Sian's Birthday Weekend in Samcheok

Sian, our wonderful South African friend, turned 25 last Friday. Her mom even got to be here in Korea for it. On Friday night, we went out to an excellent meal of kimchi jjim with all 9 of us. The restaurant was kind of a hidden gem in downtown Daegu, and we got our own little room since there were so many of us. Kimchi jjim is kind of like a pot roast. It's pork that is slow-cooked with kimchi. Traditionally, you also order portions of kimchi jigae to go with it. Kimchi jigae is kimchi and pork stew with ramen noodles added in. The food was excellent, and we were all super full by the end...but not full enough to enjoy the cupcakes Marie made for Sian. As usual, her baking was to die for.

The birthday weekend continued on Saturday with an early morning bus to Samcheok in north east Korea on the coast. It took about four and a half hours to get there. We got off the bus on the side of a random country road. There were a few shops around, but no taxis driving by whatsoever. We tried to ask people to call a taxi for us, but we were told that none would be willing to come to take us to our where we needed to go since it was too close--or at least that's what we thought we were being told. The first place we were trying to go was to the Haesindong Park (Penis Park), an entirely uphill walk for about a half an hour away from where we were. We had a bus schedule, but the time the bus was supposed to arrive came and went. Just as we were about to give up and start trudging up the hill with all our bags, the bus appeared! It was a miracle. I guess the bus schedule we had was from terminal to terminal, so times that the bus was supposed to arrive at the stops in between those terminals was not listed. We only had to go two stops on the bus before arriving at the Penis Park. The man at the ticket booth at the park was nice enough to let us store our bags in his booth while we walked around the park. The Penis Park was quite expansive. As you walked up and down the hills of the park, you could see the various carved, wooden penis statues--some had really funny faces. The park, built on a cliff face, also offered beautiful views of the coast and ocean. Gianni and I each took pictures with our Chinese Zodiac animals that were carved into the penis statues. There was a penis see-saw that a bunch of us had fun on, and there was even a penis canon. After all the walking, we decided to take a bit of a break and wander down to the rock beach at the park. The water was clear and beautiful, but the sun was beating down on us. On the very edge of the cliff, where the park ends, there is an alter to a young girl. We've heard opposing stories about the reason for the penis park, but all involving this young woman. In the most disturbing story, the young woman died a virgin. As soon as she died, all the fish in the area left. A fisherman later masturbated into the ocean there, and the fish miraculously returned. Apparently, since the girl died a virgin, that's what her spirit needed as an offering. So the penis park was *ahem* erected to appease her spirit by giving her the penises she never got during her lifetime. Seriously gross and disturbing story, but there it is. I've seen too many carved penises during my time in Korea. I think I'll be happy without seeing anymore. We did have a fun time though.

Although we had planned on doing more activities that day, it was getting late, so we decided to just go into Samcheok and try to find accommodation. We grabbed the bus back, and then took some taxis to the beach area. The beach was really pretty, but we didn't get to enjoy it because all the motels were full. We asked at every one we saw to no avail. The only accommodations available were minbaks. A minbak is a Korean-style accommodation involving floor sleeping, and many of the group members did not want to sleep on the floor. We had to grab taxis back to the main town center, and Marie and Ben found us a motel there. It was a love motel and a bit pricey at 70,000 won for the night, but we all got our own private rooms with private bathrooms. We split up for dinner, and Gianni and I ended up going for barbecue at a place that smelled divine right down the road from the motel with Sian, Thomas, and Sian's mom, Fran. We had a nice chat with some other foreigners who were eating there, including a couple girls who had helped us to get taxis to the beach earlier. We ordered samgeopsal (Korean pork belly) and pork galbi (marinated pork) to share between the 5 of us. The restaurant gave us sooooo much bonchon (free side dishes) that we could barely fit it all on the table with our little grill in the center. It was a lovely meal. Korean barbecue is not to be missed if you are here for a visit. Along with our dinner, the other foreigners suggested we order a couple bottles of orange soju, a new product on the market that you can only buy in restaurants for now. I usually hate soju, but this had almost no aftertaste and was more like juice than regular soju. Really tasty. The other part of our crew met up with us after they finished their dominos pizza, and we all went back to the motel. We played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity together before hitting the hay for another slightly early morning.

On Sunday morning, we got up at 9am to try to make a reservation at the tourist information office to ride Samcheok's rail bikes. Apparently, it would have been a good idea for us to book days in advance because the rail bikes were all sold out. Rail bikes are these little cars that seat four people. They are kind of like paddle boats, but they are on railroad tracks instead. The tracks in Samcheok are right on the coast, so it would have been a really pretty little ride. Anyway, we changed our plans and decided to visit one of the two popular caves in Samcheok instead. We grabbed coffee, muffins, and bagels at a coffee shop nearby, left our bags at tourist information, and hopped on the bus to the caves. Both caves are in the same area, but you have to make a reservation to go into the smaller one. The ticket booth for the cave was in the shape of a bat because, I guess, you can see bats in these caves. The bat is like their little mascot. We didn't see any bats in the large Hwanseongul Cave anyway. It was about a 15 minute walk uphill to get to the monorail cars that lead to the mouth of the cave. You can either take the monorail or hike up yourself, but we opted for the monorail even though it was an hour long wait. We knew we'd have a lot of walking in the cave to do, so that was enough for us. The mountains where the caves are were really quite lovely. Korean mountains are so jagged and rocky, and everything was so green. As soon a you exit the monorail car, you can feel the cool, humid air from the inside of the cave. It was really chilly in there, but not so bad as long as you kept moving. The cave was massive! All we had to do was follow the metal pathway, and it took you on a walk all through the cave and its many different caverns. There were all kinds of beautiful rock formations, pools of water, bridges, and waterfalls. We must have walked around for at least a few hours before coming to the exit. I've never been in a cave that large before.

We had to get down the mountain quickly in order to catch our bus back to Samcheok city and buy bus tickets back to Daegu (well, Sian, Thomas, and her mom were going to Seoul instead). Maria, Matthew, Ben, Marie, and I bought tickets back to Daegu, but we had enough time to get some Chinese food for dinner before we boarded the bus. The bus ride was pleasant and pretty comfortable. Although the buses were a little weird both to Samcheok and back; the front of the bus had 2 seats on one side and 1 seat on the other side, and the back of the bus had 2 seats on one side and 2 seats on the other. It made the aisle a little off-centered. Our bus stopped in Pohang to pick up some more people, and some girls got on and sat behind us. After a few minutes, they got up the courage to speak to Gianni and I, since we were closest to them. We spent the entire hour long ride from there back to Daegu talking to them. Turns out they were high school girls, and they were all cousins. Later, we found out their names were Ji won, Hi won, and Shi won! Hilarious! They wanted to take a picture with us before we left at the terminal, so we did because they were so nice. Gianni and I grabbed a taxi home. The end of another nice weekend in Korea made even nicer by the fact that we didn't have school today because it is a Korean holiday, Buddha's birthday. It coincided with Memorial Day back home this year, so we plan to talk to our parents tonight. Gianni and I celebrated buddha's birthday by going shopping for some new clothes and shoes at home plus and eating some amazing chocolate bingsu (shaved ice) from a new shop in our area. Probably the most amazing that I've had, which is saying something because we've eaten a lot of bingsu.

It was really great to experience the Korean countryside this weekend. We don't get to do that very often. We also don't usually get to see the ocean because we live so far inland, and our bus rides along the coast were beautiful. We had a really nice time with our friends seeing a new part of Korea.