Week 4 - South Korea

Anneong Haseyo,

The past week in South Korea has been very cool and surprising in many ways. When travelling here we expected Korea would be very advanced, possibly like a junior-japan; this was far from the truth! The country is very very cheap - besides accommodation which is high compared to everything else - some examples, a 2 hour bus costs about $6, our dinner tonight with a large beer to share was about $9. Most museums are free, if they aren't they usually are about $1 to enter.

I guess when you go from the cleanest country in the world, the next normal place seems very dirty - its probably on par with Thailand as far as cleanliness.

Generally the standard of living doesn't seem too high, probably again, pretty similar to Thailand.

Crime- There is a freakishly low crime rate, I think the cultural part of not shaming your family goes a long way. Given this is the case, we tried our luck hitchhiking - its hilarious, if you stop a car (many will stop to help give a ride) and they are going a different way, you will likely have another car before that one leaves - this happened to us. In Korea the buses in rural areas are about every hour so its pretty simple, safe and easy to hitchhike. We did so many times so far and some people even feed you when you get in the car. They are always trying to feed you - even if you are a stranger - so much for losing pounds in Korea...

Whilst on the topic of food - Korean food isn't anything to write home about. KimChee is decent, but you get it at every meal, I mean every meal -even breakfast. The best food we have had so far is Korean BBQ - where you cook the meat on the table in front of you - usually pork. Very good especially with a Hite Beer.

The trip so far: Busan -Gyeongju - Andong - Danyang - Cheongju

Sunday (Busan) - We arrived into Busan at 8pm from Japan and were looking forward to tackling our next country. Instantly we were very excited to know that Korea has a bar scene - well at least Busan does. And we were staying in a great area to go out. Its easy to tell there is a strong American influence in Korea. We went out to an American style bar (expect this is normal for Koreans and was void of any westerners). So nice to have a few beers and play darts.

Monday (Hae-undae Beach) - We started the day seeing temples with our new friend Lucas that we met on the way to Busan. Later in the day we stopped by Korea's most famous beach. Within 60 seconds I knew this was the worst beach I had ever seen in my life. Now I don't mind the crowds, having lived in London and New York, I enjoy being around a lot of people, but not this. It was lined with umbrellas which are 1 inch apart and the water was so packed that you can't even extend your arms - besides being able to swim (oh, and you can only go about 25 feet off shore). There were probably 200,000-300,000 people on this beach which was about a mile long. And this was not some big cool party with beach volleyball, this was just not cool. So we left and decided to save beach time for another location in Korea. Funny, this was 5pm on a Monday - on the weekends I hear there is up to 500,000 people.

Hae-undae Beach - no thanks!!

Tuesday (Korean Pyramids) - Tuesday morning we made our way to Gyeongju which is dubbed the cultural centre of Korea. The place was very amazing - we started by seeing the tombs of the ancient kings which are in parks and are huge mounds of ground and covered in grass - they buried them underground in order to hide them and they are massive. Not as big as Egypt's, but big ones are probably 20 meters tall and 30 meters wide. That night was watched a free concerts with some famous Korean bands playing. It was pretty funny, but we enjoyed it with a few beers.

Wednesday - (Hitchhiking between temples) - Marina was the brave one and we quickly learned that Koreans are very friends to foreigners when they need a lift. It rarely took long if we needed a ride. We ended the day at the beach where the sea tomb or King Munmu who united Korea. We ran into some Korean Marines and they forced us to eat lots of food and drink with them. Great hospitality and a lot of fun.

Thursday - (Soju museum) There is one famous drink in Korea - Soju! They love it and drink it religiously at dinner. You will always see a few bottles at each table. Soju is kind of like vodka and comes in a 375ml bottle (about half a wine bottle). They have a very civilised tradition - you never pour your own drink. So that day we went to the Soju museum in Andong. This was a stop over city on our way to Danyang.

Friday - (Rafting) Danyang is a great place for outdoor activities and is centered between a few national parks. During our 3 days in Danyang we did not see one westerner so we were off the beaten path. As it was raining we bailed on climbing and went rafting. During August the rains come and go. We rafted with a bunch of Koreans and had a great time going down the river - pushing Marina in the river every time she wasn't looking. :D

Saturday (Mt Birobong). In Sobaeksan national park, the biggest mountain is Mt Birobong standing 1439meters (approx 5,000 feet). We woke early Saturday morning after a heavy night of Soju drinking to go climb the mountain. What a great climb, but the legs are aching now! We hiked about 7km up the mountain and another 7km back (about 9 miles total and completed it in 4 hours and 45 minutes) at the end we were running down as we wanted to get the bus... (an hour to the next one)... We then made our way to Cheongju where we are now....

Next is the Presidential palace outside Cheongju and then to Dachean Beach for some sun and possibly scuba diving.

Anneong Guyseyo,

Dan and Marina