Land at last - Seoul

Day 19 - 9 July
We arrive at  Incheon, which is about 1.5 hours drive from Seoul.  Incheon has the port and airport and is effectively the gateway to South Korea (you certainly can't drive onto the peninsula! !).  It was very overcast when we arrived at around 6.00am.  It is still hazy here as we set sail around 6.00pm.  The sky was clearer inland around the Capital.

So the day started very early again, but this time breakfast did not arrive until almost 7.00,  which meant bolting it down as we had to do Korean immigration at 7.30.  Big mistake - everyone lined up earlier than us and the end of the queue was greater than the length of the ship.  The positive side was that we did our 1 mile walk without going outside.

Our trip into Seoul was very interesting and our guide did not hold back on the dislike of both North Korea, nor in particular the Japanese.  The history of Japanese aggression and destruction of the Korean dynasty is still raw.  We were with Marilyn & Ray and Ray had spent a year in Korea, some 40 years ago - he struggled to remember things as they were.

A couple of things struck me in particular,  the general cleanliness and the infrastructure.  Considering the desolation of the country after both Japan & the Korean War,  they have made huge progress.  The block upon block upon block........ of new apartments is nothing short of incredible, and they are still being constructed in new mini-cities all along the highway and no doubt in other places.  But intriguingly, in the few areas not yet given over to high rise,  but literally within metres, agriculture, mainly small holdings, take up every spare bit of land.

Our tour included the reconstructed Emperial Palace, National Folk Museum & replica of historic village all before lunch - was the most rushed experience and was tiring, without being able to take it all in.  To be fair however, it was a beautifully fine Saturday and the locals were out and about in droves.  The only comment I would make is that all the villages and palaces were devoid of gardens or any greenery, so was most austere. But certainly the building decorations were magnificent.  Lunch however was a disaster (not that we really needed food).  It was supposed to be a traditional Korean BBQ, but the problem was that the same restaurant catered for ALL the Tours  (about 600 of us).  We were in the second, or last of the groups to get there, so I am pretty sure that we got the "left overs", so much so that they even forgot to give us rice! but between chopsticks & lettuce leaves we survived. Anyway, we were hurried out of there after 15 minutes and back on the bus.

The afternoon, while not traditional, was really interesting as we stopped at a South Gate Market, which apparently has over 1000 shops, stalls & street vendors.  While we saw just a small portion, it is clearly very very popular with (mainly) young Koreans.  Plenty of bargains, but we were once again on a tight time frame,  so no shopping apart from an eyebrow pencil for Vivian  (just in case there is any doubt).   From here on we headed south towards Incheon. 

We thought that the tour was over as we approached the port but we diverted to the new E-City in Incheon.  This is all new, built around masses of high rise  (40-50 stories +) buildings.  Much of the land is reclaimed and there seems to be no end to the development.  The shopping centre we visited was in the "Summer" wing, with other wings (buildings) for the other seasons.  All very modern with a distinctive European flavor - apparently someone tried to handle a Prada handbag and was told not to in no uncertain terms.  Waterways flowed through the shopping centres and there was plenty of seating all around (unlike the International Cafe on board ).  Once again, not enough time to do any shopping,  but was really interesting to see this modern development.  Many tourists, conventions and universities are located in the surrounding area.  Oh, and free fast wifi!

On balance, a most interesting day and certainly an experience not to be forgotten. 

Day 20 - 10 July
Thankfully we were given back our 1 hour overnight  (albeit for just 3 or 4 days) so had a leisurely day on board.  We need to ensure that our batteries (of all sorts) are fully charged as we have an 11 hour tour to Beijing tomorrow,  followed by a 9 hour one to the Wall on Tuesday.

The sea is once again like a millpond but the sea (s)fog is keeping the sun at bay.  The water is dark black and is so calm that a solitary dolphin has just broken the water about 10 metres away.  Surprisingly  I can now make out a container ship, just a couple of hundred metres away, appearing out of the gloom.  Thank goodness for radar.

Photos:
1. Gardening in the city
2. Paddy Field in middle of roundabout
3. Forming 3 straight lines as instructed for counting purposes
4. Palace
5. Girls in costume
6. Palace gate
7. Teddy store - 3 floors of bear inspiration
8. Queue for having photo as above
9. Our lunch !
10 - 12. Incheon Mall & some buildings
13. Party bus - look at those lights!