I decided about 9 months ago that after finishing my second contract in Korea I would travel home via the Transiberian Express. It’s something I always thought about but never thought I’d be doing. And then I realised, there’s not going to be a better time to do it. So I bought the Lonely Planet guidebook, began scouring the internet, and sent messages to friends (and friends of friends) who’d undertaken any part of this journey for all and any info I could get.
My route begins in Korea (of course) from which a ferry to Qingdao in China, and then a train to Beijing will take me to the beginning of the real journey. From here, I follow the classic route to Moscow, via Mongolia, Lake Baikal and some other yet to be confirmed stops along the way. Finally, after a side trip to St Petersburg, it’s on into Europe to visit friends and then back to London for Christmas.
Transiberian sticky on Thorn Tree forum Lonely Planet website
Seat 61 How to travel by train from London to Russia
Weidong Ferry Korea to China without a flight
Way to Russia The Russian visa process is by far the most complicated. I used this website to get the sponsorship letter as well as to get my head around all the rules and regulations.
Russian Embassy in Korea The travel agent who arranged my Mongolian and Chinese visas said that Russia required me to have 3 months validity on my alien registration card as I was applying for a visa outside of my own country. This I do not have, as my Korean visa expires when I leave the country. Momentarily worried, I went straight to the Russian consulate and applied in person. No problem!
So now I’m off. Expect updates in December.
Misoya is a Koreanised Japanese-Western fusion fast food chain, serving sushi, udong (noodles in broth) and donkass (fried meat cutlets).
Everything is served on neat trays.
They also do take away.
Another favorite is Bonbibimbap, specialising in bibimbap (rice mixed in a bowl with vegetables, meat and hot sauce).
mushroom bibimbap
bulgogi rice
The sister chain, Bonjuk, serves healthy rice porridge.
pork…
or even duck…
Chicken is a little different. Dakgalbi is a mix of vegetables, chicken and hot sauce, cooked at the table with numerous types of add-ons (rice, noodles, cheese!).
But if you prefer your chicken a little more western, you won’t fail to find fried chicken joints as often as you’ll find a galbi restaurant. My favorite is Chicken & Beer, which serves, not at all surprisingly, fried chicken and pitchers of beer. There’s also the purely Korean dish of golbaengi, a cold salad of noodles, shellfish and hot, hot sauce.
A different kind of fast-food is Pizza School. For 5,000won you can get a thin base pepperoni pizza in 5 minutes.
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, Mr Pizza could be just the thing. 
The slogan is ‘Love for women’ – it’s supposed to be healthy. The salad bar is certainly very yummy.
The pizzas are rather unusual; they often have odd flavour sauces (alfredo cream, anyone?) and additions (sweet potato mousse crust) which can be rather strange, but I’ve grown to like some of them. ‘Curry Curry’, which somehow tastes like curry powder, ‘potato and shrimp’ which is half and half, with a crust “that taste like European sweet cookies and blueberry sauce dip” (yes, it really does!), and ‘neo crunch’, with a cracker-thin cheddar cheese crust.
Another chain I wouldn’t mind seeing back home is Tom N Toms. It’s a coffee shop, but it also sells freshly baked pretzels. My favorite is peperoni, just like a mini pizza.
Of course, if sitting down wastes too much time, there’s always the standby of street food…
or ramen (cup noodle) available in every corner shop.
Last year I went up 63 Building on Yeouido at night, but I really think day time is best for appreciating the full size of this megalopolis.
As the evening begins to draw in, a cruise down the Han River provides some more lovely vistas.
The boat is even more cheesy than the picture postcard views.
Replete with real(ish) pirates of the Han River.
However, when you see the tombs in the wider landscape they seem to fit so perfectly with the mountains, they could have grown from the earth by themselves.
The Heavenly Horse Tomb is open to the public, where you can see a cross-section inside and a reconstruction of the burial. Although there are replicas on show, the real items are now in the National Museum in Seoul.
Nearby Cheomseongdae, over 9m tall, is the oldest astrological observatory in Asia. 
Gyeongju National Museum is a short walk away through flowery fields.
Further out from the central area, are Buddhist relics galore. Bulguksa is famous for it’s Shilla architecture; poetically named Blue Cloud and White Cloud Bridges lead to the Mauve Mist Gate (background), along with Lotus Flower and Seven Treasures Bridges (foregound).
