Follow Maggie and me on our Hong-do Adventure....
Here is yet another Korean adventure story to tantilize your senses and numb your fingers and toes (if you want to really enjoy the full experience).
Helene and I had decided that for our Solal (lunar New Year) holidays that we were going to go to an island. Yes, we realize that it is January and that islands, especially not tropical ones, may not be the best places to visit, but our holidays are few and far between. So, we took advantage of our days off and headed out to the train station.
We left Monday night after a full day of teaching. Now if I haven't told you already, the transportation systems in this country are, well, less than ideal. Roads aren't straight, trains don't go everywhere and, well, I think you all know how I feel about Korean drivers and the bus drivers are usually worse than average. Anyway, back to the story, we got a train to Taegu (2 hours) and were lucky enough to have seats, from Taegu we didn't have to wait long before catching another train to Taejon (a little over 2 hours). We didn't have seats when we got on the train, but were able to snag two soon after. Now we didn't buy any of our tickets in advance because, well, you know, we don't speak Korean and people seem to forget that we might need help with these endeavors. A bit irritating! However we are always successful in getting where we want to go so blhhhhhh to all those nay sayers!
Another plus to this countries transport systems is that often in the bigger cities there are multiple train and bus stations making it difficult to determine where you are and where you have to go. We had some help on the Taejon train from a nice young man who spoke English and helped us by directing us to the other train station in Taejon. There we purchased our tickets for a train to Mokpo the next day. We spent the night in a nearby Yogwan and were well rested for the next day.
We were unable to get seats on this next train and were not able to snag any seats until late in the 3 1/2 hour ride. So we sat on the floor in the aisle, stood up, played cutesie with the nearby kids, squished ourselves into the space behind the last seats on the train, and were, all in all, quite happy with our situation. Along the way, we indulged in little crackers, cookies and barley snacks that we like to bring so that we don't have to resort to eating the dried squid that everyone seems to love so much.
In Mokpo, we had to catch a ferry out to Hong-do (the island). Well we like to buy our train tickets in advance so we decided to ask at two different information booths about train times and schedules. Well my motto is now, "Why bother asking for help? We have survived so far." AKA neither of these people were any help to us and we almost missed our ferry in the porcess.
The man at the second information booth decided he wanted to write us an itinerary. I think he was just using the only English words he knew. Well we already knew our itinerary so we got frustrated and ran to get a cab to get to the ferry. Phew, we just made it to the ferry and ran out to the platfrom. Yeah, we got seats, although they were next to a creepy guy.
We settled in and had our well deserved PB&J sandwiches. The ferry ride was interesting. The islands we sailed through were amazing and the water was a most brilliant blue-green color.
Later in our journey the engine man from the ferry invited us up into the wheelhouse where we got coffee and a birds eye view of everything that was going on. We got to stand out on the special deck and were able to get a great view of all of the islands (ferry ride 3 1/2 hours).
As we got close to the island we realized just how right our decision to come here was. Sheer reddish cliffs plunged down into the blue-green waters. Caves were hidden in between the cliffs. Rock arches reached from the sea and it was all just unreal. Helene put it best when she described it as something right out of an old pirate movie. Just beautiful! There are only 800 people living on the island. Most of them are fishermen or make their living from the sea somehow.
There are 2 villages, but one we didn't exactly get to see. There are no roads between the villages. There aren't really any roads on the island because there aren't any cars. The island was probably 20Km around. The people didn't seem too surprised to see foreigners which surprised us. People are still surprised to see us in Andong.
When we were in the wheelhouse of the ferry, the engine man told us he had a friend who was going to be our "guide". Well, he was a nice man and did bring us to a yogwan (his house as well), but I can't say he was much of a "guide".
Once settled in our room, we had our evening meal which consisted of a fish tcigae (stew). This is a spicy stew that has root vegetables and fish (the whole fish: scales, eyeballs, bones and everything) in it. A normal person in any western country would probably wonder why they had gotten the garbage instead of something to eat, but we were used to it by now. It filled us up and we were off to do a little exploring.
We knew there was a path to the other side of the island (width), but I thought it would be too far to walk as it was getting dark. Well, we only had to walk about 100 meters before we saw the other side of the island. Again, we were impressed by the cliffs and the beautiful red color of the rocks contrasted with the blue of the water. We did a little beach exploration and headed "home".
There, we watched a great Korean drama. They can provide hours of entertainment because you get to make your own story for you don't understand what they are saying.
The next morning the wind was shaking our windows when we got up and so we piled on the layers and headed out to do some more exploring. The best way to see the island, supposedly, is by boat, but, it was a holiday, we don't speak Korean (in case you forgot), the sea was very rough, we don't speak Korean, we didn't know anyone with a boat, and we don't speak Korean. So, since getting a boat ride was out of the questions, we headed off on foot past many burial mounds to another part of the ilsand. We hiked for a couple of hours and really got to see more of this amazing place. It must really be amazing in the summer, but then it would be over run by Korean tourists and I've seen just anout enough of that since I've been here.
