Hello to everyone who has followed me in my written journey over the past year and 3 months or so.
I have been back in South Africa (as you all might or might not know and indeed as you might or might not care) for 42 days. I have not written here for 57 days. To be honest I have not been able to figure out what I could write to complete the documenting of what has been quite an amazing year. Writing about my travel following the completion of my contract would become very long winded (leaving you with so much reading that you probably would give up before being even half way through). I had the idea of getting some of my pictures up for you to take a casual gander at. That proved to be a little difficult with my arrival to limited bandwidth and comparatively prehistoric upload speeds that we have in this country. I had begun to do a post summarizing my time in Korea but then that was a little self indulgent – if you are reading this post then you are more likely to have read about those experiences in previous posts.
What I have decided to do below is write about the most telling thing that I have learnt while I have been away from friends, family and familiarity. This is introspective but it is something that I want to share with anyone willing to read on. I preface what you read below with this: this is my personal opinion and is in no way a statement towards anyone.
In the past 14 months I have: Jumped off a bridge, soared in the clouds, swum with tropical fish, witnessed the beauty evident in cherry blossoms, experienced the thrill of touch, taste, sound, smell and sight. Amongst all this and a great deal more I have learned that there are 2 things that are absolute in life – Family and Love. Everything else is circumstantial and erodes or morphs over time (depending on how you prefer to think about it). Regardless of how you think about all things erosion can take place though. This occurs if you hold on to what you had so tightly and for so long that your grip on that thing’s reality becomes skewed. This in turn can cause its place in your mind, in your heart, to become just a little bit hard and void of feeling. You have damaged what you once dearly coveted because you were unwilling to accept that change is inevitable.
This is something I have learned and more importantly, learned to accept. The application of what I have learned I have had to apply to my relationships in life.
Family will never leave you. You might get disappointed, sad or angry with them at times but your family will never stop being there for you, with you. Families are love with no boundaries and no clauses. Cherish, respect and at the very least honour your family as best as you know how.
Your family’s love is unconditional. When you choose to love, you should do so with all your heart but when it is time to let go, you should not hold on too tightly but rather accept that situations change, relationships evolve and you should be willing to evolve with those relationships. Should you accept and evolve you will save yourself a great deal of anguish.
I know I am guilty of holding on too tightly and not accepting change. This journey of self discovery has helped me evolve, to be comfortable in and of myself. It has helped me to accept that some things may stay the same but most things are dynamic. To all who have enriched my journey and to all who have enriched my life you will always be in my heart.
I have described to you all how much I have learned and grown for this experience and I now strive to be more flexible, and fluid. That said I will never allow my heart to harden because that is not who I am. You all will always have a place in my heart, no matter what the direction or the nature of our relationship, may take.
Signing off for the final time from my Asian Adventure, thank you all so much for following my adventures. May we soon become reacquainted in an all new life changing experience!
Hello Hello, to anyone who is still following these musings of mine.
My last post was on 24 July. It is not 16 September.
I am currently in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on leg 4 of my Asian Adventure having spent 2 amazing weeks in Thailand with the wonderful Sandy Lam, whom I miss greatly as she has made her way safely, thankfully, back to her home in San Francisco.
Life certainly does move fast doesn't it. In the intervening time between this post and last, I signed off in Korea by having Adam stay with me for about 8 days. It was a good 8 days. We went to the DMZ.
If you will remember, I had been once before in January...wow... that was 8 months ago... wow...moving on...
This time around I got a clear shot...urm... I mean line of sight... *clears throat*, into North Korea from Camp Bonifas - A US army instilation on which the meeting room, for the uneasy neighbours,...
Hey what do you know, twice I checked my slepping on MS Word for some tricky words and twice I got them right 1st time. There is hope for me yet... again drifting off topic, sorry about that, back to it then...)
...that you see on TV, can be found. We also partied it up in Deagu until about 2:30 in the morning. With the last hour of that approaching, we went to a Noribang (Kareoke room) and Adam proceeded to fall asleep after 15min - despite the attempts of Ashli Itami, Libby Lundeen and myself to shock him into staying awake by belting out a number of inebriated tunes at the top of our lungs, for the full hour no less!
