I spent a marvellous few days in Seoul, courtesy of Luc, who I know from university. The journey started in Vladivostok, where the ferry I was on was delayed for 8 hours, due to high wind. This was translated as “big wind” by the Koreans I was sharing my compartment with. When I arrived, one of them, who I can’t remember the name of, was in (or on) my bed. Due to the amount of stuff he had, we agreed to swap beds and instead of me going on the bottom, I went on the top. This person turned out to be the most friendly, although he knew Korean, English, Russian and Japanese, so some of the more difficult conversation was not possible. Luckily there was a Japanese traveller in the cabin, who translated from Japanese to English, where either hand gestures or facial expressions were used in return, in case there was an actual reply that was needed, in which case it was translated back again.

The Japanese traveller, Nori, had travelled on his motorbike from Malaysia to London, through Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. He had his bike on the ferry and had just spent the last 6 days on the Trans-Siberian from Moscow, have spent all of it on a hard sleeper. This basically meant that he was lying down for 20 hours a day, something that he didn’t really enjoy. I spoke to Nori, who was at a similar stage in life as I was, although doing different things and with different plans. It helped to have someone who spoke English, as the majority of people in my cabin were Korean and didn’t speak any English at all.

After thinking about how I was going to get from Donghae to Seoul, I realised that I really needed to ask some Koreans how to do it. Luckily, the person that was on my bed posed the question to the rest of the cabin, where people were happy to help. My guide was Kim, who offered to take me to Seoul and gave me a lot of advice in the meantime on what to do afterwards.

When we arrived in Donghae, I was allowed to go in the Korean-only section, as everybody I was with was Korean. We got let off first (before all the tourists) and I helped the friendly Korean man down the gangway with all of the bags of his wife’s clothing he was carrying. We met his wife, who bought Kim and I a can of pre-made coffee, after which we got in a taxi to the bus station.

Whilst we were waiting for the bus, my new Korean friends took me for my first meal in Korea. It was a traditional hot-pot style setup, with no shoes allowed, a type of Korean vodka and a very low table. We ate and discussed our ages (something that I now know is very important) and got on the 3-hour bus ride to Seoul. Kim pointed me in the direction of the metro station and we departed.

The next few days were spent eating, drinking, talking, going to a roller-disco (the first in Seoul), watching Bond (in English!), eating, drinking and going to the theatre. It was excellent. I got to see a side of Seoul that I wouldn’t have got to see otherwise and I met a lot of interesting and friendly people along the way. The whole experience set me up nicely for China, where things are done same-same, but different.