San Ho Beachie

When Ginny said she was coming to visit during the first week of May, I had no idea that South Korea was going to shut down to celebrate a five day national holiday for Buddha's birthday and Children's Day. We found out about this extended holiday weekend while attempting to make plans to visit Jeju Island off the south coast of Korea. Admittedly, this put a bit of a crimp in our plans because most of the tour spots I knew were already booked...




But we did manage to find reservations at a wonderful beach area due west of Daejon, called Daecheon Beach near Boryeong-si. Fortunately we latched onto a couple rooms at one of the few remaining hotels with vacancies in Korea, called the San Ho Beach Hotel (pronounced Beachie when sounding it out in Korean). Having exhausted other options, Ginny and I asked no questions and quickly packed our bags.


Well, it turns out our hotel was not exactly ***** (five star) but it did provide a lot of entertaining moments. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw, among the other toiletries proudly displayed in our rooms, a complimentary can of bug spray appropriately labeled Good Night! I am glad to report that I didn't need to spray my room as first thought... although I did sleep with one eye open =)

The highlight of our stay, of course, was Daecheon Beach itself. The area reminded me a lot of Sauble Beach back home with clean white sand, clear water and amazing views of the sunset. Even though the waters of the Yellow Sea were quite chilly, many kids decided to 'brave it' while the rest of us had fun on dry land.




We didn't realize we were going to get an air show while taking in the sun and surf. Actually, it was quite entertaining and looked more like a scene out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And how can one watch an air show without something to munch on? So Ginny and I headed to the nearest street vendor to gnaw on some dried octopus legs -- not.




Daecheon Beach sure took on a life of its own after sunset. Never before have I seen so many individual fireworks displays. What a great idea to have tubes of fireworks ready at street vendors for individuals to purchase and blow up. What's not to like about setting things on fire? Not only does the general public get a constant show of fireworks throughout the evening, but it proves entertaining watching people shoot these things off. We witnessed a couple times when someone was distracted and didn't point the fireworks into the air... needless to say not many people stood around them for long. I can hear the protests and calls for legislation if these things were to ever hit the shores of Canada!




And there were definitely no shortage of seafood restaurants along the beach, each housing an aquarium of fresh ocean creatures ready to put (sometimes directly) onto your plate. Ready for an adventure, Ginny and I girded our taste buds and decided to give one of these restaurants a try.


Fortunately the restaurant we chose had a menu with English translations. I say fortunately because we learned the special of the day was octopus which our waitress was suggesting we order. Not in quite-that-adventurous-a-mood, we ended up ordering spicy clam soup which was the only thing on the menu that appeared to be cooked. Everything else was raw. To our surprise, they also brought us a wonderful plate of sea bass which, we believe, the owners cooked up for us special. I think they know westerners are not too hyped on eating seafood while it's still moving.





In typical Korean style the side dishes outnumbered the main dishes. From what we could identify, the sides included quail eggs, spinach, honeyed sweet potato, dried anchovy, stir-fried octopus, seaweed soup and, of course, kimchi. The clam soup turned out to be really good, although I wasn’t quite expecting to have to shuck the clams out of the shells before eating. At least there was no doubt I was eating real clams! Here's a before and after picture to prove my efforts...



All in all, a great time enjoying the beaches of Daecheon -- Korean-style. By the end of our stay, I must admit I was ready to head back to the city of Daejon to enjoy my next meal which was going to include a side order of fries!

Floritopia

Westerners here in Korea often comment that finding information on local events is like finding gold because the information is so difficult to come by. I would have to agree, noticed especially when wanting to take in local events with friends and visitors to the country.

Once again I depended on our Korean staff here at TCIS to help me dig for info. Much to my surprise, we struck gold relatively quick when we found a Korean web site advertising a huge flower exhibition called Floritopia on the east coast island of Anmyeong. Luckily for Ginny and I, this exhibit was open (mid-April till mid-May) and we could board a bus in Daejon that would take us directly to the exhibition grounds!


Well, I say directly in loose terms because the bus we boarded stopped off at almost every small town along the way. Sure, it took us directly to the exhibit but it took us awhile to get there. Even so, the journey was a great opportunity to see Korean rural life firsthand including farmers working in the rice fields.

