The World According to Keri

To those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a good brief description of this very important Korean holiday at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok. This year, Chuseok (추석) fell on Friday, October 6th. The days before and after are also holidays. It also just so happens that another national holiday is on October 3rd, so many Koreans had an entire week off... including me. So I decided to take advantage of this time and explore a bit of the country. I headed south to explore Jeollanam-Do (Jeolla south province).

First stop: Gwangju (광주)

I had no real interest in this spot, but it's on the way to the south islands, so thought I'd make a pit-stop. Gwangju is basically just a big city, but I figured I could get some good eats on 'Duck Street' and maybe check out 'Art street' in the morning. So I found a nice motel for the night and I believe my highlight of Gwangju was the shower in my bathroom. It must be the nicest shower in Korea. It had 4 jets, a main overhead shower head, and a removable shower head.
So I freshened up a bit then headed out to find Duck Street. I found it by foot pretty easily and it was just as it says in the book - a street with a bunch of restaurants serving duck soup. So I parked myself in one and they brought out the 'small' order for me. It was huge. I then looked at the menu and discovered that I'd be paying about 3 times as much as a normal dinner. Guess this type of meal is not for single diners. I felt quite silly sitting there alone with a massive pot of soup and a million side dishes spread out in front of me. Oh well. I enjoyed (but didn't finish) my expensive dinner, then headed out to wander the streets.
I managed to find the busy walking streets in town and found a gelateria which made me pretty darn happy. Don't see those in Chuncheon. So with my cup of baccio and strawberry gelato in hand, I continued to walk the streets until I came to a stage set up in front of a new department store and a huge performance of amateur dancers, singers, beat-boxers. Now I figured, being a larger city, Gwangju would be accustomed to foreigners. But no. At one point, the MC on stage spoke a few English words and then completely pointed me out in the crowd. "Put your hands up! You know?". Aw jeez... Ya I know. Thanks for getting everyone on the street to stare at me yet again. I guess anonymity is impossible. I headed home shortly after that.
I was pretty impressed at my navigational skills walking the streets, but the next morning's navigation wasn't so successful. I got on the #7 bus for the Intercity Bus Terminal and said to the driver, "Beoseu teomeeneol gayo?". I'm sure that's not exactly right, but it's the general idea and he nodded. So I got on... then about an hour later he said "Bus terminal?" and indicated that I was on the wrong bus. Damn him. So he pulled into the local bus farm parking lot and directed me to another parked #7 bus. I got on that and waited for the dude to start his route. We ended up passing the stop that I originally boarded at and about 8 minutes later arrived at the bus terminal. So ya - an 8-minute bus ride ended up being about an hour and a half ride for the dumb foreigner. You just have to laugh.

Next stop: Hongdo (홍도)

What I was most excited about on this trip was to get out to the islands and see what Koreans call the 'most beautiful island in Korea'. I don't always agree with the Korean idea of a pleasant trip, but I do love to be on the ocean and the Lonely Planet said it was beautiful, so I was hopeful yet slightly skeptical.

My timing was really great and the ferry from the mainland left very soon after I got off the bus at the ferry terminal. Hongdo is the furthest island west in a marine archipelago national park consisting of almost 2000 islands. The ferry ride was 2.5 hours long and while I was there I made some Korean friends. There are benefits to being a foreigner here. My seat faced the captain's steering room (don't know the technical term) and at one point one of the men was going into the room and motioned for me to follow. So I left a conversation with a Korean English teacher I had been chatting with and followed him through the door marked 'entrance prohibited'. Hee hee.. I felt special. I was introduced to the captain and a couple of other workers and served some coffee. They all spoke a little English and collectively asked if I wanted a local boyfriend. A little uncomfortable, but hey - I had the best seat on the boat. I was even able to sit up on one of the raised chairs overlooking the sea. So before I left, the dude basically scheduled an itinerary for me complete with boat and ferry times and told me he'd be waiting for me back at the mainland the next evening. I was grateful but hoped not to see him.

