A bit of background

People keep asking me how do I plan a trip around the world. Well, I use my usual approach of daydreams, pipedreams, tenuous grasp on reality and a list of everywhere in the world I want to go. Which is basically everywhere I haven't been to, with a few places that I have, thrown in.

The truth is that I have never planned a trip like this one before. I lived in England every year of my life until November 1998. Mum had taken us into Europe many times as children and I guess that either a) spoilt us or b) gave us an appreciation of other cultures and a deep seated love of travel. So when a friend suggested that I join her and her boyfriend for a year long trip to Australia it would have been churlish to refuse. I spent six months with them and six months on my own travelling up the east coast and down through the centre. We passed through Greece and Thailand on the way to Oz and I spent a very enjoyable day in Bali on the way back, though I was so sunburnt I had to stay in the shade all day.

Arriving back in England in December 1999 I knew that I wasn't there to stay for long. With a slightly less ambitious idea, I had decided while in the tomato fields of Bowen, North Queensland, that I would move to Ireland just as soon as I could. Must have been the heat or something. Obviously I had debts to pay off when I got home to England and I guess that going to America for a fortnight didn't help pay those off.

I got a job and worked for a while in my home town. Which was scary only because my boss was one of my old classmates and it is hard to have respect for someone you have seen turn a funny shade of red during the childbirth video in Biology class. One day I went into town to buy some clothes for work and accidentally bought a ticket to Amsterdam for a week. I knew then that I was lost.

I came back from Amsterdam and a couple of weeks later departed to Ireland. With very little in the way of cash or clues. I stayed there for nine months until someone told me I should go to South Africa so I went. I met my friend there and pootled around having an amazing adventure for six weeks.

we saw some amazing things

When I came back I got a job managing the hostel that I had been living in. I only stuck that out for three months before running off to Turkey.

I got offered a job there too but it was too hot so I went home to Dublin.

A couple of months later, newly acquire TEFL certificate in my hand, I came to Korea. I have attempted to leave once but came back after eleven weeks and two weeks in Italy.

And now I have been in Gangneung for nearly two years. Tomorrow I will tell you how to plan the escape-- or maybe tonight. And, in case you were wondering, yes this was just an excuse to show some old photos!

Happy Birthday Rory!

Today is my friend, Rory's, birthday. Last night was his party. I took my camera but no photos. So here is one from his party last year- just imagine his hair shorter and the pair of us with normal coloured eyes.

It was at Rory's party last year that I met a guy who offered me a job which was a relief after months of worrying over how I would get to stay in Gangneung. This year, I kept my eyes to the ground to avoid being offered any jobs. Given the way I feel about Gangneung and the people here it would be hard to turn one down. Except for the whole having bought a Round the World ticket thing. It is never going to be easy to leave Korea and Gangneung in particular. But after three years in Korea I feel that I owe it to myself to see what else there is in the world.

I am sure that I will be back in six months though!

Not in Gwangju, in fact, barely out of bed

I am in Gangneung. Not Gwangju. I didn't go to the bus terminal. I didn't get on a bus and I certainly didn't disembark at Gwangju bus terminal a mere five and a half hours later.

Looking around for someone to blame I am going to have to go with a combination of whoever gave me the free tequila (over and over) and whoever suggested we go to the norae bang (me, I believe).

So no photos of beautiful babies- just a bunch of apologies for those I didn't make it down to see this weekend.

Here is a photo of the mountains to take your mind off it

Another weekend on a bus

It is Friday- hooray! The weeks do seem to be racing by at the moment. I guess that the closer I get to leaving Korea the faster time will pass- wonder if Einstein had a theory on ESL contracts and their effect on time. Since my time here is running out I have decided that I have to make the most of my weekends- rather than just lying in bed all day, though there is a place for that too, obviously. To that end, I am going to visit friends in Gwangju tomorrow.

