Korea yet again for the 7th time - March and April 2026 - Page 1

The aforementioned bus. Not my head. Each trip I try to outdo myself with boring photos to start this whole thing so that anyone who arrives here via accident immediately leaves. The only actual humans that visit my website presumably get here because the AI that steals all my content is broken for the day and search engine results accidentally direct people to a website.

Melbourne airport still has the pandas. The whole international terminal is being replaced or rebuilt or given a coat of paint, depending on who you believe. I expect the pandas will go. Children love to climb on them despite the signs telling you not to.

The lounges are all in the basement, which is a spooky place early in the morning, with most of the escalators broken, some of the lounges closed down, random piles of broken chairs, but it has nice carpet. More on carpet later (probably).

And then it was time for a great breakfast, broccoli, potatoes and mushrooms. I was very appreciative.

I took this photo at night back in November on my way home from Japan, the view from the far end of the main lounge, the one most familiar to Australians as all flights to Australia seem to leave from this side of the many connected terminals.

It was quiet in here. The lady making noodles to order had nothing to do.

I need a new bag / method to launder money cross border.

Apparently, this is the discovery garden. I have discovered it is mainly dead and not much of a garden.

Nearing the end of my lap of the airport now.

I promised a carpet photo, and here it is. Getting a bit old and shabby. The day they replace it all, I will immediately buy a ticket just to see it.

And finally, here is the OTHER lounge, the one rarely seen. Although I have been here once before. It was closed for ages during and post covid.
I need my next flight to be on time, so that I can attempt to make the last train out of Incheon airport and into Seoul. It is scheduled to be on time so far. Start rounding people up!

Here is my plane, both legs today were on an Airbus A350, the quietest of all planes, which is not always a good thing if you don't want to hear peoples respiratory issues, but today was not too bad in that respect.

As mentioned, my flight was early, and despite the long queue at customs, I got through fast enough for me to not only get a train, but to get an express train (which ceases service for the night an hour earlier than the slow trains). Generally, trains in Korea cease operations before midnight.

And so I was allowed to check into my hotel, right on midnight, with no dramas at all. It is a Frasers Place, which aslo has hotels in Australia. Normally about $300 a night but somehow a year ago when I booked I got it for $100 a night.

Yes. It has a bathroom. Long day was long. Tomorrow, not a hiking day and hopefully photos of something other than the inside of airports, trains and hotel room toilets.

My hotel is on the central avenue where every protest and K-pop boy band military service ending party concert simultaneously occur each and every weekend (yes, I mean what I just wrote, it makes perfect sense). Today it was closed due to the alleged marathon, which featured distances between 5km and 10km according to signs I saw, so basically, not even close to being a marathon. I seem to recall running into the same marathon in previous years, literally running, sometimes I just start running for no reason.

The pink thing is the mascot of Seoul, and spokes-monster of the 'I Soul Seoul' tourism campaign, which replaced the I Seoul U campaign a few years ago, and is surely now due to be replaced with something even worse.

This is some of many tents erected to support the marathon.

I reached the end of the marathon. That's a lot of road. Too bad it's generally closed for protests.

The main palace. I have been there twice before. Last time it was surrounded by construction site walls constructing the ancient walls.

After a short subway line, I got off near here. A nice area to walk through. Much warmer today than I expected.

Here is the entry to the 5 tombs. They take t-money card, credit card etc. Very convenient.

Korea loves shoes, so everywhere you walk on gravel, you get given an opportunity to blow the dust off.

Due to the bitterly cold winter, with snow just a couple of weeks ago, the grass is all yellow. The sky is also very polluted today. This makes photos look, weird. Also, tomb 1 of x - I don't know how many in total there are but it is more than 5.

Those are the actual tombs, you cannot get near them.

This is another one. They are already looking the same.

And another.

People featured in numerous Netflix shows are buried there.

Nice view. Lots of pollution haze. Probably worse in person than the photo shows.

This is part of the hiking trail, it is more of a road, but parts really are quite steep.

Too many tombs.

Despite this toilet being taped off, there were many others available. However food and drink is banned inside the whole park, which might be challenging for some who 'hike' the hour long loop trail around the top.

Final tomb of the day.

After the bus, I got off in the middle of nowhere and got to examine this drain.

But right nearby is a 'new' area, one of the Starfield brands megamalls. It was indeed huge, but sadly nowhere really for a light lunch, just full dinner size hot meal options.

The inside was much like any other mall, many western brands, very clean, very large. This proves in Seoul you can easily go from tombs to malls in minutes.

