Wednesday, 29 June 2011

More fun in Seoul

The conference I'm attending is good and we've been catered for well. I've even managed to sort out some of the vagaries of Korean life. For example, I managed to crack the auromatic bottom wiping system without toilet paper! And the subway system is really user friendly when you know how to deal with the automatic ticketing system. The only problem there is the 19 stops and one change that I have endure! The journey to COEX takes 45 minutes on a good day. You'd never believe the number of people on the streeets: thousands, mostly walking fast somewhere or other. And, on the trains, there might be 100 people to a carriage, of whom 35 are text messaging!
The shopping centre at COEX is vast but strangely reminiscent of the Canberra Centre or similar - many of the same stores and a food court. The banquet last night, and today's lunch paid for by the World Bank (!) both featured Australian beef and comments on it were very favourable.
Oh well, it's nearly 9pm and I'm heading out for a meal. I'm grateful for the air conditioning in this hotel room as today was very sticky after torrential rain and I noticed on the return train journey tonight that the Hangang River is almost in flood. I hope we can get to the other side tomorrow when I'm due to present my paper.



Tony

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