A little bit of Yeongcheon

So most of you will not have seen much of the area in which I actually live. It is a small (in comparison) county city 50 odd minutes drive South East of Daegu.

This is my little piece of Korea from 20 stories up:

Here is a short tour over my running route (or one of them at least) around Yeongcheon I hope you enjoy it.



Welcome back to all of you (just by the way ;) )

Ok.. now…Busan, here we come, really!

May has been a very nice month for English teacher in Korea. On the 5^th was Children’s day and on the 10^th it was Buddha’s Birthday. Both days are public holidays in Korea. What makes them even more enjoyable is that the former fell on a Thursday and the latter on the following Tuesday. Because of that the school generally take either the Friday or the following Monday off as well to give them an extra long weekend. In the week leading up to these my schools were conducting mid term exams, so that basically meant that I would be teaching 1 day in the space of 2 weeks.

When our schools originally confirmed that we would have extra time off Sandy, Deborah and I originally planed to take a quick trip to China. The logistics involved in organizing this proved a little difficult to arrange in a short space of time, so we shelved that idea. It was then that Deb suggested Busan, which we were going to do the following week in any case (as neither she nor I had been yet, Sandy had been a couple of times). And so begun the planning which involved finding places to stay, making sure we 3 could meet up, and deciding what we wanted to do and see. Places to stay proved difficult to organize, as apparently places were fully booked (which as we found out was not the case). I assured Deb that “It’s Busan – there must be loads of motels and we will easily be able to get rooms when we get there”. This was not as easy as the statement suggested but we did get a place to stay for all 3 nights we were there.

Here is our stay in Busan:

After School on Friday the 6^th, I met Sandy at the train station and we made our way to Busan. We had tickets and it was all fine until we got onto our transfer to get us to Busan. There were already people sitting in our seats. We were thoroughly confused and after checking other cars and trying to find a conductor to help us we find 2 seats that are at the doors and take a seat. When a conductor comes around she asks where were we going as we were not in assigned seats.

As it turns out we had climbed on the wrong train. It had arrived before our train and was at the platform at the time our train was due to be there. So… we did what you would expect. We assumed that it was our train and hopped on as we didn’t see any delayed notices on the boards. The train we did get on actually arrived ino Busan 30min later than we were scheduled to arrive with the tickets we originally booked. I still don’t know what happened but the upshot was that the conductor said we were still going to same place so not to worry.

Upon arrival into Busan we went to find dinner. It was humid and drizzly. Thereafter we attempted to find a motel that was suggested to us by a friend. We walked around for about 30min and eventually decided that we could not find it and settled for another place. After I met Deb at the station, when she arrived later that evening, we all had Strawberries, swapped stories of why none of the 3 of us are staying in Korea for a 2^nd year and then we went to bed – sleeping 3 sardines side by side on the one bed.

Day 1

Saturday we decided to head to Haeundae where Korea’s most famous beach is located. It was better looking than anything else I have seen in Korea but still nowhere near what we have in beautiful SA. We played around on the sand for a bit and then went to the aquarium. Lunch was slotted in-between those two events. We went to an Indian restaurant called “Ganga”. It was really great food and great company :)

The Aquarium was very impressive. I can’t remember when I went to Cape Town’s aquarium (I know it was years and years ago) but this place was still greatly impressive with the range of water life on display. They even had a couple of Cape Penguins! (Who just so happened to be in an enclosure with a few fake penguins so as to make it look more lively – difficult to do when the things don’t move :-P)

After lengthy discussions on what to do next we headed to Shinsegae Centum City – The biggest department store in the world according to Guinness Records peeps. The span of the place was MASSIVE!

Click here to read up about - The largest Department Store in the World

 We walked around a little admiring things, grabbed some coffee at a small coffee shop and then headed up to “Spa Land”. “Spa Land” Is more a very modern and upper crust Jimjilbang without as much nakedness I think (speculation as I am yet to go to a Jimjilbang).

