time has moved on and my trip to South Korea has now been explained a dozen times to various people without the pictures that would have brought it to life. That being said, today I received the dropbox share file from my Korean connection containing all the photos from our time together. Which ignited my interest in writing the memoirs post about highly interesting and unvisited lands of South Korea, for obvious reasons, I left off North Korea in my travels as going their would have made my schedule a little hectic, and they were threatening war at the time.

Upon arriving in Busan, the first city I visited, I was greeted by a wondrous taxi ride through the city to the student dorms, where my friend called home fort he past six months. I would soon learn that taxi riding was a fairly cheap affair but most done at night in our case, however it was not without its dangers. Taxi drivers I suggest like a great number of drivers in Korea have sat nav, which is more sophisticated that with have here, it’s best asset is the speed limit/camera early warning system. This allows everyone to race around the city at break neck speed, with little chance of getting caught, leaving the passengers to admire the city whilst trying to hold on to something, as seat belts don’t by any means be the norm. It did leave me with the impression of the opening of Lost in Translation.

Anyway back to the dorms, these are meant for the international crowd, and as such they were fitted beds! yes, I know beds, seem like a given, but trust me on this holiday I found to my surprise and ignorance that beds were not something that befitted all accommodation. Actually, even in the dorm room there were short comings, the first being they were shared rooms, with just about enough space to fit a bunk bed, two desk, two closets and a bathroom. So my first experience of sleeping on the floor came early on in the holiday, but it wasn’t the worse experience. Thanks to a 60mm plastic foam sheet and a few blankets thrown on to the underfloor heated ground. That was a luxury that graced almost everywhere I went and I must admit I did enjoy that in every circumstance.

The first night as all nights bar one was graced with the presents of a pitcher of beer, and an endless supply of bar snacks, which looked like hola hoops but tasted more like pringles, glorious. The beer I found to be pleasant enough, it doesn’t compare to European beer but when in Rome why bother with stuff you usually drink. Cass and Hite were the beers that I most frequently drunk, the main pleasant surprise is that I suffered very little from hangovers and slept like a baby after drinking, even on the hard floor. The hangover thing, I think is remedy by the amount of food that is consumed while on tour. Usually after the evening meal where water was consumed in the main, we hit Korean bars where an order from the side dish menu is compulsory, this serving was always generous and shared among the table, and ignited my desire to have beer and fruit as much as I can. Even being back here in London, I have at home chowed down on grapes while sipping a beer, a harmonious experience.

More on food. Dishes to the best of my knowledge varied substantially and country seems to be build around food. Certainly the drinking cultured surrounded food, but even a quick observation of the places we ate, almost all tables where for groups larger that 2, most had 6 or more seated and with food being reasonably cheap, I imagine that teens go out for meals at an early age to socialize. Food is served with sharing in mind, no matter what food was order, there would always be side dishes, that would be shared by the occupants of the table. Kimchi was at every table, and by the end of the holiday I was even won over by this pickled vegetable dish, even being able to remark, whether it tasted good or not. One thing that you can not fail to miss in South Korea, is how spicy all most all the food is, it is like food doesn’t taste of anything without spice; I guess it is like the British and salt.

Well that is all I have time for at the moment and In an effort to keep this blog post short enough for people to read I will stop, but watch this space as there is more to come, with picture added soon.