoul’s technological side for which it is so famous, but our primary reason for going here was the food court – cheap eats, and traditional Korean food for our late breakfast/early lunch. While the foodcourt certainly was aimed at locals, they had plastic food examples of all of the meals served. This was fantastic for us foreigners, as we were able to merely take a photo of the meal we wanted, show the shop keep, and then they would make it for us. A brilliant, foolproof system. Emma had… actually, I’m not entirely sure what Emma had. Or rather, I’m not sure what it’s called. It was fried chicken with rice, served with like most traditional Korean food, about three or four different sides. Most were pickled vegetables of some sort, generally different forms of Kimchi. I had bimibap, which is hot rice in a bowl served with lots of different chopped vegetables and a raw egg on top. Doesn’t sound very tasty, but the heat of the rice cooks the egg, and you end up with a really delicious meal.

Anyways, after our yummy start to the day, we had a look around the Techno Mart. Given the name “Techno-Mart”, I thought that it would have some form of inherent technology. But, the level we walked through was all clothes and other apparel. I gave up pretty quickly, and we headed on to the rest of our activities for the day. Only later did I discover that all of the “techno” parts of Techno Mart were in the higher levels of the building. Oh well, I wasn’t going to buy much anyway.

Our next destination was Namdaemun market. “Market” isn’t really an apt word to describe the scale of this market. “City full of people selling shit” is more appropriate. The streets were covered in stalls, selling mainly apparel goods, but there was also a good range of street food, and other more quirky wares on sale. Then, inside the buildings around the streets are more bloody markets. The whole thing takes up a few city blocks, and when this is combined with the maze-like structure of streets, it is easy to be overwhelmed by all of the things on show. Emma did come out of there with some nice hats, whereas I came out of there with some delicious street food.

A small word on my favourite street food of South Korea – “Hoddeok”. Hoddeoks are amazing. They’re amazing cakes stuffed with amazing amazingness. In all seriousness though, they are essentially small cakes made of a doughnut-like batter, shallow fried in oil or margarine, with melted brown sugar and sunflower seeds in the middle of them. They’re occasionally dusted in cinnamon sugar as well. They. Are. Amazing. Really bad for you, but they warm you up so much inside on a cold Seoul day. If/when you go to Seoul, buy them by the truckload. At only $1AUD each, they’re a bargain. That is, until your health insurance doesn’t cover “extreme obesity due to Hoddeok obsession”.

This market really showed off just how trendy of a place Seoul is – everything looks really smart, but at the same time, the prices were quite reasonable. I don’t know why we can’t have that in Australia, instead of either really cheap, awful-looking clothes, or super expensive, nice-looking clothes.

We took a breather from the madness of the market, and had a bite to eat from one of the countless 7-Elevens nearby. I had some weird drink called “Sunny 10 Blast”. I’m always one to try random drinks that I’ve never seen before. It makes things interesting, and only about 15% of the time are they truly, indescribably disgusting (see Thailand, black jelly drink of death for more info).

After our break, we headed for the Namsangol Hanok traditional folk village. While this is still right in the middle of Seoul, they’ve managed to import an entire traditional village into a park, and preserve it for cultural posterity. We decided to rock up there to have a peek around. However, being a Tuesday, it was closed. What. Something I’ve discovered about travelling around Asia: don’t expect things to be open on Tuesdays. It’s happened to me several times, and I have no idea why it is the case, but don’t travel on Tuesdays. If you want to see any national landmarks? Monday is fine. So is Wednesday through Friday. But Tuesday? DENIED.

Anyways, everything wasn’t completely lost, as we were more of the opinion to “take it or leave it” in regards to the village. There was a nice park attached to the village though, which, amazingly enough, wasn’t closed. I’m sure if they could close it on a Tuesday, they would though.

I was very pleased when looking around the park, as I was worried when booking the trip that we would arrive too late to see any of the autumn leaves. Thankfully, this was not the case. While it wasn’t a bouquet of reds, oranges and yellows in every direction you looked, there were still many, many trees showing their autumn leaves. And they were damn pretty. So much so, I think I have a good few hundred photos of leaves on my camera. Don’t worry, they won’t all end up on Facebook. Only the top 50 or so.

