It is really hard to believe that today (October 24th) is our two month marker for being in Korea - its really unbelievable in thinking of how much we have done and experienced in such a small amount of time.
One of the experiences we still have not written about - a road trip! At the beginning of October (I believe October 4th), we had a four-day weekend for the Korean version of Thanksgiving (here it is called "Chuseok"). It is one of the most important holidays for Koreans, up there with Lunar New Years day. Most Korean families all gather together to pay respects to their ancestors.
SO, Shannon and Jamie made plans with their friends Dave and Chrissy to travel down the east coast, and they embarked on a very ambitious itinerary.
We actually rented a car (luckily Dave has a Korean drivers license and has been on the road here a few time) in Seoul. OH, and the car ran on LPG - Liquid Petroleum Gas - which is apparently cheaper than regular gas AND better for the environment according to a British chap we ran into along our journey. Anyways, I'm not sure if we've commented on the differences in driving culture here, but things are very different on the roads in Korea vs. the States. Traffic laws are often seen more as rough guidelines a lot of the time and it seems that few traffic laws are enforced. Speeding doesn't seem to be too much of an issue, though, as the highways are set up with many cameras that capture your license plate if your going too high over the limit. We also saw very few transport trucks on the road.
So we left early on Friday morning and kept our fingers crossed that traffic wouldn't be half as bad as EVERYONE was saying it was going to be...and luckily it really wasn't that bad. Apparently this Chuseok, since it fell on the weekend, a lot of people didn't bother traveling since they had less time off than usual. So we made our way to the city of Samcheok - Dave surprised us with our first destination in the city, and it was really quite surreal. Situated in a very beautiful set of ocean facing cliffs, Haeshindang park is in memory of a fisherwoman who drowned one day while gathering shellfish on the nearby rocks. So what better way to commemorate this woman than to construct hundreds and hundreds of blatantly phallic sculptures and monuments? It was fascinating to see the different attitudes towards sex that this place represents, as we were strolling through right next to families and Koreans of different ages. Also there was a fishing museum!
From there we headed into town to find a place to stay for the night and found a nice "love motel" to stay at. Love motels are EVERYWHERE and are actually quite nice (Shannon stayed in one during her brief quarantine) and extremely affordable. They usually run from 30-40 thousand won a night (which is like 27-36 dollars).
The next day we went to a cave in Samcheok called Hwanseon. The hike up was a little brutal and quite vertical at times, but this was totally worth it. It is certainly the largest cave in Korea but it may be one of the biggest limestone cave chambers known in the world (there wasn't too much English translation so I'm not positive). Forgive the lack of photos, they were not exactly allowed and it was really dark in there. But this place was unbelievable and it took us about an hour to walk through all the catwalks that are set up inside.
From Samcheok we then traveled south to a small "folk village" called Homigot, and we stayed in something like a hostel that was right on the water. Very very cool. Here are some pics:
We got there really late but we decided we would wake up for the sunrise... Jamie sort of just look at it and fell right back asleep, but Shannon was a little more dedicated and got some shots of it.
In the morning we were greeted by a really cool little area, with a lot of different art and sculptures. The hand coming out the water was a highlight:
Then from Homigot, we continued our travels to the first capital of Korea, Gyeongu. We started by checking out a tomb park which was a lot of fun - we rented a surry!!! (a four person bicycle with a canopy) One of my favorite parts of the trip :)
From there we took a short drive to a really remarkable temple, Bulguk-sa temple. Built in the mid 700's, this place is considered to be a piece of living history as it is still in use by monks. Absolutely gorgeous.
From there we started to way back to Seoul and stayed a night in Dave's old town, Gumi, where we hung out for a bit in a "noray bong", or "song room", which is a private karaoke room. Very fun!
Anyways, that was the weekend, it was a blast!
More updates in the month: A couple weeks ago Shannon twisted her ankle at a theatre performance we had gone to. She isn't in too much pain but the doctors have given her a cast and crutches that make getting around a lot more difficult and she has been a little frustrated with the ordeal. She has gone in for two doctors visits thus far and had an interesting round of physical therapy for it this past Friday.
Apart from the many differences that we see with the medical system here, one of the most positive differences in the speed in which you can get care (almost immediately), and the level of personal care that you get (the doctors actually spend take time to talk to you directly). Shannon was able to immediately see a foot specialist, get x-rays done, and talk with the Dr. in a couple hours time.
Medication is also really popular here from what we've gathered and for her twisted ankle, Shannon got 3 different medicines (we're not sure what they are for). Anyways, she does seem to be doing better!
OH, and the threat of swine flu seems to be making more waves than the actual swine flu (sorry pork industry, I mean H1N1). Events are being cancelled all over the place (our original Chuseok plans were actually to attend a festival that was cancelled). This past Friday Jamie had a half day of school and none of the students came in - there are 12 confirmed cases in his school and about 15 potential cases. We went to an "archeology festival" a couple of weeks ago and noticed this device at the entrance:
It is a heat sensor! They were checking people's body temperature at the gates to make sure they didn't have a fever as they entered!
Anyways, we are generally doing well here. The weather is starting to get a little colder and we are wearing light jackets on the way to school. The sun is going down real early as well, although I don't think it is very different than New England. We will not be changing our clocks back though for Daylight savings time as Korea no longer participates in the system.
Oh, we have also set up a "flicker" account online for our pictures if you are interested in seeing more photo shots! check out our account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelrabble/.
OK and we'll close with interesting things about Korea:
-Noray bang - We mentioned this above but we didn't do them justice. These are private, sound proof rooms that have couches set up around a big screen TV that is connected to a karaoke system. Its about 20,000 won an hour (pretty cheap if you have a group), and you can just belt out songs to your heart's content. A total BLAST.
-Gas stations - As you may be gathering, in Korea things always go just a little bit further in terms of services or what you get for your money. On our trip I joked that we would get something at the gas station, and we really did! They often give you free tissues! This is actually very helpful because often times public restrooms will not have toilet paper and it is a good thing to have tissues on you.
-Shabu Shabu - We just had the pleasure of trying this the other day; we've mentioned before "galbi" restuarants - Korean barbeque where you cook the meat right in the middle of your table. Shabu shabu is similar, but instead you basically make a stew. The meal starts off with a pot of thin broth (we actually had a pot that was divided in two and had two different broths, one for beef and one for seafood). The heat is turned up and you throw in vegetables, meat, and seafood into the respective sides of the pot. You start eating the things inside and later add noodles to the broth. It is great because the meal just tastes better and better as your broth matures with the flavors of everything you throw in. At the end, you have a really rich stock, so they bring you rice and a cracked egg. You mix it with remaining broth and mash it up a bit until you have a thick porridge-like consistency. Its really good and a lot of fun!
Thats it for now, hopefully we'll update again a little sooner :)
OH, and here is a really great piece of art we found in a part of the city called Itaewon:
