Re-discovering the local hood

Although we've been here for 3 months, a lack of English info means that we are having to rely on wandering to discover what is in our local area. On a recent walk we were amazed to find a hillside of corn, pear trees, chillis and countless other crops growing in small market gardens. Apparently you can lease small plots of land to grow your own fruit and vegetables. A walk through this area feels a million miles from the city.

Some assistant farmers

Feels a long way from the rows of apartments just down the road

Walking through the pear trees and corn

The other find was a new park that has opened behind the local council building. There is a great mosaic wall and waterfall, plus the obligitory exercise equipment.

Mosaic wall

Part of the mosaic - stacking kimchi pots

A father and son check out the waterfall

Mel pumping some iron with the local gym junkies

Dolsando and Yeosu

With the assistance of Annette (one of our Korean co-teachers) we booked accommodation in Yeosu for our long weekend. We had tried to book by ourselves, but our lack of Korean and their lack of English resulted in us being hung up on every time. We found the place in our trusty Lonely Planet, selecting an inn/restaurant that sounded like it was a little out of the city centre, as that was the point in leaving Seoul. Yeosu was still a city the size of Newcastle after all.

We arrived in Yeosu after a cheap and comfortable train journey through Korea's vertical core- much of which was covered in mist-covered mountains and bright green rice paddies.

View of rice paddies from our train window

To our surprise, the inn that we had booked into was actually 45mins out of Yeosu- on an island that joined the city by suspension bridge- one of the prides of the city. We were actually staying in a quaint little fishing/tourist village, with a resident population of only a few hundred people.

The seaside village of Hyang-il-am

Silhouettes of Dolando's ("do"=island) coastline

Gazing of into the eastern sea from a local Buddhist temple, waiting hopelessly for a glimpse of sunrise through the grey haze - no luck

The rather rustic Hwangtobang Inn/Restaurant (A$50/night)

We ate dinner at our Inn on both nights- our loyalty gaining us bonus taste-tests of local delicacies (including shell fish) on the second night. Our favourite was haemul tang (a fish hotpot with three whole fish, green vegies and a light salty broth), which we ate with many of the usual condiments, but also the local specialty of mustard leaf kimchi- that actually tasted a bit like vegemite!

Haemul tang and "vegemite" kimchi

On our last day we headed back into Yeosu and wandered around the harbourside area where we encountered the local fishmarket and a ship wrecking yard.

Yeosu dock area

Yeosu and its working harbour

Eel for sale

Ship wrecking

Green tea at Boseong

For our second long weekend in Korea we ventured to the far south, to Jeollanam-do province. We were keen for time away from the big smoke and to see what the south coast had to offer. With the size of Korea and the excellent rail system, we traversed the country north to south in 5.5 hours and escaped, what we later found out to be, torrential rainfall in Seoul (245mm/day).

One of the main reasons for choosing our destination was the green tea fields of Boseong. We took a day-trip here from our guesthouse in Yeosu and, with hundreds of Korean tourists, wandered through the lush green fields of tea. The fields were a magnificent sight, perched on hills shrouded by low lying cloud and surrounded by pine trees.

Korean's are addicted to all that is green tea. While in Boseong we ate pork that had been raised on green tea, and since being in Korea we have spotted green tea- muffins, chocolate, bread, latte... and my absolute favourite, pizza bases! And that doesn't even touch on all the beauty products that are based on this green wonder substance.

Here are some of our snaps from our time in Boseong.

Rolling hills of tea amongst pine forest

Someone always offers to take our picture!

Tea, tea and more tea.. people, people and more people!

Lush and green, so different to an Aussie summer

The case of the Blind Masseurs

To my surprise, a Korean news story popped up while I was listening to an Aussie radio podcast the other day. It was about blind masseurs, a group that have, until now, had the exclusive legal right to work in this field.

Apparently, this employment situation was introduced during the Japanese colonial period to provide employment for a group that is often discriminated against in employment in Korea- discrimination that some consider to be entrenched in Eastern ideology that believes disabled persons are being punished for wrongs of past lives.

However, this will soon change following a recent Constitutional Court ruling which held that all persons should be free to be masseurs. This has been followed by continual protests by the blind community, who feel that their employment opportunities will be drastically diminished. Apparently, although some positive discrimination laws exists to ensure employment of disadvantaged individuals, many employers would rather pay the fines associated with non-compliance than participate.

Unfortunately, these protests have already lead to suicide attempts and hunger strikes.

For a rainy day

Seoul is most definitely in the monsoon now, and here is one way we've managed to keep occupied when the rain keeps us inside. This game is very frustrating!

Gyroball Navigate your gyroball to the glowing goal of each level.

Play this free game now!!

Fountains, four ball... and, of course, food

Our last full day with the Dunsters was a flurry of activity as we tried to cram in as many Seoul sites and experiences as we could. We wandered the grounds of Olympic park and Changdeokgung (both now much greener than our previous visits thanks to the summer rain), attended a Nanta (percussion and food-based musical) performance, dined on samgyoepsal (bbq pork) and played a game of Korean four ball.

It was one of the most humid days we'd had to date- Maddi and Jordy found some relieve in the fountains of Olympic park.

Maddi and Jordy

Not sure these Korean kids have managed (or even tried!) to avoid any of the water

Sam and Debbie at Changdeokgung Palace

Me and Maddi at our samgyoepsal restaurant

Jordy masters Korean four ball - you have four balls, no pockets and lose and gain points according to the order in which you hit the balls off each other. Bruce was the champion player this night.

Dobongsan with the Dunsters

Debbie (Trent's sister) and Bruce and their kids Sam, Jordy and Maddi arrived in Seoul early Saturday morning and have been on the go ever since. Saturday we walked the city streets of inner-Seoul and swam with and against the flow of thousands of people at COEX mall. As a point of contrast, on Sunday, we took to the hills and climbed one of Dobongsan's (Dobong-mountain) many rocky peaks. Unfortunately, the summer haze combined with the discharges of a modern city made the view of Seoul poor, however, the view of the granite peaks and lush green foliage made for a magnificent sight.

The lush landscape of Dobongsan during Seoul's monsoonal Summer

A haven for climbers

Rocky granite peaks against the monotony of Seoul's suburban sprawl

Everywhere we looked, there was someone on a peak!

We were all starving after the hike, which took about 6 hours, but some of the sites on the way through the market weren't that inviting, especially for the kids...

Fresh octopus outside a restaurant at the base of Dobongsan

We settled on Dak Galbi (spicy chicken cooked at the table) for a late dinner at about 10pm.

Maddi (who is mastering her chopsticks nicely), Debbie, Bruce, Trent, Jordy and Sam