By now, it was about 4pm, and with the sun slowly going down, the temperature dropped right off. Emma and I, feeling the fatigue that the cold brings, decided to head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

When we awoke, we were spending the evening meeting up with one of Emma’s friends from her days at TAFE. Yunna, a South Korean woman, was kind enough to meet up with us and had agreed to show us around her favourite parts of this amazing city. Upon meeting her at Anguk station, I was witness to a truly happy reunion. Emma and Yunna hadn’t seen each other in about five years, but in the space of about five seconds, they were chatting away like no time had passed at all.

Yunna took us to a local restaurant, that specialised in bean curd-based dishes. Much like our brunch earlier in the day, when we ordered the food, there were too many dishes to actually list them all. I know that there was some tofu served with kimchi, and a delicious beef broth-stew that was both sweet and savoury at the same time. Korean food strikes a delicate balance between these elements quite frequently – with a good kick of hot chilli added for good effect, too.

Yunna, Emma and I chatted away about our current lives. I discovered that Yunna used to be a flight attendant for KLM, and now she works for a software company that designs the booking engines for loads of airlines. Naturally, being the plane geek that I am, we had a fair bit to discuss. I really enjoyed the meal, and especially the company.

The other fantastic thing about eating with a local is that you go to local restaurants and try local food. You also don’t pay the “tourist tax”, as they don’t usually cater to the tourist market and as such don’t charge the (rightfully) higher fees. In total, our meal cost us less than $40AUD, and this was enough food for three adults. Staggeringly cheap, and so full of flavour.

After dinner, we went for a stroll through the local alleyways. According to Yunna, this area used to be a home to local artists and artisans. But, it was recently discovered by the “trendy” crowd of Seoul, and as such has been rapidly gentrified. Now only the really prominent artists live here, and it is more known for its boutique coffee shops and trendy clothing labels.

She led us up a winding road, which ended in a hill that while not a massive hill – especially compared to the rocky mountains in the distance – had a very pretty view over this area of Seoul. On top of it, was a traditional-looking tea house, where we sat down (on the floor) to drink some local teas. Mine was made with mulberry leaves, whereas Yunna’s, while I’m not sure what it was made of, tasted very close to gingerbread. A very impressive blend indeed..

We then strolled around downtown Seoul, and ended up near Gwanghamun station and city hall. We parted ways with Yunna, and took the long subway ride home.

When we got in, we had a quick skim over Seoul’s TV channels. Sadly, I couldn’t find a channel devoted only to StarCraft battles. Maybe it’s only on cable? They do however, have a channel which appears to be purely ads of 15/30 seconds in duration. It took me a good 10 minutes to actually realise that there was no program coming up. Which, to be quite honest, didn’t really bother me, as I find the ads in Asian companies more entertaining than the shows themselves.

21/11/12

Another late start today. Exhaustion is starting to take effect a bit. I hate to say it, but I need a holiday on this holiday! But that is what Japan is for – there are several places there where we have lots of days for “breathing room”. It’s all hurry hurry hurry at the start of the holiday, but things will slow down soon. I hope…

Much like yesterday, we started today by heading to another local food court. These really are a great way to eat. Cheap and authentic food, with no pretentious atmosphere. What more could you want? Today, it was Emma’s turn to get the bibimbap, whereas I had some form of beef dish cooked on a stone hotplate. Very tasty food. The ordering method was interesting though, with a centralised cashier for all of the individual stalls, and you just take a ticket to the individual shop to pick up your order. This is interesting when the entire menu is in Korean, but the “take a photo and show it to a staff member” method worked a charm again. Emma also got her first lot of compliments for the day, with the lovely lady who made our food loudly proclaiming that Emma was “Beautiful! Beautiful!”. This always makes me feel chuffed.

Actually, we’ve both been getting  a lot of stares on our travels so far. Especially in Korea, where the Caucasian population is probably outnumbered about ten thousand to one. I probably only saw one other Caucasian person each day in Korea, except for at the airport. They’re generally nice stares though, so we don’t mind.

After our delicious breakfast/lunch/meal, we headed for Gamsuro-gil street, a street in the Gangnam area of town. Yes, “Gangnam” as in “Gangnam Style”. Much like in the music video, the area was a mishmash of bizarre clothing stores, designer labels, and indie coffee shops. It was definitely one of the more affluent areas of Seoul, albeit aimed at a younger generation. Emma found some nice sunglasses in one of the side streets, which made her very, very happy.

