Birthday Travels and Long Weekends

Well, here I am about to tell you about things that happened at the end of September and we are already quickly nearing Christmas... I better make it worthwhile, it's soon going to be filed under a history lesson! Right, so now I have to start and I am drawing a bit of a blank because it was so long ago... Let's hope I get the facts straight...

The last week of September ended with my schools mid term exams, so for three days I sat at a desk twiddling my thumbs and planning a trip for Alex's birthday for the upcoming Chuseok weekend. Chuseok in Korea is the weekend where Korean families get together and do their last big harvest for the year, but this is not all, it is also a time of festivals, autumn colours, and food. It takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar and is roughly at the time of the autumn equinox. We were very lucky because this year it started on Alex's birthday and went all the way through to the following Wednesday! Anyhow, this isn't a lesson on Korea...

Day 1:

Because we didn't want to waste our time waiting for busses the whole weekend, we decided to hire a car, which I have to say right off the bat, was a great idea! We woke up early on the Saturday morning and made our way around Gangwon-do... Our first stop was the infamous DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) which is the border between North and South Korea... It is a heavily guarded 2km wide strip that nobody claims as their own... While driving, we managed to go through 'The Punch Bowl' where a few famous battles took place during the Korean war, including the famous "Battle of Heartbreak Ridge". The punchbowl got it's name because of the shape of the surrounding hills that form a bowl around the battleground. Just North of here is the Yanggu War Memorial, where we had the opportunity to see a number of large artillery, video's about battles fought and a room with a floor filled with bullet casings. Very interesting stuff, it's actually hard to imagine that it all happened hardly 60 years ago. From there we decided to venture to the "Third Tunnel of Aggression" and the look out points into North Korea, but because of the holiday, we were unable to enter!

Yanggu Memorail Museum

All this driving and war stuffs make a person hungry, so naturally we had to eat. We headed back to Inje and grabbed Dakgalbi (the spicy chicken dish I speak of so often). We then gathered our thoughts, made a playlist for the drive and headed for the coast. On the way we stopped off at one of the many hiking points around the Seoraksan mountain range and wondered through rock faces, along rivers, across wooden bridges, through gaps in the rock and took LOADS of photos. It is truly beautiful! We also got to drink some pure spring water, which is nothing like the bottled crap! It's got a strong iron taste and it's slightly less than delicious...

The Open Road (also on the wrong side)

After becoming one with nature, we returned to our hired 4-wheeled steed and continued to sea level. We hit the Yang Yang coast in the late afternoon and sat in the car watching the waves come in for a few minutes before heading out to get our feet wet. It was a little chilly so we weren't able to swim but we did take a short walk along the beach and down one of the piers... It is a very different coastline. It is built up right to the edge with buildings like Durban, but not with tourist spots and hotels, in fact there are very few of these types of buildings, it is mainly offices, retail stores and restaurants - much the same as everywhere in Korea. Nevertheless, it is still an amazing feeling staring into the openness of a huge body of water. A great end to a lovely day and a much enjoyed birthday for Alex!

Bridge Joining Yanggu and Sokcho (This river covers the previous US military airport)

From here, we headed north to Sokcho and then continued inland back to Inje. The trip from Sokcho is around 40 minutes to our town on a direct road, but the trip from Yang Yang is almost two hours because of all the winding through the mountains! I would just like to add a little note here that Google Maps fails dismally at navigating around Korea, to the extent of not even finding a road where there is a freeway, Apple Maps on the other hand does very well, possibly the only country in the world, I hear...

Day 2 and 3:

This time we decided to head in the opposite direction to Seoul, the great metropolis. It's roughly a 90min trip and the change from countryside to city is drastic from about an hour into the drive. We made our way listening to a mixture of the latest Two Door Cinema Club and Mumford and Sons, both of which are relatively easy to listen to while travelling... On our arrival we were greeted by crazy road systems and even crazier traffic. I would like to note that it was still Chuseok and most people head out of the city to visit family, but if this is true, I am not sure how they fit in again when they return. There are so many people and so many cars, with no parking, no space and a series of never ending one way roads. It's a nightmare.

We spent the next two days driving around Seoul. We went to Myeong Dong and did some clothes shopping, we had a western style dinner in the very energetic Itaewon, and we did a bucket load of shopping at Costco which a massive American department store here in Korea... Let me just say, Seoul is one of those places that it is way too easy to spend a lot of money! We did find Rye bread, muffins, Ceres fruit juice, Johnny Black, cream cheese, butter, parmasan cheese, cheddar cheese and frozen pizza! All of which is non existent in our local stores!

Itaewon. Energy.