In between all that I had summer holiday camps to get through, which I did easily enough and I was given 8 hours to pack up my flat and vacate the premises on the day my contract finished. There were other hassles too but today is about celebration.
It is about my 1st holiday holiday, as a tourist, outside SA. My Trip to Bali, Indonesia with the lovely Ms Deborah Brown.
This was the trip that we had planned for our contracted summer leave. Basically I just needed to get out of Korea and rest and I kinda wangled my way into Deb's plans.
It was an amazing trip with an amazing friend and travel buddy. Far be it from me to say "I must tell you everything abou the trip", as there is not enough time in anyones life to sit down and read all that.
Instead I have constructed 2 videos - one of the 6 days we spent in Kuta and one of the 6 days we spent in Ubud. The viewing time is 20 odd minutes for the videos combined but they are comprehensive reviews of the places we saw and things we did. I hope you enjoy them.
Sit back
Relax
And Enjoy...
Who knows, I might have another post or two before I get home - I have taken A LOT of photos in Thailand and in Cambodia (so far) and I am sure there will be loads more of Malaysia as well. You will have to wait and see. If I do post for these places it will be in the same format as today's post.
Hope you are all well.
Keep smiling, keep shining Knowing you can always count on me For sure That's what friends are for!
Have a goodie y'all - Geoff out!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Oyay; Oyay! The Adventurer has returned!
The last time I posted was around a month ago and in the intervening time I have seen a movie (called – The Conspirator) and done a lot of lazing about. Time is slowly ticking on my time here in Korea. As I write this I have 1 month and one week left (Though 12 days I will be in Bali).
With time being so short, this begins the last post or 2 or 3 of my adventure within Korea. I may have a post or two in me about a Korea adventure before Korean wrap up (My twin, Adam, arrives in 2 days, so I am sure that there might be a thing or 2 to say about that).
Today I am going to talk about “Spring Break”. In the States it roughly equates to our Matric Rave. From what I am told, it is a great deal more crazy than events in the good ol’ R.S of A with a lot more bikini clad woman and inebriated school leavers all looking for a good time.
EG:
On the weekend of 16-17 July I went to Daecheon on the west coast of Korea. On this weekend, dotted on this piece of coastline, is the town of Boryeong. Every year for the last 14 years it has hosted the “Boryeong MUD Festival”.
The idea began when some people from Boryeong who extolled the virtues of mud based cosmetics thought they needed a way to promote the products and so in 1998 the Boryeong Mud fest was born. With so many foreigners occupying teaching job in Korea the idea of mud wrestling, mud water slides and covering every conceivable piece of the human body in mud was bound to attract attention. Over the years the festival has become more and more popular such that over the 2 weekends in 2007 that the festival was held, roughly 2.2 MILLION visitors stopped by. Why did I bring up Spring Break? Well, in speaking to a few friends here the festival has become an equivalent for Spring Break. What could be better than thousands of half naked people, the beach/ocean, booze and mud wrestling!? For those not inclined to the ways of the partying foreigner sometimes the level of obnoxious, beer swelling, behaviour, presented in most part by visiting foreigners, is a bit off putting. That said Sandy and I went and it was an absolute blast.
We met up with the Adventure Korea Tour Group early on the Saturday morning (07:30) in Downtown Daegu (hoping that our overnight accommodation would be much better this time) to set forth on the 2.5 hour bus ride to the coast. We were very much optimistic about the experience and looking forward to a lot of fun. Our 1st stop was the mud beach which is about 15 min away from the main festival site. 11:30 we climb off the bus and are presented with this vast expanse of dark brown ground with a bunch of activities set out (Mud soccer; mud wrestling; Army training; Pyramid building; and chicken fights - where one person sits on top of two people’s shoulders and attempts to push their shoulder seated opposition down to the ground).
