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Let's put this sick dog to sleep

Well I am on the last few days of my time in Korea, and my experience somewhat parallels this blog in that the first few months started out with a bang, while the last few months were relatively dry, and sparse for content.

I've said my goodbyes to lots of people, including my kids who have been an utter joy in my life this past year. Two girls in particular cried and refused to let go of me when I told them that I was leaving forever. The bartender at the watering hole I frequent gave me a goodbye present, a flask filled to the top with Canadian Club, in hopes that I maintain my unhealthy lifestyle into the future. I had two final night outs with friends and coworkers in Hongdae, both of which, of course, were not slight on shenanigans.

So, onwards I go. However, I won't be coming immediately back to Canada. Instead my good friend Adam and I will be trekking through Southeast Asia for several months. He flew in about a week ago and is staying with his sister, who also lives in Seoul. In about two days, we board a plane for Bali, Indonesia to start what will be a massive overland journey up the continent and into the unknown. So far we have almost absolutely nothing planned, and we're keeping it that way so we can keep things unpredictable. All we know is that we both hope to make it as far as India. It's going to be tricky, but we've talked about doing this for almost two years know, and the fact that this is becoming a reality has yet to sink in with me.

I am kind of sad to be leaving. I feel like my social rank is a lot higher here in Korea, and the thought of going back to Canada and being yet another university grad with a useless diploma and a lousy job frightens me. I'm entertaining the notion of going back to school, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stick it out. I love teaching and there's a very good chance it may end up being what I want to do with the rest of my life. There have been numerous factors lately that have been enticing me to come back and work another year, but I haven't seen my family in over a year, and I don't know if I'm ready to give up on everything else I wanted to do with my life. So many things to think about. A hard dose of reality is going to greet me when I get off that plane back in Canada.

So I'm putting this blog to bed. I'm going to start another one to document my travels. When I make it I'll post the link here. Till then, here's a few pictures from the last couple of months. Enjoy.

ECC News 2

SEQUEL!

Gord the salesman

Ahaha I just have to share this:

ECC News

My afternoon class is studying the news so we decided to do our own news broadcast. I put way too much effort into this, but here it is.

PS: if you're reading this on facebook, go see the video in my profile or check it out on vimeo directly.

Thailand highlight reel.

If you're reading this on Facebook, you won't see the embedded video so go check it out on Vimeo directly instead.

Thailand was great. I'll try to have some pictures up soon.

DMZ

So a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us decided to finally get around to checking out the DMZ.

For those who don't know, the DMZ is the 4km wide strip of land that divides North Korea and South Korea. It's name is misleading because it is actually the most heavily militarized border in the world, with an insane amount of troops on either side ready to roll into battle should anything go awry. In order to get in on this action, we signed up for a USO tour which took us right to the frontlines.

The tour began at 7am bright and early. The bus ride to the DMZ was only about an hour or so, and we were entertained/kept awake by a little old Korean tour guide doing his best to explain the intricacies of North/South Korean relations.

We were forbidden from taking any pictures upon entering the DMZ. Once inside, we rolled in between minefields and alongside razor wire and fortified guard posts until we got to Camp Bonifas. We were given another history lesson of the DMZ, this time delivered with rote, military precision by a US soldier, which took only 2 minutes. After we signed our safety waivers, it was off to the JSA (Joint Security Area).

The Joint Security Area

The official border between North and South Korea within the DMZ is called the Military Demarcation Line. The Joint Security Area lays smack dab on top of this line, and it's where the two sides occasionally meet for talks or just stare at each other all day. This obviously was a very tense area so we were made to walk single file in two lines the entire time. Once we were actually at the border and in full view of the other side, North Korean guards whipped out their binoculars and started checking us out. It was pretty unnerving, but extremely fascinating. Jess was super jumpy at first and gave me the camera, but eventually she loosened up. I got chastised for stepping off the stairs to get a good shot.


Pay attention to what the US soldier is saying, it's really interesting.

A North Korean soldier checking us out.

A strict dress code applied. This is me looking sensible at the JSA.

We were then taken into one of the blue negotiating sheds to see where the North and South actually hold talks. This part was cool because since the shed straddled the demarcation line it allowed us to technically enter into North Korea! Inside there were two Republic of Korea soldiers (ROK soldiers) standing guard and looking bloody tough. We were allowed to take pictures but we couldn't touch or get behind them for any reason.