There are various kinds of sauna’s you sit in (ranging from 36 C to 67 C) and you can also go outside to the foot baths, or outside scrubbing pools. If you wanted you could have proper massages or facials and such (things you would normally find at a Spa). Those, though, would cost you a little extra. We spent about 3 hours there and I spent about 1hour of that time in automated massage chairs and the rest of the time moving around between the various saunas.

After having some trouble we eventually found a place to stay for the next two nights and passed out, aiming to refresh for our 2^nd day of adventure.

Day 2

On, what appeared to be a lovely Sunday morning we spent our time getting up and grabbing breakfast at Café Pescucci whereupon Deb got a call from our friend Lisa saying that she and another friend of ours – Alan were heading to Geoje-do (Geoje Island) to try and take a ferry tour around some of the other islands. We slowly resolved to join them and made our way to the bus terminal to get us to Geoje-do. The bus ride was about an hour and once we got there we were at pains to find out that Lisa and Alan were on the opposite side of the island to us and we were not in walking distance. After some lunch we decided to go and do some pottery making.

The Pottery Place

What we failed to realize is if we did so we would need to come back 1 month later to fetch our creations following glazing. What we ended up doing was having a personal guided tour of 2/3 of the island by taxi before we hopped on a bus back to Busan.

Day 3

After 3 days of muffins for breakfast I caved and got a toasted Samie
and a Cappucino the size of my 2 fists put together

Our last day started off a little drizzly. I thought it would disappear so left my umbrella in a locker at the train station. Deborah did the opposite.

Since I had arrived in Busan I had wanted to go and see Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. It was located right next to the see and had been established on the Cliffside.

The temple on the day before B-dog's birthday

So that was where we went. What was drizzle became a 1hour torrential downpour and we were left scurrying for cover while at the temple (EVEN THOUGH we were covered by hundreds of lamps that were put up in recognition of Buddha’s birthday the following day (Also a public holiday in Korea). The temple was beautiful and I am sure it would have looked even more amazing on a dry clear and sunny day. Even without the lamps – for me it is the most beautiful temple I have seen in Korea.

Taking advantage of what we thought was a slowing rain we made for the exit of the temple only for the deluge to return half way back to the bus stop. Deb – umbrella in hand helps shield Sandy and I fall on my sword allowing the girls to get away with minimal dampness. I on the other hand was a little wet. Safely arriving back in Haeundae we grabbed our trains and headed back to our cities. Sandy and I got backing just after 17:30.

The trip back had it’s own 10min of fun – I thought I had lost my wallet with my Alien Registration Car, bank card and a couple of other things (as well as some cash) in it. Sandy’s keen eye found it though, as we were pulling away from the station. Buddha’s birthday proved restful. I completed my project of hand making 3 sets of scrabble and I am sure I watched a movie as well. That will do it for our mid semester break for a couple of days dedicated to children and Buddha.

Life is never dull on Geoff’s Asian Adventure! Stay tuned folks!

Busan here we come

After a little period of inactivity I’m back giving you the latest from Geoff’s Asian Adventures.

Since last we “spoke” I have traveled to Busan for my nice long weekend; had school picnic day and I have seen the following movies: “Water for Elephant” (with one of my schools on a staff outing); “Source Code” (with Sandy on the 1^st public Holiday that lead to a long long weekend); and “Thor” (this past weekend).

Here is my very un-Barry-Ronge-like review of them all

Water for Elephants

Staring Reese Whitherspoon and what’s-his-face Pattinson from the dreadful Vampire trilogy that shall not be named –

A “Titanic” type story where a man recounts how he first joined the circus back in the American prohibition days. He is a failed Vet, who for some reason or another (I don’t know because I missed the 1^st 10min of the movie), is running from someone/something and ends up hitching a ride on a train that is moving a circus around the country. He meets the circus owner’s wife, falls in love with her and is also given an elephant to look after. Not my first choice of flick so see.

I was supposed to be given a choice of film but that offer was retracted along with a number of other Admin promises made about this day-long story short reaffirming my reasoning why I have not signed on for this for another year.

