We had a slight delay passing through customs, immigration was no problem at all, they needed to x-ray the bicycles in case of illicit items wedged in the frames. Luckily we didn’t have anything wedged anywhere. Then one of the bags was tagged and had to be opened, our remaining penknife (remember one we have already lost to airport security) caused consternation to an official but due to his lack of English and our complete absence of Korean grew tired of us quickly and just waved us through.

Outside Incheon Airport

Having spent a day flying we were pretty shattered but did manage to pick up a “Korea visitors” SIM card, quite tight controls are in place here regarding who can have what type of SIM along with a bundle of Won, Korean currency (around 1500 per £1.00).

The owner of the Rainboots Guesthouse picked us up, we have got two nights booked here (£26 a night including breakfast). It is about 10 km from Seoul (Incheon) Airport, and somewhere we would recommend as a place to stop.

Once back time for a shower then a stroll out for food, Korean Sausage and Pork Iron Pot Soup well it was very spicy, it did have kimchi along with some pork bits we may have just thrown away back home. It was very filling and not too bad.

Sleep overcame us then.

Our iron pot meal

A breakfast of jam, toast and cereal revived us, now time for bicycle assembly. The bags worked very well this time with no damage to be seen anywhere, or it could be that there are so many marks already on the bikes we cannot notice them! The worn hub was filmed ready to send off to Rohloff, but the entire rear of Janet’s bike was plastered in oil.

Then a nice stroll into town but as it is Sunday everything is closed, although we did get some noodles for lunch, I think we will be eating a lot of these.

Main street

Some planning next, to get off the island (Seoul airport is on an island) you cannot cycle out on the two road bridges you have to ferry it (drops you quite a way down into Incheon) or train (no bicycles on weekdays) so it is a little difficult. For us we will blow a little more of our budget and get a lift to Ara Water Tower Observatory the start of the 4 rivers cycle way.

A random bug on the pavement

Korea must be a hot bed of cyber crime as we cannot access the West Brom Building Society website from here, whilst we could from Australia (not a hot bed of cyber crime!) Sigh it is never easy.

Our meal for tonight is a Korean Chinese, different but nice.