Thanks to Kirsty Moore for these Photo's
We march off to retrieve our clothing to be used on the beach and then squelch down to the various activities. My favourite was of course the soccer however no one knows who won because of the level of chaos that ensued with 75 people running in different directions, with 4 soccer balls on the field. I did also enjoy the wrestling.
Basically it was girls vs girls and guys vs guys. The 5 guys on my team had one man about 6ft tall and the rest of us were below that. The other team had no man below 6ft. A challenge, yes? The whistle is blown and I head straight for the skinniest guy as I figure, even if I have to go kamikaze on his ass, he will bend out of the ring like a reed in the wind if he has my weight to deal with. Sadly my position was all wrong so I change tact. I decide I will be a limpet and hang on for as long as possible that hopefully he will make a mistake and fall out. Next thing I know my face is being shoved in the mud and all my team mates have been eliminated. I lock my wrists around his waist and pretzel my legs around his thighs. Then I have 5 guys prying my limbs off him. One man per limb they are swinging me, readying me for the flight out of the ring. In a last ditched attempt to escape I wriggle and twist as violently as I can – kinda like this fish:
Hoping they will lose their grip and I could at least surprise one of them and take them out before i get disposed of.
Sadly...
I failed.
It was great fun none the less and I was left with a stiff back and grazes all over my body to show for my courage in the face of dirty adversity.
Mud beach over with... oh wait, bugger, I left my sandals at the beach *makes mental note to buy cheap flip-flops when get to motel.* Additional note: this is the 2nd time I have left a pair of feet apparel somewhere and I have also lost 2 umbrellas.
Continues...
Mud beach overwith, we put our stuff in our motel room and go looking for some grub. We have some yummy galbi-sal:
After lunch we decide to wait till Sunday to have a go at the festival rides and just hang around the beach. I swim, Sandy looks at shells and crabs and we both meet up with Deb and her friend Darren who were also at the festival.
We go for smoothies and dinner before Deb and Darren depart back to Daejeon and Sandy and I – buggered at this point, make our way back to our room. Low and behold, what do we find...
Our room’s floor and Sandy’s bag were covered in water as the freezer part of the mini fridge has defrosted because of a short in the wall that tripped the power and turned the fridge power off. WE HAVE NO LUCK WITH THIS TOUR GROUP!!! We tried to find the tour operators but couldn’t so Sandy roused the building manager from his sleep and very grumpily he helped us out. Add to that we thought we did not have hot water but it turns out that we have to drain the nearest reservoir while we wait for the water to actually heat up.
That's one angry baby!
Oh and here is what caps off our dealings with this company on this weekend: When we climb on the bus back for deagu, the tour manager says that ONE OF THE PASSENGERS IS IN CHARGE for the trip back as he is getting on the Seoul bus so that he can get home. HOW FRIKKING UNPROFESSIONAL CAN YOU GET!!!. We didn’t have anyone on board who spoke the language and we made a stop that we were unaware of that wasted 20min when we were only about 10min outside the city. It was so frustrating for 3 girls that they got off the bus then and there and caught a taxi back into Deagu. Since getting back from the trip, I emailed the company and made min and Sandy’s dissatisfaction clear. They offered us 40 000 Won each off our next trip. Sadly we are not taking another trip with them and they are yet to get back to me about that being a refund into our accounts.
Anyway – back to the weekend...
We woke on Sunday and had our pre-packed cereal for breakfast and then checked out. After putting our bags on the bus we went into the Mud Park at the festival grounds and had a ball. We both did have to go to the 1st Aid tent to get mud washed out our eyes and I still have mud in my right ear but it was great fun. Sadly I do not have pics of Sandy or I covered in mud as I was worried about the safety of my camera. I have loads of others though (I went back with my camera once I had cleaned up).
After a swim at the beach, shower and cup of coffee we headed back to Yeongcheon, in the main happy, and very very very tired. It was a great last major adventure for us.
I may still get upto shinnanigans once Adam arrives but I will keep you... POSTED!
To begin - I would like to dedicate this post to my mom, whose birthday it was a couple of weeks ago mom - I'll be home soon enough :)
Now...