Guard number 1.

Guard number 2. The door behind him leads into North Korea. If you try to get behind him, he will Taekwondo your ass so hard.

Gord and Charlotte in North Korea.

Jess in North Korea.

The concrete slab marks the North/South border. I'm on the North side!

Once we left the JSA, we headed to an observatory. This part kind of sucked because it was a foggy day and we couldn't see anything or even take pictures. we did manage to see North Korea's propaganda village though complete with the world's tallest flagpole. I also got to see a ROK soldier make a Japanese tourist erase half of the photos he took without permission.

Terrible binoculars at the observatory.

The observatory again.

Next step was lunch and gift shopping. Jess and I got North Korean banknotes and blueberry wine.

Finally, we got to see the 3rd tunnel, one of the 4 tunnels that North Korea dug in order to sneak attack the south. It was a pretty grueling walk through a very narrow and damp tunnel. We wore helmets which came in handy since more than a few people spanked their heads on some low-hanging bars. They didn't allow pictures of the tunnel unfortunately, so sorry about that. After we got back out, we headed home.

So far, this trip has been one of the highlights of Korea for me. After seeing countless historical attractions, it was exciting to visit a place affected by contemporary politics. I think the tour guides try to scare you a little bit to make it more thrilling, but regardless, it was cool actually visiting a warzone and staring North Korea in the face. Plus it was refreshing to see foreign tourists abandon their usual jackassery for fear that it might get them shot, beaten or thrown in jail.

Videos of the kids

I told my parents I'd put up some more videos of the kids so here are 2 for your enjoyment!

Circumnavigation

So, here comes the post I've been putting off for far too long. It's about the roadtrip Gord, Charlotte, Jess and I did around Korea. The title is a bit misleading as we didn't actually completely encircle the whole country, but we came damn near close. I made a Google map explicitly pinpointing our various locations throughout the trek, and the shape we drew on the map more closely resembles a dinosaur bite out of the side of the peninsula. Check it out right here. Please. It took me a long time to make.

Although the country looks small on maps, traversing it is not as easy as going from point A to B. Canada is blessed with long stretches of flat land, perfect for blasting across with excellent 360 degree visibility. Korea is a whole different beast. A maze of tangled roads that spiral up and down treacherous peaks, driving along 250km of road but only covering 150km of distance. Never having more than a single lane to use was standard for almost the entire trek, and my heart almost stopped on more than one occasion while making a hairpin turn just as another vehicle was speeding around from the other direction.

I should also mention that being the sole license holder of our fellowship, I was dutifully obliged to accept 100% of the driving duties. I essentially made up for all of my time not driving in Korea in those 5 action-packed days on the road.

The group mantra was somewhat the same. We had a hazy, minimally thought-out, half-cooked plan which sent us in a general direction and we would sort out the details enroute. The details generally included, what sights we would see, where we would eat, where we would sleep and what route we would take. Armed with a pair of Lonely Planet Koreas, a GPS, and a marginal understanding of Hangul writing, we hoped to inject a little unpredictability into what had become our severely regimented workaday lives (although I can't speak for Jess, who had just arrived in Korea at this point, so it was already kind of like riding a horse on a speeding train for her).

DAY 1: Getting the car was easy enough. What did we end up with? The Daewoo Tosca. This commercial here pretty accurately sums up how I felt about the car by the end of the trip. For everything cool we found about it ("Emergency escape hatch in the trunk? Cool!"), there was something I found either clumsy, awkward or downright frustrating ("Why can't this car go up a hill to save it's life?"). The whole process of renting the car was done without any mutual intelligibility either.

Our first stretch provided me with a little bit of a driving refresher course/trial by fire that included driving through the thick, gooey heart of Seoul. After crawling out the other side, we immediately launched full-speed across the peninsula. This moment also coincided with us picking up a ipod tape adapter and finally getting the tunes up and running. There's always that moment on a roadtrip when the actual "roadtrip" part kicks into full gear and it really feels like you're in it for the long haul.

AW!