We then headed to Changdeokgung, an area of Seoul in which the royal families used to live. We arrived there at about 3pm, and thought we’d just have a quick gander around the place. Yunna had mentioned the previous day about a “Secret Garden” that you could see, which was meant to be very nice. When I went to buy our tickets for admission to the Secret Garden, I discovered that apparently it is a guided tour, and that you had to partake in the tour, as general admittance was not allowed. I was initially a bit worried by this, thinking that I had screwed up another activity again. However, we managed to rock up just before the last English tour of the day started. That was totally intentional, I swear.

The tour itself was well worth the meagre price of admission. Inside the garden was a winding trail through an autumn-leaved forest, full of several old Korean castle-buildings designed to house both the royal family and their servants. Apparently it is especially beautiful during the autumn season, and I couldn’t have agreed more with that sentiment. Really amazing stuff. I’ll let the photos do the explaining on this one, whenever I get the chance to upload them.

After a lovely afternoon walk through this forest, I wanted to have one last try of seeing the techno-side to Seoul. We headed for the Yongsan electronics superstore. It didn’t disappoint. After getting out at the station, we were confronted by a seemingly endless hall of super shiny cameras and their equipment. I actually walked into here with my Nikon Camera hanging around my neck. Bad idea. About ten different people started yelling at me “Where you from? We sell Nikon Camera! Nikon!” I couldn’t really blame them for trying, but I wasn’t interested in buying anything – number one because I don’t know the first thing about camera lenses and equipment and number two because it was all so expensive.

A few levels further up into this superstore, and Emma and I Found this adorable pet shop with a super cute rabbit in it. We need to move to Asia so we can have a rabbit as a pet!

The next level up was a bookstore and computer accessories store. I actually quite liked this level. Emma went off and looked at her stationery, whereas I headed to a computer parts store, and I bought a few handy cables and accessories I’ve needed for a while, all for a fraction of the cost that it would cost on either ebay, or from a bricks and mortar store in Australia.

Without realising the time, we were now running late for our second meetup with Yunna. We dashed out of the store, and ran back to Yongsan station. This is the first time that Seoul’s subway system became confusing. Yongsan station is a big station, serving most of the lines of Seoul. Most of the other subway stations we had been to served only one or two different lines. This one served about seven. All of the other stations had platforms designated by line number, as there are lines one through nine in the Seoul metro system. This station was divided up by platform number. Thankfully I resisted the urge to just jump on a train and hope for the best, as some of them were express trains, and Seoul’s metro network is very daunting for the unfamiliar traveller.

A few quick observations on Seoul’s metro system while I remember. They like their music. They have musical motifs when the trains are approaching the stations. One sounds like a jovial and upbeat version of the theme from “Rocky”, trumpets and all. Another sounds like a jewellery box mixed with a door chime. When you’re on board the trains, they also play a musical motif before arriving at a station where you can transfer to another line. It’s a handy reminder, but it took me ages to figure out why on earth they were playing this weird traditional-sounding music at seemingly random intervals throughout the journey. It’s all very interesting. Finally, I have to take my hat off to Seoul’s metro on their accessibility for people who don’t speak Korean. Every announcement onboard is spoken in Korean, English, Japanese and Cantonese. They’re really trying their hardest to make it as accessible as possible.

We then caught up with Yunna for the second night. We met up with her at Gwanghamun station, where we jumped into a cab and headed for another area of the city. I’d be lying if I said I knew where it was, but it sure was nice. We went to a traditional restaurant where we sat on the floor to have dinner. Emma and Yunna had rice with nuts wrapped in lotus leaves, whereas I had a spicy pork soup, and the usual side dishes of kimchi, squid, fish, spinach and other assorted things. Once again another very tasty meal at a local restaurant.

We then went for a look through myeong-dong, where I had my third or fourth hotteok for the trip. Delicious. Hazardous to my health, but delicious. We had a look inside a fantastically quirky store, filled with loads of odds and ends that made you go “oh wow, that’s awesome” at everything. I bought a few cool things for the office back in Brisbane, and some small cat-shaped post it notes. Emma, among other things, got a mirror for her wallet that looks like a credit card from the back. Very handy.

We then strolled down a main street, and we took photos in front of Lotte department store. It was lit up with its unseasonal Christmas lights. I don’t know, but it just feels weird to see all of these decorations in Asia. I mean, they have every right to celebrate Christmas, but it just feels unusual when compared to the explosion of festive-ness that is somewhere such as New York at Christmas time.

