Keeping cool during the traffic delays - The return to Gangneung, part 1

A childhood of long car rides across the Midwest has me stoic about multiple hours spent in transit. "We'll get there when we get there," goes the mantra, for getting angry only makes things worse. That said, a day like today taxed our patience and ability to stay positive.

The bus journey that R and I embarked on should have taken around 3 hours took over 6 because every Korean with a car or the ability to steal one took to the roads today to experience the wonders of gridlock. Getting out of Seoul proved exhausting; usually the city presents the usual traffic jams, but today even news reporters were mentioning clogged freeways. Once we were on the road, we wished we'd never gotten on. Of course, turning back wasn't an option. Our journey, however delayed, would not be complete until our toes touched the sand at Gyeongpo Beach and our lips tasted grilled fish.

Despite the protracted time, the trip did have its highlights: I finished my book and R learned to never check Facebook after something scintillating happened on an episode of a favorite TV show she hadn't watched yet. We both enjoyed gazing at Gangwon-do's endless green mountains and hills, too. The bus's stopping and starting prevented any iPad/iPod action, so took a respite from technology for a while. But around the time we stopped in Hoengseong, I thought "Oh well, what the hell" and started tapping away on the iPad. As I was out of stuff to read, writing something sounded appealing. Whether or not this resulting post about spending a working day aboard a bus holds any appeal is up to the reader.

Yet while we may have been disappointed by the delays, they were expected to some degree. Holiday times are usually poor times to travel, and Buddha's Birthday proved no exception. The two of us learned the hard way to either travel as early as possible or just leave the night before. We'd thought that leaving at 8:50 would serve us well and it didn't. We weren't the only ones though. Plenty of other travelers got caught the trap too. Lesson learned: Buddha's Birthday brings the crowds. Sunday drivers and anyone who's shaky with a stick shift need not apply for driving on this day.


More to come soon...
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*In honor of today's post, here's a quick Korean lesson:

The base verb form of wait is 기다리다, or gidarida (gi-da-ri-da); "I am waiting" is 나는 기다리세요, or gidari seyo.

*People of the Internet: Keep the spoilers to yourselves, please.

* The trip did get off to a good start, for I successfully bought bus tickets in advance by writing everything in Korean and handing the ticket girl the Post-It. I would've simply spoken everything, but I got tripped up on saying the 9 in 9:20am  because of how telling time works in the Korean language. It didn't really matter though because she told me in English that the 9:20 was sold out, so I opted for the 8:50 bus instead.

*Korean uses two sets of numbers: pure Korean and Sino-Korean. Clock time is spoken with pure Korean hours and Sino-Korean minutes. Sound confusing? It is at first. 

Vacation Pt. 2: Rainy but fun days in Gangneung

Picture from Rochelle's iPhone.

We rode right into every traveler's nightmare: It was hot and sunny when we got in on Saturday and it's been raining off and on ever since. Nonetheless, we still have been enjoying our time here on the east coast and are making plans to return sometime within the next couple of months.

Highlights from the trip

Saturday night: Samgyeopsal barbecue

Samgyeopsal is grilled pork belly and it's similar to bacon, but it has one key difference: it's 10 times better than bacon.

Grilling samgyeopsal at one of the nearby restaurants.

Side dishes of kimchi, spinach, radishes, lettuce, sesame oil, red pepper paste, and more. The raw samgyeopsal's in the background.

Sunday:

Terarosa Coffee Factory, Charmsori Gramophone Museum, and Gyeongpo Beach

Terarosa's a famous place among Koreans and Westerners alike. Set outside the city, the place serves delicious coffee from around the world and has a tasty brunch/lunch menu. It is less a factory than a rustic house surrounded by lush green trees and plants. Most everything's made of wood; the place feels cozy and warm even in the air-conditioned indoors. You can sit outside in a couple of areas as well. We did this because it meant quicker service and a chance to take a closer look at the greenery.

At the entrance.

Me and a delicious cup of Honduran coffee, a circle of red bean bread, and Rochelle with a tasty cappucino. Our shrimp omelet had yet to arrive when the picture got taken. The food tasted good too. The coffee and food can be a bit expensive, but it's worth it because coming here isn't an every day activity. That 5,000won cup of coffee was worth every, er, 10won coin, too. I've written previously about coffee in Korea here and this cup tasted like the best stuff does back home. 