We drove through the Seoraksan National Park and stopped at some picturesque scenery and what would be the start of a holiday junk food bender. Jess brought her DSLR which we both were eager to try on numerous occasions. I hope you like the shots. She took probably about 70% of them. It's also worth mentioning that our first stop also served as an introduction to some of the ungodliest bathrooms we would soon encounter.

3 hours and a handful of breathtaking panoramas later (many of which were impossible to capture on film), we punched through the mountains to the east coast.

My first order of business: sit and look at something that wasn't road.

We were pretty far north, about 12km from the DMZ in fact, and it showed with the number of pillboxes and tanks lying around. We decided to head further north to Hwajinpo Beach and take a refreshing swim. It was actually Jess's first time seeing the ocean let alone swimming in it, and she maintained that the saltiness, if not the experience, exceeded her expectations.

Dinner was in a small asscrack of a town called Goseong where we ate samgeopsal and bought corner store ice cream. The sun was almost down so we drove the coast trying to find a beach-side hotel for cheap. Then, like a beacon in the fog, we came across the King Motel. Clean, classy, beach-side and less than $40 a night. We shot fireworks off on the beach. Jess crashed out in the room. I downed a Cass Red pitcher and literally clothes-lined myself running back to wake her up.

DAY 2: Onwards down the coast to Sokcho, a fishing town that housed remnants of some kind of World Expo of yesteryear.

View from the top of Expo Tower.

Most of the glorious stuff had been torn down. We stopped and got Pizza Hut and then got stuck in traffic twice somehow. We tried to check out the lighthouse but it was closed. This had to do instead:

It actually was terribly filthy inside.

Onward south a good hundred-and-some odd kilometers, we had our first "Whoa pull over here!" moment of the trip. In the middle of nowhere, on our way to the next town, we came across a shockingly large and ornate temple complex in the middle of the mountains. Upon further investigation we discovered that it was also a museum! We paid and went in, and every step we took, the place just got bigger and better. It seemed unreal how this place wasn't even mentioned in any of the tourist books or English maps ANYWHERE.

View from within the museum grounds.

The entrance to an impressive cave complex. I remember being so excited about the bat cave at the Toronto Science Museum when I was a kid. This place would have blown my mind.

Discovered this little grotto right near the end of the tour.

It's a shame that, despite some of the most impressive and ornate artifacts housed within the museum, I decide to post a picture of the Puzz-3D they had on display.

We continued onwards. I can't remember when it was exactly, but at some point we decided to pull over onto this little valley road. I believe there was promise of an ancient tomb of some sort. Anyways, chock this one up to the whole "sort out the details as we go" plan, because we ended up on a slippery, steep road at the foot of a mountain in the rain, and one hell of a ridiculous hike ahead of us. We turned around after about 100 meters. One thing we did get from that little diversion was an opportunity for some scenically rustic snapshots of rural Korea.

See? Rustic!

And this was right across the road.

Close-by we found the town of Samcheok. Even smaller than Sokcho, it had it's own distinct set of charms and natural grace. A giant Blessed Virgin Mary statue overlooked the main intersection of town from an elevated terrace. We ate dinner and left immediately hoping to repeat our luck finding a cheap beach-side motel. Didn't happen. The girls were tired and frustrated so we holed up in Samcheok for the night. Gord and I went out for beers and found a place that actually sells 10,000cc pitchers. For reference these monsters are a mere 3000cc. No, we didn't get it (are you kidding me?)

DAY 3: Off again, this time to Hwanseon Cave nearby. Apparently it was a must see. It was pretty great actually. The hike up was particularly brutal, but redeemed itself when we were blasted with cool air at the mouth of the cave. The cave itself was sprawling and gorgeous, yet much too dark to take a decent picture (sorry). When we came back out again, the heat hit us and fogged up our glasses.

Check out cornball in the middle.

On the way down he mountain I saw a guy sitting in between two very active beehives with no protective equipment on whatsoever, locked on the horizon in a pensive gaze. Bizarre scenes like this seem to be shockingly common in the countryside. Such is the magic and mystique of Korea.

Onward south we went, along the coast until we reached Hosan beach. This one didn't seem to have anything resembling accommodation nearby until BAM we came across the mother of all finds that put the King Motel to shame! Behold the BICHI HOTEL (in English, Beach Hotel; Hangul once again proving to be hilarious).

With a wedding hall!