On the second night we headed to Braai Republic in Itaewon, which is a South African restaurant who make boerewors, lamb chops, pap and carry Hunters and Savannah, not to mention Ceres fruit juice! It's a blessing from the heart of the African lion, but as expensive as trying to get Nickelback off the market. A double edged knobkerrie really... Anyway, Alex and I left Braai Republic to make our trip home, and I'm not pointing fingers, but my passenger did drink a few Hunters Dry's and was a little worse for wear (not mentioning names)... :)

Day 4:

At this stage, we were both rather knackered. We had the car for one more day, but we didn't really feel like doing anything! So, we drove around Gangwon again but this time a little South. You see, we were planning to head to a friends cabin in the woods where most of the foreigners had been drinking and partying the night before, but with no address and no energy to call someone for it, we decided we would drive around till we found it ourselves... This did not prove successful! We drove around aimlessly for a few hours and headed home. Our energy levels had depleted and we still had one day to relax, do our washing and prepare for the short, two day week that laid ahead...

Magical Landscape in Inje

Overall a great long weekend!

A Long Overdue Snapshot of Korea

My apologies for being so quiet over the past few months! School started again and Alex and I found ourselves rather busy. The holiday posts will be completed as soon as possible... I have decided to carry on from just after our trip so that I don't miss anything important! :)

Coming back to Korea to teach after having such an incredible holiday was rather difficult! We arrived back on the Sunday morning and had to be at school on the Monday. This was torture! Just before we had left for Indonesia, I held a summer camp with my youngest students all about traveling, so my Monday ended up being one of those days where I had to tell my story at least a hundred times to different students in broken simple English. The first student got a pretty positive and in depth summary of our trip, but as the day went on my story shortened into a simple "it was good" or a basic 'thumbs up' gesture and I felt like I needed another vacation.

Classes only started on the Thursday and most were moved or cancelled because students were practicing for their upcoming school festival which I had somehow been roped into performing at... After racking my brain for a song that they would enjoy I decided to rather do a song I was comfortable with and then attempt a near impossible feat of trying to learn a song in Korean. After countless hours with my Korean co-teacher drilling in the correct pronunciation, I had decided that I would get by. That Friday was the school festival and I spent the entire day taking photos and watching dances to songs from Psy (Gangnam Style), Miss A, Girls Generation, Super Junior, SHINee and other overplayed, extremely poppy songs. The most awkward was a rendition of some extremely sexual dance performed by my high school girls, which I had to face the following Monday. I stopped taking photos just to make sure I didn't seem creepy! I'm not sure it worked...

It was finally time to grab my guitar and first sing a song that nobody knew and follow that with a song in Korean to a room of around 800 Koreans. Nervous doesn't quite capture what I was feeling... Once I was up there though, it wasn't so bad... The crowd were enthusiastic and positive and I had a great time, despite coming in on the wrong note for the Korean song... :) (There is a video on my facebook page if you want to watch it).

After this week, the fun died down as I started working on my university assignments and suddenly all my free time was being poured into papers on boring things like operations management, countless analytical graphs and calculations that made my head sore. This was then worsened by a trip to the dentist where I was told that I needed 5 fillings and 2 root canals. At first I laughed it off, but after sending the xray to my dentist in South Africa who confirmed that my teeth had deteriorated that badly in just 8 months, I started to panic a little. I really had no sensitivity, so I'm not sure how it could be true... I put it off to think about it some more, after all, I f***ing HATE dentists. :)

The school-term was now in full swing, classes were starting to get more rowdy and I had been put in charge of English Chess Club, which seemed like a terrible idea at first, but has really turned out to be fun! (Also, I'm not too bad - YAY)

I met a rather talented musician here named Jarrett and we have been playing some music together when we can get together. He is one town over and if our girlfriends give us permission we can easily spend an entire weekend playing various musical instruments and drinking copious amounts of whiskey. We spent one weekend up in the mountains at a Korean friends cabin. He frequently has parties up there, which end up being HUGE drinking fests... This specific weekend gave Jarrett and I the opportunity to play once again for some people. It has really been a highlight for me, he is an exceptional musician who has helped me improve and gain confidence, while having a kuk load of fun!

On top of all this, I have started my own music review blog which is doing pretty well, I've had around 1500 views so far and hope it continues! I have also bought the websites alternatereview.co.za and alternatereview.com, so that I can start designing a fully fledged website. It is coming along nicely and I have been learning HTML, PHP and the like... Pretty awesome stuff!

This brings me right up to just before Alex's birthday, which I will tell you all about in my next post... It was a pretty great 5 day weekend spent traveling the country in a car. Yes, a CAR! I drove. For 5 days. A CAR! A. MA. ZING. (A car... with 4 wheels, a steering wheel and me controlling it).

