Last weekend was another long weekend, with a national holiday falling on Monday. Jason, Scott, Amber and I decided to head north and up the coast to visit friends in Sokcho. We left early Saturday morning. The bus ride was 2 1/2 hours and unlike when I went to Sokcho with my family, the bus was not excruciatingly hot. Instead the bus driver was ancient and quite possibly the worst driver I've ever ridden with, he was constantly stomping on the brakes at totally random times, so nauseating.
Glad to exit the bus, we grabbed a taxi and headed to our friend Janine's apartment. We met Janine and her husband Ben during our EPIK orientation in Seoul during August. We've only seem them a few times since then but I've kept in touch with her through email. She's Canadian and he's Irish and they are both very laid back, fun, warm people. After chatting with Janine for awhile we walked to the beach (get that, we walked! So awesome!) The weather was much, much warmer than I had anticipated (curse you google weather!) The beach was beautiful and people were swimming in the water and chilling on the beach with drinks and blankets. The water was really cold, worse than the California coast, but that didn't stop Scott from stripping down to his boxers and jumping in. (It took a long time for him to finally decide he was going to jump in, since he hadn't brought his swim trunks.) The rest of us just sat on the beach and in the shade of the boardwalk. We were wearing jeans and no sunscreen, totally unprepared!
After a few hours Janine left us to meet up with a friend and we headed off to get some food. She told us to ask the taxi driver to take us to "Food Town." But what we heard was "Fuu Town." Her Canadian accent had foiled us! We told the taxi driver "Fuu town juseo!" and he looked at us like we were crazy. Luckily Scott had also memorized the name of a popular restaurant in the same area so we made it. When we met up with Janine later we all had a good laugh about our misunderstanding.
After our galbi dinner we hopped back in a taxi to go to Daepo Harbor. The Harbor was mostly under construction, they were adding a new park area, but there was a small sliver of shops lining a curving street that we were able to walk down. There were vendors on both sides selling fish and sea food of all kinds. We enjoyed taking in the sites but didn't buy anything but slushies. We could have bought tempura or squid stuffed with rice and vegetables.
The harbor took less time than we thought it would and soon we were left with nothing to do for an hour until Janine was to meet us again. So we headed to the Family Mart across the street, bought a bottle of wine, and waited. Soon Brian and Shannon joined us, as they were also visiting Sokcho for the day. So basically we ended up hanging out with the same people from Wonju we always hang out with. Too funny! Sitting in front of Family Mart always turns out well though and it’s nice to sit outside in the fresh air, in most restaurants you can't. Quickly enough though we all ended up at Janine's and sat talking until bed time.
The next day we woke up and Amber made us a great scrambled egg breakfast. We had planned to go to Seoraksan mountain that day but unexpectedly Ben came home. He had been doing a long overnight hike at Seoraksan all weekend. He had decided to come home early and told us the road into the base of the mountain where we were going to head was backed up for miles and would take hours to get through on the bus. Sadly we decided we'd better come up with a new plan. We decided to get up early the next morning and hike quickly before going back to Wonju.
With Ben back with the car (they bought a car in Korea and he can drive!) we decided to head further up the coast in search of, supposedly, the old summer home of Kim Jong-Ill, the leader of North Korea. Apparently he went there as a kid before the division. All we knew was that it was located near a lake close to the border. We drove around the lake a few times but never saw where to go! Unfortunately for us! I was beginning to doubt it really existed but I've since looked it up and it does, we just didn't find it. We did find one house though, which we at first thought was the right place, but it turned out to be the old summer house of the first President of Korea, Rhee Syngman. Funny how years apart two famous men had homes near each other! We went in the small museum dedicated to him and although there were only a few sentences here and there in English, I did learn about how democracy came to Korea after the Japanese occupation. Mr. Rhee was educated in the US at GW University, Harvard and Yale. His diplomas were even on display, and written in Latin! He also married a Hawaiian-American wife but apparently she adapted to Korean customs perfectly and became regarded as a true Korean. That doesn't often happen!
Again the weather was perfect and we stopped to eat in a small town near the lake. Then we headed back towards Sokcho and stopped at a bird watching sanctuary, which included another lake. We took a long walk around the lake because Ben and Janine knew of a really cool working traditional village beyond it. As we rounded a bend in the road there lay a perfect working village, a picturesque site in the lush green hills. It was so cute, the houses had thatched roofs and there were rice paddies surrounding them. But they still had electricity and cars. There was also a huge swing set made of large wood poles, about twice the size of a normal swing set. Jason and I eat took turns on it, Ben pushing Jason and Jason pushing me! Our walk was lovely, warm and sunny and surrounded by farm land and lush landscape. We even saw a snake! There's not much wildlife in Korea so this was pretty cool! (Korea has no large mammals living in its hills, no bears, no tigers, no deer, just small animals and not many at that. Once there really were tigers and bears but they were all killed to extinction when the Japanese occupied Korea. People think everything in North Korea must also be killed by now since people are starving there.)
