Highlights of South Korea

Tuesday 1st April
Arrived in stunning, enormous Seoul and had two hours before our welcome meeting took place to meet our tour guide and fellow travel companions.
I tried to charge my phone and plugged it into the USB point by my bed and all hell broke out. My phone was vibrating and alarms sounding and screen flashing. Warning alert in English and some Korean message displayed and a panic struck me, so I quickly swiped the charging cable out thinking I'd done damage to the hotel electricity source. I waited but no-one came knocking at the door and my friend was enjoying a quick shower. It happened again about an hour later but Joy's phone was doing the same. Little did we know that this was going to be a daily occurrence and was part of the regular official notifications as was explained to us by our tour guide Yong.
We headed to the nearby Gwangjiang market passing by a lovely man made riveside walk along Cheongyecheon river. Originally part of the seage system then filled with concrete in the mid 20th Century as an expressway. It was regenerated in 2005 at a huge cost. The water that flows is recirculated and filtered, giant stepping stones allow passage across to the various fashion outlets along the way.
The food market was packed with people eating, buying and just looking. Lots of fried potato and mung bean pancakes, mandu (NKorean dumplings), fishcakes (a folded flat pancake like strip on a stick) , Mayak gimbap and spicy tteokbokki (rice cakes) to name just a few, tempted our senses. We stopped a local cafe and our guide ordered a range of dishes and local drink of makgeolli (fizzy femented rice drink) and explained local traditions of Korean dining.
I tend to eat most things or I will try them at least but I found myself a bit stressed trying to master the chopsticks. I can use chopsticks normally but these Korean metal thin flat ones had me defeated. I resorted using my fingers where I could or the soup spoon as discretely as I could.
Meal completed and more acquainted with our travel companions we then set of to walk off our meal with a visit to Naksan to view the nighttime skyline and Eastern gate.Read more