FIRST MONTH OF TRAVEL

My spelling is horrible, I know so no need to comment on it!!!! :)

In a month I feel that so much can be done in terms of travelling in Korea while teaching english. I had my head screwed on straight for the first time, my mind was set on making the most of my stay. The end of my first week ended up being amazing! I got to rock the slopes of Yongpeong Resort for free with my school and they even paid for Giuli to join us on the Satarday session. Its the Olympic resort for the PeongChang 2018 bid.
                                                                                                                  

               

The first Satarday after a morning of snowboarding Giuli and I met up with friends that we had made at EPIK orientation. Sally and Craig. They are both from the UK and have that accent that no person can hate! Craig was also "placed in the sticks" and had to commute into Gangneung to see Sally who he is dating. Needless to say the city was the place we wanted to be and we arranged to stay with Sally and go out for the night.

When we arrived we were told by Sally, "we meeting the others later, they just busy pre drinking". HA HA HA HA Rhodes is never that far away, even when you on the other side of the planet. So we did a bit of pre drinking ourselves where I was able to smash quail egg for the first time.

That night we met up with the others for supper. We had duck which was another first for me. In Korea they have this method of cooking where they put a braai on the middle of the table and make you cook the food. Its so smart actually, reduces the amount of kitchen staff you have to pay.

This is a picture of Lilli and Craig

This is Sally and Giuli

This is the rest of the duck smashing crew

We managed to drink alot at this stage of the night and things seemed to go pear shapd from here. We ended up at a bar where it was all english teachers and not one person that I remember was in much of a good state. I even met up with Rudyard Yee, the guy I was replacing at Hoenggye. I always said that when I travel, I dont want to be the guy spending all his money on booze and not travelling, I loved my weekend but I was feeling a bit giulty about wasting so much money on booze. That being said, it was an awsome weekend with everyone and I wouldent change it for the world.

The next weekend we decided to go to Seoul and meet up with Tracy, Al and Ryan (Belgium). These are friends of ours from South Africa. We got there super late and I was determined to smoke a hubly bubly and eat good food! Seoul is not for the faint hearted, it is confusing and busy! We ended up going into town and having sangiepsal for supper which is the whole braai method with pork. You cook the meat and wrap it in lettuce  with all sorts of other goodies. Its really NICE and is one of my favourites in Korea.

After the supper, we had already piled into soju, the liquid of death and we went in search of a hubly bar. We ended up finding one and it was called RIAANS pub which sounds so South African it was scary! We then decided to go and see K-pop bands which is all the rage in Korea. I must say that I can definately appreciate the dancing and the music but its no Jack Johnson or Donovan.

The next morning I was hungry again believe it or not and I decided to try something completely different and new. I had exactly what I had the night before because its what I knew and loved and why change a good thing.

We went shopping for the day and im not going to dwell on that. We went for dinner at a Korean fast food place and had a pork cutlet and like a sushi thing which is actually good too. By this time we were joined by Tracy. 

We went from supper to a pub, from a pub to bowling and from bowling to a noribang. This is the typic weekend in the city. It was great fun catching up with old friends. We stayed at Als place and the conversations in the morning were always amazing!

The thing with the city is that there is not much to do desides party. Giuli and I decided that we definately needed to get out a bit more and see nature. So over the next two weekends, thats exactly what we did. We went to Odaesan and Soracsan National Park.

For our trip to Odaesan National Park Ryan joined us. We visited three temples, besides being surrounded by the natural beauty of the area. The first temple was called Woljeongsa Temple which is very touristy but still amazing. I ended up being so in the moment that I spent so much money on insence! Talk about spiritual!

We decided to go further into the mountains and visit Sangwonsa temple which was actually so far away. It was here that I decided to make an offering of insence (actually I just thaught it would be cool to light insence in the temple). The old lady who looked after the temple decided to give us food for no reason, this was such a  strange and new experience. It was here that we came across a bell that was made in 800. WOW that is so old!!

We decided to go on a hike which took us much further up the mountain. We came across Jeongmyeolbogoong shrine. This was truly a place of absolute silence and even I felt so taken aback by its absolute beauty. It was so incredible to be in such a spiritual place and to be so alone in the mountains.

The next weekend we went to Soracsan National Park which is close to the city of Sokcho. The park was expensive due to all the tourists but it was worth every cent. We first took a cable car up a nearby mountain and once at the stop, we hiked to the very top of the mountain. This was not a tiring hike but, even if it was, it would have been worth it! it was so beautiful! Ill let the pictures do the talking.

Next up for the day was a hike to a rock that we had to try and push over. We had no idea how far it was but we just did it anyway. It ended up being about a 10km hike and was super tiring. Im keen to hike all the way up the mountain the next time I go there. From the boulder you can hike to the top of a mountain that is capped by a giant granite dome. This was really amazing to look at and the closer we got, the more I wanted to hike to the top. The photo of Giuli is infront of a shrine that is built under a massive rocky outcrop at the end of our hike.

This was the first weekend away trip that Giuli and I stayed in a hotel. The hotel was convniently located close to a hole in one pub which is basically a place where the ladies of the night hang out. I wonder what our hotel is used for?? We stayed in Sokcho where we wondered around the next day as well. We came across an Italian restuarant which had Giuli and I (more Giuli) so happy! The scenary at the harbour was amazing and it was great just wondering around and not knowing where to go or what to do.