That said back to the movie…

A standard romance really. Reese Whitherspoon was elegant. The elephant was cool (in my opinion she should have featured more according to the title). If Vampire-boy does it for you then go ahead and see it. I have seen better romance based movies but it was not bad.

Source Code

I have seen a few action flicks this year (“Red”, “Inception”, “Indestructible”, “The American”…) all of which I enjoyed and all of which have their merits. This movie however ranks 2^nd (behind Inception) for its creativity and action packed, explosion filled nature. It was anticipated by both Sandy and I when we saw the trailer and it didn’t disappoint.

Staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffery Wright and Vera Farminga, it is a clever Sci-Fi idea about stuff that happens to the brain before death. (I am being deliberately because I recommend you see it! Really enjoyed the 2 hours I spent watching that movie and think you should do the same.

Thor

What more do you need. Superheroes; Cool battle suits; A man mountain of a lead character who dominates when he corrects the wrongs he created; fights, lightening and of course Natalie Portman (Interesting movie to be in following “Black Swan”).

Again a very nice way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Action packed with some pleasantly surprising witty humor and a very well chose cast, Chris Hemsworth has a few more action flicks in him and I look forward to his appearance in “The Avengers”

That done – back to the recent trip to the coast (and the point of these 2 posts)

Easter Whimsey

Welcome back to Geoff's Asian Adventure!


So... roughly 4 months left in Korea.


WOW! How time has flown by. It is already the start of May!!!


This post goes out to my 3 South African posted imediate Family members. It was Colin's Birthday 3 days after the events of this post took place and it was also my parents 30th Anniversary the day after that. So this one is for you 3 amazing people :)


As the title suggests this is a post about the happenings of Easter weekend. April has been a slow month and yet again we chose to rest up and enjoy a leisurely easter weekend with Face Painting and Egg Dying. and really... there is not much more to say other than enjoy the first of two video's covering those 6 hours.




To find out what happend next let me introduce you to someone:


(A warning to our sensitive viewers - the "graphic" nature of some of these visuals might be disturbing... well not really, but that was what I was going for :-P )



I thought to try and keep the visual appeal of this post going, here are some spring pictures from the area around one of my schools and also of my city.

The month of May is going to be quite a month as I am off to Busan; Tongyeong; some hot springs and a few other things I am sure, so keep safe and keep logging on!

Geoff OUT!

My Average Day in Korea shown to you in the space of 5min 52sec

I took my camera with me to school one day so that I could show you one day in my life.

This was the result. Enjoy :)

Blossom(s), Bubbles, and Buttercup (well Tulips)... It's finally Spring time!

*Enters virtual confessional*
*Clears throat, and swallows nervously*


Forgive me followers for I have sinned.
It has been 2 weeks since my last post (I think).


*The weight of the appology lifted, sits up straight and sends fingers into a frenzy of activity*


____________________________________________________________________________________


Hi there.


How are you? No seriously, I sincerely want to know how you are? *takes a sip of rediculously sweet Korean instant coffee*


I am glad to hear that :)


How am I? Well thanks for asking...


Post my birthday weekend I'd say that my blood alcohol levels have finally returned to normality and I have just about recovered from a rather nasty bout of Tonsillitis brought on by this...

CHINESE YELLOW DUST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust


Apparently.

Luckily for me I was sufficiently recovered by Friday night to head of to Daegu, with Sandy, where we had dinner at Bennigans...

... and hopped on a bus (after some confusions as to which bus and then which bus stop) to the part of Daegu where my newly-arrived-to-Korea, friends-from-back-home, Pedro & Kirstey, stay. We spent the night with them (catching up and sharing experiences) and woke up bright eyed...

...and bushy tailed at 06:00 on Saturday morning, to head to the train station. We were catching a train to Masan...

What we saw at the train station

From where we would catch a bus to Jinhae to see the 49th "Jinhae Gunhangje Festival".