Now that all sounds nice and lovely until I tell you that Gwangju is at least a five and a half hour bus ride away from Gangneung. It took the best part of eight hours to get home last time I visited- during which time the TV on the bus was on and blaring out some comedy show which seemed to last the whole journey. The other thing is that I have to get up early to go. I have researched the bus times this time as last time I went I just missed the bus and had to wait another two hours for the next one- and I had got there at 7.30am.

But I have found the ideal thing to while away wasted hours at the bus terminal

Mini singing rooms (norae bang) which me and Tania happened across on our way to Chuncheon last week (can't help thinking that the woman on the door of the norae bang might have just heard my singing- she looks in pain and appears to be mouthing the words 'oh god no, why me??'). They are very snug though

It might be worth getting there a couple of hours early. And if I found myself missing breakfast I could always pop to this shop in the terminal for a tasty, though smelly, snack

Can't see myself finding any Mars Bars there though. I know that I will be spending a large part of the journey sleeping. I know this because there is something about being on a moving vehicle that just sends me to la-la land immediately- usually to the disgust of the driver who has brought me along for company. When on an aeroplane I am hard pressed to stay awake until the plane has reached the runway. And I am sure that Matt was less than impressed when I kept falling asleep while driving through National Parks in South Africa, missing all the wildlife.

I am not likely to miss any marauding lions on the way to Gwangju but Korea is so beautiful at this time of year. On the way to Chuncheon last week we saw so much snow and snow covered mountains. Every time I tried to take a photo something would get in the way. But I did get one shot as we reached the less snowy areas. And the blue skies almost make the cold worthwhile...almost

Wish me luck! And it is worth remembering that Korean buses don't have toilets on them

Message for Sam

I think that it is too spicy for you, would you like a fork?

OK, OK, it has only been a couple of days since I last wrote something but already I can feel the pressure to update on an almost obsessive scale. Worryingly, when I am not actually typing things into this blog I find that I am talking about it. So I have torn myself away from Bumpin for a couple of hours, to give my friends a break from my babbling and to type this.

You might have noticed a slight tendency for me to eat dak galbi at the drop of a hat. Well, I have just got in from another night in the chicken restaurant. It is not that dak galbi is the only thing that we could eat here in Korea- we are a little spoilt for choice- we did find this tasty option at the bus terminal in Chuncheon

In case you are a little confused, that really is a cup of cola with spaghetti in the top of it. And you have the option of cheese balls or even squid balls (no jokes about not knowing that squid had balls!). My students assure me that it is great.

I am not so sure. I did get tempted by another item recently- kimchi chocolate.

It is not altogether as nasty as it sounds. It both looks and tastes like chocolate and just when you think you are safe and can relax... that is when the spiciness hits in. Now I am a fan of spicy food but this is a chocolate bar too far for me. However I do know at least one avid chocoholic who just can't be put off

But I am lucky. I don't need to hit the kimchi chocolate for a wee choccie hit- at least not for another couple of days. A friend who has recently returned from England, via Barbados, Cambodia and Thailand dropped off a few things at my house last week

something to read and something to munch on while doing so- good work, Patrick!

And that is all for now.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

People have been asking me, and with some justification, when I am actually planning on arriving in each country. I have booked all the flights but can change the dates later in the trip if I so wish. But here is a map to give you a clue where I am going and then the dates I arrive or depart places.




London dep. 31st May - Singapore dep. 2nd June - Vietnam dep. 17th July - Perth arr. 17th July overland Sydney dep. 21st August - Christchurch arr. 21st August overland to Auckland dep. 14th Sept - Fiji dep. 30th Sept - Cook Islands dep. 5th Oct - Tahiti dep. 7th Oct- Los Angeles arr. 7th Oct overland to New York dep. 1st Nov - London arr. 2nd Nov

Spice up your life

Phew, the end of a weekend. I feel like I have been on the go since Wednesday. I went out on Wednesday night for my usual dak galbi (spicy chicken barbecue) feast with Tania and Renee. I might have popped to Bumpin for a quick half after but I was home early because I was up early on Thursday morning. I had said that I would help the school for a couple of hours, they had a visiting group of seven year olds to entertain. I danced, sang, played about and pretended to work in a hamburger store all morning. It was exhausting and only once I had finished did my working day start. So, somehow it seemed only fair that I go out that night. And it was hardly my fault if there were other people in the bar who convinced me to stay out!