Ok. I'm done.

Love and Miss everyone in South Africa!

Indonesia 2: Into the Wild...

"Jungle Trek, Jungle Trek, in Bukit Lawang. See the monkeys see the birds, see Orangutan... hey!" the guides chanted as we walked through Bukit Lawang to start our long awaited journey into the jungle. We walked down the river along the same path we had followed on the first night, except this time we were all decked in dark coloured shirts and matching camouflage ajumma pants hoping to blend into the jungle enough that the animals wouldn't see us (it was only our bright red arms and faces, and possibly our lumo Korean made socks and shoes, that gave us away). We veered off the path between some clothing stalls and climbed some steep concrete stairs which lead to a very rickety rope bridge leading across the river and away from the main Bukit village. We stepped carefully to avoid falling through and giving the villagers washing their clothes or swimming in the river a nasty surprise. 

The adventure begins...

The locals washing their clothes in the river

After crossing the bridge Iman (our official guide) led us up through the village's rubber plantations which border the National Park. (Who would have guessed - rubber comes from trees! AND its white!) We reached the border of the park, which is basically just a series of concrete pillars which tell people not to plant any more rubber trees beyond that point. We found this baffling since this reserve is not only home to apes but to elephants and tigers as well. 

The pillar marking the edge of the jungle

Temperatures instantly dropped as we entered the park. The deeper we went the taller the trees got and the more the jungle sounds intensified. Interesting sights and smells hit us from every direction. As we lumbered through the forest it was clear we were not going to hide from anything - no matter how camouflaged our pants were. In contrast to us, Arif, who had decided to tag along, bounded off effortlessly in every direction to bring us interesting tasting or smelling plants and to hunt for animals we could take photos of. For the first part of the hike we were never more than 100m off from another group of tourists. It looked like Jungle Trekking was rather in vogue, but with all this noise going on we doubted we would see anything - we were wrong. Before long we stumbled (completely by Imans design) across a group of tourists huddled in a circle taking photos. A whole troop of Thomas Leaf Monkeys had stopped to check out the new batch of foreigners tramping through their jungle. They looked about as comfortable as socialites in front of the camera and came so close we didn't need our zoom lenses. No one had told them the "stay 10m from the animals" rule we were supposed to be following. 

Thomas Leaf Monkey

Iman exchanged a couple of words with the other guides and led his four man army off to find something else to take photos of. This time we were even luckier. We soon came across a mother Orangutan with a youngster lounging in the in canopy above us. This time it was one of the guides that hadn't read the rules... A guide from another camp who was leading a group of Danish tourists tried to coax the apes closer to the ground with a piece of fruit. Chris noticed the constipated look on my face and firmly told him to stop. Feeding the animals is strongly discouraged because the Orangutans who get too comfortable with people and associate them with food often become highly aggressive and are known to attack tourists. One such Orangutan regularly terrorises hikers in the area, and although she has been moved several times, she always comes back for the easy pickings. The other reason is that human food has the nasty habit of housing human bugs, which can make primates very sick because of the DNA we share. 

We were getting ready to move off when Alex noticed a rustling in the trees in the opposite direction. Arif suddenly got very excited and started springing around to get a better look. He explained that we had spotted a Siamang. An endangered, completely black gibbon which is not commonly seen by hikers. Arif and Iman quickly led us through the trees to a spot where we could see the gibbon better. High above us the Siamang had encountered a troupe of Long tailed Macaques which it started chasing through the trees. As we followed the ground became thick with tourists and all of a sudden we were standing along side the feeding platform we had visited two days before. Only this time instead of there being action on the platform there was a whole lot of action taking place opposite it. The Siamang and the Macaques had disturbed a pair of mating Orangutans. Arif was ecstatic. His smile was so broad he could hardly contain himself. Apparently free Orangutan blue movies are even scarcer than Siamangs. So there we were, literally surrounded by monkeys everywhere we turned. The Siamung and cheeky Macaques continued their title bout while the Orangutans ignored everything around them and proceeded to change to a more 'comfortable' position. 

Siamang vs Macaque

When the excitement subsided we left the action thoroughly pleased that we had put off our hike for a day. Arif and Iman couldn't get over how lucky we had been. As if all this wasn't enough we also saw a White handed Gibbon, several more Orangutans and heard, but didn't see, the local hornbill. This meant that in one day we had seen 5 of the 7 primate species that live in Gunung Leuser National Park and one of the two we didn't see - the slow loris - is both endangered and nocturnal so chances are we weren't gonna see him.

