Rdearman 2016-24 You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.

[eido]

It's fun to read about your adventures in Korea. I have a friend who lives in and is from Busan, so getting to know a little about it is pretty cool. Regrettably, my Korean isn't enough up to snuff to help you with the most important communicative processes you'd need to get around, but I think you're doing quite well from what you describe. Do you have a favorite location you've visited so far? Where would you want to visit should you go again?

[rdearman]

It's fun to read about your adventures in Korea. I have a friend who lives in and is from Busan, so getting to know a little about it is pretty cool. Regrettably, my Korean isn't enough up to snuff to help you with the most important communicative processes you'd need to get around, but I think you're doing quite well from what you describe. Do you have a favorite location you've visited so far? Where would you want to visit should you go again?

My wife and I talked about this last night. The top three places we've been were all in Seoul for me, the big Palace, the Korean War Museum and the river cruise on the Han to the rainbow bridge were my favourites so far. Two of the top three meals however were all here in Busan. A bit of a conflict for us, since we're both foodies and history buffs. Two places we wanted to go were to visit the DMZ and to visit Jeju island. But tours of the DMZ are halted at the moment, so we couldn't go, and we just didn't have enough time to fit in Jeju as well.

---

When you buy a city bus tour ticket in Busan it is valid for 24 hours, and because we didn't buy ours until 11:00 on the first day, we had two hours to use it from the first bus starting at 09:00. We'd figured out that we would travel to Taejongdae Resort Park which is a sort of national park in the very southern part of Busan on Yeongdo island. So after a more traditional English breakfast at the hotel with the now deep-cleaned kitchen we set off. Arriving at the main bus terminal with no issues we managed to shoehorn our way on to the bus. We'd forgotten it was Saturday! The bus was jammed unlike the day before, but we managed to get a seat and arrived in Taejongdae about an hour later.

I have to quickly complain a little about the Busan city tour bus. They have an audio loop which plays automatically as you go past the various points of interest. This tells you what the point of interest is in English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. But they also appear to have hired some bloody Korean woman to stand with a microphone and drown out this information with a constant babble of Korean. I understand that I'm in Korea, and most of the people on the bus are Korean, but that is why there is Korean on the audio loop. This happened both days and on all 4 buses on which we travelled, and the primary reason I know almost nothing about any of these points of interest other than what I googled as we travelled along the route. So if anyone is reading from the Busan tourist board, please sort that out.

Anyway... we arrived at Taejongdae Resort Park not really sure what was there. I knew a bit from the googling, but was pleasantly surprised to see another huge memorial to the UN troops of the Korean War. This monument was to all the countries who'd sent medical assistance and field hospitals. There were individual placards for each country and their stories in Korean, English and the native language of that country. It would be a great Rosetta Stone for future archaeologists.

After getting lots of photos, it was up the mountain we went. Disdaining the train service which the plebs used to ride up the mountain, we walked. My feet and calves told me I was a cheap dumbass who should be on the bloody tourist train, but I overruled them and kept walking. One thing about Korea I don't think I mentioned is they still have a lot of covid restrictions in place, and you have to wear a mask anywhere you go outside your home. This includes while marching up the side of a mountain road, breathless, and aching. In reality the mountain isn't that bad and the gradient was probably only 30 or 40 degrees, a little less than your standard set of stairs, and less in other places.

Going up the hill I found a place where they had a bunch of books put into a little outdoor hutch, and you could sit and read them (if you read in Korean) but nothing you can take away with you.

A little further up the hill you come to a Buddhist Monastery which is off the road, but even more uphill. We walked up to the monastery, and this part was like walking upstairs, but thankfully it wasn't too far. There are two main statues of the Buddha for prayer, one made from stone and sat outside as you go up toward the main temple. This one was donated by Sri Lankan ex-patriots, according to the placard. The main temple was a lot smaller than I expected and there was a family inside worshipping, so I didn't go near until they'd left. However, one of the priests was running a little shop for tourists like me, and we had a look around and bought some stuff, this was actually a mistake, but I'll come on to that later. Before you get the impression this was some type of modern shop with a sophisticated electronic-point-of-sale and all of that, let me tell you it is basically a small covered shack with some stuff laid out on tables and they only took cash.