Whenever I do something or set myself to do something, I aim to do it with integrity, honesty, respect and to do it to the best of my ability. This applies in all facets of my life, from the friendships that I hold so dearly and (arguably) too tightly, to my working environment and professional and intellectual goals. The whole point of me coming to Korea was to challenge myself and the notions that exist in my young mind and to do this with integrity, honesty, respect and to do it to the best of my ability. The end game for the past 10 months and for the coming 3 revolves around 3 things:
1. Travel
2. Putting myself outside of my comfort zone
3. Experiencing things that I would otherwise probably not try back in SA.
This post is particularly about numbers 2 and 3.
One of the things I have always wanted to do/ have looked intriguingly on at, was bungee jumping. It would normally be the 1st step in an individuals quest for a rush/flight. I started with a rather tame leap of a mountain back in November - So one could say I am kind of regressing :-P
However with warm weather set in here in the R.O.K more and more out doorsy things have become appealing to me. I hiked up a decent sized peak and then I saw a day tour available to go white water rafting and bungee jumping. This trip was made all the more interesting as I was travelling with my 4th and so far 2nd worst case of Tonsillitis in the past 1 and a half months.
(Please forgive me for the pun that is about to occur)
I had to leap at that opportunity, so I signed my name up for the day trip that took place a couple of weekends ago.
The adventure was set. I had my sun tan cream primed and was stocked with painkillers and meds from the Dr. I was not going to miss this opportunity. However, as always with these tours, 1st I needed to get myself to Seoul.
In an effort to save a bit of cash for impending expenditure I caught the 18:20 Mugunghwa (slow passenger train - refer to Transport) from Deagu to Seoul and settled in for the 4 hour ride. (You could ask - "Why didn't I take the bus? It is cheaper and only takes 3 hours". If you chose to ask that question to yourself then you have not been reading my blog carefully enough. TISK TISK! A reminder - I DO NOT enjoy bus rides and avoid them as best I can). The trip did give me the perfect amount of time to finish reading this book...
Which I borrowed from Sandy.
See I actually am reading!!!
I began the book by enjoying the detail in the descriptions. Then I got a little bored because the book stopped being about what I was enjoying about it but it brought me back in a lovely way through the courage of the main character and the love his family genuinely have for him. A recommended read if you are up for it.
As is always the case when I get to Seoul I had to find accommodation, so I travelled to my regular area where I have now stayed 4 times and grabbed a motel room.
Bright and early the next morning (7:00) I met up with other travellers going on the tour and we started our 2.5 hour bus ride to the Hangang river white water experience.
At the reststop
I got a little more acquainted with a few people (Dave, Laima and Julie)...
Dave (Left), Julie (Back Right), Laima
...who were going to be in my raft and then we grabbed our gear and headed for the water. There were 9 of us in our raft plus two guide - here is one of them:
The journey on the river took about 2 hours and along the way I got to have my 1st swim in 10 months!!! Sadly due to the lack of rain in the 3 weeks preceding this trip, the water level of the river was very low, which meant a little less white water and a lot more getting stuck on rocks that we would normally glide over.
It was all great fun though except for one irritation I had. One of my team members DID NOT KNOW HOW TO PADDLE! It, for some reason was getting to me - I think because her lack of technique the other 4 of us on that side of the raft were paddling out of sync, which was causing some hassles with directionality.
"If it was bothering you so much, then why did you not suggest to her how to paddle?" Well I thought we were all there to have a blast and there was no need to be picky, so I left thing as was and stuck to my task. Sadly unless we had underwater camera we were prohibited from bringing our ones along so I have no pics of the actual rafting.
Lunch was spicy squid stir-fry with rice (of course) and the normal Korean side dishes and then it was off to the bridge for the big jump.
Dave mentioned to me that last time he was on the trip they only had 30 people jumping, we however had about 60 as almost everyone wanted to jump! I stayed at the back of the queue so that I could take some nice pics (and one video which you need to look at sideways if you want to see what I did eventually) of people jumping. For those of you who are interested I am going to tell you how it all went down (another pointless pun - do what you will to me when I get back to SA). If you have done bungee before and don't care on the process, then go and make yourself a cup of tea and maybe everyone else will be done reading this bit when you get back so that you can resume your goggle eyed enchantment at my tail of courage beyond measure.