Crawling into bed around four-ish, I set the alarm to wake me up early the next day as I was meeting a mate in the morning before work. By the end of Friday I was knackered but had to go out to a birthday party that night. No problem, I could have a lie in on Saturday.

But I had forgotten, during the blissfully quiet two month winter vacation, that the elementary school across the road from me would be waking me up at the crack of dawn with the Korean National Anthem since the little darlings were back at school. I gritted my teeth throughout their morning exercises and by the time they had finished it was time to get to the bus terminal where I was meeting Tania.

And the reason that I was meeting her??? Because we were going to Chuncheon, the home of dak galbi, for a weekend of chicken feasting. The bus ride from Gangneung takes around two hours and it is an awesome ride through the snow covered mountains. The view was worth the trip alone but things got even better when we arrived in the city just in time for dinner. We went to Dak Galbi Street in Myeongdong. It is literally dak galbi restaurant after dak galbi restaurant- we were in heaven!

We were spoilt for choice but in the end had no choice as the ajummas stood outside their restaurants and were practically clawing at us to get us in to eat. We gave in and had some great food at Joong Ang dak galbi which claims to be the original dak galbi restaurant. We ate and ate. In fact that was about all we did that night.

We did go out to a bar but after two drinks we were both done in though they were very pretty drinks!

We got up this morning and went for a walk by the lake but it was so cold that we ended up taking refuge in another dak galbi restaurant and staying for lunch. Well, I say that we took refuge, by that I mean that we got into a taxi and asked them to take us to dak galbi street asap! After that we came home to Gangneung.

As far as I can see Chuncheon is in a beautiful location with some great scenery. And the dak galbi restaurants are all that you could imagine. The other reason for going there is if you are a fan of the Korean drama 'Winter Sonata'. There are images from the show all over the city, nestled amongst the Christmas decorations- which are inexplicably still everywhere. It was a good weekend but no more chicken for me... at least not until this Wednesday!

A New Year, A New mullet

My students returned to school this week, some of them after a week's absence for the Lunar New Year. And I was horrified when a formerly cute but slightly dishevelled nine year old appeared with a brand new mullet. I am not sure if the mother just couldn't afford to have the whole head of hair cut or whether she is a fan of the eighties but the kid seems unaware of the reaction this haircut might elicit.

Not all of my students have changed their appearance over the holiday. Some have just bought new stuff which I eagerly persued in the search of flexible use of English. And I found a couple of beauties. First there is a bag

And then a pencilcase

which leads me onto something I picked up recently off a make up counter

Scary stuff!

I promise not to overplay this Konglish thing but some things have to be shared!

Here are some cigarettes with valuable love advice for those searching for The One

A Monday morning spent ignoring Valentine's Day

Ah, it is Monday morning again and this week I have to work a full week, no lovely lunar new year to give me a few days off. Never mind. I had a pretty quiet weekend this weekend, for a change. A quiet dinner with friends and a visiting mum on Friday, visiting a friend on Saturday night and a pub crawl last night. Ah hang on, that is where things got a little silly.

But first, Saturday night. I went to visit my friend, Mona, her boyfriend and their dog for the night. We ate more fried chicken than can possibly be described as sensible, washed down with beer, before getting crazy and .... doing a jigsaw puzzle!!!

I made Mona promise not to tell anyone that this is how I chose to spend my Saturday night but the feeling of satisfaction when we finished actually made me want to boast about it. Actually, it took a long time to finish- for this was no ordinary jigaw. On one side was the picture but on the other was alphabet coding to make the puzzle 'easier'. Hum, we neared completion and were left with two pieces and two holes in the puzzle- none of which fitted together. So, with much stealth and precision we turned the puzzle over to reveal the mess we had made of the alphabet on the other side- and us two English teachers! The shame. We fixed it and then just stood back and gazed at our artwork for while.

