Weekends Away
I still can’t post pictures directly onto my site, but I’ve found a way around the many annoyances of my site’s many html script errors.
These pictures are a collection of pictures for the last few months, some even date back to February.
I spent the first few months of my teaching job trying to save as much money as I could, so as to travel as much as possible when I completed this stint of teaching in Korea. But, as the sun got warmer and the trees bloomed, my objectives have slightly changed. Korea is a fun place to travel once mercury rises. The buses are cheap, the mountains and beaches are abundant and the food is good. Inevitably, my outlook on living in Korea became less about saving and more about living and enjoying. I still aim to save, save, save, but ultimately, I wouldn’t be doing myself justice as a traveler and a teacher in a foreign country unless I was also trying to truly explore and experience this fine East Asian country.
I have been going on weekend excursions that are affordable and fun. I’m not too picky about the destinations. All I ask is that the destinations that await me host scenic vistas, cultural phenomena or historical wonders. So far, I think I’ve seen some pretty amazing cities.
I visited Jirisan Mountain with my co-workers, Jason and Neil, and Neil’s girlfriend, Yongju. It was a nice overnight excursion. We stayed in a pension, the Korean equivalent of a summer cabin/cottage. It looked like the new houses that are being built in North Whitby and Oshawa, mostly because the owner’s children go to university at York and when their parents went to visit them they bought the designs for the houses they saw to build North American-looking pensions in South Korea. Strange.
The mountains around our pension were beautiful. We visited in the winter and the rolling mountains were covered in barren trees, which gave them an unusual haunting quality. We got to a late start, no thanks to the quantity of wine consumed the night before, but we still managed to do some exploring and I got a few shots of our mountainous surroundings.
There are also some pictures of my trip to Mokpo with Brad. We went there on one of the only holidays that we weren’t shafted out of because of this unlucky calender year; Students Day–the one day Korean students dont have to go to school. We climbed to the top of the “mountain” and took some picture of the city and harbour below. Then Brad and I were made to feel like rock-stars when a group of blushing teen-aged girls wanted to take pictures with us. It was a good day trip.
Also, there’s pictures from my excursion to Busan. I went to Busan only once before, but it was in the midst of my visa application process. On my first visit, I only stopped into the city for a few hours to get my criminal record notarized, and after 4 hours or so I was headed back to Gwangju to crash on Brad’s floor.
This time I went with Priya. We ate some great foods unavailable to us in Gwanju (excellent Indian and Mexican food), we laid out on the beach playing Uno, and we did a little shopping for summer attire (flip-flops and polos). Before heading home, we stopped at an amazing temple in the mountains above the city. As we walked up the stairs to the temple we could hear the beating of a drum. When we arrived in the main complex we watched several drummers beat on a drum the size of a Buick. We were there for the evening prayers and we sat in awe and watched fifty or so monks chant in unison. I have seen prayer ceremonies before at various temples throughout my journeys, but never with such a large group of monks. The effect that the monks’ voices had on the air around them was remarkable. They were in such perfect unison that we could feel the note reverberating through the air and resonating within our bodies, which was particularly impressive because we were standing a fair distance away while watching them. It was an unforgettable experience.
There’s some pictures from Sinji Island too. This was a different kind of trip. I went with Priya, Brad, Jolean, Lauran, Beth and Kate. We mostly bummed around on the beach, drinking Soju and Poweraid (Poju) for several hours and enjoyed the breathtaking sunset. For some unknown reason, I was a grumpy old man that weekend and I might have said some things I shouldn’t have. My bad.
The last set of pictures are from my most recent excursion to Bigeumdo, and island 2.5 hours off the coast of Korea. This island is renowned for its more rustic natural aesthetic. It was pretty undeveloped and in even traveling there I felt like I was leaving Korea altogether and visiting a different country. I went with Priya again on this trip. We had these hopes of camping out on the beach, cooking our own meals on a fire or gas range and being uninterrupted by the onslaught of curiously offensive Koreans, but unfortunately, these visions were dashed. First, Priya lost the gas range somewhere from Mokpo to Bigeumdo. We still haven’t told her friend who was kind enough to lend us the gas range that we lost. Second, that tent we borrowed was without a doubt, the worst tent made by humankind. I tried my damnedest to build it, because as every man knows, putting up a tent is a matter of male pride. But, alas, I failed horribly. it was a sad day in the history of men. Luckily, there was a minbak (room-for-rent) a five minute walk away. This worked out better, I dare say, because we got a bed, a shower and we got to hang out with the owner, who was this very generous and kind women, and her friend, who both made us feel very welcome. We still got to cook our lunch outside. We borrowed a gas range from the minbak owner and we cooked sausage, egg and noodles on the roof overlooking the Yellow Sea.
Other than teaching, that should fill everyone in on where I have been for the last few months. Take care and I’ll try to make some new adventures soon!
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