Adventure Korea 2

Continued from the last post:

My next trip was another month later -- do you see a pattern forming -- yea me too. Since discovering AK I have basically been on one trip a month with them. This one, in June (2005), was to Geomundo, and island off the south coast. It was mush further away than the last island, we had to take a ferry not a bridge. Also this was the first trip I went on already knowing some people, Alisa and Emma.




Here I am with Emma (left) and Alisa (middle). This trip was one of our favorites. There was a great group of people and as you will see, lots of beautiful scenery. We had a blast.

There was a short, easy hike up a little mountain and this is the view of the beach from the top. We had it all to ourselves because it was June so to Koreans it is not beach weather. This is one of the many things here I don't understand, but I don't ask questions, just accept it. And in this case be happy, 'cause the beach is empty.

On the second evening we went to see Baekdo, a group of 100 islands. The ferry ride was hilarious. On the way out everyone (the Koreans) ate a dinner on the boat (we were going out when we got back) and drank beer and soju. Then when we got there the boat slowed down as we traveled around the islands. This means we rolled with the waves and about 50% of the people on the boat got sick. I have now been on a number of ferries here and sea sickness is pretty common. The islands were nice and I enjoyed the trip -- but I don't get sea sick easily and not really at all if I am outside -- so it was easy for me to enjoy myself.


On the way back to Geomundo all the sick people went inside the ferry and those of us who felt well got to enjoy this beautiful sunset.

After this wonderful trip on the ferry ride home some of us got to go to the control room and drive the ship -- yea! It was fun they use a joy stick! But even more interesting was this print out on the the fax machine -- are they serious??? I guess so -- just testing I think.

Now we move on to July and again we come across a trip I have now down twice -- the mud festival. Last year I only went for one day and but this year I went on the 2 day trip -- which was great! Both were fun. Last year I only got one pic (no camera). This year we brought waterproof disposables yea!

This is Alisa and I in 2005. We liked the mud. We also enjoyed the sauna when we were done, so I decided that I would also clean off that way again this year. So I did.

Before going to the regular part of the mud festival this year we went to a mud flat for some 'army training' otherwise known as good clean fun :) I particularly enjoyed the run and slide.

After the mud flat we headed into town where Jill and I quickly got into the spirit of things.

Here Craig and I are enjoying the mud slide -- one of my favorite parts of the festival. They don't like you to jump -- but I think it is too much fun and hey -- I'm a dumb foreigner I don't know what is going on :)

The next trip was in August to yet another island. By this point I had discovered that although day trips are good, weekend trips are better and in the summer the only place I want to be is in the water. This island was Seonyudo.

On the first day on the island we just relaxed and enjoyed the beach. It was a really hot weekend so relaxing and doing nothing was a perfect idea. Notice how empty the beach is -- it was the weekend of August 13th, a long weekend, but the official end of summer by the lunar calendar, so only the foreigners were crazy enough to go to an island.

This is the small group of us that made it through the entire day of biking. Paul is in the middle with Alisa's wonderful pink bike, but all of the bikes were like that -- old style and no gears to speak of. That made biking up and down hill's in the insane heat interesting.

On the bike ride we saw the beautiful island scenery, stopped and swam at a pebble beach and came across this salt farm. This so far the first and only salt farm I have ever seen so I thought it was pretty cool.

With all the biking and swimming it was nice to relax in the evening and enjoy one of the nicest sunsets I have seen in Korea.

I took so many pictures of this that I couldn't decide on my favorite.

The next day another small group of us decided to try and tackle this mountain. Seokjin had seen it the day before and there were 3 ropes hanging down the side -- so I figured it would be fun :)

Getting to the ropes was a bit interesting, but fun and the ropes were great. The problem started when I realized that there was a 20' space between the 2nd and 3rd rope. That part of the climb was the closest I have come to death in Korea (that or some of my late night cab rides). We were not using rock climbing equipment this was a hike, but the rock was quite steep. At one point I had no good holds and didn't know what to do next. I'm still not really sure what I did, but I figured I had to move eventually and when I got to the top the view (of the beach above) was great. On the way back down we found a slightly easier path, thankfully.

More AK trips to come...

Adventure Korea

In an attempt to post some pics from a lot of what I have done over the past year and a half I will do one quick post on the many AK (adventure Korea) trips I have been on. This is a company run by Seokjin, a Korean man who speaks English well, understands foreigners and likes to have fun. So all these trips are great fun.

My first AK trip was in March of 2005 and it was to go bungee jumping! :)

Here I am being lowered into the boat from my jump. I choose not to get wet, since it was March. Having said that it ended up being warm enough that day that I got my first sunburn of the year! Then the next day I went to school and all my kids said "Teacher why soju (Korean alcohol) face?" Very funny but kinda disconcerting.

This picture was taken during the biking section of the bungee trip. If you look closely you will see lots of stacks of rocks. These are rock wishes, piles of rocks that you build and then make a wish on. This trip was the first time I ever saw them, but since then I have seen many. However I have never again seen as many in one place as there were here, millions in one forest.

