Namhae Weekender Trip and Buddha's Birthday: Part 2

Alright, I promised the Temple visit and the rice terraces were coming up next so here we are. I felt surprisingly well rested when I woke up Sunday morning and definitely ready for walking around and looking at some beautiful scenery. First we visited Geumsan Boriam Temple which is high in the mountains of Namhae island. To me it seemed like the classic mountain temple people associate with China or really any Asian country, although of course the architecture and scenery are quite different depending where you are. 

The walk to get up to the temple was a long one, since there were so many people visiting it for Buddha's birthday weekend there were tons of cars. Our driver finally gave up driving us all the way to the top and dropped us off a little further from the shuttle maybe 1 km or so, it wasn't a long walk up or anything. Once you got the the main parking area you have to take a shuttle to the trail and walk the rest of the way. This didn't take long, not even an hour. We walked the rest of the way up to the temple. By this time it was getting hot so it was a little tiring and it was all up hill.. 

The temple was nestled into the mountain side with amazing views going all the way out to the ocean. You could see rolling hills, then after that, islands as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect, clear day for a good view of the island as well. You could also see one of the islands many small towns spread out in the bay below. The temple was really busy with people coming to pray. There was a constantly line into the temples of people praying as well as outside in front of the main large buddha statue. 

The atmosphere was nice though. Korean's tend to behave more touristy than western's do in their own country. Korea is so much small too, so it's easier to travel around to different cities. We also tried sticking a coin to the rocks. Apparently you were supposed to lick a coin then hold it to the rock while saying a pray, if the coin stuck to the rock then your prayer would be answered, but if it fell off then you were out of luck. My friend had no luck the first time we attempted it, but later I found a larger rock with a bumper surface. The trick is to stick the coin along a little ridge on the rock's side so it balances there and doesn't fall off. It worked well so lucky me my pray was answered, although I have to wonder if the work is still there... 

The temple was pretty similar to most temples I've seen now, you can see all the photos of it in my Namhae album. After the temple we went back down the mountain and caught the shuttle back. We had to wait for a bit for everyone to get down, but then finally we were off to the rice terraces. They were beautiful. It was a whole area, right by the ocean, with old terrace's going right down to the sea. It took us awhile to get down to the bottom. We ended up stopping for lunch, twice. 

There were restaurants dotted along the path down. The first place we tried looked promising, it was busy and had the cold noodles we'd been craving (or at least I had been). We grabbed a table and set about translating the menu (it wasn't in English). There were a few things we could read, but most of it were words we didn't know. My friend went over and grabbed us some water, then went to the counter to order. She came back a couple minutes later looking confused. The owner had ignored her. She tried to order in Korean and he had just moved onto the next person. Confused, she let them go ahead of her and then finally came back to the table when she heard he speaking about her in Korean (although she couldn't understand everything he said). 

Shortly after this happened, as we discussed what to do, another girl from our tour bus came over wondering if the owner had served us. We said that he hadn't and she said her friends and her had experienced similar discrimination. After a second attempt to order food we finally left, leaving our used water glasses and water jug on the table. Unfortunately this is a thing that happens in Korea to foreigners from time to time. This is the first time I experienced direct discrimination of this kind from an establishment in Korea. It is not the norm, usually people are friendly and helpful, usually they want you to eat in their restaurant and help you order and often they will give you service (pronounced more like serbisue) which means they give you free stuff such as a free drink or side dish or extra portion (this is a really common practice in Korea. It's just to show they appreciate your business and hope you return). It also seemed really strange to mean that they wouldn't serve foreigners in what was clearly a popular tourist destination. That has to be a huge loss for their business especially consider a foreign patron or even a Korean one could see that behaviour and go online and complain about it (like me!). 

After the disappointing experience at the first restaurant we went across the path to a different restaurant who I'm happy to say were more than happy to serve us and a bunch of other foreigners who were already eating there. The place was much better and well I can't say if the food was better than the first place (since I never ate any of there food) I like to think that it was better. I ended up ordering bibimbap which just means 'mixed rice' it is a dish pretty much synonymous with South Korea. Usually bibimbap has a variety of vegetables, rice and a sauce, sometimes some meat as well. The one I got at this restaurant was nothing like that. It had four kinds of seaweed in the bowl and the rice was on the side. In the centre of the seaweed was some soft, creamy, orangy-yellow stuff. I had never seen anything like it. Great, mystery seafood. I do admit, it looked pretty intimidating and perhaps at another time in my life, when I was less hungry and hadn't been exposed to many strange new things over the matter of months I may have not ate it, or picked at it delicately. 

