We touched down in Doha and spent an hour or so in the airport. It felt like we had been transported to another world, a parallel universe of facade and filthy amounts of wealth.
it is considered the best airport in the world. Everything was bigger, brighter and over the top! Harrods, Hermes, Louis Vuitton… the list goes on. Scratch beneath the surface and as with much of Qatar’s construction, it was built by a substantial amount of slave labour. Then, on the other hand, there are 16 prayer rooms to choose from.
Interestingly, there is a large Kaws sculpture called ‘Small Lie’ nestled in between Harrods and a cavier and saffron shop.
The ‘ rainforest’ provides respite from all the glitz. 22 thousand plants, with twinkling lights, walkways, and no birds but birdsong aplenty.
The souvenir shops were reassuredly tacky and on the way back I certainly had my eye on a number of things.
The next flight to Incheon airport, Korea, was just under 9 hours. Lots of lovely food, another paneer curry and passionfruit pudding. The time seemed to go very quickly. As we passed over Dubai we saw The Palm lit up.
When I was having 4o wink, Pete saw the northern Himalayas, which was exciting.
Touch down to leaving the airport was very speedy and organised, which was very appreciated.
Before rushing off I felt it was important to take stock before our next leg of the journey. The purple sweet potato iced drink helped to gather my thoughts!
We got the bus towards our Air B and B. Passing iconic silohouettes of the Seoul skyline, having some of the tallest buidings in the world. Bridges criss crossing the Han river.
Reassuringly, the bus driver was not averse to honking his horn, bus drivers of the world united! In fact, there does seem to be a lot of honking of horns, doing away with any preconceived ideas that Koreans are always laid back.
We didn’t feel particularly tired, but we made a number of errors finding where we were staying, which wasn’t great as the heat even in the evening was searing.
Finally, before a divorce was on the cards, we found where we should be, down a small side path. There was another place with the same name, five floors up with no lift!
It’s always hard to guage from photos what it would be like, but it was bigger than I expected, with a shower, so strong it didn’t pull any punches! To power through, we went out almost immediately.
We are close to the famous Myeongdong market, still open late into the night and stretching across several streets.
It was so lively, and very unexpected, with one stall after another selling moth-watering dishes, and others that turned my stomach. Lots of fried chicken, lobster, live octopus…..which we obviously didn’t have.
We had cheese sticks, and I tried to see how far I could stretch the cheese string, very long as it turned out! Processed cheese was introduced to Korea during the Korean War, influenced by US military bases. From not really having much cheese in their diets. the consumption of cheese has significantly grown in Korea, as the introduction of foods like pizza has become a popular staple.
We then had a more tradtional dish of ttekobokki. Long, fat cylinder shaped rice cakes, in a spicy chilli paste. Much, much hotter than the ones I have had in the UK, although my experience has been scant. In 2017 this dish made it’s way into North Korea and restaurants started serving it, but by 2024 it had been banned as it represents South Korean cuisine.
I can’t wait to go to the market again as the atmosphere was brilliant!
Heading home, we stopped at a pojangmacha, a traditional Korean bar serving ‘delicious’snacks, such as chicken feet and chicken gizzards. The cold beer went down very easily, with the complimentary popcorn.
And so we headed home, marvelling at how near our place was and how easy it was to find!
Random Acts of Travelling 