The night was getting late, so we then went for some nice ice cream and coffee, at the red mango bar. After chatting with Yunna for a while, it was nearing midnight, so we had to leave to take the long subway ride home. Saying goodbye to Yunna was tough – she was such a sweetheart, and the most amazing guide to this amazing city. I can’t wait to come back to Seoul and catch up with her again, or even better, it’d be great for her to come back to Australia soon to see us!

Tomorrow/Whenever I next have internet access: Tokyo! Snow Monkeys! Railway rides through canyons and stuff!

19/11/12 – Hong Kong to Seoul, and Harry to the Rescue Again!

Today was a day that I had a few plans for in Hong Kong, but unfortunately they were not to be. Our flight to Seoul left at 2pm in the afternoon, which meant we needed to be at the airport by 12pm. Our day was meant to start bright and early, but due to sleeping in, it started slightly less bright and slightly less early. A quick breakfast was in order, during which I barely had time to scoff down a bowl of cereal before we headed out for the morning’s activities.

I really wanted to visit Hong Kong Park, because I was yet to see any form of grass in the whole of Hong Kong. But, due to our delayed start to the day, we were definitely against the clock. A brisk walk through the bustling streets of Sheung Wan, and we were soon on the subway to Admiralty. In the guide, it said that the park was a quick walk from exit A of Admiralty station. Perhaps something had changed since the guide was written, because between the station and where the park apparently was, was a series of impenetrable high traffic roads that certainly didn’t make it easy to even see where the park is. Also, Hong Kong seems to have these fantastic little guide posts at every corner that point you in the direction of all of the local tourist sights. Not here though. I tried in vain to find one to lead us the right way. After walking around frustratedly for a good 20 minutes, I regrettably decided cut our losses and gave up on getting to the park, and instead just head back to the room. Clearly this was just poor planning on my behalf. Perhaps another time. If I come back to Hong Kong, I’ll spend only a day or two here and I’ll go have high tea at the Peninsula Hotel, and then have a leisurely stroll through Hong Kong Park. Who knows when that will be, but it is officially on my “to do” list.

After getting back to the room, we packed up and checked out. At reception, I left a jar of Vegemite and some Tim Tams for Harry – presents I forgot to give him a few nights earlier. Harry said he’d swing by after work and pick them up. Why am I mentioning this? You’ll see why later.

We then took our bags through the tangled maze that is Sheung Wan, and made it to the MTR. A quick ride to Central later, and we were presented with the dilemma of whether or not we should take advantage of Hong Kong’s in-town check in service for flights. The upside is that you can check in in the city, and they take your luggage to the airport on the train, and you don’t see it again until you collect it from the arrivals hall at your destination. The downside is is that it means more people handling your luggage and therefore more chances for it to get lost. We decided to scope it out, to see how many people were using the service, and by extension, how reliable and safe it was. There were loads of people checking in for various airlines, and none at the time for Cathay Pacific, the airline we’d be on today. We took it as a sign, and decided to take advantage of this service. It did feel weird checking in for a flight at a train station, though.

The train ride to the airport was fascinating – the 25 minute journey from Central to the Airport was full of high rises, urban development, and then tiny fishing villages, all right next to a high speed train line. It made me want to get off and explore, but obviously we had places to be.

At the airport, I wanted to check out the observation deck, whereas Emma wanted to check out lipstick. Our time was limited, only about 70 minutes or so before we departed, so we decided to split up. I soon discovered that our agreed upon time of 30 minutes to ourselves wouldn’t nearly be enough. The observation deck was literally at the opposite end of the other terminal to where I was. A brisk walk was definitely in order. I managed to get over there in about 12 minutes, so I calculated that I had all of six minutes to spend at the observation deck. This was a little bit of a letdown, but during those six minutes, I managed to see two jumbo jets take off, and a handful of smaller aircraft. This is Hong Kong, after all – a very, very busy airport.

When I met back up with Emma, we cleared immigration, security and then immigration again (???), and then we were soon airside. We needed a quick bite to eat before our flight, so we headed to a “popeye’s chicken”. The appeal of this place was unknown – I don’t really know why we ate there, but the chicken was tasty and fairly good value for money. What’s more, they accepted the Octopus Card, which allowed us to use up most of the remaining credit on our cards.

