Have you actually done anything exciting in Korea...

...or have you just been sitting around in your apartment scratching your unmentionables? Well, I actually haven't been doing much. A combination of a limited amount of money to get me through my first month, me being ill and then everyone else being ill has rather limited my opportunities to do stuff. There was one weekend where I did something worth mentioning, so here are some words and some pictures about it.

I travelled to the East coast of Korea with Shannon and Cherie (sorry if I spelt your name wrong) to go and look at a decommissioned American warship parked next to a North Korean spy submarine which crashed here a few years ago. Apparently one of the North Korean escapees made it to Jinbu where he was killed evading capture, but that's hearsay. From there we went to the slightly nuts village of Jeongdongjin, featuring a giant hourglass, a hotel built in the shape of a cruise ship perched on a cliff and most excitingly what is claimed to be the closest station to the sea in the world.

Here are some of the photos from our amazing adventure:

This huge craft is a North Korean spy sub. Crew 25. North Koreans must be really small.

And this is me on the front of an ex Korean Navy, ex US Navy warship. The Americans retired it, then sold it to Korea. The Koreans retired it and put it here for me to stand on.

I am actually taking candy from this baby.

Careful now, you wouldn't want to snp.

I'm guessing that these flowers were added after the vessel's retirement. These gentle arrangements hardly put you in the mood for pounding the commies with shells now, do they?

The Sun Cruise Hotel, happily sailing off a cliff. It's safe to say this one hasn't contained too many North Koreans.

Approaching Sun Cruise.

A slightly less glamorous boat, and yes, you guessed it, it's a North Korean one. This one held twelve defectors who arrived here late last year. It actually looks a pretty comfortable vessel. Better than the submarine anyway.

I stood on no less than four ship-like vehicles this day, and not one of them was in the water.

Me inspecting the damage to the sub.

Even Shannon is bigger than your average North Korean submariner.

Just because you're committing international espionage, doesn't mean your sub can't be kitted out with LOTS OF PRETTY COLOURS!!!11!!!!!

I'm driving a boat, and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.

Gunner Shannon.