There’s also a golden pig which brings good fortune if you rub it (which reminds me of the bronze boar in Florence which also gave good luck when you touched its nose).
Beautiful rock carvings can be seen at Seokguram grotto, high in the mountains. You can also drink healing spring water, which had a surprisingly tasty mineral flavor.
No pictures were allowed inside (I suspect to encourage postcard buying) so here is one I nabbed from the net.
On a smaller scale, there are Buddhist carvings all over the mountains. Walking up Namsan you can easily spot them.
But the best thing I saw was neither Buddhist, nor indeed cultural heritage, but I deem them to be national treasures…a family of kitties (which is a rare sight in Korea)! There was shy kitty, who never came out from the hiding place…
Sad kitty, who miaowed a lot…
…but who also played a lot too…
And brave kitty who liked using claws…
Mama cat slept the whole time.
Papa cat was prowling round under parked cars, but after dark he came to sit with the rest of the family as we headed back to the hotel.
You could take a small paddle boat through the lotus leaves to get a duck’s perspective, as well as taking walkways through the vivid white and pink blooms and green, waxy leaves. The seed pods were the most alien of all, in various stages of development from fresh green to withered brown, seeds erupting like babies from a surinam toad’s back.
lotus-wrapped rice: YUM!
onion kimchi: oniony
lotus tea: refreshing
lotus ddoek (rice cake): squidgelicious
lotus beer: even more refreshing than the tea
That evening we stayed at Doripo Beach in usual Korean fashion (mattress on the floor in shared rooms). I was so tired I couldn’t stay up very late, even for the usual Adventure Korea bonfire antics.
However, next morning I was up bright and early for a pre-breakfast dip in the pool; the beach was too far away across sandy mudflats, but made for a wonderful view.
After breakfast it was off to get changed into wellington boots and life jackets for the journey to an islet, more reminiscent of a tropical sandbar than anything I’d expected in Korea.
As we neared, we saw squatting figures, trowel in hand, digging for clams. Nearer still we saw fully-clothed kids cooling off and playing in the water. A single pavilion provided shade from the dazzling sun. Being silly foreigners, most people stripped off to their swimsuits – but not I – and suffered later as their sunburn showed up on the way home. Ha ha! Instead, I went Korean style (with the exception of an ajumma-visor) and set about uncovering treasures from the sea.
I was variously observed by small children, tiny crabs and arirang reporters. But I did get a sizeable amount of clams which, when combined, would make a very tasty dinner. Mmm!
The mud was thick and grey and ever so satisfying to squelch in, even with the risk of losing a boot to its sucking strength. However, there wasn’t too much time to play as the tide came in very fast and we had to scurry along the sandbar to the other side where the catch of the day awaited us. Or rather, we awaited it. 
A couple of men, waist-deep in water, began wading up the beach dragging a large fishing net behind them. As they got closer, we could see the fish writhing in the water, trying to get away. Some of them leaped right into the air and over the net to safety. Closer, closer, until finally, in shin-deep water, we could grab at the fish with out hands and try to stop them from escaping. It was much harder than it sounds. Much, much harder. But some people caught them and carried them back triumphantly to the pavilion. Here, we were treated to the freshest sashimi ever.
And along with a good, solid helping of gochujang (pepper sauce), there was the real prize of live octopus, Oldboy-style, whole.
I couldn’t wait to get back from work the following day to cook them for dinner. I even googled how to clean clams so I would have a grit-free, tasty treat. But – woe is me! – I didn’t google how to look after them while they’re still alive. Which brings me to the question, can clams drown? When I awoke the next day, I found many had opened their shells and looked less than alive. Putting them in the fridge did not revive them. I felt like the character in Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, every time I so much as went near the fridge. Not only had I killed twice as many as I would have before greedily accepting the extra clams, but they didn’t even die for a good cause i.e. my dinner. Poor, poor things, entombed in a jar of murky water. Poor, poor me, mourning the loss of my dinner. By the time I got home from work the stench was already too much to bear, so under cover of darkness I disposed of the bodies in a plastic bag which I left out by the dumpster. Oh oh oh dear! I’ve learned my lesson here; despite being sea animals, don’t keep clams in a jar of water with a closed lid.