Our celebrations after being crowned jungle royaly by Arif

We stopped for lunch next to a creek where we dug into our much anticipated leaf packed lunches. Just as before, they didn't disappoint. We were even given our fill of exotic fruit for desert. Arif, never able to sit still for particularly long, took to practicing his Mowgli skills while we lounged about on the rocks. 

Arif = Mowgli = Awesome

Over the course of the day Arif and Iman showed us all sorts of interesting things, like the clove tree, cinnamon tree and a massive decades old gum tree the sap of which is apparently used to make incense.  So when Arif came bounding out of nowhere at one of the more tiring parts of the trek (we had just reached the top of a mountain) with what he called 'Jungle ice cream' we bit into the strips of tree he handed to us with little thought. Lips pursed, faces contorted and a lot of spitting ensued. Iman laughed and comfortingly stated that at least now we wouldn't catch malaria. Arif had given us quinine - in its original form. This is the stuff that gives tonic water its bitter taste, so you can just imagine the facial expressions it caused in undiluted form... 

Tired and inoculated we gritted our teeth and pressed on. The last part of the journey was a game of tag with a group of German tourists who kept passing us whenever we took a break. We were very relieved when our camp site came into view before theirs. The cherry on top was the tea, biscuits and condensed milk that emerged from the food preparation hut just after we arrived. None of us had had condensed milk since starting in Korea so it quickly became a multipurpose condiment. We used it as sugar, as milk, as dip for biscuits, as butter for more than one biscuit and  just ate it out of the can with our biscuit spoons. We were very happy bunnies. 

Photo by Leighton Wattrus (blurry but awesome)

The afternoon was a relaxed one floating about in the river, skipping stones , meeting monitor lizzards and taking some photos and before we knew it, the sun was going down. Arif had to get back to the kitchen at Green Hills, so he unfortunately had to leave us. Meanwhile, we had no proper tents, our toilet was literally a spade and a jungle and we were out in the open for every type of creepy crawly to harass us - we were content, relaxed and truly at home. The camp had a small tent where food was being prepared and our shelter was sided and roofed by black plastic with an open front. Dinner was soon served and it was fit for a king. We had a few different meat dishes to choose from and a plate of rice to fill the gap which was accompanied by four tall boy beers we had managed to acquire (none of us are sure how).

Monitor Lizzard (Just under a metre long)

Dinner

After dinner we sat in front of the big TV and watched Dark Knight Rises while our electric blankets were heating up our beds. Not quite. We actually had way more fun than that - Iman found a box of matches and started showing us tricks and giving us problems to solve, which were not easy! (*cough cough* clear throat* Alex came out victorious * Aggim)... We then started to drink a little and the games came out - I forget the name, but we played one game where each person gets assigned an animal and an action and sound to describe the animal, then while slapping your legs and clapping your hands, you do your actions and then someone else's actions to pass it to them. They then do their actions and someone else's and it passes again till somebody messes up... It is as confusing as it sounds at first, but once we had it down we were oblivious to the world! We were laughing, we were crying, we were inventing animals, elephants started making ape sounds, snakes and elephants couldn't be distinguished... It was chaos.

After the excitement had worn off, we turned in for a rather uncomfortable but well deserved sleep!

Iman doing his monkey impersonation (from the game)

Morning came and we awoke to find a mother orangutan and her baby perched in the tree just outside our tent. They had obviously smelt the food and had come to investigate. We sat beneath them drinking our tea and eating our biscuits while the staff members protected their food from the encroaching duo. After tea, the staff members pulled some tubes together and started joining them to create one large raft that we could travel down river and back to camp on. As the staff members were busy, a group of macaques planned their attack on the compound with the objective of stealing the food that the orangutans had failed to acquire. Alex and I spent our time chasing them off so the gents could carry on with their mission. As they had finished, all our bags got put into plastic bags as to not get wet and we boarded our five star cruiser for the voyage home. At this point the macaque's had taken hold of the now unprotected food stash and the battle had been lost.

Defending the fort

Our journey home was a lot easier than our tubing experience. We were dressed like muslim women to protect our sensitive bodies from the sun and we sat relaxed as our raft was guided by Iman at the back on his deflating tube and another guy with a long pole at the front. A mere 30 minutes later we were back at Green Hill with grand stories of adventure to share with our fellow guests. Indiana Jones had nothing on us!

Indonesia 1: Northern Sumatra, Here We Come!

Welcome to Alex and my first joint post! :)

We are going to start off by saying, we just had some of the best days of our lives. We have just returned to Korea after spending two weeks in South East Asia, and it was incredible! We spent a week in Bukit Lawang, which is in Sumatra, Indonesia and then a week in Phuket, Thailand. As these places are so massively different in every way, we are going to break it into a few posts. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Bukit Lawang (part 1)...

