South Korea, originally uploaded by TwoCrabs.

Mr. Crab is in Gwangju, the capital of Jeollanam-do province in southwest South Korea. One of the coolest places I've seen so far is Namwon, which is the setting for this Korean version of Romeo & Juliet. Very pretty town and lovely gardens but I saw the whole town within 3 hours and came back to Jeonju.

The hotel I'm staying is a traditional Korean "ondol" hotel. There is no bed. It's just a big room with mats and pillows. When its time for bed you spread out the mats, which are like very thick feather-down duvets. It actually feels super comfy sleeping on the floor. And the floor is heated too if you want. There is a small table only about a foot off the ground, and more pillows so you can sit around the table. And then on one side of the room is a TV and fridge. My hotel is smack in the heart of this pedestrian mall that is full of bars, hotels, restaurants and more karaoke clubs than you can shake a stick at! The korean young folks love karaeoke...and baseball and american pool!

All the girls wear the latest fashions and super 5" high heels, and the guys wear America type jeans and t-shirts with baseball caps. Its hilarious cuz a lot of young people wear t-shirts with American sayings but most of them are misspelled or gramatically incorrect or make absolutely no sense whatsoever! One girl I saw in Seoul had a tshirt that said "USA Milking Drinking Champion". And there is a sports drink here like Redbull called "Pocari SWEAT".

So far language has not been a huge barrier. I just point to the Korean word in my guidebook when I want to find something. And I've found several foods I really like so I can just ask for them. All the numbers are regular arabic numerals we use so thats not hard figuring out costs or times. And most attendants in train and bus stations speak a little english; all the train signs and tickets are in Korean and English so i havent had problems traveling either. The trains are super fast, comfy and cheap. My train from Seoul to Jeonju was 3 hours but only cost about 7 pounds! The train I took was a medium-speed train to Namwon and only cost me 2.5 pounds.

I then took a high-speed KTX train from Jeonju to Gwangju. It looks just like the UK Eurostar type train except its blue and silver. Jeoju was a really cool town with a historic village area were all the buildings are still the traditional style.

More TK (to come)