This was not that time. I was starving by this point, having barely eaten anything since that morning (okay, maybe starving is too strong, but you get the idea) so I dumped the rice in and gave it a good mix around and dove right in. It was pretty tasty, generally I like seaweed, given the taste isn't too strong and fishy (but honestly, I've mostly gotten past that) and the texture isn't too strange (mostly gotten past that too) this was neither and the mushy, creamy sea creature in the middle seemed to make a nice, mild, sauce for the bibimbap. It was pretty tasty after all. I felt fairly proud I'd conquered such unusually dish and enjoyed it too. 

A couple weeks later I was sitting at a bar with a group of Korean's and foreigners, we were talking about strange foods or something and I told them about my bibimbap on Namhae. I described the mystery seafood in the middle and immediately they knew what it was. At first it was fish eggs and I said, no it was that, I've had those lots of times, they're not like this. Then one of the them said it was a sea egg which just confused me... what exactly was a sea egg? By this point, I started to get an inkling of where they were going. I thought about it for a half a second, remembering the soft orangey-yellow colour and the creamy texture... I'd seen that before somewhere on Tv... yes... on a japanese cooking show. Sea urchin! I exclaimed, they looked confused but we managed to translate it and it was indeed sea urchin. It was one of those things I could see older and less adventurous family members cringing in shock at and I do admit the first time I heard Sea Urchin was a popular delicacy I was surprised and kinda grossed out. 

The sea urchin I had was definitely not gross, nor was it surprising to find in a coast town in a country where they aren't afraid to use every bit of everything edible, something in North America we don't tend to do. 

After this adventure we headed back to our beach and the camp site to relax on the beach. There is another cool feature of Korea society that came in handy for us. We kinda forgot about getting dinner and it was getting kinda late. I Korea you can do this magical thing were you can order take out the beach. It was very nifty. We had  Korean girl with our group so she called them just and ordered us a bunch of Chinese food and then we waited and they brought us delicious foods, right to our spot on the beach. A guy showed up on a scooter, with his giant carry case on the back and brought us dinner. Magic, now that is something I could get used to. 

The next day, and our last day on Namhae, we spent the day at the beach exclusively. It was beautiful and warm and sunny. There was one thing that was less beautiful though, the beach covered in garbage from the previous nights festivities. Not from us, I hope. I know I had been very care to gather up all my garbage before I headed back to my hostel. No, there were tons of people on the beach and people had had fires the night before so of course we'd spent some time hanging out and drinking around the bonfires, it's like a beach tradition or something (at least in north america it is). So we spent our first hours on the beach cleaning up garbage. 

After cleaning I was hungry and went and got food with another girl in our group. After we ate it was time to go kayaking, paddling boarding, snorkling or whatever else our hearts desired. I ended up going kayaking with Julianne until we saw the banana boat go by, which was basically a long banana shaped blowup tube being pulled behind a seado. Well we decided we had to try that. We got back in just as another group was about to go out, but what was this? They happened to need two more people before they could go? Perfect! It was really awesome and fast and there was lots of leaning involved so we didn't capsize. 

After that, snorkelling, then packing up the rest of the camping gear and finally we headed back to the bus and rode back to Changwon and Busan. It was a really great, early summer weekend trip. I would definitely do it again in a heart beat. I do hope to go back to Namhae for another weekend trip. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and I loved the atmosphere of the group. 

Don't worry, more adventures to come, next I'll probably write a little about MERS so you guys don't have to worry and I can tell you all what a strange experience it is. So until next time! 

Jinhae Gunhangje Festival (진해군항제)

The Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival is world famous, and trust me there is a reason for that. My pictures do not do Jinhae justice at all. There were trees everywhere and they looked amazing.

We had decided the festival was a must to attend and it was definitely the right decision. We left early from Changwon (also a good decision) because we were (rightfully) worried the traffic would be bad. When we got to Jinhae we got off the bus a little before the downtown area on the top of a hill. You could see Jinhae stretching out before you dotted with beautiful pink blossoms poking up between the green trees and the sea in the distance framed by the land nicely (refer to my photos). It was breathtaking. I immediately took a hundred pictures (okay, not that many but I took a bunch). I was really surprised by how many cherry blossoms there were. Everywhere you looked you could see them poking up from between the green trees. All over the hills, down the road and stretching right to the ocean. I hadn't known their would be that many cherry blossoms.

We walk down to the festival and took pictures the entire time. The day was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. My friends had bugged me about wearing my coat and scar and they both came off as soon as I got off the bus. It was warm for the morning too. A perfect day. Finally we reached the famous stream and main festival area. If you google Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival you will see a pictures of the stream. It's got walkways going down both sides, then a bank down and more walk ways along the bottom. It was very green and fresh looking. There are spots were you can cross it on a stone path. The part that makes it really spectacular are the cherry trees lining the top of the bank on both sides so you're walking right under them. It would be beautiful even when they aren't in bloom.