The main temple is very small but has a magnificent golden Buddha statue which you can see from the open doors. I got closer after the worshippers had left but didn't go inside, just had a quick look around.

We continued to walk through the park along the designated path. It is a very long loop that takes you around the mountain. We soon reached the top of the path and took some great photos, then made our way along further toward the lighthouse. There are feral cats running around everywhere. But also, according to the signs, huge amounts of hunting kestrels (birds of prey, like a falcon). Which made me wonder how many cats ended up in the stomach of a kestrel, and vice-a-versa.

We didn't go down to the lighthouse café, because that would involve walking back up from the lighthouse café, so we carried on to the observatory. It was a clear day, and according to some people, you could see the islands of Japan. We saw some land in the distance, but what it was I have no clue. We continued our walk and arrived at the ferry station, but decided to press on and complete the loop. Back at the main entrance, we walked down to a coffee shop and had a bit of cake and a rest before tackling our first public bus ride in Busan. It was simple, since we've had a lot of experience now with Korean public transport. Although this bus started at the actual bus depot, and I had to ask around to find out where you actually boarded the bus.

The 1006 bus will take you directly to the UN war memorial gardens in Busan in comfortable leather seats and with air-conditioning. This was our next port of call, but we jumped out a stop before and went into the Busan Museum first. It covers the history of the city from Palaeolithic hunters to modern time. The exit out the back of the museum leads into the pathway through the peace park and over to the UN Memorial. It was a sad but very well-kept and respected memorial to the fallen. The bodies of most soldiers have been repatriated by their home country, like the USA has taken all back. There are a number of other countries which have repatriated some, but not all. There were a few graves of American and other soldiers who died after the war, but who asked to be buried here in Korea.

We left the memorial and walked (again uphill) to the Museum of Japanese Occupation. This is all about the tragic consequences of Japanese imperial expansion. Which began long before world war two. In fact, Japan had been attacking Korea in 1592 and again in 1598. So this wasn't a new thing when in 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan. I'm not going to go into a political discussion of all this, because there is an ongoing politically sensitive discussion. But these historical events generated a lot of bad feelings.

Let me revert to an earlier comment about spending the last of our money on souvenirs. When we go on the metro to go and catch the tour bus, my travel card caused the turnstile to flash when I tried to use it and wouldn't let me pass. Eventually I figured out I needed to top it up. My wife waited on the other side because hers had let her through. Regular readers will remember that in Korea, you can only top up your travel card with cash. So I used the last bill I had to top up my card and off we went. My wife bought the trinkets with her money, and it was only afterwards while walking along the mountain that it occurred to us that her card might be running out of funds. But all we had was, ₩1000 in change. When we got off the 1006 bus her card had made the thing flash red. Long story short, we figured we didn't have enough money on her card for another bus, but if we walked to a station we could top up her card with the ₩1000 and that would get us back to the hotel where we'd left our cash.

So we walked, and walked, and walked, then stopped for dinner at a Korean BBQ place, then walked the rest of the way to the station, topped up the card and got back to the hotel. So the lesson here is "CASH, don't leave home without it." Which is odd to me, because I have not carried cash in the UK for at least 10 years.

Daving report? Again a poor score, only 10 points.

• I asked for milk at breakfast, (1 point)
• Asked about the use of numbers for floors, and had a good explanation and conversation about it with the receptionist at a museum. (3 points)
• Spoke to Buddhist monk in Korean (1 point)
• Ordered coffee and shake in Korean (1 point)
• Ordered Korean BBQ (1 point)
• Spoke to a bus driver asking about bus numbers and where to board the bus, he walked us to the place and talked with us.(3 points)

This daving thing is harder than you think. Also hampered by a non-language enthusiast who just wants me to hurry up. I have managed to locate the used book shop street that vonPeterhof told me about, although this is on the app, I haven't physically found it yet, but that is tomorrow's adventure.

[rdearman]

I found the book shop alley in Busan! My wife lost me for an hour, she just went and sat in a coffee shop. To be fair, I'd had to sit through a clothing scrum earlier! These are 5 different shops.