Once we got into the exhibit, we witnessed endless gardens together with a host of displays, food and entertainment. Seemed like everywhere we turned there was another showcase of flowers from outdoor fields to indoor arrangements.

As you can imagine, both Ginny and I came back with a copious amount of photos -- too many to include here! I'll try to limit my enthusiasm and provide a sampling of images so you get a good idea of our day.








I think Ginny and I represented about 33% of the westerners in attendance that day -- at least of those we noticed. Besides us, we saw six westerners in an advertised crowd of 100,000. Of course we weren't always on the look-out nor did we go in all parts of the exhibit but we found the lack of foreigners an interesting fact.

There was definitely no shortage of Korean fast food stands. As such, I was able to introduce Ginny to some local favorites such as hodo kwaja which is Korea's answer to satisfying the sweet tooth. Imagine sweetened bean paste and walnuts in the center of small pancake-shaped walnuts. They are really good, although I would still prefer a chocolate center being the chocoholic I am.



I think Ginny was a little less excited about our lunch, another Korean favorite called hwe-mool-pajon. It's very similar to a seafood omelette with scallions, shrimp and oysters. It's good stuff except for the inclusion of octopus -- I just moved the legs to the side =)




Needless to say, our day was filled with a plethora of sights, sounds and smells... something for everybody! If you were tired of smelling fish then simply walk 50 yards to smell the roses or take a walk among the tulips!

Making Waves in Korea

Living overseas is never boring. I've found most interesting incidents happen when I least expect it, like in the grocery store or simply walking down the street.

Something I had to get used to after arriving in 2007 was the creative use of English on everything from clothes to buildings to product advertising. I still wonder what the slogan for Mr. Pizza means exactly -- pizza boxes and even their delivery cars display, "LOVE FOR WOMEN". Any guesses?

And I'll never forget my first sighting of English on clothes. Imagine seeing this seemingly tough Korean teenage boy walking down the street wearing a shirt with the largest boldest letters possible, "DO YOU WANT TO TYPE?" I felt like going up to him and saying, "No thanks."

English on clothes is very popular and that's why I wasn't overly surprised to find a fun t-shirt for a young 16 year-old with whom I traveled to India. Living side by side for a week at the orphanage, Daniel and I ended up becoming friends and teasing each other without mercy. I knew he loved it when I would imitate him rapping and he knew I loved it when he called me "old man, sir" because my rapping skills left something to be desired.

Well, I figured if he can call me an old man, I can call him a young punk. So when I saw this t-shirt at the local store with the words YOUNG, PUNK, ANARCHY, LOUD, RESIST, FASHION written all over it, I knew I had to buy one for Daniel. I gave it to him as a belated-birthday present and he seemed to love it. I'm not sure how much he is going to wear the shirt, mind you, because I doubt it works with the latest teen fashion but at least I know he appreciates the humor behind it.

Not exactly caring about my sense of fashion, I bought the t-shirt and wore it proudly on the streets of Daejon with as much attitude as I could muster. Ginny didn't know whether she wanted to be seen with me but I assured her that she didn't need to worry because most Koreans wouldn't have a clue as to what is written on the shirt anyway =)

Let's face it, when we don't know the native language we do what we have to do to communicate. For instance, I never thought there would be a day when I would stick my finger in my ear trying to convey to a store clerk that I'm looking for Q-tips or play charades in the dairy aisle to see if they carry condensed milk in a can. Never a dull moment.

Sometimes we're aware how silly we must look to those around us and then there are times we're taken by surprise. Here's a picture of the back of the bus where it all happened one innocent day in May...

I knew I needed to warn Ginny to be careful after boarding one of our city buses because bus drivers here often drive like they're on motorbikes, darting between vehicles and starting/stopping on a dime. Sure enough, no sooner did I issue this word of warning when the bus jerked forward and I found Ginny swinging around a pole, arms extended and letting out these shrieks as she tried to find her footing. It was a scene I won't forget anytime soon. Ginny almost landed in the lap of this young school boy seated near her. I can still see him in his school uniform looking up at Ginny with this sheepish grin on his face, giving her a little wave.

Fortunately no one was hurt in the incident and we laughed about it as did most of the people in the back of the bus. Between my YOUNG PUNK t-shirt and Ginny's new dance moves on the bus, we undoubtedly made waves in Daejon that day =)