Seoul

Well, I've just been for a little tour round the locality (yes, okay...I got lost again...I suppose it's no use to try and pretend I was doing it on purpose...but I was, honest! I find one gets a much finer appreciation of the local culture if one steps off the beaten track...blah...blah...blah ;-)

Yes, anyway. I have lost all my former good faith in Air Canada as it turns out they are incapable of putting a bag marked Seoul on the plane to Seoul...I am now feeling a mixture of irritation and smugness...the latter engendered by the fact that a spare pair of shreddies and a toothbrush reside in my carry-on luggage (take note little brother). Still, prone as I am to making the most of the situation, I know I would far rather be hoying myself up a mountain trail than sucking in the sights and smells (and believe me, there are some!) of downtown Seoul. It's a very busy, noisy, smelly little place...when I say little, I'm referring to the alleyways and low roofed shacks that line them as opposed to the city - which is an enormous sprawling metropolis. (In fact the place has got so big, they had to steal some land back from the sea just to put a new airport in!) For all the hustle and bustle, it has a certain, subliminal appeal (it's probably all those flashing neon lights - bit like the fruit machines when I was a kid) - and having eaten my first authentic meal on Asian soil, I definitely want more! A large selection of pickled vegetables, leaves (to wrap stuff in), rice, soup and raw marinaded meat is brought to the table. The big hole in the middle of the table is filled with a brazier of hot charcoal and the weird metal tube above the table suddenly becomes an extractor fan. You then proceed to barbeque your pork belly, stack it up on a leaf with too many of the aforementioned pickles and cram it all into your mouth with as little mess as possible - I picked this one up from a well-dressed middle-aged woman across the way from me. Wash it down with Korean lager and hey, presto! - you're ready to go to sleep for the first time in 36 hours.

Tomorrow shall see if those flappy-headed, beady-eyed fools have managed to retrieve my bag...if not, I may well go and try some bosintang - google it...;-)