Round the World 2008

I’m at Seoul Incheon Airport waiting for my flight to Ulaanbataar. The day I got to spend here because of the rescheduling of my flight by the airlines was interesting and I’m glad I got to see a bit of Korea since it wasn’t on my original itinerary.

I arrived in Seoul yesterday evening and was able to successfully get into the city using the very modern, user-friendly subway. Most signs were in English so I was able to understand most of the instructions. Although I did accidentally buy a child’s ticket using the ticket machine, it let me through. Taking the advice of the couple next to me on the plan who had been to Seoul before, I got off the metro at the Itaewon stop near the US military base hoping there would be more English speakers. I found a hotel pretty easily and then walked around. This is the first time on the trip that I’m in a country where I don’t speak the language. It’s a little intimidating. There were times where I would say something in English and the other person said something back in Korean and neither of us had a clue as to what the other was saying. I didn’t see one other non-Asian looking person on the hour-plus train trip to the city. In Itaewon I saw a few American army people. I kept thinking of the movie “Lost in Translation’ when Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are in Tokyo. You hear the voices and see the unrecognizable text and you get some clues by what you see, whether it’s a person’s body language or a photo on a sign or an ad, but you’re always guessing what the message is…you never really get it completely.

I got up early and took the metro to the City Hall stop which looked the most central. Luckily it brought me right to the Deoksugung Palace which was built in the 15th century and I was just in time for the changing of the guards ceremony. The palace buildings are in a park along with an Art Museum which I checked out. The buildings of the palace were beautiful and I was drawn, as usual, to the geometric patterns in the building’s design and I took lots of pictures.

I wandered around some more and came across a nice contemporary art museum which was actually very good. Then I somehow got off the beaten path and I was really hungry. I saw a few places to eat but they were local spots where there were groups of people sitting on the floor in the traditional way that people eat here and I decided I wasn’t feeling that adventurous. The menus were completely in Korean and I knew it would’ve been a disaster if I tried to get a meal. So I found a convenience store and bought a drink. I handed the guy a bill and he gave me a few coins and turned around, so I just left. I was half way down the block and thinking that the juice was kind of expensive when I heard the guy yelling something and running after me. He was coming to bring me the bills, the rest of my change. I guess he gave me the coins and then turned around to find the bills, and I just took off. That was nice of the guy…he didn’t have to do that.

Anyway, my flight to Mongolia has been delayed and I was scheduled to get in late anyway. Hopefully I won’t get in too late since the place where I’m staying has arranged for a ride to pick me up. When I checked in for the flight the guy thought I needed a visa to get into Mongolia. I checked the State Department’s website before the trip and I’m pretty certain I don’t need one as a US citizen for a short stay. We’ll see if I get in.

It took me a bit over 48 hours to get from Lima to Auckland.  The flight from Lima to Atlanta was 8 hours,  Atlanta to Seoul was 14 hours and Seoul to Auckland, 11 hours.  I had some time in Atlanta to call friends and family.  At the Seoul airport, I had 4 hours where there wasn’t a whole lot to see.  I bypassed the Quiznos and Subway and had lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant.  A tasty spicy fried rice dish with soup.  Later, for the meal service on the plane to Auckland, I had to choose between chicken and a traditional Korean meal called bibimbap.  Being adventurous I chose the Korean meal…the flight attendant seeing I wasn’t Korean, went into the galley and got me an instruction card on how to make/eat the bibimbap.  The Korean guy next to me was laughing because I had to use the instructions, so he told me to just follow him.  It was basically a rice bowl where you had to put in all the ingredients separately with different vegetables, sesame oil and a tube of spicy hot sauce.  It came with a bowl of seaweed soup. Pretty good for airplane food. It turns out I’ll get to spend more time in Seoul next month.  My connecting flight was rescheduled so I’ll get an evening and a full day there.  There’s a subway to downtown Seoul right from the airport so it should be easy to get into the city for a look around.

When I arrived in Auckland I was a little concerned about my drive from the airport to the city because a) I haven’t driven on the other side of the road since South Africa, b) I was sleep deprived after all the travel, and c) it was pouring down rain.  I took it slow, concentrated and kept reminding myself to stay left. My hotel is downtown a couple of blocks from the Sky Tower, supposedly the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I got to the hotel too early and my room wasn’t ready, so I decided to go check out Auckland.  The rain had stopped so I walked to the waterfront where there were restaurants, shops and a ferry terminal. I took a ferry to Devonport based on info I got at the terminal. It was a good choice and I ended up spending much of the afternoon there.  Devonport’s a quaint seaside village filled with places to eat, coffee shops, art galleries, used bookstores and antique shops. I followed the walking tour map which I got from the info center and kept stopping at places along the route.  I bought a book on New Zealand road trips at a book shop which will be a good reference as I drive south through the country over the next 12 days.  The views from Devonport of the city were great as you walked along the waterfront. Devonport was one of those places where I kept saying to myself that I could easily live here as I walked around.

When I got back to the city I walked around the downtown area for a while more.  I’m glad I was able to get a full day in Auckland.  Tomorrow morning I’ll head out into the country and start to see some of the natural beauty NZ is known for.