After a two hour bus trip to Seoul, then another hour to the airport, we settled in to our hotel and prepared for our flight to Indonesia. The other two members of our four man travel team, Leighton and Rob, only joined us later as Leighton had only finished his summer camp that Saturday. When they did arrive, we grabbed some beers and got a little more familiar. (Side note: The Sharks beat the Stormers that night).

The flight with Air Asia took us from Incheon Airport to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a short stop over in the "low-cost" terminal, which was the worst terminal I have ever been in. I swear passport control was like a hot dog stand and security looked like something you would expect to find in Zimbabwe... Anyhow, we then carried on to Medan which ended our 8 our flight travelling and began our 3 hour shuttle to Bukit Lawang. This so called Shuttle was not so much a shuttle, it was more like a South African taxi with less people packed into it, actual brake pads (I hoped), a very well used hooter and one of the most aggressive drivers I have ever seen. The roads in Medan are CRAZY! On a two lane road you most commonly see up to 8 flows of traffic - there are scooters with up to 4 people on them, there are taxi's, "shuttles", cars, pedestrians, bicycles and the occasional cow all travelling in excess of 80 kilometers an hour in any direction they think necessary. The surroundings reminded me of the run down areas of Johannesburg City, except they were still very populated with businesses and trade and the smells all told their own stories. If it wasn't the smell of some exotic street food, it was the smell of sewerage, rubber factories or petrol - quite overwhelming.

Over the next three hours the sprawling city slowly morphed into palm oil and rubber plantations with the odd house or village here and there. We stopped at the last of the villages before we drove straight into the forest. We got out of our glorified mini bus taxi and made our way down the winding partly cobbled, partly concrete, partly dust pathways leading between the shops and guest houses that make up Bukit Lawang. We had quite a long walk to Greenhill guest house where we would be spending the next few nights, but the bright faces that popped out of doorways or hung over balconies to welcome us, and the occasional motorbike which almost ran us off the path, made the walk quite an exciting one. All the while we could hear and smell the jungle through the darkness, but we had no idea what we were going to wake up to the next morning. 

We arrived at Greenhill, and sat down for a beer after our long days of travel. The friendly Greenhill staff made us feel quite at home. Before long someone had picked up a guitar and the night dissolved into djembe and acoustic guitar covers of Hotel California, Indonesia political songs, and broken conversation - our bags still beside us with no idea of where we were sleeping. Another side note: the food was amazing! 

Phandi and his crew

[Bukit Lawang is a little village that runs because of the tourist trade that visits it. It is right next to a protected piece of the rainforest which is still home to many ape species, including orangutans, gibbons, thomas leaf monkeys and the long tailed macaque. Even though it is a tourist destination, it is not overpopulated with tourists, it is still very quiet and natural feeling.]

At around midnight we got shown to our room, which was a very basic wooden structure with no actual windows (just a large hole in the wooden wall), mattresses on the floor and only use of a public bathroom, which was a traditional Indonesian style long drop and a bucket to bathe in - which is actually not as scary as it sounds. We threw our stuff down, grabbed our towels and headed for a midnight (slightly tipsy) swim in the river bordering the jungle before heading to bed.

Morning came and we saw for the first time the towering trees that we had swum next to the night before. We were up early so that we could go to the orangutan feeding platform to hopefully see some apes and take a few pics, and boy were we lucky because we arrived to a mother and baby making a feast of a bunch of bananas, not to mention the troop of long tail macaque's we'd past on the way. After getting some truly great picture opportunities, we decided to go tubing down the river... We dropped our stuff at the room, put on costumes and carried tubes to a sensible start point with our guide Arif (who looks like an adult version of Mowgli from The Jungle Book). 

The plan was to tube down to the village, stopping for lunch on the river bank on the way. What we didn't realise was that the village was three hours down the river by tube! So for the rest of the day we dodged rocks, rapids, small children and soaking cows in our tubes made out of the insides of old tractor tires. Arif pulled us over every now and then to feed us local fruits or to locate Rob who seemed to enjoy getting stuck on the rocks further up river or taking a less travelled scenic route. As the river went on the jungle made way for plantations, fish traps and a fallen down tree that got violently attacked by Alex's leg. This seemed like a good point to stop for lunch. After liberally smearing Alex's scratched leg with jungle medicine (chewed up grass) Arif pulled several brown paper packages out of his rucksack. Under the paper was a leaf, and in the leaf was an assortment of rice, chicken, vegetables and curry sauce, which made for a delicious finger licking good lunch (no knives or forks for this meal, or any outdoor meal for that matter). After lunch we had a well deserved nap on the pebbles under some over hanging trees, waking to find our bodies a tad pinker than before, but we pressed on. When we finally pulled our tubes out of the river at the end of our trip we had collectively lost one pair of slip slops, drowned two passports, scraped one leg and all taken on a brighter red hue. After all this Arif still suggested that we sit on top of the bus for our trip back to Green Hill instead of inside it, which we politely dismissed as a silly idea (none of the Indonesians could understand that sunburn was from the sun or that it could possibly be painful). 