This is the street behind my hotel. A hotel I have used twice on previous trips is just off to the left from here. I feel as though this street used to be much busier.

Until now I did not realise the Seoul my soul thing had 3 emoji's in the logo.

Behold, the main department store street, Lotte flagship on the right.

I entered Myeongdong from a back way, past all the mainly pork intestine restaurants.

First bit of Myeongdong, busy but not alarmingly so yet.

Getting busier.

OK that is too many people, retreat.

First shot of the fabled drain.

On Young Street, all the restaurants are themed, here is treehouse restaurant.

For my dinner, spinach and beef, from a diet food chain named 'Preppers', which probably has a more common meaning that is lost on them. I like to eat my food out of metal. Also the beef was of a very high quality and a surprisingly large serve.

Most notable building in the area, I am sure I have photographed it at least one on each trip.

Now of course, there would not be just one drain pic, so here is another. I am a bit late for peak sunset.

And for my final shot of the evening... more drain!

Soyosan station. Very near the end of the line. Almost 2 hours north of Seoul - and yet still part of the metro.

The streets between the station and the hiking area are lined with restaurants targeting old people, however there are a couple of convenience stores nearby too.

This road, which I will come back down later, heads up to a cave and waterfall area. I instead started on an unmarked trail off to the left of this spot. I missed it at first but followed an alltrails map for 'Soyosan extended loop'.

The very start was hard to spot, but it soon became a real trail. I think there were actually some stairs a bit up the road leading to this part of the trail at a more official starting spot.

The first rest spot, just a few hundred metres from the start. Everything is dead.

Lots of rock piles today, some bigger ones will be seen later.

This sort of rocky trail is typical of hiking in Korea. Rocks sticking out at a 45 degree angle.

Today I will around to that ridge. Very grey today but no rain.

Here it is again, but vertical I did not mean to include this photo.

A summit of sorts. No view.

There were 3 spots to take cover and shoot Iranians today. The valley over the back of the mountain is a live firing range for the Korean army, so there was a constant barrage of gunshots keeping me company.

One of a few rocky outcrops, bigger than it appears in this photo.

More rocks and trees.

I have now joined the more popular part of the trail, which means there are now stairs on the steep bits. I am not really a fan.

My next destination. There is a deck up there which you shall soon see.

The highest point of the day. Not very high really.

First stance. I have new shoes.

Back that way is Seoul, but it is a long way away. I am not sure how much of that is cloud and how much is pollution. It got slightly sunnier later so some of it is cloud.

Plenty of mountains to choose from in Seoul.

You cannot go down that way.

More view.

Down there over the far side is the army live firing range. I will be seeing some of those mountains in the distance up close in a few days time.

Some time later, and this is looking back along the ridges I had come along. Clearly a bit sunnier now. Most of the grey is pollution.

Down there is a major army base, lots of tanks.

Final deck of the day. It is large. Today I saw only 2 other groups of people.

This is actually looking straight up at a rock flow of some kind. I think I saw it across the valley in one of my earlier photos.

Nearing the bottom now, a brief mossy area. I remembered this part from last time, where a small black goat followed me up the hill.

A lot of rocks and dead looking trees. This will be a feature of all hikes on this trip.

Larger rock piles mentioned earlier. I wonder if they ever collapse and kill people?

Last photo before I exit back onto the road.

This is the main start point, but I started at a non main start point, so I did not get to see the start point sign until now.

Apparently this cave and waterfall is what brings so many people here. It is rather underwhelming.

It is then time to walk back along a long car free road to the train.

There are many restaurant streets if you are hungry for something no one under the age of 80 would ever eat. Some were even open.
And so that was the end of hike #1, a shorter lower hike, that was very brown.

There is one of the city gates, you will see it again later from out of my hotel window.

The Seoul tower in the distance, I will save going up there (on foot of course) for another night. Actually it is supposed to rain this evening, but so far at the time of writing, no rain.

I skirted the edge of Myeongdong. It was less busy on a Monday night.

But still quite busy. I like the yellow text on the road.

I think it is a bit rude to refer to this mildly disfigured unfortunate looking person as a monster.

Time to descend to the underground labyrinth of second hand record stores and second hand shoe shops. Yes they seem to sell used shoes.

Behold the first of many bibimbaps. Pretty ordinary to be honest. The stone bowl was however properly hot, I feel as though the only way they can clean the burnt rice out of them would be with an angle grinder.

And finally, as promised, the view from my hotel window. You can see the top of the city gate as shown in the first picture here.
Tomorrow, not a hiking day, possibly raining until the afternoon.