The next trip I went on was a month later (April 2005) and I liked it so much that I went on the same trip again in the fall (October 2005). It was a rock climbing trip. The rock climbing was easy, but the whole trip was great. One of the best parts was that we got to have a camp fire and a few of us brought marshmallows, which we roasted and gave to the Koreans to try -- they had never had them before and they thought they were wonderful.

On the first trip we finished the rock climbing early and we were able to try some of the survival games -- so here I am -- this was really freaky.

On the first rock climbing trip the second day's hike was an easier one because it was raining in the morning so it would have been dangerous to do the other hike. So here is the group of us at the end of the hike at a beautiful gate that is more then 1000 years old!

In October it was not raining so we got to do the other hike. It was tons of fun. There were tons of little rock walls that we had to climb. This is the type of hike that Seokjin really likes to bring us on :)

Here you can see the view half way up the October hike. The country side in Korea is really beautiful.

This is the waterfall around the corner from where we stayed on the rock climbing trips, isn't it beautiful?

After the rock climbing trip I learned that overnight trips were they way to go. They were tons of fun and you got to know more people that way. So my next trip was again a month later in May 2005 to a fishing village on an island on the south coast.

Since we had gone to a fishing village the main goal was to head out on a boat and try some extra fresh sushi. It was delicious!

We also go to try plowing a field using an ox, and we learned how to plant rice.

In the town we all stayed in houses with families and the older women (adjumas) took care of us. They cooked all our meals and they were great. I am glad I like fish though, 'cause I thought the food was great while others didn't each much other then rice all weekend.

At night we hung out at the old school grounds that are now closed and had a camp fire. It was good times.

Stay tuned for more.

Admiral Yi Victory Festival

Another Adventure Korea trip and another great time! Here are some of the highlights:

Here is the admiral that we came to celebrate. He defeated the first Japanese invasion in the 1500s when the Korean government (that was corrupt at the time) was ready to give in. He is probably the biggest Korean military hero.

This is the turtle ship with which Admiral Yi defeated the Japanese. It is famous for all those spikes on the top which made it almost impossible for other armies to board.

I don't know if you can fully understand the size of this flag, but it was huge! Koreans have a lot of pride in their country, which is great. (and funny when they tell you things like 'we have 4 seasons!' like that is an amazingly special thing)

This was the water park area. To be in this area we had to wear a life jacket. I think I have worn a life jacket more often in Korea in the past 2 months then in any 2 years at home.

Here we are having fun in our life jackets.

There were lots of activites at the festival. Here I am on the banana boat getting a friend of mine behind me very wet :) These rides were not like they would be at home -- where the driver would try to flip us. In Korea, since most people can't swim, they make sure we stay on.

We were told before going to the festival area that there would be balloon rides. This is the balloon :)

These pictures are of the Korean Navy Drill Team. They are ranked as 3rd world wide and were very cool to watch. They performed on the Saturday night of the festival.

It was such a beautiful night out by the boat where we stayed. Those lights were great.

The beautiful night and a bit of soju and some beer led to us having some fun. Here is Shannon being sexy.

And here I am posing with the ships ropes, but I started laughing just as Shannon took the photo. It was interesting trying to take the photos because we couldn't see anything on the camera before the flash went off.

So after a fun night we went to bead on the boat. A little bit of a close quarters kinda place. There were 6 beds in our room, but hey they were comfy and I did sleep for the few hours I was allowed to.

Is it sinking?

The next morning we went on a ferry ride to Hansando in the Hallyeo Maritime National Park. The ferry ride was short (so no sea sickness worries for people), but there were some interesting sights on the way (like the 2 ships above).

It was a beautiful island and the easiest walk that Seokjin has ever taken us on. So Shannon and I decided that we would need to check in with him to see if he was feeling ok -- we didn't realize he knew walks like that existed in Korea.

Korean Funnies!

Some things in Korea can be very funny. Some of the funny things are Konglish mistakes, others are spelling mistakes and others are simply unexplainable, see for yourself.

Who knew -- no shemanism allowed in Wolchulsan. The extra fun part is that I have never seen this on a sign before -- so maybe shemanism is ok in Seoraksan, Odeasan, Jirisan etc.

So if you want to take the next path at Wolchulsan you should look for the next translation.

At Girimsa one of the more significant but less visited temples even the monks cannot live without satellite TV.

At some point I will need to get a picture of some dancing girls opening a store -- or anything else. Usually when something opens in Korean barely clothed women dance outside to draw attention to that business. In this case they hired the two guys -- they were way too funny -- much better and completely random.

These guys were performing in Nambu Subway station one day. I am not sure why. When I was there they were singing relatively modern English songs, just one of those things that is funny and impossible to understand here.

This was in a Baskin Robbins in Daegu (a major chain in a major city).

On its own this sign is humorous. But knowing that it is actually pointing down the mountain makes it better. Then on top of that you need to know that most hike signs are really helpful, this one, not so much...

These next 2 are some of my favorites, but they are not G-rated. Koreans have a love for the penis. There is a park (I have not been there) full of statues, but I have been to the phallus reststop:

The outside area is full of carvings like the ones above, and the reststop sells tons of penis stuff. They also sell tea to increase stamina. Quite the place. The first time I was here was after a 2 day hike and I wasn't really sure it was real -- I was too tired. But I have since been back and now I have this photographic evidence.