You signed up and payed your fee and then your weight was taken. I was sitting at a light 58kg (though my ticket says 59). Based on your weight you were given a letter of the alphabet to let the operators know what kind of rope they should use for you. My letter was B. The height of the jump was 53m up from the river and the initial free fall would take you down about 35m and then you would bounce around gradually staying closer and closer to the river as your momentum slowed down losing about 5-10m of bounce each time. The initial pull as you reached the tension threshold of the rope was the oddest feeling - kind of like having all your organs in your torso squash against your rib-cage. As you were bounce around a guy in a row boat was to row into position to pick you up when you were not bouncing anymore and the operators had lowered the winch to which the rope was attached, such that you could be collected by the boatman and taken back to tera-firma.
I didn't quite have that last bit. The operators lowered my cable a little too much so for about 2 minutes while I was waiting for the boatman top get to me (as he had started late) my head was bobbing in and out of the water while I was hang upside down. I didn't exactly expect that. But hey, no harm done. It was an incredible rush and an even more incredible experience. I was lucky that Laima - with her good photography skills and incredible camera, as well as Julie (with my camera) got some shots of my jump for me. Here are a few of my "Jump Shots":
Laima took this and the next (best) photo.
Due to the extended period of time it took for everyone to jump I got back to Deagu just after the last bus and train so I stayed the night there and headed back to Yeongchoen around 10am on the Sunday morning.
WHAT AN ADVENTURE!
To clue you all in - I have officially got my Bali trip with Deborah planned and I have also got flights confirmed for Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. Here is to a few more adventures ;)
At the start of June we had yet another long weekend in Korea. It was not the 6 day gem that we had in May but we did have 3 days. Saturday was taken to clean up our lives and apartments followed by a viewing of the movie “The Ghost Writer” All in all very relaxed. Sandy and I went for a walk into the forest to a spot I found on one of my running days. From here you can watch the sunset. We took a bottle of OJ and a bottle of wine and had sundowners watching the sunset. It was a really lovely evening. Here are some of the visuals can be seen in this post's video.
Sunday following a leisurely morning we went through to Daegu for 2 main reasons: One was so that I could buy some cereal and the second was so that Sandy could get a nice haircut. Sadly, the 1st salon we looked at was closed and the 2nd was booked until so we obtained my cereal and headed back to YC.
It was here that Sandy thought: “Bugger it, Geoff you can cut my hair.” I tell you what – I was more than a little scared. I have learned through the years that hair is sacred to 2 kinds of people: Indian males and Women in general. After a lot of calming words from Sandy she placed the scissors in my trembling hands and said very calmly: “Just tie my hair into a pony and cut just below the band. It will be fine.” I was then assured that if things went horribly wrong but managed to avoid killing her by cutting something that I wasn’t supposed to, that if the hair cut was not to expectation she would go to a salon to get it fixed. Slowly I let my hands squeeze the scissors. And slowly strand by strand the hair separated away from Sandy’s head until... “That must be about 10 inches” says Sandy. I was worried thins looked a little skew. Upon telling Sandy she was non plused and has proceeded to tell me how much she like the cut as it looks edgy and her friends seem to like it too. Yay! 20 points for me. But please let it be 2 years before I cut someone’s hair again :-P
That night was another slow night that culminated in another 10-11hrs of much needed sleep. I have not been feeling all myself the last couple of weeks so it was great to get decent rest. Monday was a relatively early start as 3 of us (Colleen included as well) headed to Gyeonju. None of us had explored it properly yet and we were aiming to cycle around looking at historical sites. I wanted to visit one site in particular. As it turns out we never got around to doing either of those things this time. We did though go see a very full BulguksaTemple and then stopped at a folk craft village and museum. It was there were I got Barry – my little gold Buddha. We resolved, following an exhausting and hot day of walking around and looking at stuff that we needed to come back to Gyeonju to do the cycling and also ride Quad Bikes! Here is a videographic summary of our visit to Gyeonju:
That just about does for now. Next up: Water, Rapids and the feeling of air against my face ;) Stay tuned to Geoff’s Asian Adventures for more exciting times :)
A few weekends ago, Sandy and I had booked a tour to take us to SeoraksanNational Park in Gangwon province right up north in Korea. Not quite DMZ but not far off. The idea was to take a slow train ride on Friday night up to Seoul and stay overnight. That proved highly successful. We took along my laptop and watch a couple of Episodes of a show called “Dollhouse” (a very intriguing show that Sandy introduced me too)…
Synopsis:
A private drug company called “Rossum Pharmaceuticals” has developed a way to delete and replace all signs of memory and personality from the human brain. This company uses this new technology to create “Dolls” whereby the rich and they well to do of society pay money to have human beings (who voluntarily sign away periods of their life to have their minds completely wiped) imprinted with personalities and memories of other people and situations that were completely foreign to the “Dolls” human beings, such that the people who hire a doll can live out their fantacies. The show is about one particular “Doll” called “Echo” whose body slowly adapts to house all the personalities that she is given by this company. We are lead through her transition from “Doll” to humanities savior.
If you don't feel like reading the rest, here is the video summary of pics. I warn you - it is nearly 12 minutes long.
Arriving in Seoul we got a motel room for the night and awoke bright eyed and early on Saturday for our tour pick up at . Low and behold – despite strict instructions not to be late as we leave at , we only left Seoul at . Grrrrrrr! Sandy and I had to rush to find breakfast to try and be there on time (FYI – I had one chocolate and one blueberry muffin and Sandy had a chicken salad).
Half way to the park we step off the bus and realize – “flip, it is really bright”. I had left my sunnies at my flat by accident and Sandy didn’t have any to begin with. So we bought a pair each at the rest stop. After seeing Sandy’s (Bought with the express purpose of allowing them to fit over her seeing eye glasses) I liked what she got better then what I got :-P
Following a Bimbimbap lunch where we met Nick (New Zealand) Jennifer (US), a friend each of theirs, and the cutest Beagle pup, arrival at the National Park occurred at around . We then had a choice to make:
Climb the steepest climb on offer, with the POTENTIAL of an amazing view of the surrounding area and the ocean in the distance
OR
Take a medium toughness hike, pay money to get on a cable car for a good view and then take a stroll to see a waterfall.
After an inner conflict that lasted the 40min bus ride from lunch to the Park I managed to convince Sandy of our choice. What did we do?
THE STEEPEST CLIMB OF COURSE! My reasoning to Sandy: You have seen better waterfalls in Hawaii, I am sure, This is Korea – where what we hope is normally what we get and thus an anticlimax, thus the waterfall is probably not that good anyway AND when would we ever be able to see a view like the one that we can again. With the worry for her muscles, still in her eyes, Sandy bravely agreed to trek the peak called – Ulsan Bawi. At the time there was a bit of debate as to if we would actually be able to see anything because of a bit of cloud cover that arrived but we went anyway.
Water coming out of NOWHERE!!! Very cool trick of the eye. There is a pipe running from ground up into the tap structure
All was fine and dandy until we got to the rock face. The Korean people have been nice enough to put steal steps that go up the rock face almost vertically, to allow us to get to the top. That was a little hazardous. If you slipped you could seriously injure yourself and the people walking behind you but we made eventually. The hike up was about 1hr 40min for me and about 1hr 55 for Sandy. The peak was 873m above sea level about 900m lower than the elevation of Johannesburg. There was a bit of cloud around but it was still a great view. The park itself was really impressive. Green as far as the eye could see with interesting shaped rocks everywhere, just a truly beautiful sight. It was great to be in the fresh air even if it was not as peaceful as there was still a lot of noise from everyone visiting the park.