Talk about an oasis in the desert! This place was right on the beach, had a flatscreen TV, private computer with internet, massive bed, balcony, 6-inch shower heads, waterfall faucets and too many perks to count. It was around $70 a night too and we appeared to be one of the only groups there!

Doesn't do the room justice.

Great view of the "East Sea".

It's also worth mentioning, that the further out into the countryside we got, the less used to foreigners people became. Being in the bowels of rural Korea, this hotel was no exception, as some of the staff would sometime react with shock and amazement when any of us stepped out of the elevator.

The only downside to the place was the horribly pebbly beach which proved to be a nuisance for some and a full-on body assault for others. Oh well! We took a walk across a rusty old bridge while a bunch of kids shot off fireworks alarmingly close-by. The small town whose name I forgot was eerily silent. We bought some beer and ice cream from an old lady's home and hung out near a lighthouse on the dock. Small town Korea was hitting it's full potential.

DAY 4: Let's hit the road guys!

Urban Egoist.

Holy crap! Pull over!

On the road south again! The destination this time was the city of Gyeongju, aka "The Museum Without Walls" aka UNESCO-land. The reason they call it the museum without walls is because it contains arguably the highest concentration of ancient temples, tombs and cultural properties in all of Korea. It was the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom, a kingdom I first learned about after visiting the city of Gyeongju.

First stop was the temple complex of Bulguksa. The white people were out in droves now and it was refreshing to have other tourists meandering about (believe it or not). The temples sure were templey alright, and we had a good walkaround before growing restless and moving on.

I'm hilarious.

Next step was the Seokguram Grotto. This place was awesome, not because of the actual site, but rather the epic trail leading up to it. The majority of the path there was an extremely windy road up a steep mountainside. As we climbed, we watched as the city shrunk smaller and smaller through our right side windows. On the GPS, our route was a massive squiggly red line that seemed to go on forever. When we reached the entrance to the grotto, we were literally in the clouds on top of a mountain (another first for Jess).

A view from the top.

Epic bell.

From there we had to a hike a bit more until we reached the sacred grotto. It was a bit of a letdown considering how epic the trip up was and how massive and sprawling the previous temple was. They did have a very sacred Buddha statue and no scaffolding in sight! Side note, what a pain in the ass it would be to work on something way the hell on top of a mountain.

So at that point in time, the non-Charlotte collective had spoken up. No more temples, let's hit the beach! We went down the winding road again, and then back up because there was a turn off near the top that we missed. It's funny because when you miss your turn, the GPS directs you along the road you are on until your reach an intersection to turn around at. In this case, the next one was way the hell down at the bottom of the mountain. This wouldn't be the worst calamity we'd suffer at the hands of the GPS either, but more on that later. The beautiful cliffside had lost it's magic the third time through. Anger and frustration played a role in that.

Before reaching the beach, the weather cleared up and we happened upon what I thought was one of the most spectacular scenes I had seen on the whole trip thus far. We pulled over at these two stone pagodas on a hill which overlooked a long, narrow valley lined with crops. I snapped about 30 photos in an attempt to capture how stirring the view was. These were the ones I felt came the closest.

So lush!

Gord at the base of the hill.

Oh wide angle lens and high dynamic range, how much you could have helped.

They were the Gameunsa Pagodas.

The beach we were headed to was only a few kilometers away and was particularly noteworthy because, if you looked out into the distance, you could see the water tomb of King Munmu, an ancient Silla king who I picture looking like this. We eventually reached said beach, and much to our chagrin, it was ALL PEBBLES again! I think we really just didn't care this time cause all of us charged in full force and played in the waves. Jess got spanked real hard with a particularly violent wave and was literally thrown out of the water. Gord and I stayed in and cheated death (or at least a concussion) some more.

We weren't the only idiots doing it either. In a testament to the fact that "boys will be boys" transcends cultures, Korean dudes were running face-first into the breaking waves. The most dangerous part wasn't the waves actually, but rather, the giant rocks being dragged by the undertow that would pummel your ankles (or head depending on your orientation). I cut two of my toes open on some rocks. The first one, I covered up immediately, the second I never ended up noticing until well after the vacation was over! Back at the car, Gord and I each shook about a half pound of rocks out of our swimming trunks.

