So we all got to the Train Station at Gupo with some serious hangovers, it really is the best way to travel with our original; plan being to catch the train up the east Coast and hit the Demilitarised Zone which if your an idiot is the strip of land with heaps of mines on it between the North and South. (In one of those James Bond films, the one with the dude who changes his entire body from North Korean to Posh Englishmen and has some sort of ray gun satellite that harnesses the Suns energy and focuses it on this piece of land and blows up all the mines so that the North can attack!)
However that train was not going for another couple of hours so we convinced the dude in charge to let us behind the ticket counter and look at all his maps and shit and just decided to take the next train out of the station. That was a brilliant move on our behalf as it make the entire trip trip random and we always just went to the next place on the next available transport.
We ended up in Suncheong which due to our liquid diet I don't really remember much about it, and then we ended up in Yeosul which was amazing. Our first stop was this bar that had a Tenor there who sang lots of stuff I knew but could not name for you and he spoke a little English and was a top bloke. We were sitting on the balcony overlooking a dead person! We rambled around a little and watch a game of Soccer somewhere, Korea vs Japan in the 3rd/4th playoff for the Asia Cup which Korea won on penalties so was all good before hitting a golden bar. We walked in, after deciphering the menu and realising only beer was available we asked for whisky anyway and got directed upstairs to a bar we had not even seen and we treated like Kings! That place was so out of the way I don't think to many white people have been there before.
I think that we were lucky that we had all been in Korea for around 7 months now and could hold a very basic conversation in Korean which is a tremendous help in getting free drinks. Most Koreans have a smattering of extremely basic high school English so with our Korean and there English and the odd dictionary we managed to keep a conversation going for an entire bottle of scotch with the bar staff and the pissed guys next to us.
After that we hit the beach, it was there that I discovered rice wine, which in phonetic English is called Dong Dong Ju, we were on that beach for around 6 hours, I might of had a skinny dip and I might of bought over $60 of fire works and I may off quite deeply cut my left foot on a boats propeller but.....
From there we decided to go to Sado Island because on the big sign outside the train station there was a picture of a dinosaur on it and I was intrigued. Bearing in mind that the sun is now up, we had been drinking for a nearly a day and a half we managed to find the ferry terminal, hopped on, and went.....to the wrong island. Not to Worry.
That ferry was pretty cool, it was choc a block with people, produce and bloody squid, man I hate that stuff, it's everywhere, dried squid smells crap any way but when it is hot it is disgusting. So we got off on what we thought was the right island, as we disembarked I got a whisper in my ear daring me to jump off, so I did. When I finally managed to haul myself out of the water who was standing there? two coppers! I just started laughing, luckily my mates talked to them for me and we wandered off to explore this next place.
Our taxi driver misunderstood us, we asked to go to the beach, over here the Konglish word for the beach is beachy. The driver took us to a locals house who was called Mr Beachy! Anyway we finally got there and spent the day drinking in the sun, swimming and generally doing nothing. That place was a little backward, not much of anything there but it was cool to see a very different side of Korea.
I'll put the rest up later.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Dave's Summer Holiday.
Holidays are all good, I had a week off starting on the 25th July and back at work last Wednesday 1st August. I had to hang around Gimhae for a few days waiting for my mates to finish their work, every one's holidays were different to each other but a few overlapped. So I had a few nights out on the town.
On Friday my racing buddy had his brother over so we went to the races, I was quite excited about it because I usually work on Fridays and as such never get there during the week. So we went to catch the bus there and it didn't show. That should have been our first warning but we just put it down to our lack of Korean language skills. So we took a cab there, once at the track we were wondering why it was so empty. People still at work I thought and not at the races? Well, wrong again, it turned out that the races had been called off due to the heat! It was bloody hot but who cares? I was on Holiday! So we hung around trying to get another cab home. We got a dude to ring us a cab but he called one from Busan not from Gimhae so it was really expensive and we refused it and managed to catch a lift to the highway where we figured we could flag a taxi or at least a bus. Next thing I know my Pommie mate had stuck out his thumb and a few cars later we were off to Jangyu which is next to Gimhae, better than nothing we thought.
When we got back to Gimhae we went to Home plus where we discovered to our delight that rubber dinghy's were on sale, $20 down from $60. I'll have one of those I thought, but something was missing so we got a fishing rod and some bottles of Red wine as well and wandered down to the river in the middle of Gimhae.
What a sight we made! 3 pissed white fullas in a one man rubber dinghy with a 10ft rod, slurping red wine. I have never had so many toots and cat calls come my way in all my life. We tried to buy some fish as bait but once the lady realised we were going to use it as bait and not eat it she refused to sell it to us. (It was my brilliant charades act that got this point across). Tart. So we bought a can of spam and used that only it was pretty crap and kept falling of the hook so we caught some grass hoppers but they were no good as well. So for a few hours we floated down the way, as twilight struck the dry shore based fishermen came out and they were not to happy when we floated by.
Korea is a cool place, the taxi driver did not even flinch we hopped in dripping wet, half cut and with a semi deflated rubber dinghy.Not even when we payed with wet money did he blink his eyes! Sometimes I really wish I knew what is going through their minds when they see the antics foreigners get up to!
So we then went to the pub and the Norebang and met up with some mates who had completed their contract and were on their way outta here to greener pastures.
Around 5 or 6am we decided to crack out the boat again and sail the vast waters of Yungee Park. This time I was too far gone to set up the rod so we left it behind. On this adventure whilst I was tipping my mates out we broke an oar. Don't worry this is Korea anything goes! So we marched back into Homeplus, still dripping wet, by this time we were all absolutely F!@#$%^ed and managed to convince them that the boat only came with one oar and we needed another to make the pair as we were rowing around in circles. And you know what? It worked! Our language skills are coming along very nicely thank you very much.