 We had lunch here to commorate 100 days together as a couple. Younger Koreans tend to count time in relationships in days instead of months, so celebrating 100 days together is a unique part of the culture and so thought we'd join in too. Photo taken by a nice Korean girl who happened to be sitting with her boyfriend at the next table over. She saw me taking a picture of the coffee and leaned over to ask about taking our pictures. We ended with a few shots. She spoke good English and we chatted about the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

*The Terarosa website provides directions for taking the bus or taking a taxi. The taxi will cost more but it will get you there faster.

We took a cab from Terarosa and went straight to the Charmsori Gramophone Museum and Edison Science Museum. Rochelle thoroughly enjoyed this. It felt great to see the place again. The old ad for 78s that said "78rpm--A speed we can live with" cracked me up because 78s quickly lost favor once 33 1/3rpm vinyl LPs came in years ago. Numerous families had brought their kids here and I couldn't help but wonder what they thought of the old gramophones and music boxes. Those under 12 have no knowledge of a world without mp3s and file trading. How would they view putting on an LP and dropping the needle onto a favorite track? I know it felt wondrous when I did it years ago. Regardless, it's good that they got to see some history.

*Some good fortune occurred on the way out: a friendly staff member gave us 10 dollars worth of postcards once she saw that we could speak Korean. 

The museum sits next to the Gyeongpo lake and we walked down one side of it until we came to the famous Gyeongpo Beach. The rain had started picking up by this point, but no one seemed to notice or care until the downpour came 30 minutes later. We didn't think too much of the rain either. This trip marked my fourth time to the east coast and I was hell-bent on wading into the water. And I did. It felt to stand in the East Sea part off the Pacific Ocean. [Note: The East Sea is also known as the Sea of Japan. I grew up calling it the Sea of Japan, but the Koreans insist on calling it the East Sea]

Gyeongpo Beach on a rainy day. Note the people and the police tent in front.

 

The tents on the beach. Grab one while you can.

Monday: Again, more rain. We stayed in and watched movies while eating delicious barbecue chicken for takeout. Chicken joints are everywhere here and this was our first time getting takeout chicken. Got to start sometime, right?

Tuesday: The sun came out as we said our goodbyes to each other and to city. Rochelle went south to Ulsan to visit her cousin and I went west and then north to Wasu. It took took five hours to get from Gangneung to Seoul (via Dong Seoul) to Wasu counting stops and transfer time. The ride through Gangwon into Seoul was an endless wilderness of green forests, mountains, hills, and valleys. 

Wednesday: a national holiday. School begins again on Thursday.

*Gangneung to Dong Seoul Bus Terminal: 14,000won.

Dong Seoul to Wasu: 10,200won.

There'll be more coming soon...

Vacation Pt. 2: A Few Lessons Learned

The getaway's underway. Rochelle and I have learned some valuable lessons during our travels around this city and Korea thus far. They're included here along with a few other observations about our first two days here on the coast.

• Buses and assigned seats: Yes, people do care about them. You get assigned a seat whenever you ride on an express bus here. The bus seats are either in rows of one and two (one separate and two together) or two and two. Tickets seem to get assigned row by row until all the rows get taken up. I've never paid too much attention to my assigned seat number and have sat wherever I wanted to. No one had ever said anything about it all year until one of a group of four college-age girls approached Rochelle and I after we'd sat down. (Note: the driver had checked our tickets and hadn't said anything about us) Even though we knew we were technically in the wrong, we tried to explain that we sat together because we're a couple, but the girl insisted, so we ended up sitting apart from one another. The downside to this was we couldn't easily talk to each other during the ride, but it did allow us time to catch up on our music. Lesson learned: if traveling with one or more people, buy all of the tickets at once so you can sit together.

My Daejeon-Seoul bus ticket. Note the Korean and English writing. You can't play the "dumb foreigner" card with this one.