This is (apparently) the best place in Korea to see the arrival of spring with the blooming of thousands of cherry blossoms. It was here where we met the very cool Joanne and Chad Newton - a couple who were friends of our friends, whom they had met on their orrientation. Sandy and I then realised... we were on a couples day out :-P Pedro&Kirstey, Joanne&Chad, Sandy&Geoff and later we were joined by Hanri&Elizabeth (Joubert). Fun times in relationshipville :-D


During our travels toward the festival this is what Sandy and I were expecting in our very imaginative minds eyes:

This is what we actually saw when we arrived:

It was no less beautiful though.

Sandy and I had been to a few fests thus far so we were the wise young heads of the day. We were with 6 people who had not, as yet, been to a Korean festival. They were not to know that all festivals had the same vibe and the same stalls (there were even masking making stations like the ones we frequented at the Andong Mask Fest last year). And so they were all rareing to go as fast as possible to see as much as possible inthe timewe were there. Sandy and I were just happy to to enjoy the sunshine, warmth and pretty blossoms on the trees. I think if I could choose, my phrase for the day to the other 6 would be: "Just chill and enjoy the sights, sounds and warm weather - no need to rush"

We did a lot of walking and Sandy got a straberry jam waffle, and me McCain chips, in batter, on a sick, for lunch. Later we endulged in some ice cream too. The highlight was heading to the top of the valley and seeing a 360 view of the landscape with spots of white in the hills, where trees could be found to be in bloom.

We climbed this many steps:

...to be able to see that!

We attempted to get to the coast to see the tree lined beach but we had a silly little navel base in the way so that proved unsuccessful. We did take a nice long walk on a very straight road lined with blossoms. And we took a lot of photo's.

Getting back to Masan proved adventurous as it normally does when you leave festivals. There were so many people waiting for busses that you would be lucky if you did not have to wait for a couple of busses to pass before you could board one that was empty enough.

This was amongst a row of sensible signs like: Don't cycle, Don't litter, No smoking. BUT for the life of me I can't understand what they were trying to get across here - No wrapping your finger in bandages?

Sandy and I got separated due to this fact of festivals in Korea. As it turned out Sandy arrived at the Masan train station only about 5 min before I did despite me waiting for 15min for another bus that I could get on. The way back to Yeongcheon entailed sleep-arrive at Dongdeagu, walk to another train, sleep, walk to taxi, walk to respective flats, and finally sleep. It was a very relaxing if travel busy Saturday, with great old and new friends. Thanks to Sandy, Pedro, Kirsty, Chad, Joanne, Hanri and Elizabeth for making it a memorable trip!

Oh... quick cap on Sunday:

07:45 - woke up

11:57 - caught a train to Deagu with Sandy

12:45 - find Sushi restaurant and eat Sushi for lunch

13:30ish - get McD's soft serve ice cream for dessert and head to HomePlus

15:15 - Board train back to YC following successful cereal purchasing.

16:00 Through the rest of the day: Chatted to folks, had dinner, watched "Dispicable Me", watched Mumbai beat Delhi in the IPL, slept.

There. Done. Now you know how I am :)

Until next time this has been Geoff's Asian Adventure....

No Creative title for this post just: 4 days of birthday fun. (PART 2)

Welcome back all.

I hope you had a tastey cup-o-hot-bever-age (this last bit of the dash is to be mentally pronounced like the -age bit in the medical term "gastric lavage") and a couple of biscuts... (pronounced like Sybil from "Fawlty Towers*")

*one of the greatest slapstick physical comedy shows of all time that was given to us by the dementedly brilliant minds of John Cleese and Connie Booth*

And are ready for the second dose (that is two clues as to the contents of this post - come on, keep up...) of events from my beerthday weekend.

Friday involved waking up to 74 people seeing it was my birthday via their Facebook sidebars and politely dropping me a kind birthday wish (This happend during late Thursday and early Friday because of course SA is 7 odd hours behind) and then the day faded into another school day. Then it was the evening. That was to become an entirely different beast.