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[rdearman]

Yesterday got up fairly early because we had a long trek over to Haedong Yonggung Temple. Which is a bit of a tourist trap if I'm honest, although the buildings are stunning. We used public transport and I had a bit of an embarrassing moment. While on the number 1006 bus to the temple, the driver was having some problems getting up a hill. Basically some mad bugger on a moped cut him off as he was trying to get up the hill, and then he had to down shift, then up shift pretty rapidly. My wife made a comment about the gears grinding, and I was to her, "If you can't find it, grind it."

But when the guy glanced over at me, I worked out he spoke English. We were sat at the front of the bus behind him. He asked in English if we were going to the temple, and we had a nice long natter as we rode out to the temple. Turns out he'd spend a couple of years in Seattle, Washington in the USA and didn't really enjoy it. He had some crazy idea of what it would be like based on TV shows and movies, and discovered the reality is very different. He opened up a little when he found out we were from the UK. He was a really nice guy, and enjoyed driving the bus except when he had to deal with rude people, but he didn't consider the gear joke rude, just funny.

When we got off at the temple we had to walk up yet another hill, but not too strenuous and walked past all the tourist shops eventually making it to the temple. The crowds were huge and there were long lines of people walking up and down the stairs and bridges. We got some lovely photos, and the wife and I pitched some money towards the lucky fountain, she managed to get a coin in, but I failed miserably. We probably spent as much or more time getting to the temple on the bus, than actually in the temple looking around.

Back on the bus we headed back into the city to find BIFF Square, which is a sort of "Hollywood walk of fame" where winners of the Busan International FIlm Festival have placards made from metal in the ground. This is just as boring as it sounds, however it is in a massive market district and one of the department stores was having a sale with some huge discounts. So my wife immediately went into the scrum and started fighting it out tooth and nail. I stood back and found a quiet place to stand and wait. Eventually she found a bunch of stuff, directed me to stand in the super long ass queue with her selections and pay while she went off to try to score more stuff. I got to the front of the queue only to find some Korean guy who had "fitted" his purchases in-store and as standing at the counter, which the shop assistant walked around him cutting off the tags and handing them to their colleague to ring up the sale. I'd never seen anything like that before.

I eventually dragged my wife out of the shop because time was getting on (we'd spend about 3-4 hours on public transport that day) and I was worried the bookshops would close. But I didn't need to worry, we made it with time to spare. It is a 10-15 minute walk from BIFF square to Bosu-Dong Bookshop Alley. (Photos above). This is my kind of place. Books are stacked nose high and with no discernible rhyme or reason. You just have to get stuck in. It was great, and on further investigation there is some reason. Some shops seem to specialise in comics or children's books, others in fiction, others in non-fiction. But most have a selection of everything. I bought 3 more books, comics and YA books. I doubt I'm going to need any more books in Korea for a long time, and I suspect I'll need audiobooks more than physical books. But I still love a paperback book. Can't help myself.

We then got on another bus and headed over to Gamcheon Cultural Village, which is where all the houses are painted in pastel colours and there are murals and paintings on walls everywhere. I can attest to the houses bing painted, but my wife wasn't interested in walking around much, so we took a couple of photos and got back on the bus. If I had more time in Busan I might come back and wander around to look at the murals and the street art. Although to be honest, if I wanted to look at graffiti and see people defacing buildings with spray paint, London is full of it. Even got that Banksy criminal running around with stencils.

From there, we headed off to the train station to secure our tickets on the train to travel to Gwangju. Not as straightforward as we'd hoped to travel there, as there is no direct train. We need to travel north up to Osong then back down on a different train to Gwangju. So we'll be spending a little more time on the trains than I'd hoped, and it means the day is a write-off due to travel. Still, we should make it into the city about 15:00, so we'll have a little time to look around after we find the hotel.

After we got our tickets, my wife wanted to get some cookies. Again, this is a non-trivial task. Koreans don't have the traditions around baked goods we have in the UK or USA. Doesn't mean they don't have them, it is just that unlike finding a coffee shop or a protester, they are a little harder to find. We discovered a specialist cookie shop which was closer to our hotel than the train station, and we headed back there. We purchased a lot of large specialist cookies whose flavours were a bit of a mystery, although the chocolate chip ones were fairly obvious. Six cookies cost me a bloody fortune. We then grabbed an "Egg Drop" sandwich, which is a chain of shops which has appeared on a couple of K-dramas (they love a good product placement in those) and one final stop in 7-eleven for me to grab a beer. The Egg Drop sandwich was meh... should have got a steamed bun from the street vendor, but I can say I tried it. The cookie I selected turned out to be pumpkin and ginger, it was OK, I didn't spit it out, but I wouldn't eat it again.