Back in our room we slept for a few hours and then headed out for a dinner with our "guide's" family. On Solal they dont' eat rice (Surprise!) instead they eat something called Duk-gu, a soup with rice cake things, eggs, some meat, and a few vegetables, tasty over all. Of course we had the usual gamut of Kim chi, seaweed, and some other unidentifiable vegetable. The real highlight of this meal, at least for Helene who was watching instead of tasting, was when I ate raw shrimp. You know, you would think I would learn, but I don't and I was trying to be polite. I'm not being polite any more. That stuff is really revolting. I had 2 bites and truly could not stomach any more.
After dinner, we were entertained by some locals who wanted us to come to their #1 party. Sorry guys, I am sure we can find something more interesting to do.
...I will let Helene tell you the rest of the story because I have to run off to the doctor's (a Chinese medicine doctor I observe). Hope you are enjoying our tale so far. The funniest part is coming up.
Take care,Maggie
Let's pick up where Maggie left off. Let us see... What did we find that was more entertaining to do... spend the night in the total Korean way: lying on our heated floor, watching the ever popular Korean dramas, of course!
We got up the next morning and caught our ferry off the island at 10 am... and so our day or days of travelling began on a very nice and sunny morning. (The sun lured us in believing that we were going to have a nice, warm trip...hmmm... That for once the travel system in this country was going to make sense... but NOT... patience, that story will come later.)
And so, as we were leaving the island we got our last look at the beauty of it. It is absolutely gorgeous! Of course, being once again the only foreigners on the boat, soon after we were once more pulled into the wheel cabin to get a better view and chat with the crew. We stayed there a while and then decided to go back to our seats and get a few more hours of sleep (for we thought we were lacking sleep...)
We got into Mokp'o at about 2 pm and went to the train station where... well... we didn't get any tickets to go anywhere. And when you don't get tickets at the train station what do you do? Go to the bus station.
So off to the bus station we went to discover that the only tickets to go anywhere are to go to Kwanju. Off to Kwanju we went, another 2 hours added to our trip home. Once in Kwanju we bought bus tickets to go to Taegu. We had about 4 hours to kill before taking the bus to Taegu. What to do? Fortunatly there was a Departement Store just outside the Bus Station where we ate delicious Cheese Pizza (might I just take a moment to remind you of the last meals we had had... something about eye ball fish soup and raw shrimps come to mind...) You'll also be happy to know that there was a supermarket in the basement of the Dept. Store where, to Maggie's absolute delight, we found new kinds of cereal!!!! (Now, I want to remind you that this is a big deal for us! No laughing allowed!)
After having some nice tea at the Store's Coffee Shop, we returned to the bus station where we passed the time by running from dispenser machine to dispenser machine to see what kind of tea they sold. (A bit crazy you will say, you haven't seen anything yet!)
Our bus left at 8:40 pm. We were off to Taegu...Hooray! It took a little over 3 hours to get there. (By the way, we slept some more on the bus, although we kept being rudely awaken by all the cellular phone ringing around us: "Yoboseyo") Then, as directed by the friendly bus driver (a rare man indeed), we went to the train station. It is now 11:45 pm for your information.
There, we managed to get tickets (yes, seats!) to Andong for 5:45 am. And what do you do when you get tickets for 5:45 am and it's midnight? Get a yogwan, right? Wrong... (told you we were a bit crazy!) NO! you decide that it's just 6 hours so you could probably just wait at the train station... and FREEZE!!!! Yes, I just want you to know that it was, well, very very very very cold in the train station. Why, I ask you all, did we not go to a yogwan??????? Because, yes, I am repeating myself, we are crazy, foolish, stupid...
Around 3 am, after having been a side show for all the scummy people that hang out at the train station, we did look a bit scummy ourselves, lying on a bench with 25 layers of clothes and we were not very clean either... but, oh ya, as I was saying, at 3 am, as Maggie tells me that her toes are going to have to be amputated, I get this wonderfully clever idea that a drive in a HEATED (HEATED) taxi(Heated) would be quite enjoyable. And off we go... we took a drive (what a wonderful invention: car heaters!) to the other train station and then decided to walk around the block, to get the blood flowing, so there wouldn't be a need to get anything amputated.
After a brisk walk, we finally made our way (in a HEATED taxi) back to Tongtaegu station at 4 am and settled in for two more hours of """"Freezing"""" wait. Fortunatly, we met this other foreigner who kept us occupied with his chit chat for the next hour, a blessing in disguise for at that point the only conversation that Maggie and I were having was... "I AM FREEZING"... "Damn, it's cold!"...."Tell me again why were here... Oh ya... the island was absolutely beautiful!"
We got on the HEATED train (Heated what a wonderfull word!!!! )to Andong at 5:45 and came into the Andong station at 7:37 am.
Funny little end to our story... Maggie had to work at 9:50 am that same morning. (I, thankfully, did not have to work until 12 pm.)
What is absolutely certain is that the trip to the island was well worth it!!!! But, Maggie and I both agree that we will never, ever, ever be so stupid as to freeze like that again! I hope that you have enjoyed our little saga... there will be, I am sure, many more to come...
Take care,
Hélène