There were also tons of people, even though it was still before 12 pm. There were also lots of food carts lining the street beside the stream making it feel even more crowded. It was impossible not to get a person in your photos everyone was there to admire the blossoms. We walked down the stream, ate some snacks and just enjoyed ourselves. It was really nice, although by the time we got to the bottom we were all starting to get sick of all the people as the crowd was getting bigger the further we went. Finally we went to a cute little park with some really interesting art work and a cute tree fort/platform thing made of large branches (again, see my photos). Another friend who lives in Jinhae met up with us and we decided to go eat lunch. We went to a popular Chinese restaurant and had jjajangmnyeon a popular chinese-korean noodle dish. I also got some dumplings with Lori and they were really yummy and crispy, not like ones I've had before.

After lunch Min had to go to schools so the rest of us walked down to the navy base which was open for the festival. It also had lots of cherry blossoms and was huge. It's very easy to forget sometimes that South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea. There were tons of people at the base to check it out and the option to bus down to the boats and water, but we decided to walk once we saw the line for the bus.

I need to interject here about something. All week at work my coworker told me how I shouldn't go to the festival because it would be sooooo busy and that if it rained all the blossoms would fall off the tree (it did rain and have a little wind storm thursday, but the blossoms were still intact Saturday). She also warned me it would rain... I didn't really believe her that morning, but I checked the weather anyway and sure enough they were predicting rain in the afternoon so I took an umbrella just to be safe... when I got to Jinhae the prediction of rain sounded ridiculous... there wasn't a cloud in the sky. While by the time we got out of the restaurant and started walking down to the navel base there were a few clouds around.

We got down to the ocean and saw that you could go on one of the ships and there was a war memorial set up on the pier (landing strip? Not sure what you call it). There were even a few pictures of Canadian soldiers helping out during the Korean war (or at least we presumed they were Canadian's because there was a Canadian flag). When we realized we could line up to go on the boat for no cost we immediately did. And then I felt it, the first of the raindrops. It was just a little sprinkle then... barely a sprinkle even. I just felt a tiny cold spot on my face or a hand a clear indication it has started raining.

By the time we reached the top deck of the ship it was full on raining. We had really good timing though because they had a little air show just after we got up there. It was cool to feel closers to the planes like that and I hadn't seen an air show in a long time. Unfortunately only two of us brought umbrella's so we were all trying to huddle under the two of them... or some of us anyway.

Since the rain started we decided it was time to go. We started back up the navel base kinda taking our time since the rain was a little off and on. It actually stopped by the time we got back into Jinhae so we were less worried about it at that point. When we got back we attempted to find a bus stop because our plan was to bus home... apparently this was a bad plan. First off, there was an insane amount of traffic everywhere and also a lot of the streets were closed because of the festival. They were using some of the streets as parking and other streets were set up as a market so you couldn't drive down them. We quickly realized all the buses at the stop we were at said 'delayed' so there wasn't much chance of getting a bus there. Instead we decided to walk further up the road, away from the festival to see if we could catch a bus there instead (there were also lots of people at that bus stop).

It wasn't any better. The rain started when we were walking up. First gentle, then it was pouring and we tried to huddle under umbrella's. I gave up pretty quickly it didn't matter which way you went about it there were only two umbrella's and 7 of us so at least 3-5 people were going to get wet. Unfortunately this is not the worst of the afternoon, oh no. It got worse than this.

I think it was around 3:30-4 when we first start attempted to leave Jinhae. We could see the traffic was bad and there were tons of people at all the bus stops. We eventually came to one where we thought we could catch the bus, unfortunately everyone else had the same thought and it was really busy.  The good thing about this bus stop was the gas station beside it so everyone who didn't fit into the bus shelter just stood under the gas station awing. We had high hopes for this bus and planned to dash for it when we saw it turning the corner.

When the bus finally came you could see it was already pretty packed, the windows were steamy and there was definitely a large number of bodies visible. We dashed for the bus anyway, feeling hopeful (or maybe that was just me) and everyone else at the bus stop dashed too. People getting on the bus in Korea is already a little rougher than I'm used to. Korean's do not worry about pushing you, bumping into you and cutting in front of you. Well now imagine that people are stuck in the rain, there only hope to get back to Changwon is this bus and who knows when the next bus will show up, so to say the least it was a little aggressive. You definitely had to be forceful to get on that bus. I attempted at first but when i saw how full in was and how many people were literally hanging off the entrance to the bus attempting to pull themselves on I gave up. Even if I could get into the bus there was no guarantee the bus drive would even let me stay on.  I am happy to say one of our group was aggressive enough to get her way onto the bus. The last I saw of Lori that day was her green jacket getting shoved down the bus by someone else shoving their way on.