Photo Taken by Leighton Wattrus

Photo Taken by Leighton Wattrus

The rest of the evening was spent nursing our burning skin and so we decided to take day two to recover instead of hitting the jungle straight away. Arif, who never seemed to stop, hit the kitchens of Greenhill to give us yet another delicious meal. 

Our rest day turned out to be a very good idea as the sunburn was quite a lot worse than we thought it would be... Alex burnt the top of her feet, so hiking would of been terribly uncomfortable. The day was pretty chillaxed, Alex spent most of the day reading on the porch while us lads took a walk into town to grab a cold Anker. The walk down the river into town is lined with stalls, much the same as a flea market, selling sarongs, various clothing, carved wood pieces and jewellery. The colours really make it feel alive! The odd jungle guide will also be seen walking up stream carrying up to 6 tubes on his back... These small little guys are seriously beefy.

That evening gave us our first proper thunder storm where it bashed, crashed and pissed with rain - nothing like we've ever seen. It was like a 2 hour Johannesburg storm condensed into a bite size 40 minute massacre. Lovely.

This made for a relaxed evening, with another good dinner, another river swim and an early turn in,  after all, we had to be well rested for our jungle trek the next day! Oh, and we can't forget the kittens...

Blue Skies and Rotating Blades

We had quite the weekend in this crazy little country and I thought I needed to tell you all about it. It started off on a sad note actually, with a friend of ours leaving Korea to return home to Canada after deciding another year of this, was not what he actually wanted. We headed out to a little town called Hyeon-ri, which is pretty much like any other little town in Gangwon-do, except that it has a "German" pub in it. Well, this isn't completely true because the only thing German about this pub is the name - inside they serve the usual and boring 'Cas' and 'Hite' beers along with soju and other Korean drinks that you have heard so much about. We had a good evening with good conversation and one broken finger (which I had nothing to do with) but we had to head home because we were making a trip to the infamous DMZ (demilitarized zone) the next morning, so we grabbed a taxi just before the clock struck pumpkin.

Saturday morning we woke up 30 minutes after we were supposed to meet our tour guides and panic set in... This was short lived though because when we opened our windows we were greeted by the first rains of the season - which were much deserved by the very dry land and shallow rivers! Needless to say, the DMZ trip was cancelled and we spent most of Saturday lazing around, editing photo's and jailbreaking my iPhone (because I am feeling like a prisoner in Apple jail after recent online discussions - thanks PK). Saturday evening arrived and we had just settled down for bulgogi (beef stew) in this quaint little restaurant when my phone rang with some good news - news I didn't get because I ignored the call from our new friend Mr Kim.

Let me quickly give you some background on Mr Kim. He is a Korean man with decent English, who is a co-pilot for a company called Helikorea. He is not a usual Korean man as he is outspoken, loves baseball and can be a little annoying, but overall he is an ok guy.

Second call, I pushed myself to answer and he was quick to inform me that the following day (Sunday), there would be space on the helicopter and we should come - we agreed, thanked him and went on with our meal... Later that evening we started to second thought our decision as we had heard so many negative things about Mr Kim from our foreign friends about his tendency to become a stalker, his brash and outspoken views of people and his hate for the gay community (a story for another time...). Anyhow, we decided it was an experience we wanted to have and pushed on.

Sunday morning arrived and after waking up at sparrows fart, Mr Kim knocked on my door 10 minutes early. As I opened the door he invited himself in, had a good look around, noticed I was eating cereal, commented how much he likes cereal and demanded a bowl. This grated me a little, but I obliged... he was giving us a free helicopter ride!

Once he had finished his sugar coated cardboard flakes, we took a bus out to the foot of Seoraksan mountain range and made our way to the Helipad... It is a beautiful area with very little in the way of houses or any sort of development and the skies were so blue and clear that it almost seemed painted. We arrived at the helipad to find that they were performing a sky-worthy test on the helicopter and so we had to sit around for a good three hours. We were under the impression that they were taking supplies to Bakdamsa temple that day and we would just go along for the ride, but clearly this was not the case.

