10/02/08 Seoul Last day

Wake up at 10:30 am - way too early, but I got to pack and check out. Irish guy and I are both hungover so go for the ' soup to releive the hangover' - yet again! We then decide we need to do something since it's my last day so we go for an epic walk down to the harbour. Okay, it's only 30 mins each way, but it is really cold and we are both pretty ill. We gather just enough strength to go for a coffee and doughnut.

We get back to the hostel where we both pass out. I don't have a room anymore so I gotta sleep on the floor in my sleeping bag.

Absolutley skint now. Just enough money for food and to get to the airport.

Our rucksacs are really heavy as we walk to the airport bus stop. As we near the stop we see the bus. We run for it and even though the driver sees us he still leaves. Note to self - Not good to run with heavy packs on! Both of us feel very unwell afterwards. Our backs ache, actually everything aches! As we wait for the next bus a taxi driver pulls up and offers to take us to the airport for the same price as the bus. Score! The taxi driver is so funny. I think he picked us up just to practice his English. He talks non stop the entire way with very broken English. It is the most enjoyable taxi ride I have ever been in (whilst sober). Once we get to the airport he even shakes my hand!

We are bored at the airport so go around taking really silly pictures of ourselves to kill time. It works!

09/02/08 Seoul

After the performance we get back to the hostel where we begin to drink. (yup, seems like it's going to be one of those nights again!) The others start drinking some crap called makkoli, some sort of rice wine. It's revolting! There is a big gang who are all up for getting, a little how we say...boozed!
A group of us go out for a meal to some BBQ place where we have to cook our own food on some grill. It's quite fun. There is beer and soju flowing. Soju is the Korean equivalent of vodka and it's lethal stuff!! By the time we finish our meal we are all a little tipsy.



We go to meet even more people from the hostel and then hit a club called Tin Pan. Lot's of alcohol, table dancing, silly picture poses. It's really funny. All very drunk now. The Irish guy and I get it in our heads to do a pub crawl so go and hit loads of bars, all of which are complete dives! We end up getting back to the hostel at 5:30am absolutely off our trollies drunk! Yup, I did it again.

09/02/08 Seoul

Very skint now - know idea where my money has gone. Potter around wondering what I can do that involves as liitle money as possible as well as as little energy exertion as well. I end up going for lunch with the Irish guy for a dish called 'juk' ( watery rice, otherwise known as congee).

At 3:15pm I meet the gang cos we are going to see a performance at Chongdong Theatre to see some traditional Korean dance, singing and music. We are greeted with a shot of alcohol and then some cake. mmmm!

The performance is great! thoroughly enjoyed by us all.

08/02/08 Suwon

Suwon is 48km south of Seoul. I visit the restored fortress of Hwaseong, the impressive fortress wall, made up of earth & faced with large stone blocks and stretches 5.7km.

I hike around the wall with its command posts, observation towers and entrance gates. Go to the palace, but work out I have no money to go in. Plus, it does not look that impressive. I end up just walking around taking in the sights. I walk lots and am very knackered so head back to the hostel.

We don't go out that evening. A whole bunch of us have decided to stay in and drink lots of beer and order in pizza. I'm actually quite skint now so it's a relief. I have no idea what I have done with my money as it's not like I've spent my money on any clothes!!

We work out that I am 12.5 Korean beer cans tall!

07/02/08 Seoul

Wake up at 2pm feeling mighty hungover. The lads wake up around the same time and we head off to get some food. We get a dish aptly called ' soup to releive the hangover with ribs of pork in a bowl'. It works for a breif period but then I begin to feel ill again for the rest of the day.

With so little energy, I don't know what to do with myself. I decide it's best I go out for some fresh air so go for a bike ride down to the harbour front on the oldest, heaviest bike in the world (okay over exaggeration). It is so hard to ride and I'm bloody knackered. The harbour is nice to look at. I only stay for 5 mins before going back. I feel my day is complete, even though I have actually done nothing.
Spend the rest of the evening doing bugger all as I recover from my hangover.

06/02/08 Seoul

It is lunar NY's eve. Decide to go around with the Irish guy at the hostel. He takes us around to some markets, get some food and then go our separate ways. I go shopping...of course. However, I find out that non of the clothes here actually fit me. I'm too fat!!! I try on some outfits and can't even get them over my head!! God help the westeners who live here!