I get home sometime after sunup only to be awaken by a few phone calls around 12 reminding me that I had to met a different set off mates to do a wee bit of travelling around Korea. I hate forgetting things like that! So off to met the boys for the start of the travels... Numerous trains a couple of ferries, a floating Christian bookshop, two run ins with the coppers and a swollen foot coming up....
On Friday my racing buddy had his brother over so we went to the races, I was quite excited about it because I usually work on Fridays and as such never get there during the week. So we went to catch the bus there and it didn't show. That should have been our first warning but we just put it down to our lack of Korean language skills. So we took a cab there, once at the track we were wondering why it was so empty. People still at work I thought and not at the races? Well, wrong again, it turned out that the races had been called off due to the heat! It was bloody hot but who cares? I was on Holiday! So we hung around trying to get another cab home. We got a dude to ring us a cab but he called one from Busan not from Gimhae so it was really expensive and we refused it and managed to catch a lift to the highway where we figured we could flag a taxi or at least a bus. Next thing I know my Pommie mate had stuck out his thumb and a few cars later we were off to Jangyu which is next to Gimhae, better than nothing we thought.
When we got back to Gimhae we went to Home plus where we discovered to our delight that rubber dinghy's were on sale, $20 down from $60. I'll have one of those I thought, but something was missing so we got a fishing rod and some bottles of Red wine as well and wandered down to the river in the middle of Gimhae.
What a sight we made! 3 pissed white fullas in a one man rubber dinghy with a 10ft rod, slurping red wine. I have never had so many toots and cat calls come my way in all my life. We tried to buy some fish as bait but once the lady realised we were going to use it as bait and not eat it she refused to sell it to us. (It was my brilliant charades act that got this point across). Tart. So we bought a can of spam and used that only it was pretty crap and kept falling of the hook so we caught some grass hoppers but they were no good as well. So for a few hours we floated down the way, as twilight struck the dry shore based fishermen came out and they were not to happy when we floated by.
Korea is a cool place, the taxi driver did not even flinch we hopped in dripping wet, half cut and with a semi deflated rubber dinghy.Not even when we payed with wet money did he blink his eyes! Sometimes I really wish I knew what is going through their minds when they see the antics foreigners get up to!
So we then went to the pub and the Norebang and met up with some mates who had completed their contract and were on their way outta here to greener pastures.
Around 5 or 6am we decided to crack out the boat again and sail the vast waters of Yungee Park. This time I was too far gone to set up the rod so we left it behind. On this adventure whilst I was tipping my mates out we broke an oar. Don't worry this is Korea anything goes! So we marched back into Homeplus, still dripping wet, by this time we were all absolutely F!@#$%^ed and managed to convince them that the boat only came with one oar and we needed another to make the pair as we were rowing around in circles. And you know what? It worked! Our language skills are coming along very nicely thank you very much.
I get home sometime after sunup only to be awaken by a few phone calls around 12 reminding me that I had to met a different set off mates to do a wee bit of travelling around Korea. I hate forgetting things like that! So off to met the boys for the start of the travels... Numerous trains a couple of ferries, a floating Christian bookshop, two run ins with the coppers and a swollen foot coming up....
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Two weekends ago in Seoul.
I had a good time in Seoul, We left very early and travelled for around 7 hours straight to find this theme park that we wanted to check out. It was called Everland and was pretty cool, it was a theme park and a Zoo! I saw 3 white Tigers, numerous monkeys (those always make me laugh) some camels, two polar bears who were in a tiny enclosure, got a bus ride through a paddock where there was 20 or so lions, heaps of animals. The theme park side of it was awesome, we went on loads of rides and I got some funny photos of me which were taken automatically by a machine on the Roller Coasters.
Then we went to the Casino! It was at the Hilton Hotel and I had to prove that I was a bloody foreigner! cause Koreans can't gamble in Casinos. It was really expensive so I didn't play on the tables and I dropped a fair chunk of change in the pokies before going out in search of Guinness, which I found along with some Jameson's, I ruled the pool table that night!
On Sunday I went to the races where I fell asleep for three of them and then to top it all off we stumbled past a 100% No bullshit Real Deal French Restaurant. FFFFOOOOOOOOODDDDDD!
I had for starters a Salmon Salad thingy with balsamic vinegar, I know this sounds stupid but I really miss food from back home so when I saw the word balsamic I had to go change my undies. Followed by the Scallops in a garlic sauce and washed down with my old mate Johnnie Red. And a chocolate thingy for desert. I paid a small fortune for it but I didn't care one bit!
Caught the last train home and that was that.
Korea is a cool place.
Then we went to the Casino! It was at the Hilton Hotel and I had to prove that I was a bloody foreigner! cause Koreans can't gamble in Casinos. It was really expensive so I didn't play on the tables and I dropped a fair chunk of change in the pokies before going out in search of Guinness, which I found along with some Jameson's, I ruled the pool table that night!
On Sunday I went to the races where I fell asleep for three of them and then to top it all off we stumbled past a 100% No bullshit Real Deal French Restaurant. FFFFOOOOOOOOODDDDDD!
I had for starters a Salmon Salad thingy with balsamic vinegar, I know this sounds stupid but I really miss food from back home so when I saw the word balsamic I had to go change my undies. Followed by the Scallops in a garlic sauce and washed down with my old mate Johnnie Red. And a chocolate thingy for desert. I paid a small fortune for it but I didn't care one bit!
Caught the last train home and that was that.
Korea is a cool place.
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