This is the place to find the updates on our travels: where we've been and (in due course) a little bit about the places.
After Seoul, we took a 2.5hr bus ride to Sokcho, a much smaller city of just 80,000 people on the north east coast of the country. It is primarily known as the gateway to the Seoraksan National Park which is considered to be the crown jewel of South Korea's park system and the top destination for autumn leaves - which was the main reason for our visit. It is a half hour bus trip out of the city and features an extremely popular cable car ride 700m up to a rocky plateau called Gwongeumseong. Some visitors also use Sokcho as the staging point for a visit to see the de-militarised zone border (DMZ) with North Korea but we didn’t do this as by definition, the DMZ is just a 4km wide empty space.
Secondary attractions in Sokcho include the Abai village. Sokcho used to belong to north Korea until a boundary change was agreed in 1953. About 6000 people arrived from north Korea in 1951 fleeing Chinese and north Korean forces to set up camp on a publicly owned sandbar. As the borders were formalised in 1953, this refugee group were effectively trapped and their camp became permanent. Today, it is a ‘sort of’ tourist attraction, though the ramshackle buildings are gradually being replaced and the guide book fascination in the area now feels misplaced. Notwithstanding, a hand-pulled ferry spanning the 50m waterway to the sandbar still operates, charging 500 Won (about 30p/40c) for the journey.
Additionally, the city boasts 2 small ‘pavilions’ along the coast, one of which sticks out into the sea. The city is also heavily dependent on fishing and indeed I have never seen so many restaurants and shops selling live crab and other fish both around the harbour area and in the massive fisheries market in the middle of the city.
Seoul is a new destination for us and we didn’t really know what to expect: a developing city like Bangkok, a developed city like Kuala Lumpur, a rich and well established city like Tokyo or London? Well, we have been surprised to find that Seoul is not only in the Tokyo and London bracket, it is actively setting the standard for what a modern, high-tech metropolis looks like and has achieved this in just a few decades.
It is similar in size and population (around 9 million people) to London if London is defined as ‘Greater London’ but strip away the leafy outer suburbs of London (as Seoul has none), a fairer comparison would be to define London as the area within the north and south circular ring roads and then, Seoul manages to maintain its population density over twice the area of London. In other words, Seoul can be said to occupy an area twice as large as London with 3 times the population. And for sure, it feels enormous with a very extensive metro network with 9 lines and distances between visitor attractions typically measuring up to 12km.
The other features which stand out are the number of 10 lane highways which pass through the city, the number of skyscrapers, not dissimilar to Hong Kong, but over a much larger area and, especially in the centre, massive advertising/entertainment/information screens (and by massive I mean covering the whole sides of buildings) of extremely high quality and visibility even in direct sunlight. They are also very generous in provision of public toilets, over 65year-olds gain free entry to public monuments like palaces and transport prices are typically 85 UK pence (US 1.15) per metro or bus journey.
Seoul is clean and well maintained and exceptionally safe. Credit cards of all types are the default way to pay, apart from topping up transport cards where cash must be used and there is no tipping. People are generally very polite: public service staff on transport and TV news tend to bow after delivering their service, though queueing is somewhat ‘assertive’. On the downside, it is true that they have not eliminated rough sleeping, property prices are very high and there is a high stress work culture. Many people walk around glued to their smartphones and there are a lot of surveillance cameras. And many of the place names are difficult to pronounce and indeed remember when plugging them into search engines.
Cultural sites seem to close following public holidays, though not on the actual holiday day and some restaurants close too – which seems to be counter-intuitive and caught us out. But despite these ‘visitor traps’ it feels like a city which has largely got its act together.
In terms of what to see in Seoul, this is what our itinerary covered:
We spent 5 full days in Seoul and this schedule was fairly hectic. Visitors could dedicate a week to the capital without getting bored.
Galleries:
Many travellers will have visited Hong Kong and almost all of those visits, quite rightly, will have started with the central sights: the harbour with the traditional junks, Star Ferry, the trams, Victoria Peak (now mostly referred to as ‘The Peak’, various temples and the streets of Kowloon. But in fact, the Hong Kong territory (Special Administrative Region) comprises 263 islands, of which just 20-30 are inhabited. Total population is 7.5m. The airport moved from its central location on Hong Kong Island to reclaimed land on Lantau Island in 1998 and continues to expand with taxi time for us taking a good 15 minutes from the runway to the parking spot.