After a short rest we slowly made our way down to meet back up at the tour bus where we were taken to our accommodation for the night. This, though, caused a little consternation for Sandy and I. On the Bus ride to the park – the tour manager asked for a list of names of couples who wanted their own rooms with bed (as everything else was Ondol (sleeping on heated floors-traditional in Korea). Sandy and I thought a bed would be great after the hike so we put our name down. When it came time to receive the room key for our room with our bed, any sense of order disappeared and people just grabbed keys. There was no reference to the list that had been compiled and we got shafted as the accommodation had run out of bed rooms when we tried to get a key. We got stuck with an Ondol room. We would not have mind but for the following:
1.Why take a list of names when you were never going to refer to it?
2.Why did they not ask the accommodation how many rooms they had with beds, when they called to tell them that we were running late?
3.Why did they not just say to us “Listen there are not enough rooms, do you mind having Ondol?” ? (Had they said this we would have been completely cordial and said: “cool”.
These were the 1st set of contentions – 2nd set to follow.
That night it was suggested to us to go to dinner at a certain restaurant as the food was good and cheaper than other places (Dinner was not included in the tour). When we tried to see what other places there were we were not allowed to look around and forced to go to the place that was just recommended. After a long day’s hike and having our room taken from us we were less than amused. Food was nice enough though and I had something called “Wild Grape Wine” which tasted like Kosher wine (And thus, to me, very yummy). I maintain that what we paid was probably not the cheapest as this place had no revised menu of prices. They probably just had a verbal agreement with the tour people that their patrons would come there and I think they upped their prices a bit because of that.
That night was hot and uncomfortable and breakfast the next morning was worse.
Contention number 2.
I would love to know why Korean motel owners insist on having the under floor heating on even in the heat of summer?
1.When we tried to find someone to ask if they can switch it off (we did not have control of it in the room) there was no one in site (on both occasions we looked).
2.Why was there no way for us to turn on our air conditioning when clearly there is a unit in the room, for use by the patrons?
3.We paid a lot of money for this tour package which included breakfast. Breakfast was 2 slices of toast with peanut butter and jam on. The Coffee had no milk/ sugar (we never had any). Orange Juice was warm. Everything was self serve (which is fine except when you only have 2 toasters making your tour breakfast for 75 people – the process is rather slow).
As I said – we paid a fair bit to do this trip. The least they could have done was:
Provide milk and sugar for the coffee (Which they could have gone and bought from the small shop outside the motel)
Provide enough toasters to do at least 10-15 people in one go rather than 2 people at a time. (Which would have been more time efficient – we ran late because of it)
We were paying for breakfast, not army rashes so they could have supplied cereal with small bowls and milk (Which would have been cost effective)
They could have had the cups with OJ poured and set out for us to take if we wanted instead of having 2 bottles open at a time and people having to pour for themselves (Would have been way more time efficient. Not to mention complementary to the guests who were paying good money for an enjoyable experience).
It may sound like I am complaining a lot – that may be, I do know that having already booked another overnight with this company, before I went on this trip sadly I will have to put up with their inadequate customer service again. They are great for day trips. I really enjoyed myself during the day.
Breakfast was 2 slices of toast and a small class of OJ
After breakfast we went on a nice 2 hour walk through the valley by our motel. Again the views were beautiful and it was the perfect hiking weather. On the way back to the buses (where we had lunch and made our way back to Seoul) I had an interesting chat for the whole 45min walk back with an Aussie chat. Well we didn’t so much as chat as he Quizzed me on SA and told me anecdotes. It was enjoyable none the less. Here are some more photos:
When you walked through that gate, you were to make a wish and one day it will come true
Look how clear and clean that water is!
Sadly the bus ride back was also fraught with annoyance – this though was not the fault of the tour company. Due to the weather that weekend a great number of people went out of Seoul and to the national park and surround to enjoy the sunshine. Thus, these same people all tried to get back into Seoul at the same time on Sunday. There are but so many roads that lead to Rome (or Seoul in this case), so a journey that was supposed to take 3hrs in the bus took us close on 6. Luckily Sandy and I had enough time to catch our 2 trains to get back to Yeongcheon.