We then navigated our way through the baffling maze that is Chek Lap Kok airport. We headed down several escalators, into a subterranean train system, that took us to a gate area where our plane was parked. We made it with just enough time for Emma to buy some fancy lipstick, and then we were boarding.

Cathay Pacific Flight CX418 HKG – ICN

Airbus A330-300, B-HLT

Captain Mike Sinclair

Intended Pushback: 1405

Actual Pushback: 1406

Intended Arrival: 1830

Actual Arrival: 1827

Seat: 32K

This flight was the definition of non-eventful. The aircraft pushed back more or less exactly on time, the flight landed on time. The food was average, the service was average. The views, due to the haze over Hong Kong, and the clouds over the East China Sea, were average. I did get a good look at Hong Kong Island as we climbed out, and the clouds parted for a little while as we headed over Taiwan, which made for some interesting, yet brief scenery. Due to us sitting at the front of the economy, the flight was pleasantly quiet, too.

There wasn’t anything fundamentally *wrong* with the flight, aside from Emma’s lacklustre gluten free meal, but there wasn’t anything outstanding about it, either. The aircraft was old, with really poor seatback screens which became unwatchable when the tiniest amount of light shone on them, and the crew seemed to be just going through the motions. Perhaps it was because it was a regional route, and not one of their premiere routes, but it certainly didn’t make me want to book my next holiday with Cathay Pacific. Maybe I would if I could guarantee that I’d be on a newer plane, but they’ve had the same type of aircraft delivered with many different layouts, so Cathay Pacific is known for their chronic product inconsistencies.

We were soon coming in to land, with Seoul’s spread out cityscape sparkling in the evening light. After a smooth touchdown, we were soon de-boarding the aircraft. Because we were only three rows back from the very front of economy, we were off the plane very quickly.

Seoul airport is very easy to get around, with another underground rail system used to transfer passengers from the satellite terminal to the main one. We then had to queue for a quite a while to get through immigration, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as LAX, or other US airports. We were soon ground-side, and I went about sorting out a T-Money card for both Emma and I. They’re essentially the Octopus Card of Hong Kong, the Go Card of Brisbane, or the MyKi card of Melbourne. I then organised renting a phone for our short stay in Seoul. For only $8 AUD a day for an iPhone 4, it was pretty good value. What’s more, it came with unlimited data usage – essentially what I’ll be using it for. $32 for a phone that can display where we are in a very large and confusing city? Worth every penny, if you ask me.

We then bought a bus ticket to the City Air Terminal, and we were soon speeding down one of Seoul’s many expressways. The journey was meant to take about 70 minutes, but I swear it took less than an hour. Seoul has a lot of highways. Lots and lots. Also, coming from the narrow, winding streets of Hong Kong, it was quite a change of pace to see such a large, widespread city layout. Clearly space isn’t an issue here.

After getting off the bus, the first thing to hit me about Seoul was the heat. Or, the extreme lack thereof. It was freezing cold. This was a very nice change of pace from the stinking heat of Australia, and the unpleasant humidity of Hong Kong. We grabbed our bags, and braved the cold of the outside as we walked from the bus terminal to the subway station.

The subway stations in Seoul seem to have alright English signage. Not nearly as good as Hong Kong or Tokyo, but still enough to get by on. A short hop on the subway later, and we were at our local district, the now infamous Gangnam area. Another freezing cold walk through the streets awaited us when we got above ground, but it wasn’t long before we were safe and sound in our hotel.

The room is… in a word… interesting. It has a tiny, tiny window, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, hidden away behind a part of the wall that swings away like a cupboard door. It also has a massive TV, and a fairly big bathroom, yet very little in the way of actual floor space. There’s also some weird ornate decorations on the roof, which are driving Emma, the interior design student, absolutely batshit crazy. Still, the two guys in the lobby are quite caring and are doing a good job taking care of us, even with their limited English knowledge.

As I unpacked my bag, I noticed that I was missing something – my camera! Thankfully not my DSLR, but I had definitely left my little pocket camera behind in Hong Kong. However, as I sat down to write this blog, I received a message from the amazing Harry Chik. When he went to pick up his Tim Tams and Vegemite from the hotel, he had been notified that I’d forgotten my camera. He said that he would pick it up and mail it back to Australia for me. Absolute bloody legend!

Anyways, that’s all for today. Thanks again Harry, if you’re reading this.

Tomorrow: Seoul! Invisible Horse Riding! Markets! Stuff!