The direct translation of Hongdo is Red Island (hong=red, do = island). I like red rocks and the pictures I had seen looked very promising - lots of rock formations in the surrounding waters. I was not dissappointed. The island was very quaint and beautiful. There are just a couple of small hillside villages and a walkway that connects one side of the island to the other. Not much to do as it is protected land and you can't hike in the hills, but I really enjoyed just walking through the narrow side 'roads' (only walking traffic) and up and down hillsides taking pictures. It actually reminded me a bit of Capri, but instead of Italians and lemon trees there were ajumas and racks of drying fish.












I even got up early the next morning to watch the sunrise before my 7:30 am boat tour.


The first shot is from the roof of my motel, and the next is a short walk away at a lookout. Actually, one of those buildings is probably my motel.

I then boarded the tour boat with every other person staying on the island for the 2-hour island-circling tour. I am Korean-savvy and got in the line-up early in order to fight the crowd for a good spot at the back of the boat. It was probably the best spot on the boat. I was proud.
The scenery was incredibly beautiful. So many rock formations (which all have Korean names but I didn't understand anything the guy on the microphone was saying so I don't know them) and so many coves in the cliff sides. Very picturesque. In fact, so picturesque that the boat stopped for endless amounts of time at each rock formation so Koreans could take their turns posing at ideal spots on the boat to get the mandatory 'posing in front of the landmark' photos. Koreans really have a way of ruining a beautiful, peaceful moment. Actually, I can't really call it peaceful as the tour leader was constantly speaking in what I considered an excessively loud voice the entire time. I'm really not complaining though... I generally have very good memories of the tour.







A very unique part of the tour was right near the end, when a small fishing boat pulled up next to ours and the microphone dude jumped off and started selling fresh fish for tourists to picnic on before we docked.




The guy with the yellow pants on the right took the fish out of a bucket and chopped off their heads and pulled out the guts. I believe the guy in the white skinned and filleted and the guy in the red sliced into edible sashimi. Then it was plated and sold by the tour leader dude in black. I was incredibly impressed by the efficiency of the entire process. I didn't partake in a picnic however (although I do enjoy a good plate of raw fish).

On the way back to the dock, I had my first jellyfish sighting. It was a huge pink thing swimming right at the water's surface. I saw a few more and most were about the size of beachball. No exaggeration. I took some pics, but I got better ones on from the shore of the next island.

Next stop: Heuksando (흑산도)

I decided to follow the hoard of Korean holiday makers to their next destination, a larger island where the ferry makes a stop on its way back to the mainland. On the ferry ride, my old ferry boat friend found me and told me he arranged for me my own personal tour guide for Heuksan Island. But when we got there, my 'guide' dissappeared. I think he saw that I was white and reconsidered - Pretty sure I heard 'waegook' (foreigner) come from his mouth. Thankfully, while purchasing tour and ferry tickets in Hongdo, I also met a small group of French tourists and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the day. It was pretty great actually - first, we were able to store our big packs for free at the police statioin, then we decided not to get on any tour buses or follow the crowds and instead walked up the street and followed it for a while. On the way, we ran into another group of French tourists who were walking in the opposite direction. So weird. I really didn't feel like I was in Korea anymore. We could have been anywhere really... it was great. Anyhow, we continued towards an unknown destination and came across a little beach area on our walk. Nothing amazing, but empty and nice to happen upon. Looking down from the road is when I saw my next few massive jellyfish.


Isolated beach area on Heuksando


These things were massive. Honestly, the size of a beachball.

We only ever reached a small village where there was no restaurant or anything really. So we ended up getting on a local pink minibus back to the port town for lunch. We never got to see much of the island this way, but honestly it was nice to be completely seperated from the rest of the pack.
What I haven't really mentioned yet is that the majority of the group I was with did not speak English. Sooo.. I ended up communicating in French for most of the day. It was so fun. I was shocked that I could understand virtually everything they were saying. The only time I've ever had my French skills tested in a real situation has been in Canada - and I can't understand a thing French Canadians say. One of the girls spoke English fluently, so that helped, but a lot of the time I was left on my own. Sometimes I spoke French. But for the most part, I spoke English and they spoke French. We could both understand each other, but we both had trouble speaking the other's language. The experience really made me want to go to France and practice. But that's just another country to add to my list I guess.
At the end of the trip, they were kind enough to let me split a hotel room with them in the port city of Mokpo where first we had a yummy dinner and drinks and in the morning parted ways.