Once the tests were complete (which I hope they passed), the captain ordered a refuel and got ready for lift off. The fantastic thing about this is that he did not have any work to do, he was going to all the trouble completely for us! We sat in anticipation waiting for his hand gesture to call us aboard and it finally came... We ran under the blades, jumped in and we left the ground... This is what we saw:

Just off the bus

Our scenic walk to the helipad

"An organic house" made completely of mud and wood. This is considered special in Korea, because most houses are concrete and plastic! :)

Doesn't look complicated, does it?

Our ride. Pimping.

The most generous man in Korea, Captain Shin (on the right)

Little Buddhist village locked away in the mountains...

We covered the Seoraksan mountain range all the way from Inje to Sokcho (the sea), getting sites of all the buddhist temples and little communities that were sprinkled in between. A surreal experience. Once we were safely on the ground we thought we could say thank you by taking the crew for lunch, so off we went to a place the pilot recommended. Unfortunately, no bill arrived and we were again treated to a free meal... We were then offered a lift to the bus stop which ended up being a lift to our town. Clearly we had done something to make the pilot fond of us and hey, we weren't complaining!

Some food for thought (with some news)

So, Alex and I have finally confirmed our trip to Indonesia! We will be flying to Sumatra on the 29th of July, just after my birthday, and we plan to see/do as much as we can, like: see the Sumatran Tigers, see Orangutans, attempt rain forest hikes, relax in Bali and if at all possible - go to Komodo island to see the Komodo Dragons.

Right, so you jealous now? Let me dampen it slightly by saying a one way flight to Sumatra is costing us more than my return flight to London last year. On top of that we still need to book accommodation, flights within the country and budget for costs in an over (tourist) populated Bali. Who am I kidding, that doesn't dampen anything - we are going to Indonesia, bitches! :) Will give you more details about it as I get them...

{Side note: Just to put the photo in context quickly: I thought all the text was getting boring and wanted some colour. It was taken at Kyeong Bok Palace in Seoul while I was on my field trip... :) Ok, you can carry on reading...}

While I am here, I would like to take a moment to say how glad I am that I came to this very averagely beautiful country. Yes, I said averagely beautiful because it is by no means a stunner, but then again if I was looking for beauty I would have ventured towards Thailand or possibly the Seychelles - coming back to my point, I have learnt so much about people, culture, manners, South Korea, myself and even my country over the past three and a half months and I am very grateful! Let me elaborate.

Firstly, crime is non-existent here and that is an amazing advantage of living in Korea. It is almost a surreal feeling being able to walk around the child filled streets after dark, being able to leave your bicycle unlocked outside the store while you shop and leave all your windows open while you stay in a neighboring town for the weekend, and let me add - there are NO burglar bars, alarms or high fences. You might be thinking that anywhere in the world is better than South Africa in this regard, but you are wrong! Even though SA is crime-stricken and you honestly have times that you can fear for your life in a house all alone in the middle of Johannesburg - crime is bad everywhere. I have not yet visited a place that I would feel comfortable to put my most expensive belongings in the middle of the street, then go for lunch and come back to find them in the very same place - but in Korea, I do.

Second, the food is amazing. When I arrived I thought it was over, the first site of Kimchi had me checking the cost of flights back home and getting used to the school food has been tough (cause it is bad - really bad), but overall the food is phenomenal! If I had to list my favourite meals now, I would have to put at least 5 Korean dishes in my top 10. Maybe one day I will elaborate, but for now, my point is made.

Third, the people are different here. There is such a strong sense of community which even as a waygook (foreigner), I feel very much a part of. The language barrier means nothing when you are being welcomed into your favourite dakgalbi restaurant, people try understand you even though you can only explain yourself using a total of 10 words and when I return from a weekend of drinking and debauchery in Seoul - there is no need to try explain what I did, because someone saw me and the entire school already knows. That actually, is a little unnerving - hmmmmm. Anyway.

Lastly and possibly most importantly is that this trip to Korea has allowed me to actually relax and get to know myself. I have fallen more in love with my amazing girlfriend and hopefully life partner, I have found direction and I have had time to start understanding what is important to me. Family, friends and moments - not money, fast cars and an excess of things. I hope that i have only pricked the surface with this journey as I feel there is still a lot to learn!

In closing, I would like to once again mention the amazing people I have met in Korea - all the other native teachers, the restaurant owners, the musicians, the hipsters, the South Africans, the Irish, the Korean teachers and even the asshole bus drivers - you guys make this place an experience!


For those of you who read this blog, I hope you enjoy it. If you would like any specific information on anything to do with Korea, or just about me - please ask. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment or five in the box below...