That was the day done. As far as Daving I think my score was a total of 1 point. I had to ask someone for a charm bracelet which had the tiger zodiac symbol on it. The train tickets again I felt were too important for me to mess around without using the GT app. I used Korean in lots of other ways, please, thank you, one of those, two of those, how much, etc. but these are fairly easy now.

I didn't mention the old lady who ripped me off for 4 chicken skewers by pretending she didn't understand and didn't have change. It was only a few pounds, but frustrated me because if I had been able to say something I might have got my change. I've written it off as part of the cost of coming to a country and not knowing the language.

So things to add to my list of "Korean stuff I wish I had learned before I got off the bloody plane."

• WTF, where is my change?
• How much? Are you having a laugh?
• If I had known they were gold-plated chicken skewers handcrafted by virgins, I wouldn't have ordered them.

Travel day today. Time to pack up and get out.

[rdearman]

Arrived in Gwangju without a hitch and got to the hotel no problem. At the point where public transport isn't a problem. We arrived at the hotel by 15:00 and were amazed to find we are only a 10-minute walk from the one thing we specifically came here to see. The May 18th memorial is a huge park with monuments dedicated to the people who died in the 1980 uprising.

What I was taught in history and the reality is different. The part they missed out was the regime which took over in South Korea after the war was a democracy in name only. It was actually a dictatorship under Park Chung-hee. He was assassinated and the military took over and ran the country after the assassination. In Gwangju students were protesting the martial law government and soldiers murdered, raped, and beat them. The angry citizens took up arms, raided police stations and took over sections of the city, fighting with soldiers. The soldiers even shot policemen who'd let protesters out of jail.

Estimates of 300-2000, people died in the uprising. It preceded other democratic movements in the 1980s that pressured the regime into democratic reforms, paving the way for the election of oppositional candidate Kim Dae-jung in 1997. The Gwangju Uprising has become a symbol of South Koreans' struggle against authoritarian regimes and for democracy. This explains why they take their protesting so seriously. I know I made a joke of it previously, but I understand now why they are so dedicated to it.

We spent the afternoon walking around the park and getting some photos of the various memorials. At the top of the park there is a huge pagoda building with 3 stories, you can walk up and get a huge panoramic view of the entire city. It is really cool, but a lot of uphill walking and steps to get there.

Leaving the park, we headed over into the city to get some more chicken & beer at a chain restaurant. It was very good, although the waitress understood zero English. Then back to the hotel.

Not a lot to report since the entire day was a travel day, and I'm sure you're not interested in my struggles with luggage. I didn't manage to do much daving either. But I did give myself 3 points for having remembered one of the stock phrases I have been learning; "What is this?" The waitress told me it was a pickled radish (using her Google translation app). These pickled radishes are given out as a sort of snack or side dish. They are very tasty.

[daveprine]

Not a lot to report since the entire day was a travel day, and I'm sure you're not interested in my struggles with luggage.

Hmm....don't be so sure. I've been enjoying your updates.

[rdearman]

This last part of my time in Korea are whistle-stop tours of the cities of Gwangju and Daejong. Yesterday was my last full day in Gwangju, and I'm off to Daejong later today. The train is only 2 hours, so shouldn't be so bad. When we arrived in Gwangju we took the metro, then the bus to the hotel. But the bus is only 2 stops. You can walk with the luggage, but they are large and even though they are on wheels, the pavements here aren't the best. So today we are going to splash out for a taxi to the train station. (Told you the luggage story was boring)

We were going to take another ride on a tour bus to get the lay of the land, but it seems it only runs on weekends and only starts in May. Therefore, we were our own guides.