Contemporary Hong Kong is still very much defined by tall skyscrapers and an east-meets-west culture with English co-existing alongside Cantonese but it is rapidly shifting towards greater integration with mainland China with a first formal Economic and Social Development Five-Year Plan, modernisation of infrastructure, a shift towards electric vehicles and rather less of traditional street dining. There is also a booming contemporary arts scene.
Having seen most of the traditional sights before, this time, we did something a little different, staying with friends on the small island of Peng Chau, half an hour by ferry from the central piers with a length of just 1km and a population of about 6000. This is very much an island for local Chinese residents.
Whilst Hong Kong is now very much part of China, its status as a Special Administrative Region and separate customs territory means that a formal border exists to its north with 6 land-based control points with passport checks. We took a day trip through one of these points to Shenzhen, China’s 3rd largest city by core urban area with 18.5m residents. The city is continuing to expand rapidly and is very modern with a new Natural History Museum (which was full when we tried to visit it!) It is also to host the next APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (APEC Summit) in November 2026 with a further meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi.
Other attractions in the vicinity of the Natural History Museum include the historic Hakka village which dates back over 350 years, tracing its origins to the early Qing Dynasty, and the Dafen oil painting village which is a unique neighbourhood in Shenzhen's Longgang District recognised as the world's largest mass-producer of replica art. Described as the ‘world's art factory’, this compact enclave historically produced an estimated 60% of all new global oil paintings, supplying hotel lobbies, apartments, and retailers worldwide with hand-painted western masterpieces.
For those who haven’t been to Hong Kong before (or for a while) and are considering a trip, this is my list of ‘must do’ activities:
Our last leg was to take us back to Hobart airport, to return the hire car and to stay at an airport hotel for the return to Sydney the next day but first we thought we'd investigate further the Port Arthur historic site. As suspected, the former penal colony has been turned into a huge tourist attraction with an imposing visitor centre guarding the entrance and fences all around preventing people getting in (a rather ironic reversal of purpose!) I struggled a bit on the ethics of turning a colonial-imposed 'feature' to commercial advantage but the tourists were pouring in.
We didn't have time to stop and visit as we had decided to visit an 'Unzoo' down the road: a zoo with animals kept as far as possible in their natural habitats and, at least as far as the kangaroos were concerned, completely accessible to visitors. The main point however was to see Tasmanian Devils in the flesh as these declining and nocturnal creatures are very difficult to see in the wild and one really cannot visit Tasmania without seeing Tasmanian Devils. And indeed, vicious little devils they are.
Then it was on the road back to Hobart but via one last stop in Richmond: a really quaint little town, not hugely removed from its UK counterpart and boasting a dramatic bridge dating back to 1823. The sun was again shining and it made for a picturesque scene.
But then, just 20 minutes further, return of the car (without incident) and the end of the trip.
Images from day 7 can be seen here.
After a coffee shop breakfast we decided to take a detour to Wineglass Bay on the way to Port Arthur, adding an hour to the travel time but view was supposed to be worth it, especially as the day was again cloudless. Wineglass Bay (named after its shape) is in the Freycinet National Park, requiring a stop at the Visitor Centre to buy a day pass. We were hoping that the Wineglass Bay lookout point would be close to the road but in fact it required a steep walk taking 90 minutes return. The view however was pretty good (see images) and as a bonus, a friendly wallaby was lurking near the car park.
We then decided to cross the peninsula for another (short) walk for a view of the cliffs on the other side. Again, a worthwhile deviation and another bonus wallaby in the car park! And a third deviation followed to Sleepy Bay with some dramatic orange rocks surrounding azure blue waters. Overall, a 3hr diversion to the national park and then a 3hr drive to a narrow isthmus near to Port Arthur called Eaglehawk Neck. Here there was a great example of a tessalated pavement - a relatively flat rock surface that is subdivided into polygons by fractures very similar to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.
Australian humour on roads amused us. Under a road sign announcing ‘Wye River’, someone had put a similarly formal sign stating ‘Coz it’s bigger than a creek’.
After the last at Eaglehawk Neck, it was just 20 minutes more to our holiday chalet on the outskirts of Port Arthur. Having seen adverts in Hobart for Port Arthur, I had the impression that this would be a quaint little town, steeped in colonial history. Not a bit of it! There appeared to be just half a dozen shops in the centre of town, a very large amount of holiday accommodation and no port at all! In fact, Port Arthur is the site of a penal settlement which was in operation from 1830 - 1877 and this site is now an extensive tourist attraction. We planned to investigate further the next morning.
Images from this can be found here.