(Love to all in South Africa) :)

Sinnam Field Trip

Wow. Life has been so crazy the past few weeks, it all just feels like a dream. In the past month Korea has taught me a few things:
1. Koreans take sightseeing VERY seriously.
2. Koreans take sports day VERY seriously.
3. Koreans DO NOT take exam times seriously (You can't fail in this country).
3. Koreans eat a crap load of food and stay skinny.
4. Teachers Day is a real day in Korea where students give you flowers and chocolate which is supposed to make up for being assholes every other day. (I think a once a year 'girlfriends day' may be cheaper for some guys?)
5. I still don't like Kimchi.

Well, last time I posted I mentioned I was going on the school field trip for 3 days to Seoul and this definitely happened, although it was less of a relaxing field trip and more like an extreme endurance boot camp because Koreans can and do manage to see EVERY sight in Seoul in two and a half days!

On Day 1, we managed to have a University tour at Korea's "number 2" University where we were marched around hi-tech libraries, study halls, sports fields, auditoriums and such. This was followed by a shopping spree in Myeong Dong (the shopping district of Seoul) where girls spent tens of thousands of won on make up and cream and lotion and cream and hair ties and cream and make up and cream. The boys on the other side of the spectrum bought food. At this stage we had walked at least 5km's worth around the Uni and Myeong Dong so as a reward we got to do a 2km hike up the steepest hill I have ever seen to see the Namsam Tower - the tallest building in Korea (probably because it is on a hill). There was relief in site as a theater show was the end to our evening. We saw Fanta Stick, which has nothing to do with an orange flavoured soda, but more with drumming FantaStickly. It was good.

We had boarded the bus at 8am and we got to our accommodation at 10pm.

Day 2 followed a similar pattern, starting with a tour of MBC (a large broadcasting station in Seoul) where we weren't allowed to take photos and everyone was miserable because they are currently striking to regain freedom of speech for the media (sound familiar?). Kyeong Bok Palace was next, a famous palace made up of many temples and lakes that go on for miles - all I can tell you is the changing of the guard takes 45 minutes and you can see this phenomenon every hour. This baffles me as the palace is technically only protected for 15 minutes of every hour and the rest of the time is spent dancing, waving flags and beating on a pot. The presidents house was the highlight for me because even though we could not take photos, I felt like I was in South Africa for the first time on my trip. There were so many trees and plants, it was hot and there were actual grass lawns!!! This may seem silly to you - but where we stay in Inje, there is no such thing as a yard - there is only... more land for crops!!!! Anyhow, just to give our feet a rest, we decided to go ice skating at the end of the day. #ihategoingroundincircles (for the tweeters).

Day 3 was a little different, there was only one destination on the itenerary - EVERLAND! An amusement park which is heavily based on the feel of Disney Land with all the characters, fake plastic trees and loads of rides. But there was a downside, the first and only ride I wanted to go on was 3.5km away... The great trek began and as we arrived we were met by a line that said "60min wait". Fuck. 60 minutes later I got on the scariest roller coaster I have ever been on which lasted 3 minutes and 20 seconds - SUCCESS!!! I could go home, nut first I had to sit around for 3 hours...

So, like I said... Koreans take sightseeing VERY seriously!

The week before the field trip, we had a sports day at the school and I must say it was totally awesome! They have official sports like jumping rope, wrestling, tug of war and my favourite 'foot volleyball'. This is basically a combination of volleyball and one bounce and you play in teams of 5. Killer fun! We also had the more general athletics and soccer. One thing I have got to say though is there was no spirit, not like home at least... No war cries, face paint or colour co-ordinated clothing... It made me miss South Africa again.

Exam week was just before all these "relaxing" and "fun" days... which I just do not understand - as long as the student comes to school, arrives at the exam and attempts to answer the questions - he/she is guaranteed a pass. The only time good grades matter is when the student is being chosen by respective universities... The logic is that if the students want a good job they have to go to university and if they want to go to university they must do well in school. I am not saying it's not logical, but I am saying it doesn't work!

This leads me onto teachers day... a day when teachers still have to come to work but get given loads of chocolate and flowers. I only got a few because it isn't "customary" to give the foreign teacher - but some of my co-teachers had more chocolate than I get on Easter! Pretty cool.

Anyhow, on a personal note - we hit our 3 month mark just the other day and have been a bit homesick. The way we figure it is that it's not new and exciting anymore and we are starting to just fit in like a cog in yet another big machine. This is disheartening because it makes the culture differences a lot harder to deal with, the food selection irritating and it also makes you realise that nobody knows or could ever know you properly in this country... A rather unpleasant pill to swallow...

I don't wanna end on a downer, so, I must tell you - we are planning trips to Indonesia in early August and Thailand in October! That fine folks, makes the harder days easier to bear.

Over and Out.