Him and Her still on the road.: Seoul 2 Seoul II

Back to Seoul: Our Jeju trip failed to materialise, due to heavy fog and bad weather all flights to the island were cancelled. Boo hoo ! The place looked fantastic. Anyway to cut our losses we got a refund on our flights and made a dash from Busan Airport to the main train station to catch a midday KTX back to Seoul. It was a snap decision as planning anything else would have taken time and would have certainly required another night in Busan.

We arrived back in Seoul late afternoon and managed to get into our old 9 bed dorm again, RESULT !

Next day we had to move to an appartment as it was the weekend and the dorm was fully booked for the next two days. The appartment which was just on $30 a day was at the top of our budget but with a fully equiped kitchen, multi band TV and a PC we thought we could hold down the cost and use some of the time for future planning.

We did more sight seeing while we were in Seoul, the Deoksugung Palace in the centre of Seoul, A days walk along the City Stream Cheonggyecheon. A medium flowing stream that cuts through the heart of the city. Amazingly enough, in 1955 it was just a fetid ooze, totally poluted and dead amidst a hovel of shanties. In the mid 70's a clean-up programme was started and in 2005 the stream was again flowing swiftly through the city centre.

Within a few weeks it was noticed that there was a cooling effect from the stream, it has since been calculated that the stream reduced average city temperatures by 10% . Today it is a city attraction where locals and tourists can walk along beside the the stream, crossing by stepping stones and small bridges. We saw a couple of large Carp in the stream as well as many smaller fish. The water is crystal clear and there is no litter anywhere.

We also went to see NANTA or as it's known locally "Cookin NANTA" a cross betwee Stomp and Blue man Group meets Korean Kitchen show. It was superb. The play / show is non verbal and reveolves around a Korean Kitcchen where the chefs have to prepare for a wedding festival in one hour ! Knives, Bowls, Plates, Saucepans and other kitchen stuff are used to make music and well as preparing a festival of food.

During a food tasting argument between the owner and the Chefs regarding the quality of a certain soup it was decided that the final vote should be made by the wedding couple.. A bit of Audience participation where Mal was picked out to be the groom and had to sample soup with his bride on stage as well as being bashed over the head and made to wear a silly hat and gown he was later hypnotiosed to give a thumbs up on the soup. The girl on stage couldn't eat her soup so Mal ate two bowl fulls. Towards the end of the show afetr the food had been prepared and the Cheffs were celebrating, a huge back drop picture of Mal and his Korean bride was projected onto a screen at the back of the stage. A great day and a different angle on this superb City. Mal said afterward that the soup was Ok ..

We would advise anyone to come to South Korea, the people are superb, the food is great and the scenery is fantastic, we just happened to be here when it was the rainy season and a lot of Outdoor places just don't operate, but we have still enjoyed it here. The transport system is also excellent. We would certainly like to come back but during the nice weather.