We got up in the morning and decided to see less city and more countryside. We made our way out to Mudeungsan National Park, which is huge. About 75 square kilometres and with a couple of mountains, a bunch of temples and lots of wildlife. We even hiked past one of the first YMCA's in Korea, which was this little shack built on the side of a mountain. I mentally sang the song, just like you probably did right then. We took the so-called "moderate" grade path up the mountain. Which was more or less the same as climbing the stairs of the Empire State Building. I imagine the "difficult" one is a bit more like the way Spider-Man goes up the Empire State Building.

It was a pleasant day out and the sun was getting very bright when we showed up at the entrance to the park. I'd forgotten my hat, so I bought this stupid looking camouflaged Australian bush hat thing. I look ridiculous, but it kept the sun off the bald head and the back of my neck. No worries about sunburn of the face, since the mask takes care of that.

We stopped in a working temple, mainly because they had benches to sit on outside, and watched the priests doing some prayer in the temple. We had a look around at the temple buildings. There are about 10 buildings you could go into as the public. They also had some buildings where they allowed people to book and stay for a retreat. This wasn't any sort of 5-star hotel, it was a room with a door and a mat. Very Zen. We carried on walking up the mountain, but with only one kilometre to go to the top my wife refused to go any further. I didn't argue.

After walking down the mountain, we found a coffee shop at the entrance and planned where to go next. We decided to go to the national cemetery, where the victims of the uprising were buried. They'd been originally taken to a cemetery in rubbish trucks by the soldiers, but the bodies had all been moved to this new cemetery purpose built for them. It was a long bus ride. The bus we needed only went every 40 minutes, and we'd just missed it. Eventually we made it to the cemetery which is on the outskirts of town and looked around. They have a photo gallery with pictures of the victims, as well as the grave sites, a building which tells the history.

Then it was another long wait for the one bus back to town. This ate up most of the afternoon. One other problem is that once again, I didn't bring my cash with me. So we needed to top up the travel card things. My wife's card was empty, and I had a hell of a time trying to explain that I wanted to pay for both bus fares with my card. One thing about Gwangju is that I haven't seen any westerners here, and there is very little English (outside the metro). Also, that BS everyone tells you about "everybody knows English" is just that, BS.

If I had started my holiday here, I would have really struggled. Now, I'm familiar with the travel card system and the top-ups, so the fact there isn't an option for English on the machines here to top them up didn't present an issue. I almost got it right, but had to get help from someone because it kept rejecting my money. Turns out that was because I was pressing the cancel button, not the OK button. In hindsight, I should have known to press the button whose text was worn away, because that was the default button everyone uses.

Rather than go directly to the 1913 market, we had to make a detour back to the hotel and get some cash. We'd seen this 1913 market thing on some YouTuber video when looking for things to do in Gwangju. Since it was getting dark, I intentionally left my sunglasses and the floppy camo-bush-hat in the hotel room, and unintentionally left my travel card. So after the long walk to the metro station, I couldn't get on the bloody thing. Rather than trudge back, I decided to buy the fare from the ticket machine. No English. But I had to buy one from the ticket guy anyway because I only had large bills. On the way back, I got it from the machine.

It was now late, and we were starving having not eaten since breakfast and walked up a mountain. The famous 1913 market is honestly crap. The local markets we passed to get there were amazing, filled with people and food and stalls. I don't know if this YouTuber girl had been to any other markets in Korea, but just about any of them would have been more lively. Still, we found a place selling Tteokbokki and Kimbap, so we just ate there and went back. On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped in a cake shop and bought some desserts to eat in the hotel room.

I did a little better at Daving. We had to wait at the bus-stop at the entrance to the national cemetery on the other side of the road to go back to town. There was a little shack/barn where a couple of people were working. I was curious about the fields and I asked them in Korean:
Do you speak English? (This is my standard opening gambit)
No (no surprise there)
Is that rice? (Pointing at the field and the plants protected by plastic.)
Yes. (Plus lots of words I didn't understand)
Thank you.

Then I kept asking the guy in the cake shop: How do I say in Korean ... coconut, orange, caramel, etc, etc.

I'm awarding myself a whooping 12 points for daving. Lots of asking questions and getting answers.