The eerie thing about driving up the coast was that we were only about 5 miles from the border and the DMZ. We considered driving to the DMZ but we had four people in the back seat of the car and were worried they would frown at that since they do car inspections when you drive in. We saw signs that we were entering the tense border region anyhow. On the two lane road we drove up every so often there were spots were overpasses covered the road packed tight with boxes of charges. So if the North invaded, someone would light the charges, they would explode and tumble down on the road, blocking it. But in contrast, Ben also told us about the Trans-Korea road that is still being built. It’s a highway that connects the north of Korea all the way down to Busan. It’s also advertised that when it’s finished you can drive through to China and Russia! But it will never be finished. Unless North and South Korea unify. Yet the road it still being built on the South Korean side, so when reunification happens they will be ready. We remarked that if the North invaded, all it would have to do is drive down that road. Bizarre. Amber and Scott thought it was a hopeful sign but Jason and I just found it eerie and naive. Janine told us it is in the national curriculum that students learn in elementary school that South Korea does want to reunify with the North and that the day will come. Yet she said some of her teachers actually don't want that to happen, but they must teach it and they must tell their student's that is what they believe. Instead she said some teachers, logically and expectantly I think, believe reunification would destroy the South Korean economy and everyone's current way of life. I think it would too.
Finally it was time for dinner, and a big dinner it was! We had been waiting all weekend to have a special dinner Janine reserved for us. It was roast pumpkin filled with roasted duck inside. They roast it for 4-5 hours to perfection. It was a glorious, glorious meal. The pumpkin was simply delicious. One of the most delicious tastes I have ever experienced! And there was also a pumpkin puree that was to die for. I wanted to bottle it up and take it home with me to eat every day. I chowed down to the extreme. Pumpkin duck is quite expensive at 50,000 won, but it was well worth it. I could eat it every week!
We ended our day with a relaxing soak at a jimjilbang. This one was awesome because it had a coed part with outdoor hot tubs of various temperatures. And you got to wear a bathing suit instead of going nude. We spent a few hours soaking and dripping sweat in the sauna rooms before heading back to Janine and Ben's. It was great sitting outside in the warm evening air looking at the mountains and watching the lights of the town come on.
The next day we woke up at 6am to go hiking at Seoraksan. We wanted to beat the traffic and the heat, plus we didn't want to get home too late. Janine and Ben stayed home but the four of us headed up the mountain. I tried to convince everyone to ride the cable car and do the easy, shorter hike, but I was out numbered and we decided on the 4 hour round trip hike up to Ulsan peak. The hike started out easy but Scott and Amber were much quicker than the out of shape Jason and I. Scott even carried a whole watermelon up in his backpack so we could snack on it at the top! Half way through the hike there is a small restaurant. We saw old man carrying huge packs filled with boxes and bags up the trail to deliver goods to the restaurant, it was majorly impressive. There was also a Buddhist temple half way up carved right into the side of the mountain. I didn't get to look long but inside there were miniature Buddha’s carved right into the mountain! The hike got really difficult at the end though!! Like, horribly difficult! Like I wanted to die and give up difficult. There were 800 stairs for us to climb... straight up the rock!! It was simply awful. When I got to the top I grumpily proclaimed "I have determined I get absolutely no enjoyment from physical exertion, like hiking." I'm so dramatic. The view was beautiful from the top but that was about it. We had some great watermelon and then headed down, which was much easier. The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours. We quickly saw the huge Buddha at the entrance to the mountain and then were back on the bus to Janine and Ben's.
We said goodbye to them and were on our way back to Wonju. Janine had made cookies so that was a plus. Ben dropped us at the bus station and we saw the Wonju bus just pulling out onto the road. We groaned because we had just missed it! But Jason gestured to the bus driver, which was now sitting at a stop light, if we could get on, and the guy gestured back, yes! So we ran across the street, quickly yelling goodbye to Ben, and jumped on the bus! We were so lucky! Otherwise we would have had to wait over another hour and it was already 1pm. We were also lucky we got on that bus because our driver was a champ. Although I slept pretty much the entire ride, I did wake up from time to time to see the intense, stopped traffic on the highway. Yet instead of getting us stuck on it, our driver knew how to take the tiny, one lane parallel roads that were off to the side of the highway. I woke up wondering why we were going over so many bumps only to look out my window and see countryside and country houses. I wondered why they were next to the highway until I realized we weren't on the highway. I could see the highway to my left and saw stopped cars and buses. If it wasn't for our driver we would have been one of them!
Instead we arrived in Wonju around 4pm. Jason I ate some kimbab, lesson planned and watched TV the rest of the night. Another good weekend under wrap!
