We've had our first week in Seoul, and it's been wonderful! For those of you who don't know, Lindsay lived out here for a year five years ago, teaching English. This is the first chance she's had to revisit it. It'll be interesting to see how it has changed.

Sunday 26th June - arrived in Seoul. Compared to China, Seoul is wonderfully quiet! We had our first taste of Korean hospitality at the airport when two workers at the airport saw us looking a bit lost and helped us out. They took us to an ATM, showed us how to used it, got a trolley for our bags, loaded it up and pushed it for us, took us all the way to the metro ticket machines and helped us buy our tickets! We were beginning to think they were going to come all the way into town with us to make sure we got to our hostel!

We're staying at Golden Pond in what is essentially a bedsit. We've got a bed, a toaster, a fridge freezer and a portable gas cooker - very cosy!

Monday 27th June - Lotte World and the COEX aquarium. Our first morning in Korea started with a bang, literally! It rained today so we were limited to doing indoor things. Fortunately this was all the excuse we needed to head to Lotte World - an indoor theme park! And our first stop when we got there? The shooting range! We fired 9mm Glocks, and it was terribly exciting! Then into the theme park itself for roller coasters, log flumes and a monorail.

When we'd exhausted our adrenalin supplies we calmed ourselves with a trip to the COEX aquarium. It's surprisingly big for something that's inside a shopping mall. They have all kinds of interesting displays, as well as a beaver and some manatees. Neither of us had ever seem these animals in real life before, so that was great. Beavers are quite big!

Tuesday 28th June - Namdaemun market, Doeksegung Palace, Jogyesa temple and Insa-dong. The market is a massive sprawl of shops selling everything you ever possibly need, from clothes and shoes to cutlery and crockery to imported chocolates and bedspreads. It's completely overwhelming! Then we headed to Doeksegung Palace. This is quite a small complex but it's quite pretty and relaxing after the madness of the market. And we got to see a pretty black and white squirrel!

Jogyesa temple is the headquarters for the Bhuddist religion in Korea. Not that you'd know it from the temple itself. It stands alone in a patch of dusty land, unlike all the temples we saw in China with several temple buildings surrounded by a wall. There was some kind of ceremony going on and the place was filled with monks wearing the traditional Korean Bhuddist grey clothing. There are several places in Korea where you can spend a day and a night at a temple living the life of a monk, so we went to the tourist office to talk to someone about doing this. The ladies in there were wonderful and not only gave us a paper lantern each as a free gift but also gave us a free DVD about Bhuddism!

Our final stop was Insa-dong, a touristy shopping area but with more handicrafts and unique items than the usual tat. We stumbled across a whole section off the main drag that was full of wonderful handmade jewellery.

Wednesday 29th June - War Museum and Yongsang. It was raining again so we headed back indoors to the War Museum. This is a very interesting place. Largely devoted to the Korean War (understandably), the displays take you through the whole thing from beginning to end. It's amazing to see how the war progressed. Did you know that there was a point when the North had taken over 90% of the country? And then later the situation was completely reversed and the South thought the war was as good as won? It was quite an eye-opener. Outside they have loads of tanks and airplanes. Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain we only managed a very quick trot around them before heading to the underground.

Yongsang is the digital and technological heart of Seoul. Or at least it was when Lindsay was here before. However, it seems not to have changed in the slightest over the past five years. A handful of iPads nestle amongst CD walkmans and defunct games consoles. We went expecting to come back laden with cheap gadgets. We left empty-handed.

Thursday 30th June - Uijeongbu, Gyeongbukung Palace and Myeongdong. Lindsay taught English just north of Seoul in Uijeongbu so we went back to revisit it. It was really nice for Lindsay to see where she lived for a whole year. The apartment block, the ice cream shop, the supermarket, the restaurant... all still there. The English school, however, was not. Judging from the signs outside it seems to have become some sort of general study school probably to help students through exams. But everything else was just the same.

We then headed back into Seoul to visit Gyeongbukung Palace. This is fairly big and set in beautiful grounds. There is a massive, two-storey hall set on a lake which used to feature on the back of one of the bank notes but doesn't appear to now. There were lots of amateur photographers with huge camera taking pictures of this landmark, and one of them kindly offered to take a picture of us. We were very wary as we were convinced he'd want something in return. He played with the settings on our camera, lined us up, took a coupled of snaps, repositioned us, took a couple more and then handed the camera back to us and left. Not only did he want nothing from us, he didn't even stay around long enough for us to say thank you! We also had another animal encounter, this time with a chipmunk!

At the end of the day we visited Myeongdong, which is just several streets of shops and stalls. It's funny though, as the stalls are selling fakes and knock-offs right in front of the shops that are selling the real deal! Why bother popping into the Adidas store when you can pick up the same pair of trainers for a fraction of the price outside?

Friday 1st July - Icheon. This is a town outside Seoul that is famous for its pottery. After the tube, a bus and a taxi, we got to the Icheon Ceramic Village, which consists of dozens of potters each with their own warehouse-size shop filled to the rafters with all kinds of pottery items in lots of different styles and designs. You really have to see one of the shops to appreciate the sheer volume of stuff these guys are churning out.

For lunch we found a little restaurant but as we were heading toward it we got waylaid by one of the potters. He gestured for us to follow him into his studio, so we did, not having a clue what he wanted. It turned out he just wanted to let us see the inside of a potter's studio. He spoke no English and just stood back while we wandered around. Then, as we were leaving, he gave us a pot each to take away. And that was that!

We'd read in the guide book that there was a place where you could have a go at pottery yourself. We hadn't spotted the place on our walk around the village so we asked the restaurant owner if he knew where it was. He didn't, but quick as a flash he had the guide book off us and was calling the number of the place for directions. But this turned out to be unnecessary as the owner decided to come out and pick us up!

When we got there it was apparent that the owner spoke very little English. He called his English-speaking daughter on the phone and got her to explain to us what was going to happen, but after that we were on our own! The owner demonstrated how to make a small pot and the left us with a lump of clay to make our own, which was quite fun. When we were done he gave us some overalls and led us to the potter's wheel. This is more like it! Taking it in turns we each 'helped' him make a vase before he let us loose on the wheel together. After he'd shown us the basics, we eventually managed to come up with a fairly decent looking vase! The guy was lovely and took photos and videos of us playing on the wheel. We then arranged to have all our goodies fired, glazed and shipped back to the UK.

At the end if the afternoon he offered to drive us back to the bus station but insisted we went via the ceramics EXPO centre. It turns out the EXPO centre is undergoing remodelling so what he actually took us to was a building site. We got a few odd looks from the builders, but a quick word from our guy and we were waved through. It turns out that his daughter is working on the remodelling, so we went to meet her. Her team was working on what would be a beautiful little building, with huge flowers all over it made up of broken bits of ceramics. She gave us a quick tour of it, it turned out to be a toilet! Well it's certainly going to be a lovely toilet when it's done!

Bye!
Lindsay and Chris