The plan was ambitious: Dinner with great people at Maya's Indian restaurant followed by a night (and a morning) on the town and a day to follow that at Woobangland amusement park. Funny thing "Ambition".

You need to make the right decisions to achieve what you had hoped. On this night and morning... I failed dismally - with an absolute blast of a time the resultant consequences ;)

Dinner was fantastic. After meeting up with Alana, Alan, Lisa and Marelize at Dongdaegu Train station it was decided that Alana, Sandy and I head off and meet upwith Andrew at Maya while the other 3 will wait for the arrivalof Deb from Daejeon and with all luck a comunicationless Pedro and Kirstey. At 1st Sandy, Alana and I walked into the wrong Indian restaurant but were almost lured to stay there by the smell of decadence that engulfed us. HOWEVER - we did have guests and a booking@Maya to attend to, so we promptly found our way to the correct resaurant. Slowly but surely everyone arrived and the festivities began. I was particularly pleased that Sandy would finally get to meet so many of the awesome people I have had the pleasure to meet on my journey thus far.

Where I sat, it was Sandy, Alana, Andrew and I. our little table grouping decided to each order a difffernt thing and share it around. I had the Butter Chicken to eat and Plain Lassi to drink. Alana had a Lentil curry, Sandy a Lamb curry and Andrew I think a vegetable curry *all dishes were eaten with Naan bread. Conversation was flowing and I had particularly long chats with Deb, Andrew and Kirstey.

Front Row Left: Alana; Andrew; Marelize; Lisa; Kirstey; Pedro
Back Row: Me; Sandy; Alan; Deb

There were even 2 Birthday Cakes greatfully supplied by the Lisa (a big one) and by Pedro and Kirstey (a small one, which apparently looked a little like me, that I took home to have at my leisure). It was a great dinner made that much better by some amazing people.

After dinner we all went our separte ways and Sandy and I headed into Downtown Deagu to meet up with others who had come through to party.While looking for our room at the "Green Motel" I bumped into Jeff, Carey-Lee, Leon and Grant who had come down to Deagu from the Andong are, for the night's festivities. 2nd group of invitees accounted for. At the green motel we found Ashli with Soekie, Rachel and Krista, who were staying in rooms adjacent to us. 3rd group found.

Ashli was to be my guide for the night as she knew the spots a lot better than I did. She presented me with a T-shirt that she and Alana had made for me to wear on the night.

The Front

The Back

The night is best summed up in pictorial form so rather than try and describe something that was a "had to be there night" here are loads of pics from the differnt venues. (Courtney pops up in a lot of these photo's because that is just something she seems very good at doing and because she took my camera for a little bit)

1st port of call: Gogo Vinyl. (Well it was supposed to be but we just ordered a drink in the mini bar area and left, so we never actually got there - ominous signs)

Drinks Line-up: Mini papsak - Don't know what went into it, it was called Peach... something, something

2nd port of call Who's Bob.

Drinks Line-up: 5 shots of beer (beer-pong losses); 1 taquilla; 2 Kalua and Milk's and one Flaming Dr Pepper. This was interspersed with 3 cups of water as well

It was there where I met up with Sean, Courtney (who was well on her way when we found her as she had been drinking with friends in the 2 hours that she was waiting for me to finish dinner - Sadly Sam had the lanygitis so it was thought best she stay back in Pohang), Dirk, and eventually Ian and American Joe as well. It was hear where we stayed for the majority of the night actually.

In Soekies hand...yes the green thing - that was what my 1st drink for the night looked like

Not only did those spec make me SUPERCOOL, next to the mercurial Courtney
but they were also lenseless ;)

Soekie looks like one "naughty" librarian/school teacher and Ashli...
I have no idea what she was trying to do but she looks stoned

 

At this point I was still well sober, as was Krista (Far left) Courtney... not so much
and Rachel (2nd Left), well that's just crazy Rachel is all

I think we stayed at Who's Bob until about 01:30-02:00. While frequenting this ever more rowdy bar, I teamed up and won with Ashli at Beer-Pong against Jeff and Carey-Lee/Leon (who seemed to be rotating their participation in the game).

