I only seem to get around to writing this once in a blue moon these days. Hope you’ve managed to get by without it.
I’d like to start by showing you a couple of products that just wouldn’t sell in the UK because of the name:
There’s the ‘Dr. Frog’ skin cream …
and the delightfully named pizza company ...
As you can see, they’re really proud of this name.
And this one is what it says it is, but I don’t see it catching on back home.
I wrote about the Korean obsession with sugar in a previous blog. This cafe knows this so well, they even advertise it.
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I’m busy trying to walk across the country at the moment. I’ve always wanted to do the British ‘Coast to Coast’ walk that takes you across the Lake District and Yorkshire but just haven’t found time. This will happen of course but in the meantime I thought I’d do a Korean equivalent. I started in September and have to do it in bits as it's hard to take 3 weeks' leave.
As mentioned before, this country is remarkable in the way that it is set up for keeping fit. Here’s an example, some gym equipment in the middle of a busy road junction.
This one is for inverting yourself (not sure why). You see these in all gyms - indoor and outdoor.
Even the water is healthier - here is a bottle of water in a restaurant. The stones make it healthier, or are supposed to anyway.
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As well as ‘inverting machines’ and healthy water, Korea has cycle paths everywhere. Here's my route, showing how far I've got. I'm following one of them the whole way. Top left is Incheon - where Seoul's main airport is; bottom right is Busan, Korea's second largest city. I'm about three quarters of the way. One more week needed.
The cycle path makes things easy. It’s clearly signposted and there are motels and convenience stores the whole way.
It starts here, at Ara Lock, Incheon and follows a canal to Seoul. In September this was really busy with bikes, skaters and, at that time year, spiders everywhere. As well as spiders, I came across lots of praying mantis just sitting in the tarmac. They’re not the brightest - they just sit motionless until a bike runs them down.
I came across 4 snakes in 2 days too. Out topping up the tan. I think they were rat snakes and not harmful. One of them was too small to make it up the kerb so I gave it some help. I used a stick because I really didn’t want my arm swelling up, going black and falling off. The largest one was about 2 feet long but he wasn’t having his photo taken due to being a bit camera shy.
Walking alone means you meet people and they want to chat. And share their food. In September I was sitting in a shelter trying to get out of the sun when an elderly couple cycled up and stopped. We had a short chat as best as my Korean would allow and they realized I hadn’t had lunch so out came theirs. However, Mr. Cyclist didn’t want to hang around so he went on for a bit more biking leaving Mrs Cyclist to feed me with a homemade picnic. We put a mat out and worked our way through a range of homemade things - apple, sweet potato, and a few things I couldn’t identify.
As far as I could manage we had a chat. She was shocked to discover I was on my own - Korea is a land where most things are done in groups. This is demonstrated most at the dining table - eating is communal; the food is served in lots of small dishes and everyone helps themselves from there. As for walking alone, well, my Korean doesn’t stretch to being able to say that I don’t know anyone else this daft. She eventually made her way and I was left to a very long straight path in the heat.
A nice lady in the café gave me some satsumas and what she called a rice cake. I wasn’t sure exactly what was in the rice cake (yeah I know - rice and cake) but I ate it. I’m still not entirely sure.
Potato pancakes make good walking food. You can find cafes selling these everywhere. The chap in the background was keen to share his soju with me (a popular Korean drink) but I wanted to keep walking, ideally in a straight line, and that stuff makes this difficult so I declined.
And of course, potato pancake sandwiches with sugar in. This mobile cafe was just what I needed when I needed it.
Most of the route follows a river. In Seoul this can be a bit unpleasant
but there are nicer parts and the locals make the most of these areas for family fun
However, once out of town, the views are lovely.
They even make the tunnels attractive.
I’ve mentioned before that Korea is full of helpful signs and here are two more. This one tells you there’s a hill, just when you’re on it ...
and this one tells you there’s a toilet coming in 30m. You can see it on the right.
This one has nothing to do with the walk but it’s a great example of being helpful - glasses in a post office.
As I said before, this country feels very safe. Apart from the odd crazy driver and the threat of nuclear war there are very few threats. Walking alone seems fine.
Even the motels I stayed in were safety-conscious. Every room had an emergency rope. Some have chest straps for lowering yourself but some appear to expect you to just walk hand over hand down the wall. This would be tricky but the biggest thing that worried me was that it had 15m written on the box and I was on the sixth floor.
There were plenty of interesting and amusing things to see along the way. At times I had no idea what is going on but I’ve learned a bit and could explain a few of them.
For instance, I now know that this is part of the kimchi preparation process
and this is persimmon drying.
This one worried me a bit …
But this one I can explain ...
The Korean letter ㄹ is somewhere between ‘l’ and ‘r’. Koreans regularly mix these up. For some time at work I was confused about my colleagues referring to our ‘royal’ customers. Now I get it.
However, ’Not sure why’ could be my mantra in Asia; I bought lunch at Tous Les Jours one day. It’s a great cafe that does good coffee, sandwiches and cakes. The tray came with large scissors on it. Not sure why.
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Merry Christmas!
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