Next stop: Boseong (보성)

From Mokpo, I took a beautiful 2-hour bus ride through fields and mountains of varying shades of green to the famous green tea town of Boseong.
This is one stop I knew I definitely wanted to make. I've never seen anything like a hillside full of rows upon rows of rolling green, and photos I had seen looked beautiful. So I went straight to the green tea plantation where I found generous shop patrons who once again provided free backpack storage, and then I made my way into the rolling fields.


I took a lot of pictures. But you get the idea from this one.


A nice waegook man took a picture for me.

On the way out of the plantation, I had a quick meal and some green tea frozen yoghurt (quite tasty), then stopped in my friendly shop and bought a couple of green tea products before retreiving my pack and heading to the bus stop.

Next stop: Yulpo (율포)

I read in my trusty Lonely Planet that there is a traditional Korean bath house in the nearby coastal town of Yulpo that advertises a green tea hot bath and hot salt water bath. Sounded interesting to me. I've been wanting to try the Korean bath house experience for a while, but have been hesitant since it involves complete nudity and I really don't want to hang out with my friends naked, or run into students and/or parents while bathing close to home.
Turns out, there were a few other native English teachers catching the bus to Yulpo too: An Aussie, an American, a Spaniard, and a South African. What an international bunch we were! They live in a nearby city and had a few days off as well. They were wonderful finds for many reasons:
1. Tanya (the Aussie) is a pro with the bath house situation and showed me the ropes, while at the same time, taking some of the Korean eyes off of my naked body. (I should note that men and women do have seperate facilities)
2. I had people to eat dinner with. Very important if you want to try local specialties like the green tea-fed pork we dined on. Deeeelicious.
3. They suggested red wine and chocolate on the beach. Hello - my kind of people. We headed to the Family Mart (above which was my room for the night) and bought various kinds of chocolates and some decent Chilean and Australian wine. We headed to the beach and had a great couple of hours of breathing in the ocean air and enjoying conversation and yummy treats.
4. I have some new friends in Korea! Not that they're closeby... and not that we'll ever have time to meet up again... but it's still nice. :)
That night, we exchanged numbers and parted ways. The next morning I spent some alone time on the same beach with some breakfast and solitude. It all just reinforced my desire to live by a beach.

Final stop: Damyang (담양)

From Yulpo, I took the bus back to Gwangju... my favorite city (to be read with a sarcastic tone). I really don't like getting lost and wasting money. But this time I just got straight onto a local bus to the nearby town of Damyang, famous for it's bamboo forests. I planned to only go there for a few hours, then head back to Gwangju to catch a bus back to Chuncheon that night. I would have continued traveling, but because I transfered a lot of money to Canada recently I had about $35 in the bank and $50 in hand.
So I arrived in Damyang and waited another half hour for a bus to Daenamu (bamboo tree) Park. The ride was 20 minutes and before I got off I asked the driver when the next bus back into town was. He said 2.5 hours later. Too late for me if I wanted to catch the last bus to Chuncheon. So I ended up staying on the darn bus and heading right back into down without seeing the bamboo forest. This part of the country was definitely not agreeing with me. Ah well - I headed to the bamboo museum near the bus station where they had some miniature forests and some bamboo craft shops lined up outside. Still a very nice experience and I got some decent pictures. Oh - and the museum people let me store my pack in their ticket booth... for free of course. Gotta love Korean hospitality!



I made it back to the Gwangju intercity bus terminal about 2 minutes before the last bus for Chuncheon pulled out of the station. Thank goodness there was nobody in my line for tickets or I would have missed it.

So all in all, I had a wonderful journey. I met some really cool people and felt like a backpacker for a few days. I practiced my Korean and my French and would have to say I was pretty successful with both. And I have to say, once you get out of the cities and experience the natural beauty of the land here, it really gives you a greater appreciation for your surroundings. I think I might get out to another island next weekend!