That evening we drove up the coast in search of a motel and a galbi restaurant. We were in luck with the former as we came across a cozy spot on the beach with cheap rooms and noraebang in the basement. As we were about to pull out to look for a galbi restaurant, a giant truck started up the lane spewing massive clouds of pesticides everywhere. We had to duck into the motel as it literally blanketed the entire area in thick, smelly bug spray. It smelled horrible but didn't ruin our appetites.

After cruising up for a while, we came across a sleepy beach town. We never found galbi, but we did find excellent samgeopsal, so we had that, bought some snacks and beer and made our way back to the hotel. That night we hung out on the beach and traded yarns. When the girls went to bed, Gord and I turned it up to 11 and hit the noraebang. In fact, upon special request, the innkeeper re-opened the noraebang and brought us some soju. In our minds, we killed it. I screamed in my sleep that night apparently.

DAY 5: Up we got and on the road again back to Gyeongju to see some more Silla stuff. Before we reached our destination, we stopped in front of the Seonje Museum of Contemporary Art which had an interesting reverse-pagoda facade.

I opted for this picture over the "goofy" one.

The next stop was Wolseong Park, home of the numerous burial mounds of ancient kings and military leaders. It was quite pretty and they even let us rent bikes to zip around the grounds with. Jess and I opted for a tandem bike before realizing that they are cumbersome and inconvenient. Seriously, nothing romantic about them, get your own bike or have her sit on your handlebars. The only good thing that came of it was this picture:


The scenery was splendid, and we made a stop off at Anapji Pond. After we returned the bikes, Charlotte did a bit more touring on her own while Jess, Gord and I lazed and contemplated how we were going to end the vacation.

Burial mounds.

Great scenery. What this picture couldn't capture was the deafening sound of the cicadas.

So when Charlotte came back, we made a call. We would drive up through the city of Daegu, stop for dinner, then continue onwards to Daejeon and find a place to sleep. Sounded like a great idea to everyone except Mr. GPS who insisted we take the most ass-backwards routes to our destination. At first he (and I will refer to it as 'he' from now on) took us on the thickest, slowest route through Daegu. We did find great galbi, but it took us about an hour to get through the downtown core. Next, he had us driving up mountains, going through backwater towns, over speed-bumps on 30kmph roads, and passing by every major highway that actually looked like it could get us somewhere. After about an hour or two of this, I said "enough" and pulled onto the next highway I saw. He kept instructing me to get off the highway, but I had already had enough of his BS by this point. Sure enough, we reached Daejeon in less than an hour, whereas Mr. GPS's godforsaken route would have surely taken over 3 hours.

Lucky for us we ended up in the love hotel district, which meant that not only was there a myriad of places to stay to chose from, but they were extra glitzy and tacky. We chose one called "Luxury" and that was the end of it.

One of many many alleys lined with love hotels.

DAY 6: Yes there was a day 6. This entry seems to be going on forever, but this was the day we wrapped everything up and went back home to see how much of our food had gone bad.

Early early morning we got up and hopped on the number 1 expressway back to Seoul, despite Mr. GPS's best counsel. I ended up going through the HiPass lane at the toll booth setting off a torrent of sirens. Gord's advice: "Just go!" Sure enough, when it was time to get off the expressway, a very non-English speaking lady was trying to ask us what the hell was wrong with us. About $7 later we were back in business.

Dropping the car off back in Seoul made me realize how lucky we were to have had such a flawless trip. We had a few close calls with cabbies, once in Gyeongju and once in Samcheok, but there were no collisions and no marks on the car. Everything was great! I was (and still am) a little worried that I will get a speeding ticket in the mail, after my coworker told me that they have cameras stationed all over the highways that take a picture of your license plate. I am hoping a big nasty ticket doesn't show up, because all highways are 80kmph max here, and I wasn't always willing to oblige.

Anyways, great trip. I would highly advise anyone looking for a great time around Korea to just hop in a car and make it happen. Rather that stress out about booking hotels and making itineraries, just fly out there and hit up whatever is in your way. We did it, and I regret nothing!

Sorry if this entry was so massive. It took me over 4 hours to write if you can believe that, so please, if you make it through the whole thing, show me some love in the comments section! NO TLDR!

Hopefully I'll write on here again soon.