[rdearman]

Travel from Gwangju to Daejong was only a couple of hours, so we arrived in the early afternoon and after checking into the hotel we made our way to the Expo Centre and the Hanbat Arboretum. It is the largest man-made urban arboretum in Korea, and one of the most popular attractions in Daejeon. The park is home to 1,787 plant species, including more than 1,100 species of trees and shrubs. (According to the blurb in the guide book) While we were there, in the Expo portion of the park was the giant film prop "Red Light, Green Light Girl" from the squid games. In the arboretum is a pond / lake and it is filled with fish. Carp mostly I think. But there is a wooden bridge over the pond and when we traversed the bridge there was a couple throwing seeds and some rice cakes to the fish. The water was actually squirming with fish. I've never seen anything like it, it seemed like you could walk across the water on fish, they were that thick.

Then we headed across town to the Sungsimdang Bakery, which is famous throughout Korea. Apparently the owner will not franchise and refuses to open any store outside Daejeon, so if you want to try their stuff, you have to come here.

That was all we managed from a travel point of view, since most of the day was spent on trains or buses. But from a language point of view it was a more useful day. As I've said before, the number of people speaking English in Gwangju is very low, and so my first interaction was getting the fellow on the desk to call me a taxi. The hotel staff were excellent, I have to say, and falling over themselves to help.

If you remember, I was determined to get a taxi to reduce the hassle factor and long walks involved in getting to the train station. The taxi driver we got was a delightful man who spoke even less English than I spoke Korean. But that didn't stop him. He was the Korean equivalent of Dave Prine. He just couldn't stop chatting. Between the use of Google Translate and my limited Korea, we somehow managed to have a conversation on the way to the station. I learned his English teacher in school couldn't speak English. He was really excited when I told him my wife and I were English, because he wants to visit there. He was curious where we'd gone already and I listed off the cities. All the things my teacher had taught me went out of the window in the rapid fire question and answer with this fellow. I simply couldn't remember "and" and the list words, etc. But is did give me something to review! I did manage better than I expected however, and this fellow really put the Korean to the test.

Next was in Daejeon when we stopped briefly at a coffee shop waiting for check-in time. My wife wanted to know if the cups were for sale. Since I'd been down this road before, I knew this conversation, and it went more smoothly than the last time. One of the very first phrases I learned in French and Italian was "Sorry, but my ... isn't very good." for some reason I haven't memorised this phrase, and it is definitely one that needs to go into the list of "Korean stuff I wish I had learned before I got off the bloody plane."

At the bakery we visited, there is a restaurant upstairs. I was trying to figure out if you bought the food downstairs, could you take it upstairs and eat. So, leaving the wife to look at the pastries, I went upstairs to find out. Another surprisingly difficult thing to get across since there are lots of conditionals. If I buy stuff downstairs, then can I eat it here. It turns out that yes you can, but even better, you can purchase a hot dinner and then eat your baked goods.

I opened with the standard "Do you speak English" and got the standard deer trapped in a headlight look from the waiter, who looked around for an escape route. I managed to get my question out in caveman Korean. "Buy thing", point downstairs, "Eat here?". He attempted to explain in Korean, but nope, I didn't have a clue other than the fact he was nodding, which could mean yes I could do that, or maybe he was just bowing his head. He frantically waved for this other woman to come over, I assume with more English skills. But no, it was just so he could escape, and she could have a turn. In the end, we all agreed it was possible. Plus, some lady walked upstairs behind me, walked to a table and began eating her croissants.

I went down, and we bought a ton of stuff, and came back upstairs. They were prepared for me this time, and there was a fellow waiting who did speak passable English and showed us how to order the dinners. So we actually had some amazing cutlets and then ate one of the pastries. BTW this bakery does everything not just cakes and pastries, but savoury foods, breads, you name it. You can watch them baking it too.

We descended into the underground mall to make our way into the metro station. On the way, my wife popped into a jewellery shop looking for gifts. I wandered around it and saw these rubber things with buttons on the back. Hard to describe, but they had things like cartoon bunnies, Pokémon stuff, hearts, basketballs, all kinds of different things, and on the back a little thing which looked like you put though a buttonhole. I was wondering if people put them on their suit lapel or something? Or what these things were actually for. So mentally preparing my self and yet again forgetting how to say excuse me, I prepared myself to ask in Korean. I can't seem to remember "excuse me" because in my head the Chinese words always come to mind, and it crowds out the Korean. So we just went with the default phrase used when calling someone at a restaurant. 여기여. She didn't seem offended, so first hurdle passed. Asked standard opener, and yes she speaks a little English. I asked 이게 뭔가요? (What is this?) and she said they were croc-buttons. She could tell this didn't mean anything to me, so she went to a cabinet and got out some croc shoes and showed me.