Mona lives in a great apartment outside of Gangneung and it was great to wake up on Sunday morning to the views from her balconies- which run along both sides of the apartment. It was a classic Korean winter day- blue blue skies but cold. Very beautiful.

I went back to Gangneung in the evening and had to make up for a quiet night by going out with my mate, Tania. She had spent the last ten days with her mum so we had a lot to catch up on. We started the night at Bumpin (local foreigner favourite), then onto the Warehouse, Absolut, Yaz and finishing with some late night sam gyup sal (pork barbecue) at Da-ree.

It was a good way to finish the weekend and there is nothing like staying out late on a school night. Especially if one of you spots your boss all liquored up on soju in the wee small hours!

The tickets have arrived

I got home from Seoul last night to a message from my mum telling me that the tickets have arrived at her house in England. I guess that it would be more exciting if I could actually see them- so hope to catch her on the webcam later. Apparantely it is my job to make sure that she remembers where she has put them otherwise I am going nowhere!

And what was I doing in Seoul in the middle of the week? Well, we had three days off this week to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Because the holidays come off the lunar calendar they can often fall in the middle of the week, so we were off Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (today). Most of the population of Korea will have got into a car, on a bus or train and headed off to their family homes for a few days indulgence and ancester honouring. Many of the foreigners, however, embarked on an epic voyage to their nearest watering hole. I went to Seoul on Tuesday and spent most of the night dancing in Itaewon- after losing at Jenga and Connect Four and managing to not make too much of a show of myself in the International Drinking game.

Getting up on Wednesday was a struggle- I was aching all over from the dancing, I am not as young as I used to be. But I dragged myself to the COEX shopping mall with Renee and Margo. The subway was nice and empty and even the mall seemed to be rather roomy for a change when we first arrived. But we found where all the people were when we tried to go and watch a movie. Ah well.

We saw a few funny things- such as a stall full of clothes for dogs:

including hanboks, traditional dress, for dogs

there were also lots of people in traditional dress for the holidays which made for a colourful day

After our time in the mall I had to trek back across town to meet up with some other friends. Rather than a traditional day of tidying our family tombs and drinking soju, we were meeting to do that other popular Korean past time- watching the soccer!

This was my first trip to the Seoul World Cup stadium and the first time that I have been to see a football game since the heady days of the 2002 World Cup. Back in those days it was hot so I really was't prepared for the temperatures last night and seemed to be the only person in the stadium not wrapped in a blanket. A friend bought me a headscarf to keep my ears warm and there was a lot of jumping around during the match to keep the cold away. Another mate also lent me the corner of her blanket when it started to get colder.

It was a very exciting match. It brought back a lot of memories of 2002 as well. I wished that the old crowd was with me. But they weren't. Korea romped home with a 2-0 victory over Kuwait- the atomosphere was incredible. As I was fighting my way through the crowds to get back to the subway I was glad that the home team had won.

There was a lot of singing and throwing of toilet paper. When I took my coat off on the bus on the way back to Gangneung I had to laugh as a bunch of newspaper confetti fell out of the hood. Today I am taking it easy. Relax and mentally prepare myself for working tomorrow.

Happy New Year and welcome to the year of the Rooster!

Other things that I could be spending the money on

I got up this morning to find that my inflatable globe had deflated during the night. Guess that I shouldn't have used pins to mark the route. I hope that it isn't a sign!

Well, the money is committed to the going around the world project. But last night I got a case of the doubts again. Then I justified it because this is what I have been saving money for. And if I wasn't buying this ticket and taking this trip, then what would I be spending the money on??

And these are the ideas that I came up with:

• 860 bags of chips and garlic sauce
• 2457 bars of Dairy Milk

• 6 round trip tickets from Korea to Japan
• two round trip tickets from Korea to Cambodia at peak season

• three quarters of my laptop computer
• 28,666 cans of Tesco economy baked beans
• 286 pints of Stella

• 430 bottles of Cass beer in my local bar

• 245 servings of Korean barbecue
• 5,733 ballpoint pens

On reflection I think I will stick to the original plan