I have managed to escape the madness of Jeongdongjin and made it safely back to the port of Donghae. I spent the day with Taegeun exploring the intricacies of Korean food before resuming my journey to Japan. It’s no surprise that dried fish in all its forms is prevalent in much Korean cooking. Other than fish, pork seems to be the main source of meat. In case you are wondering, there is dog here to be eaten, but it does not seem to be a featured ingredient in every day restaurants. I did actually see a man selling dogs, kept […]
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I know what you might be thinking, but I promise that I have not been charged with any offences from my big night out in Jeongdongjin. Instead just a short post to reflect on South Korean law enforcement. Last night Taegeun and I were a little lost and looking for the right kind of bar. He asks a local policemen for some directions. I’m thinking about this. In England what would the response be? Maybe something like “down the road, turn left, drink responsibly and keep the noise down when you leave, sonny”..? Well here I listened and politely paid […]
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My stay in South Korea is planned to be for just 24 hours. The Eastern Dream is breaking with its usual schedule and stoping here overnight. I’m guessing this is to let the crew have a night off for New Year. I have booked to stay in a hotel that is an hour away from the port. It’s famous in Korea for its view of the sunrise each day, and I’m staying here for the biggest sunrise of the year – bringing in the New Year. Oh, and yes it’s also a ship, built on a cliff. The problem with my plan […]
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The Eastern Dream is a Japanese built ship run by a South Korean company. It’s a small ship carrying mixed freight and passengers, I would guess 200 or so of us. That is probably 150 Koreans, 49 Russians and one Englishman. It’s not an uncomfortable boat to be a passenger on, but the accommodation is rather spartan and hugely expensive. My bunk is in a room shared with seven other Russians (they seem to segregate nationalities) at a cost of $350 USD. Most people are in dormitory rooms of 30 or so, some in bunks, some sleeping on mats on […]
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The “Easter Dream”, courtesy of Marine Traffic In 1989 “Around the World in 80 Days” was a major success for the BBC and a new turn for Michael Palin’s slightly flagging career. This show was at least partly to blame for creating my latent desire to attempt off beat journeys, something that I had little time for until a couple of years ago. After all, not many people would be able to get away with telling the boss, their clients, and significant others that they were off for a journey where phone coverage was scare and without a return date! […]
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The Yonago “manga train” courtesy of lowco2motives Apologies for not posting recently. I have been swithering a lot about my next trip, and today I have made the final decision. I need to update the “departure board” to read “Tokyo via Vladivostok”! If you have not read my recent blog posts, this winter I had hoped to travel through Central Asia, taking advantage of the route out of Russia and through Kasakhstan. I encountered several problems planning and researching this journey. Firstly that travel to the other Stans was looking like hard work by train – not impossible, but for […]
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