Another thing I had to do in Korean is to top up my travel card. In Korea there are two contracted companies who manage the travel cards, in Seoul and surrounding areas like Daejoen this is called T-Money and in Busan it is MoneyBee (or something like that) but they work independently. So now I have one of each and top up as appropriate. I had assumed I had to do this at the machine in the metro stations, but turns out you can do it at most stores. So I chanced my arm at a 7-eleven, and it worked. I didn't know the words for top up or anything, but when I showed her the card, she ran it through the till, and we were all good.

If you are planning on visiting Korea, and unless you are going deep into the countryside, don't bother with car hire or any of that. The public transport system is super efficient and easy to use.

One other thing I discovered in the underground mall was two used bookshops with honesty boxes. You just pick the books you want and throw the money in the honesty box. They are full sized shops full of used books and none of them more than ₩3000 which is £2 ! I spent a fortune on new books in Seoul. I can't really fit any more in my suitcase, but there were a couple of programming books ....

Only another couple days here, then it is back to Inchon for the flight home.

[rdearman]

Leaving Daejong today and heading for Incheon airport and flying out tomorrow morning. Just spending the day in a hotel near the airport so yesterday was really the last full day of non-travel time.

We got up later than normal and headed out to see a couple of parks in Daejong. The first one was a well-preserved house and grounds of a famous Korean poet from around the early 1800's. The park was very small but well maintained an very picturesque with flowers blooming all over. It was a long bus ride for such a small place. We decided to carry on to the next one, which was on the other side of the city. Daejong only has one metro line, and it runs east to west. So travelling north to south like we were means another hour and a half long bus ride, but we jumped off the bus as it came into the centre of the city near the second train station and had a wander around.

We found a huge covered market and had a look around. I miscalculated the amount of clothes I would need and wanted to find another shirt somewhere. While in the market, I found this guy who made tools and knives and was busy sharpening some of his handy work. One of the things he was selling was a rounded cleaver. I've wanted a better cleaver for cooking at home, and so decided to buy this one. Of course, I was then stuck walking around with a huge blade wrapped in plastic. But shortly found a nice shirt and wrapped them both together and put them in a paper carry bag. Having done our shopping and had a coffee, it was back on the bus heading south.

We eventually arrived at Ppuri park, which is full of monuments with the history of Korean family names. There are almost 200 monuments scattered over a lovely wooded park land with a reservoir beside it where the river has been dammed up. All the monuments are in Korean, so if you can read Korean to near native level, then you can just wander around the paths and take in the fresh air.

We decided it was time for dinner, and so we walked down to the bus stop for a nice long wait. Eventually the bus arrived (we were the first stop) and we headed back into the city, not far from where we got off before. The plan was to head toward the bakery we'd eaten at the night before and go into the underground mall. I wanted to check out the honesty box bookshop, and my wife had seen some gifts she wanted to get. We were going to find somewhere different to eat, but the bakery was so good, we decided to eat there again.

We ate and then made our way into the underground mall. I bought another 5 books and my wife managed to get lost in the maze of shops and I had to go find her. We speculated that my luggage would be over weight with all the books, and so I told her I would just throw out all my clothes if that was the case. This actually made her happy, since I have clothes which are older than my children. We then made our way safely back to the hotel.

Didn't really use the language as much today. But I did score two books called SOS 7003 (ore something like that) which are for English students in Korea. There were books 2,3,4, and I bought books 2, 3 of the set. Inside, they have numbered sentences in English on the left page and Korea on the right. It isn't a parallel text reading book, because the sentences are all independent of each other and are showing different types of grammatical constructions in English. But still very useful in the other direction too. I also bought a couple of non-fiction self-help books. While in the shop and just to confirm that I had understood how the whole thing works, I asked some guy who came into the shop. If I buy this book, for example, I need to put the money indicated here into that box? As you can image, what I actually did was used the infinitive "to buy" and picked up a book, pointed at the price and then said "here?" and pointed at the box. He confirmed this was the case.