• Do not book motels with agoda.com: The site will charge your credit card before you arrive at the motel and it will charge you the first night's stay if you cancel the day of your arrival. They'll also will not refund any money if you check out early. We heard about this firsthand and our Korean buddy Young-hoon confirmed it too. He said that most Koreans don't like the site. I like booking.com and asiarooms.com because neither site deducts money up front; while they do ask for a credit card number to hold an accomodation, you do not actually pay any money until you show up to check in at wherever you're staying.
• Check your motel's location on the map. What looks close on the map isn't always so in reality. Then again, what looks to be in the middle of nowhere my still be accessible by bus. Again, something learned firsthand. I'd booked our motel, the Good Stay Motel Hill, because it had affordable rates and good amenities, but upon consulting the map, it looked like getting in and out of town would cost a fortune in taxi fare. Not true. We found that it's located 20 minutes outside of downtown Gangneung by bus and 10-15 minutes by taxi. Today we took a taxi in and rode a bus out.
• Good Stay Motel Hill basic room rate: 40,000won/night. Room includes refrigerator, computer (with Internet), TV, air conditioning, and a balcony. There's a water cooler and a microwave downstairs as well. Despite being outside of the downtown area, it is an excellent deal. The motels and hotels near the bus terminal cost 70 to 90,000won a night. By staying here, you may pay more money in cab fare (if you choose to forgo the buses), but you'll still come out ahead. Plus, you may get an ocean view.
• Study your Korean. Motel and hotel clerks may not know or speak much, if any English. The two older ladies running this place speak next to no English and we'd originally had some trouble with getting the details of our stay figured out. Young-hoon provided invaluable help over the phone.
• On a practical note, you may note, you need to study the phrase "There's a problem with ~" in case there's something wrong with your room. Having a digital camera around to take a picture of the problem can help immensely as well. This happened to me in Daejeon because the refrigerator in the room was leaking water onto the floor. The hotel clerk did know some English, but I took a photo with the iPad and showed it to him and he understood right away.
• Korea has excellent public transportation and taxi systems. This isn't so much a lesson as an observable fact. A nearby hospital with a taxi stand solved the taxi problem and we figured out the somewhat-confusing bus routes after studying them for a few minutes. And even though the schedules can get confusing, please note that Korea has excellent public transportation. This seemingly-remote motel's on more than one bus line and the buses run every 20-30 minutes. Fares are 770won (~75 cents) with a T-money card and 1,000won with cash .[Well, my T-money card had no money on it and the drive didn't object to the 1,000won bill I put in the box at least]
• You may end up with cab driver who can't read a map or think to use a GPS. The key word here is may. Every other cabbie I've known has known exactly where to go and how to get there, but yesterday's cabbie couldn't figure out who to get to our motel. I'd shown him the place's address in Korean and he had a GPS in the cab but he didn't use it. It didn't help that he spoke no English and I didn't know enough Korean to keep up with what we was saying. We drove to the tourist office to ask about directions, but it was closed because it was after 5 on Saturday. (Idea: keep tourist offices open on weekends because that's usally when tourists go traveling) The clerks in the nearby City Hall (somehow it was open) told him where to go. He eventually drove us there, but he missed the turn off and proceeded to miss the front entrance.
• As a side note, when we finally arrived, a patient from the home for mentally disabled next door was outside and ushered us inside. Rochelle and I both knew that we weren't in the hotel, but we'd also long ago learned that it's best to follow along with the Koreans. We walked inside to find more than eight patients eagerly wanting to meet us. Among them was an older white man who spoke English with a European accent. He did the standard Korean thing asked us where were from. Despite feeling overwhelmed, we greeted everyone amicably because they were all quite nice and then made our exit. We must've missed Nurse Ratched; she was nowhere in sight. Another observation: Korean zoning laws are nothing like they are in the US. You would never see a mental hospital next to a motel in the States.

The motel from the outside.

The view from our 6th floor balcony. You can see the East Side (aka the Sea of Japan) in the background. Yep, we've an ocean view.

Korean cultural lesson: Notice the lack of a 4th floor. Most Korean buildings do not have a 4th floor because the Sino-Korean word for four, sa is sounds like the Chinese word for death.

Next up: photos from Gangneung, including the Terarosa Coffee Factory and Gyeongpo Beach. Cheers!

June in review / Gangneung with Sunny... Pt. 2

Sunny’s wife cooked a delicious breakfast of doenjang jjigae* for us on Sunday and we lingered around the TV for a while before it came time to begin the day’s activities. We spent the afternoon at Ojukheon House, a place where Sin Saimdang and Yulgok lived. They are two famous historical figures. Sin Saimdang is known as the “Mother” of Korea and you can see her portrait on the 50,000 bill. Koreans remember her for her art, calligraphy and filial piety.