I go back to the hostel and take a 2 hour nap before getting up. I meet two Canadians guys who are staying at the hostel. The Irish guy has offered to take myself and the Canadians out for a night on the tiles. (all us 'Canadian's' gotta stick together!!) We are supposed to go to a Korean party, where foreigners are able to 'make Korean'??? Yes, we all laughed at that. Ha ha. Some of the English is really bad here. We decide not to go and 'Make Korean' and have opted to go straight to an area called Itaewon, which is full of foreigners and US soldiers.

Start at 8pm and um don't get back till 8am! Crazy all night drinking session. Lots of bars, lots of drinking games, lots of drinking full stop. Hazy. Even ended up in an area called Hooker Hill, which sober I would never go to (okay that's a complete lie!). Some of the bars are complete dives, but it's a fun night! I didn't even notice the prostitutes, which is good! ...although i do look Korean so thank god no know tried to pick me up!!, but then again...how come they didn't try??? JOKE! It was educational too - learnt new drinking games!

05/02/08 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

The DMZ is a strip of land 4 km wide and 248km long which divides North and SOuth Korea. It is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world.


This is an interesting trip in that this is the only place where you can get close to North Korea without being arrested or shot! This is an interesting tour where the vast majority of the time we are told to show our passports, don't do this, don't do that, rules, rules, rules. it's very interesting though.



Eerily is the surreal giant, ultramodern train station at the border, which is a completely functioning station, but there is no one there except tourists. It's set up, all ready to serve a united Korea the minute the boundary lines are lifted. Seems all very propaganda to me.

We visit Pan Mun Jon, which is only 55km north of Seoul. This is the village established on the ceasefire line at the end of the Korean War in 1953. This village is divided by an 'invisable' line which separates North and South Korea and is manned with American, South and North Korean soldiers.

We get to cross over into North Korea, but only within the confines of a building so you can't really see anything, but it does feel cool to be able to say I've been to North Korea. Actually my mate just pointed out that in a Michael Palin episode, he did the exact cross over to North Korea. I was standing in a spot where michael Palin had been. Now, that is cool!

Whilst we were there, we were lucky enough to see a large group of North Korean soldiers come down. Supposedly they hardly ever come down. We were within the confines of a building at the time, and I'm kind of glad that we were. They really looked quite scary, and with their history of how they treat they're own people.....

04/02/08 Seoul

Before coming to S. Korea, I planned an elaborate itinerary that would have seen us travel all around the country in a very regimented manner. After speaking to the residents at the hostel and the hostel owner I am informed that this country celebrates Lunar new year and that there is not a hell in chance that we are going anywhere! Great! Now what do we do?

I get a phone call from Simon informing me that he has arrived into the country and will get to the hostel at 11am. We wait around for him to arrive.

Simon arrives and I tell him my plight. He says we should make sure that the transport really is booked out so we take a trip to the city bus and train station. The bus station is really confusing to navigate. Arrows pointing this way and that way, but don't actually take you to where you should go. Luckily Simon has been here before and knows a little of the language so we don't have to deal with the language barrier. At the station we find it's too mcuh hassel to travel at this time of year and decide that it's not worth travelling around the country and should just stay in Seoul. Actually this turns out to be the best decision as we find out Seoul is actually a huge city and there is tonnes to see! (I don't even scratch the surface within my week)

We get some food, Korean pancake, which we make sure is not hot this time. It's so good. We then hit an area called Insadong, which is kind of arty. It's really nice.

Take a little walk which takes us to City Hall. It is so cold and windy that we decide to get back to the hostel and seek warmth.

Back at the hostel we meet a fellow Brit. We decide we need food so we all make our way out to get some. I'm not quite sure what we order but the only way I can describe it is like hamburger cooked on a grill on your table, but better. You wrap the beef up in lettuce and add all these different sauces. Whatever it is, it is really nice.


Get back to the Hostel where the others begin to watch a Korean film. We have to wake up early because we are going on a tour to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) the next day, so I say my goodbyes to Simon and head off to bed.

03/02/08 S. Korea Seoul

Long flight but make it in the end. We catch a bus to our hostel and get picked up by the hostel owners. It is bittlerly cold.

Get to the hostel, where I expect to see my mate Simon who should have arrived earlier that day. Owner informs me that he emailed to say that he had missed his flight and was currently stuck at Bangkok airport. Ha!

