I said in my last post that things were about to get interesting and here I am in Itaewon. Where's that you say? Shhh! It's the red light district of Seoul in South Korea! A fried of mine attending the same conference as me suggested coming here because the Hotel D'oro where I'm staying is inexpensive and comfortable and was recommended by a UN official.
It's less convenient for my daily destination - COEX - which is about 18 stops away on the subway, but the system is fast, efficient and cheap from what we've seen of it. Itaewon is very cosmopolitan and Michael and I have jsut had breakfast in a French Patisserie. Just at the entrance to the hotel is a Saudi Arabian restaurant and, across the road, is Dubai cuisine. Have you ever had one of those? Sheep's eyeballs were not on the menu I looked at. Abd on the hill-side opposite, rising above a jumble of old buildings, is a very large mosque. Funny that! About 1/3rd of the population here is Christian and most of the rest are Buddhist. As I write this, Michael has returned to be with his wife and son while we wait until we leave for conference registration and a banquet at about 3.30 this afternoon (8 hourse in front of the UK and 8 hours (less a day) behind California.
The trip across yesterday on Asiana Airlines (Korean) was more interesting than the averag long-distance (10 hour +) flight. To start with, I was just about to bed myself down in a row 22 seat (in steerage class) when a steward came up to me and said "would you mind transfering to row 3 in business class. I couldn't extract a reason for this outburst of hospitality, but I've never declined such a request. The service was fantastic: silver sutlery, lovely food (I selected an unknown to me Korean dish eaten with chopsticks), I occupied a seat with a dozen diferent controls for comfort, watched videos on a largish TV screen in front; watched a display put on by 6 hostesses wearing ancient to modern Korean outfits; and sipped whiskey, fortified wines and red bordeaux at no cost. No problems with Korean custons over my portfolio of baby-wear, Australian biscuits, and other items.
What can I say about Korean life as I've seen it. Not many people speak English, and even the hotel staff are a little challenged in that direction. 98% of the signage is in Korean, of which I speak not a word. The wrting all looks like a jumble and quite different from Chinese or Japanese script. However, the lift has a quotation from Geothe in it!Fortunately, the subway has nifty ticket machines with an English language option. Last night, my taxi driver was a maniac behind the wheel and we sped from Incheon airport (about 75km out) into town at some fantastic speeds, swapping lanes and zig-zagging behind slower vehicles. The trip cost only 19,000 won because an Australian colleague picked up most of my share on his expense account (sounds a lot but isn't).
One of the joys of my room is the toilet. I haven't used its full capabilities yet, partly because I cannot read the Korean instructions. Let's just say that its fully automated, to the extent doing away with toilet paper. I gather it washes one's nether regions and then blow-dries them! I won't let language diffulties get in the way of that!
Finally, I must say that the Koreans are charming hosts- very considerate. Pitty I'm here for such a short time.
AS
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