Then he asked me: Why are you buying books if you don't speak Korean. Or at least that is what I think he asked, since I caught the words for Korean language and Why. So again I replied with the infinitive form of the verb "to study", and he nodded and got on with his life. Thereby completing a complete conversation without the use of a single complete sentence by me, except for the opener (Excuse me. Do you speak English?) Oh, I did remember the Korean for excuse me this time.

Of all the memorisation I did prior to arriving here, the one that has probably helped me the most is actually Pimsluer. I remember the set phrases, and I've been using them. Ones like "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and the study with the teacher to construct sentences, while probably more useful in the long run, hasn't helped me as much when the pressure is on, and you have to create a sentence on the fly. The words he taught me are useful, especially the verbs (even though I'm not quick enough to conjugate them) but I should have memorised some stock phrases.

[rdearman]

Decided to do my last update tonight before I leave in the morning. I'm staying at an airport hotel, so shouldn't be any drama getting to the airport from here. Took a fast train from Daejoen to Seoul and then the airport express to the hotel (guest house actually) and checked in. We had time to kill before check-in, so we sat in the café across the street and had some coffee and muffins. After we managed to check in and leave the bags, we decided to make our way into Incheon, which isn't just an airport (like I thought) but is actually the 3rd largest city in South Korea.

We made our way back to the markets, looking for some souvenirs for people. We ended up in a supermarket and grabbed a load of biscuits and chocolates for people and a set of soju glasses. Our purchases done, we decided to hit the "No Brand Name Burger" franchise. It is very good, and a super reasonable price. Then another trip on the metro and another market. We headed back to the hotel early, we're tired, and a little weary of marketplaces in Korea.

Not a very exciting day, and we spent most of it on public transport in one shape or another. As far as languages go, it was simply the old favourites playing: Do you speak English, thank you, how much, etc.

I thought I would do a little round up of the trip if anyone is planning to visit, but doesn't speak Korean. Pimsleur is your friend if you want to get to a basic level quick. Learn some stock phrases from a phrase book like the lonely planet one. Learn numbers (both sets). Learn the infinitive form of some common verbs, and most people can figure it out. e.g. to buy, to sell, to eat, to go, to take, to give, etc. That should do you just fine. It helps A LOT to learn the Hangul alphabet and the pronunciation of the letters.

Many Koreans, when asked if they know English, will respond "a little". Koreans mean this in the same way an Englishman means it, they mean they speak about 3 words. Not like when a Scandinavian says, "I speak a little English." and what they mean is they know 3 words less than an Oxford educated professor of English literature. If you're going outside Seoul or Busan, then almost nobody speaks English, and the ones who do speak "a little". So be prepared for a lot of pointing and gesturing. As for other languages, I did meet three people who spoke French, they were French. One would assume that since Chinese and Japanese are included with Korean and English on all metro announcements, many people would speak these also.

Korea is great, and we'd love to return some day. Hopefully, a bit better prepared and armed with more knowledge of the Korean language. I frequently found it frustrating that I couldn't ask someone something I wanted to know. For example, tonight I saw a guy with one of the new Samsung foldable phones, but he had a pen with it, like they used to have on the old Galaxy notes. It clipped to the back of this really cool case. I was dying to know if the pen came with the or with the case, or if both were add-on purchases, etc. But I'll never know, because I just can't express myself in Korean to that level.

I've also decided I need to lose some weight. Just being in this country has fat shamed me. They are all so skinny! Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule, but it really did make me self-conscious. However, if this involves eating chicken feet, or squid, then I'll just stay fat. Much to my wifes dismay I managed to fit everything into my case, so didn't have to throw out any of my ancient t-shirts, but she lives in hope that I'll be over the weight limit and some of those 20+ year old clothes will hit the bin.

I really wanted to say to someone: 내 호버크래프트는 장어로 가득해. But there were two problems.
A) I didn't really know how to pronounce it.
B) Seriously doubt if they'd have got the joke.

내 호버크래프트는 장어로 가득해 = My hovercraft is full of eels.

OK, the laptop battery is running out, and I need to do my online check-in! Next post should be "back in blighty".