Seoul Travel Diary #2 - Where the streets have no names (that I can recognise)

Today's training sessisons went very well, covered a lot of ground in the course and had a pretty cool Japanese lunch to boot. Here's a few of the highlights from the day:

• The subway (see previous post)
• Lunch (did I already mention that I enjoyed lunch?)
• The toilets at the training centre with the electronically warmed seats! Oh what a feeling!
• The subway home - much less frantic than in the morning, except I got lost from the station getting back to the hotel. Oh well, saw some more of the locals :)

OK, but here are some way cool experiences that made Day 1 memorable ...

I was talking with James, Bill and John (Adobe) about accommodation. The guys are staying at the Marriot, not that far from the training centre. They have their own stories to tell of their trip this morning, but mine were better :) The hotel where I'm staying is really nice - inside. But it's in a fairly ... umm ... "dodgy" back alley / street in downtown Seoul. Not the place where the guys have been on other business trips. At first I thought that I wasn't going to enjoy it very much, and told them that I was staying on "the strip" and would need them to call the police if I didn't get back tomorrow morning. Anyway, they were a little envious I think that I was getting to see kind of the "real" Seoul. So after I got back tonight, I asked the hotel guys where I should go and eat. One of the porters took me through some pretty small and smelly alleys to this place that's no bigger than one of our bedrooms back home. There inside was a family, a few tables and chairs, and a kitchen all in together. It was like a throw back to M*A*S*H - I had my 2 day leave pass to Seoul and me and Hawkeye were out to sample the local cuisine. The dinner thay made me was absolutely fantastic - amazing food, spices, soups ... I have no idea what it all was but it was great. It was like this little place was my special Seoul hideout, there was just me and the owners eating at the same table - them showing me what I was doing wrong (was using chop sticks for the spoon food, and the spoon for the chop sticks food ... dummy!) and laughing at things I said even though I know they didn't speak English. Amazing experience. And to think at one stage I thought of just finding a McDonalds.

I had also told James that I was going to go on a photographic exploration of "the strip" and see what I could find. I found heaps of everything I would never normally experience. For a start, there traffic and people EVERYWHERE - like taffic jams at 8pm and guys riding their scooters through the crowd crossing on the pedestrian crossing and the footpath. There were the food vendors on the footpath selling everything, and the market stalls where I got a dodgy copy of the new Narnia movie for $4 (just for fun - I saw it onthe IMAX screen after Christmas, so nothing is going to beat that!). I took photos and video of life passing by and just enjoyed finding small things like Oasis tour posters in Korean, or ice on the street.

So here I am now back in my hotel room where my fingers (and cameras!) and finally thawed out from our little sojourn. I spoke to my kids tonight on Skype - felt very close even though I'm miles away in a foreign country, how cool. Anyway, I have some emails to read before geting some sleep. Cheers.