South Korea Part 2 - Marie

This really is an amazing place!!  We've only had just over a week here, but we've seen so many different sides of the country and experienced so many different things.  After visiting Kirsty's friends we headed to the east (near the North Korean border) for a couple of days in the Seoraksan mountains.  The area is a national park and was absolutely stunning, especially with the autumn colours at this time of year.  We stayed in a hotel inside the park with gorgeous views from the balcony, and the most helpful manager called Charlie who became our new best friend!  He helped us out with so much stuff and even asked to take our photo when we left!  We did 3 different walks while we were there, varying lengths but all pretty uphill!  We're still a bit achey after doing about 20k the first day and a further 6k warmdown the second day...  I enjoyed seeing wild chipmunks for the first time :) and also being given free food by random strangers!  First of all we were given 3 satsumas and then an apple and some dried squid... Laura was brave enough to try the squid but we decided it would probably be best to give it to someone who would actually enjoy it, so we passed it on to a group of friendly men, who in return gave us a cucumber and some delicious Korean pear!  So it was a good deal all in all!

After the mountains we came back to Seoul for 2 nights before heading off to Malaysia tomorrow.  This time we stayed in a university area which had a totally different feel to it and it was almost like being in a different city altogether.  We made the most of the local area, with a Korean bbq restaurant, some bars, dancing to 80s K-pop, cycling by the river (including on a tandem!!), markets and a spot of successful Friday night shopping.

To summarise, it's been a great trip so far and definitely a great start!!

Marie