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Another night in the Tombstone Bar, this time drinking with a group of barely anglophone businessmen. I write all their names in Hangul, the Korean script, which gratifyingly astonishes them. Until I remind myself that their astonishment would have been the same if a baboon had performed the task.

The next day to Chongbokkung palace. I pass through an arch into a sea of dappled lawn with, here and there, fountains shimmering in the sunlight; or so I thought for a micro second; but each fountain was a bride, pillars of chiffon, satin and silk dazzling in the heat, ringed with photographers. The general iconography of these photo shoots was that of the 1970s Hallmark card, and none the worse for that. One sweet but grumpy looking bride was, for the purpose of this arduous ritual, wearing under a dress that looked as it it consisted of an entire bolt of ivory satin) a pair of scuffed trainers; which was pretty cute.

In the cafeteria of the palace twenty young guardsmen clearly selected for their height and rectitude (a crack regiment?) shiny peaks to their caps, high-buttoned jackets, glittering trimmings. A multiple homo-erotic fantasy pace Tom of Finland. They divide themselves equally over three tables and each orders exactly, but exactly the same: an orange juice and a packet of biscuits.

I visit Youido plaza, so vast that it served as an airbase in the Korean War. (Practical for this, no doubt; but, planners, beware of massive spaces; for if they are too big they won t look big. Obviously the huge space is a favourite of the megalomaniac planner. Think of Jakarta's Merdeka square, the Hitler Speer plans for Berlin, Ceaucescu's planning of Bucharest. even Red Square and the Place de Ia Concorde are almost too big, as is the Ankara square before the mausoleum of Ataturk, as is Tienanmen Square. Things can get too big, as Leopardi realised in a letter to his sister Paolina, written from Rome in 1822. He writes about the great urban deserts of the new Rome. He compares the Piazza di Recanati to a monstruously vast chessboard in which the people remained nonetheless the size of ordinary chess pieces. I know this myself but I cannot resist the planning megalomania.)

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