Anyway, no Nagasaki post because no Nagasaki. As my brother in law, Ken, says….”Nagasaki was a no glow.” Ken was doing some channeling of his own….my father-in-law was famous for bad puns and even worse jokes.
Back to the facts. Seamanship is a lot like pilotage in that the elements will affect your rate of travel and course. We left Taipei and had approximately 36 hours to travel roughly 612 nautical miles. This should ordinarily be no problem since our ship can easily make 20 plus knots in the right conditions. This of course before the terrible weather that we encountered for the last 2 days straight. We were pushing into a 30 knot headwind and sea swells that were at least 8-10 meters high. The best speed we could make in this weather (apparently just under gale force winds) was 12 knots. Needless to say…no way we were going to be able to stay on schedule. Thank god the captain made an executive decision and changed course for Seoul. As soon as he did, our cruise became more enjoyable. We avoided both the storm in the Sea of Japan and the myriad barf bags placed at every nook and cranny in the ship!
Okay. On to Seoul. Like everywhere else in Asia we have been, the Metro system is clean, well organized and cheap. It was roughly two dollars each to travel all the way into Seoul from Incheon which is about an hour and a half trip….quite a bargain. We did a little shopping in the Itaewon district of Seoul. I don’t usually get excited by shopping but there were a lot of great bargains down there and Pat talked me into getting some shirts made by a custom tailor. Genetic mutants are generally hard to fit with off-the-rack clothing so I thought I would give it a try. I bought a whole slew of shirts for a great price. Pat was very pleased with herself…..she also got her “purse fix” and picked up another stylish bag to add to the collection.
We also visited Gyeongbokkung Castle complex. Built at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty in 1394, this is just a beautiful artifact or what the Koreans call a “cultural asset” and one of few that still stand in Seoul.
WWII and later the Korean conflict pretty much flattened Seoul so most of the city now is quite modern. General MacArthur is considered a god here by the Koreans. I heard a story from a local that South Korea was so poor after the Korean war that the government decreed that the work day would be 18 hours and the school day would be 14 hours. This was the governments reaction to the widespread poverty at the time and has probably contributed to Korea’s rebirth…….a turnaround so staggering that post war Japan is probably the only other country that could compare. Today, Koreans still have one of the longest work days in the world. We found the Korean people to be extremely polite and understanding of ignorant foreigners in their midst.
That’s all the Seoul I have……
Okay…I promise no more bad puns in the next post.
Beijing is next!
By now you should be in Bejing. Can't wait to here about that. And can't wait to see the new shirts.
ReplyDelete