That looks very Marilyn Manson/K.I.S.S. 'esque

One of many failed attempt to land the ball in a mug, as Ashli downs a glass we just lost

Who's "thumbs up" is that?

Ashli the picture of concentration before the victory shot; oh and there's Courtney again

Krista supporting the winning team

Beer Pong being set up

"Who's Bob" was certainly packed tonight

I had the most engaging conversation with Ian and Joe,going from the cricket to Zimbabwe, to Libya, to Democracy and two party states, to movies that end at in appropriate time and finally how that affected my perception fo the 1st Lord of the Rings movie. It was great. I can always count on Ian (and a lot of alcohol by this point) to toss in interesting conversation topics!

The 2... erm... our names aren't spelled the same so... Geoff and Jeff

Carey-Lee; Grant; Leon and I before the start of my downfall, get up, and down fall again, with a little Taquilla
(IT MAKES ME HAPPY...!)

 

Joe at the back and Ian with me after our insightful chat

With my 2nd Kalua Milk finished we left Who's Bob and went to...

3rd port of call: Organ Bar:

Drinks Line-up: 2 shots of B151 (AKA - "Death in a shot glass"); One glass of Coke, A glass of water

In heathier times on arrival at "Organ Bar"

I am trying (and succeeding) to teach Matt the South African handshake

 

The ladies saying their good-bye's to me before "Death in a shot glass"

I hadn't even had "Death in a shot glass" and Krista was looking less than impressed by my
complete coordination failure at having to find the straw for my coke on the 4th attempt

She then decides to show the camera (in Ashli's hands) how red my ears are

A gent by the name of Matt (I think) joined us in our travels there and this is where the night turned to the adventuous. I had a glass of Coke and was then bought my 2nd shot. It is called B 151 - or Bacardi 151.

Just after my 1st Shot of B 151 (presented to me by Ashli)

The long and the short of the "adventure" is that I had 2 of these shots and according to Wiki this alcohol has a content that is roughly equvalent to double that of standard rum.

After the 2nd shot of B 151 (presented tome by Matt)

I got back to my room@the green motel at about 03:30. Knowing that I was being optimistic about the amusement park meeting time later that morning I decided to send a couple of SMS's to people who I was meeting at what was to be between 10-10:30. I drew inspiration for the following visuals from French Cut ; Just Blog Off and Hyperbole and a Half to showcase what I thought while standing in my motel room doorway at 03:30:

This too proved fool hardy as no sooner did I enter the room and wake Sandy than I had to make my way to the bathroom and...

The written content of this portion has been censored for concern over the writer's pride

the progression of events that lead to an inevitable conclusion:

I did this ALL on MS Paint

... At 7:30 I finally got to sleep and ended up sleeping until 10:50. Luckily Sandy in her continued, star-quality, awesome wisdom had seen fit to let the revelant party's know that I would not be joining in the Amusement Park fun as I was is in to fragile a physical state to do so. Eventually at about 12:00 Sandy and I left the motel and made our way back to Yeongcheon. I got back to my flat and slept off most of the rest of the day.

The last day of my Birthday weekend proved to be just what the doctor ordered - restful and relaxed. I cleaned my place, and Sandy and I went for a nice long walk along the river side later in the afternoon. Supper was a reasonable version of Spag Bol from Mr Pizza with Colleen and Sandy in attendance and we then had some of the 2nd birthday cake for desert while watching "How To Train Your Dragon".

4 words, 6 digets, 1 mathematical and 1 gramaticle symbol:

2011: 25th Birthday in Korea = Winner

Shooo - you had enough yet? Just breath. It's all over now. I am not going to force you to read any more bad puns or look at any more pictures of me (for the time being anyway).

That is me until the next time I do something crazy cool, Yo!

Stay tuned to Geoff's Asian Adventures but until next time - Anyong!