We are staying in an area called Hongdae, which surrounds Hongik University. Hongdae has a lively café culture and an even more active nightlife. We decide to go out and try some of the local food. We don't know anything about Korean food so chose a restaurant that looks very lively. We go in and automatically everyone starts talking to me in Korean. (This happesn non stop during the entire trip and everyone keeps saying, 'you look Korean'!). We have no idea what to order because the menu is in Korean. We look around us and everyone is eating a dish that is cooked on their table in a red soup like base. We order one of these for ourselves and it cooks on our table on a little gas burner. When it comes to eating it, pal takes a bite and automatically spits it out. I try it and it is SO hot!! My mouth burns and I begin to sweat, but we only just arrived in the place and I don't want to be rude by leaving so I persever and eat half of it. After half of the dish, I feel kind of faint. I do not feel very well and I'm positive my taste buds have been burnt away! Note to self - do not eat anything that is covered in red stuff!! red = chilli's!!

We quickly leave, with me feeling not very well and go to a Japanese restaurant so poor pal can eat.

There is a great night market in the area so we look around. After we go for a coffee and then back to the hostel utterly exhausted!

02/02/08 Dubai

Sleep till 12 noon. We have late check out so I need to be out by 8pm. Mate is not feeling very well so I decide to go on a city bus tour around Dubai. I stop off at the Gold souke, where I have decided I want to buy myself something.

Gold in Dubai is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy. Actually almost everything in Dubai is the cheapest in the world. Cars here are 20% cheaper than their country of origin because there is no tax. Also, petrol is cheaper than water per gallon!

I mooch about the Gold souke and do a little haggling with some Indian guys. I haggle them down on a platinum ring, which I think is a decent price. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. Hey, if no one else will buy me jewelry....

Continue on my tour and take in some of the famous sights such as the soon to be World's tallest tower, the World's only 7 * hotel and some other things. This place is full of shopping malls and has over 50 of them. That's a lot concidering the size of the place. They are currently building the world's largest shopping mall which will complete by 2009. After that they plan to build another mall, which is even bigger. Everything in Dubai seems to have to be the biggest, the tallest, the best!

On the way back to the hotel, the tour bus breaks down. Great. They drop us off at a shopping mall to wait for another bus. By this time, the time is ticking away quite rapidly. I'm thinking to myself, 'sh!t, am I going to make it back in time'?

A bus eventually comes, but cos it's so late in the evening it will not take me back to my hotel. It drops me off at another shopping centre and they tell me I need to get back myself. Okay, by now it's really late and time is really limited. I decide to take a taxi back, but by now it's rush hour and the queue for the taxi rank is about an hrs wait. I only have an hour to go!

Right, I see that there is a shuttle bus that will take me back to my hotel. I get on it. It's rush hour, I have an hour to go. The bus service is great until it drops me off on the wrong side of the river about 20 mins before 8pm! There is no way to get across the river except by these little boats. I quickly run to the boat stop, jump onto one, while it's pulling away (luckily not falling in, during the process). As it pulls up to the other side, I quickly jump off and run through the streets like a mad lady and make it to my hotel about 5 mins before I have to check out.

I bang on the hotel door and mate opens it and says, ' Where have you been'! I'm all sweaty and out of breath at this point. I quickly pack up and we make it out just in time! Phew. Talk about cutting it close!

Have ages to kill before our 3am flight so we just walk around and eat our way around the city.

01/02/08 Dubai

Flight is all okay. Arrive into Dubai real early in the morning. We are both extremely tired. Not as warm as we were hoping - about 19 degrees. Not short weather:-( Passport queue is quite possibly the slowest I have ever been in (even worse than the states). Get out and have to queue again for the taxi's, which again is one of the slowest I have ever been in!

Finally get to the hotel, which is not too far away from the airport and check in. It is 8 am and we are informed that we cannot check in till 12 noon unless we fork out for 1/2 day surcharge. We are so tired that we decide to pay extra, which actually is the best spend of money ever! As soon as we get in, we both crash out immediately!




6 hours later we both awake. We are both starving so go on the prowl for food. We go for some Lebanese food, which is just fantastic! The weather has worsened now and it's so windy and keeps blowing really cold air so we have to go back to the hotel where I get my gloves and scarf! Crazy!

We mooch about the area, taking in the sights of the river and the textile souke (arabic for market) before going back to our hotel which has an Irish bar for some beer.