[/caption]Well my trip has finally started and I type this message from a hotel room in Korea. This is now saturday morning and I have been in Seoul 3 days which has passed incredibly quickly. Its a good place to get my feet for travelling - obviously foriegn, but with enough english speakers and signs for me to ease into the process. People here have been extraordinarily friendly - if you stop and stare a map for more than a few minutes on the streets some one invariably comes up and in varying levels of English asks you where you want to go - and more often and not then insists on walking with you until they are certain you have your bearings. Seoul is an amazing contrast of major arteries and highrise (very) modern buildings forming the edges of the city blocks with then masses of tiny streets and laneways full of both old and new buildings, in all sorts of states of repair hidden behind them.
[caption id="attachment_81" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Typical very modern architecture - few 1960's square blocks here"]
[/caption]The lanes vary from one car width roads down to bicycle wide alleys. Through these there is a constant movement of people and ubiquitous delivery motorbikes. My hotel is down one of these lanes and is very good and friendly but was a challenge to find first off. Also hidden in the lanes are various parks and palaces where one can suddenly find peace amongst the noise of the city - quite contrast. Some of thse arabsolutely exquisite and I would have liked to had more time to isit them properly.
The only downside of my visit here so far is whilst I made it safely not all of my baggage did. One of my two bags has dissappeared who knows where. The airline knows it left Sydney but has no record of unloading it at Ghangzhou (where I transitted). So currently I am missing all my camping gear, maps and most of my chargers for electronics and the connecting cables, memory sticks etc. That is part of the reason I haven't posted earlier. Anyway yesterday I managed to buy a phone charger and a few of the essential cables so I am back up and running. One of the challenges was Nokia is not a common brand here so getting a charger for it turned into a many houred tour of the city (but again helped by many locals).
Today I am off out of Seoul and onto Donghae where I hope I will be re-united with my bike. My shipping agent here, a charming lady called Wendy, assures me it is there at the port and there will be no issues just going and unpacking it but I can't help be nervous.
Assuming that all goes well - then its off onto the ferry to Vladivostok tomorrow and the beginnings of the trip proper.
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