Seoul

29th March

Caught the super express train today to Seoul. I was going to stay another couple of days in the yuppie apartment, as there is a great crowd, there, but he was already booked up,

he offered for me to crash on the settee, but i decided to move on............like the littlest hobo.......do you remember the series about the dog??

Anyway, back to the super express train. So i picked up the catalogue for a nosy and to see what food they had, and was amazed to find you can buy a "half a cow presentation box".

actually not sure if it is was pork or beef but it was bizarre, you can also get a nice box of fish as well..........great.

Had to book a place a little out of town as the ones in town where either full, or double rooms which where a lot more money. This is a similar apartment where they rent a room out, just as flash, but i am the only one here and it is not as much fun. Not that it matters as the weather is not much cop and i need to sort out getting to Beijing etc, so it is a night on the net.

Next day i got invited for a typical Korean Breakfast by the owner, which consisted of a huge bowl of beef soup, a bowl of rice, and a huge selection of pickled vegetables. I was absolutely stuffed, and they eat really quick, so they had to wait ages for me to finish, Also the soup is served in clay pots that are heated up first, so it stayed red hot for ages and i burned my tongue as well. Although i did not pay, i got it all for under a pound 50.

Just goes to show, if you know where to go for the local food you can get by on the cheap. believe it or not a starbucks coffee over here, and everywhere else i have been for that fact is still well over 2 quid.
what a rip off, but it is good coffee.

spent the afternoon trying to plan my route through china. Not quite sure how i am going to get back to thailand, and i am running well behind schedule. oh well, i shall worry about it nearer the time.

I will need to stay one more day here, as the ferry does not leave for china until tuesday. suits me fine as it is a bit chilly, and i have spent every day for the last month going somewhere, so it is nice to have a day off.

Got an invite out to play electric darts. it is a plastic dart board, but it automatically registers your score, and also tells you what to aim for it is really cool.

almost darts for morons, think it could catch on in the UK.

only difference is the darts have plastic tips designed especially for the board.
Anyway, so i am playing doubles and playing like phil the power, and we kept winning, and the losers have to buy a round of drinks, but they buy beer and you have to down it in one.

well after about 6 rounds i was absolutely spannered as i am hopeless at drinking fast.
needless to say the stakes got higher and i got more drunk and my darts got steadily worse, despite trying to sober up on the free beef jerky and cheesy puff crisps.
but a good night was had by all, and i staggered back around 3am, as they all tend to go out late and stay out late.

the next day i had arranged to go out in the evening to a dog restaurant ,but i went up the big tower in the afternoon and decided to stay and see it in the dark, so by the time i got back they had all gone out, so i missed out on the dog. not so sure if that is all bad.

final day i did my usual and decided that rather than leave early for the ferry i would go in to town to a duty free shop and see if i could find the watch that my brother was after.

no joy i finally catch the tube and convince myself that the tube terminates at the ferry terminal.....................
if i had paid more attention i would have seen that the line splits half way.............
here we go again. so 5 stops after going the wrong way i realised what had happened, and it took me an hour to get back to where i should have changed, so once again i was running late, and once again the ferry only sailed every 2 days.

anyway i arrived at the train station with mnutes to spare, and luckily i found a taxi driver that drove like schumacher and made it with minutes to spare.

i really will get caught out sooner or later.

anyway next installment............................

midway in the yellow sea, and everyone is ordered on to the top deck. All the staff stop what they are doing, shut down their section and run upstairs in to the dark and freezing cold.......i immediately think it is time for making a will...........The Titanic Incident