Yulgok himself was a prominent scholar and statesman during the Joseon Dynasty. You can see his picture

on the 5,000 won bill. Below you can see a picture of his biography that hangs on one of the house walls. As you can see, the House sits inside beautiful park land. There are trees, shrubs, and flowers everywhere. We  had a great time wandering around and looking inside the various buildings. Like most other historical sites in Korea, admission costs only 3,000 won (less than $3), which is quite reasonable given how much there is to see here.

That 3,000 won also grants you admission to the Gangneung Municipal Museum. It has muted lighting and has large airy exhibits that are filled with artifacts from the past. It’s a marvel at how far Korea has come in the past hundred years. I know that I could say the same thing about the USA, but Korea’s made quantum leaps in housing and infrastructure since then. On one wall, you can see a picture of Gangneung in the early 1900s—a big collection of huts and houses along the ocean shore. The city is the 3^rd largest in Gangwon-do now.

Some pictures of the grounds.

This picture’s for Dick in Wisconsin. I saw these pipes and tobacco accessories and thought about when we used to smoke cigars and pipes together.

This picture’s for Kara because I thought you might like the clothes that Koreans used to wear. Check out the shoes, too.

For Drew (Kara’s husband) and all of my fellow hardware nuts: check out the old saws and squares. Carpentry’s an enduring interest of mine, so seeing this stuff brought back memories of miter boxes and high school woodworking classes.

For Mom: here’s a traditional kitchen. Note the big cooking pots.

Here’s me inside an archway.

This is the fabled “Mother of Korea”

Here's Yulgok.

Here’s the 5,000 won bill.

Here’s the 50,000 won bill.

Korea: where the new collides with the old in strange ways.

More information here…

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264191

*Doenjang jjigae (된장 찌개)

http://www.beyondkimchee.com/doenjang-jjigae/

Expect more information about various Korean dishes in the future because it’s occurred to me that I haven’t written much about the delicious food here. Perhaps you’re wondering what I’ve been eating all of this time and if I’m surviving. Perhaps you’re wondering how it compares to Chinese and Japanese food. What do you want to know? I can tell you that I eat Korean food every day and I love it.

I love it so much that I hardly miss Western food. Sure, there’s the lack of Silk soy milk and granola, but as for the old mainstays of soups and sandwiches, they’re not missed. Sure, they taste good, but kimbap, jjajang, and other foods have taken over now. 

June in Review / Gangneung with Sunny and his family, Pt. 1

A journey into the past world of records and audio equipment.

June got capped off with an excellent weekend on the east coast city of Gangneung. My colleague Sunny the math teacher invited me to spend the weekend there with him and his family. Like many of the Korean teachers here, Sunny stays in Wasu while his family lives in another town. He sees them on weekends. I felt honored that he'd take this time to have me come and visit. We had a great time.


The rainy season's begun here, so it rained all the way from Wasu to the outskirts of Gangneung. It wasn't raining in the city at least. This occasion marked the third time I've been on the east coast of the country. The first trip happened when a co-teacher and I drove to Yangyang for a teachers conference and the second time was a teachers overnight trip to Sokcho before Christmas.

Sunny and I left Wasu in the morning and arrived in the mid-afternoon. We stopped for a delicious lunch of galbi tang in Chuncheon on the way. We met his lovely wife and cute daughter at their apartment and took off for the nearby Charmsori Gramophone Museum and Edison Science Museum. He said he'd been here once as a high school student and had enjoyed it. Indeed! I was geeking out left and right as we went from room to room here. Over 100 years of audio equipment stands inside those museum's walls and it was a real treat to see the hi-fis of yore. Our guide played us tin foil recordings, music boxes, and in one excellent instance, a 78 of Glen Miller's Orchestra doing "In The Mood." This place had everything from wax cylinders to DVD players. They had plenty of reel-to-reel tape decks and those kitschy 8-track pod players from the '70s as well. The 8-tracks were especially fun to see in person. I've still yet to hear an 8-track in all its glory live though. No matter--the 78s and the music boxes were more than enough to fuel my inner music and history geek. 

In front of the Charmsori Gramophone Museum. It is attached to the Edison Science Museum. Fellow audiophiles will love this place. It has rooms full of gramophones, record players, music boxes, and audio equipment. Fantastic collection! 

Among the many gramophones there.