The rest of us were abandoned in Jinhae. In a thunderstorm, no less. Oh I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Not only did it start raining, but there was thunder and lightening and then showers. It was unpleasant to be in no matter how positive you attempted to be. I kept trying to cheer Julianne up because she wore a really thin jack, didn't bring and umbrella and got soaked to the bone...well honestly I think we were all soak at this point. Finally I pointed out there was no reason to stand in the thunderstorm and wait for a bus we had no idea when would come and be cold and miserable.

We decided to find a coffee shop or restaurant to sit it. For some reason the part of Jinhae seeemed to be lacking in coffee shops. I'm not sure how this is possible because there are soooo many coffee shops in Korea and you're usually not 5 minutes away from one. Finally we found a Japanese Soba restaurant and one of the girls, Mina, went to check it out.

Oh, I should also mention three of Michael's students were with us for English practice. I think they had quite the experience with the rain and we joked that it was a bonding experience for us which somehow made me feel better.

Of course the restaurant was super busy, but luckily when we walked in a table cleared. It was very steamy inside. Both from the food (mostly noodles and dumplings) and from the damp people. We got warm soba noodles which were perfect for the rain day and some dumplings (Julianne got chicken katsu and then I proceed to eat all her fruit side dishes).

We attempted to dry off in the restaurant but it was hard because there wasn't anywhere to put our wet outerwear to dry it. I think I felt a little drier after, but not that much. After we ate we debated what to do about the buses. We decided to try another bus stop (which had almost as many people and the buses were still super full).

There was an awkward moment at the bus stop where we got confused and attempted to catch a bus we thought went to Changwon, but every time we asked the bus drive they said Changwon, no and we couldn't figure it out until we realized we were trying to catch it on the wrong side of the street.

After this and seeing the bus we had been trying to catch all afternoon go by full again we came up with a new strategy which was this. We would cross the street and catch the emptier bus going into Jinhae, catch it to the end of the line and then just stay on the bus and go back around to Changwon, a long trip, but it was our only option. And yes, we did consider a taxi but they were all full. They kept coming up to the gas station when we were there (earlier) and the owner was checking, but every drive said they were full.

Things were a bit chaotic so when the bus we wanted to catch came we got on, but the Korean students didn't understand what we were doing and they check where the bus was going and then said we had the wrong bus, wrongfully trusting them (although they were right in all other cases) we got off the bus... then realized what had happened and had to wait for the next bus, which luckily (and amazingly) came right away.

Finally on a bus going the right way we were so realized. We actually had seats and everything. It was great. I think after we got out of the restaurant it was around 6:30-7 (forgive me if this time line is painfully off. I can't remember what it was exactly).  We catch the bus to the end of the line without a hitch. While on the bus Michael re-checked the buses and he realized we could catch a different bus back to Changwon rather than the one we were on. So we would by pass the craziness that was the cherry blossom festival (and yes, traffic was still bad at this point).

So we finally got off the bus and had a little confusion about were we should catch the other bus, and also were a little disappointed because we saw the bus we wanted as we were pulling into the bus stop, but then it was gone when we got off our bus. Although my rational mind knew this was a sound plan, I have to admit I was a little worried because what if the bus we wanted didn't show up for another hour and we were stuck in the rain, or what if it never came to the stop or what if it had stopped running? I think at this point getting home was almost seeming too good too be true. I should also mention we were sort of out in the sticks. There was not much around us, just a convenience store and a few other random buildings. I think one was a restaurant.

But I had nothing to fear, the bus showed up pretty soon after we got there and we were some of the first people on the bus. It also seemed like the rain was clearing up while we were at the bus stop it stopped had almost stopped raining. On the bus ride back the bus got really full so we were all happy to get on at the first stop. During the drive back there was a loud explosions sound, apparently more thunder, but it sounded closer and louder than any thunder I've heard (at least in many years) and it I thought it was fireworks near by until I remembered the rain and saw some lightening.

I'm pretty sure we didn't arrive back in Changwon until 10 or 10:30. I honestly can't remember the time. The only thing I wanted to do was change, have a long, hot shower; then drink tea and lay in bed. Julianne and I fantasied about this the whole time we were trying to get home haha.

The day was long and the afternoon was definitely an adventure, we took soo many buses to get home and it took way longer than the 15-30 minutes it should usually take (I'm guestimating here I've only been to Jinhae once before). I'd say the cherry blossoms alone were worth it, but I definitely think I would catch the train back or stay the night in Jinhae next time. It's was sooo crazy. Also, because I've now been to the main part of the festival I think I would just skip it any maybe go durning the week or on a less busy weekend and enjoy the trees, although they only have limited blooming time.

Anyway, it was an adventure worth having and I definitely felt like the group bonded because of it, also I will remember it for a long time.

So that was my latest adventure. I have much more that happened recently I want to write about but right now I'm late for dinner with my friend so I'll save it for next time!!