Adventures in Otea dong- the story so far...

Summers are filled with rain, rain and more rain, then comes the holiday.

More recently over the past few months now, I've taking to doing quite a few things with my weekends. I will start by going through a few little adventures I've been on to date. The top left, was back a few month ago when me and my korean friend Lee, decided to hike up the Gumosan route from Buksam taking the longer route up and coming down through the other side. If the sun wasn't enough to contend with the high humidity of the mid-day sun had taken the energy from my legs that day. Upon reaching the top the climb we were met by a large buddist temple and jaw dropping views as my friend took this photo of us. The climb was not for the weaker person, with 4 hours of hard grit already behind me we were certainly out for the count.

The photo on the right, was taken during my trip down to Expo festival far down south of korea, which I went solo that weekend, and had pretty good time drinking and enjoying the exhibits that had on offer. The far left of the photo, shows the "big o", which released many fireworks that night and a display fit for an Olympic event that showcased some K-pop singers despite this the showcase of fireworks proved to be the winner. The two trains pictured below I suppose represent how Korea is yet as backwards country but continues to the prove to the world that its completing for the high end technology markets and the KTX on the left, travells at speeds close to 200mph, whereas the right hand side pictures a much slower "dinosaur" train which I traveled there and back on taking 3 hours to reach Dajeon, (which is not bad for a mungywah), been the poor traveler, I opted for the much slower speed of service to suit my needs. Thoroughly enjoyed the ride, by 11pm I was home that weekend, still wanting more expo. The expo weekend was costly for in the whole weekend managing to spend $250 altogether, was worth the fun, beering and enjoying some singing and dancing and the light shows at the end, really capped off the weekend, despite some close encounters with angry Korean man.  I came across an exhibit with the man floating above the floor holding onto the wall, I was quite bemused and curiousness took me to walk up closer to the man, who was seemingly floating on thin air? How could this be, I still don't know and I am still in doubt as to how this was done.

 Two weekends ago, I had taken a trip down to gangwondo, regional area in Korea, which I paid quite gladly to go on a "river trekking" hike, which quite turned out to be more than what i bargained for. So I payed $120 to get completely soaked and at the same time covered in scratches and bruises and have a wet phone that did go swimming with me. The group we was with had more of the spirit than me, as I didn't wanna get wet, saying that I was wet to start with. The guys jumped in the pool and went in feet first with the their trainers and full gear on, and there is me just standing back from them, while everybody is jumping in. The rest of the river trekking was a formidable task and not for the faint hearted nor the weaker ones. The river trekking took us 6 hours to complete, more of which it was 4 hours. The trekking involved some major jumping in rivers and having to swim for my life at some part of the course in order to get across the other side, not good idea with myself being not a strong swimmer in any stretch of the imagination. William cho, tho made my weekend on sunday, worthwhile for money I money I paid I felt that I had a good weekend, despite the river tekking was little bit on the extreme kinda army style trekking. White water rafting on Sunday was the major turning point of the weekend and 9 part zipline was fun too. 

 My weekend plans are to go spa valley this Saturday, which is supposed to be good weather this weekend, prompting me to go there and enjoy the water park. Three weeks time, I shall be in the Philippians enjoying a cocktail while on a beach in white sands not surrounded by noisy Korean kids in your face. For me this will give me 11 night of pure grace and r+r waits me. This defiantly will be a true holiday to look forward to.

 

Bear Grylls born survivor man/vs wild

so my weekend went a little bit Bear Grylls style, without the isolation not been to far away from civilian life, despite the encroaching mountainous terrain around here it does beg to climb these mountains and I did do with style this weekend, narrowly avoiding death along the way. Saturday turned out to be more of a training run for me, more of a slog for some of my fellow companionship that I held going up Chulson mountain in Indong, Steve (older guy) seemed to have difficulty keeping up with the pace as anyone would do at his age, but its the first spring dayin Gumi so far and keeping me out from the cold all three of us decided to go up this short mountain near the paint baling course, for 2 hrs. We met up with our gang at the materialistically named "cafe benne" in downtown Gumi feeling like I was back at home drinking coffee with our friend Ben and not really getting much sun, as it is in England. Sun came out this afternoon and was much energizing as its was draining from the warm glow even on a April afternoon, many Koreans were about in full force. The following Sunday I decided, upon a surge of inspiration from doing this Hike to go one step further, going into the wild Bear grylls style, armed with a pair of running shoes I set off from my town towards Gumo mountain, not forgetting I had a night out that night and leaving around 1pm headed towards Gumo mountain. The day was hot, by 2pm the sun was in full force bringing hellish hot air you could feel the warm almost tropical heat from SE asia brought to the land of Kimchi, trying to climb this with weather like this was much like a sweat house. I hiked over to Hyeongkogdong near the Gumo mountain trial start, came out at a road with many korean's allover looking like bright lollipops in there brightly coloured jackets armed with sticks and hats to protect their fragile skin from the sun, in order to maintain their white complexion, who says a sun tan is not good for you, these korean's need a bit of Vitiamin D in them. I reached the start of Gumosan, headed up into the clouds and reached the summit 979m high in less than 1. 20 mins felt like the powerade had kicked in and was doing its job to some extent. I was spured on by the thoughts of eating sausages and a nice meal as I was at a half limb in my body was in need of nutritional fruits.

It became apparent how long I had been going for, and regular rest stops were becoming more frequent as I reached closer to the top, some korean's kept me going. 4;30pm I reached the top of this beast and a pit stop was needed to devise a plan to get down, I knew I wanted to come down via the most direct way and as bear grylls would do things I felt the need to replicate some of this, I decided to take the route towards Buksam over the other side of the mountain, (in actual fact I could see Otae dong from the top), despite this I somehow managed to get lost along the way, crossing death slides and 100m drops enough to rattle any lone rambler, with my mind in set, I took the path and headed into the abyssal unknown not sure if I would get home in time for sunset or have to sleep up here that night, live off the land. The path was more than clear to get back, at some points it did seem to dissenter into nothing, as did my hope of getting off here. I got hour into the decent and came across a path with sloping sides it was clear i was not able to get down this slide without the rope in front of me that was laid down for you to get down 10m, seemed danger was part of the plan i think, tho I didn't plan danger to come into the plan, made my way down the slope and got back on the path of no return. It seemed likely at the time that I might not make it down with me being up so high, but quickly the path showed me some mercy and a sign for temple or something appeared I took this path, unknown to me I went down, slowly lowering my center of gravity to avoid going to my death about 2 meters to my side a 100m death slide awaited me and I took a rain check with unease of knowing how solid the path was. Came to slipping almost at some parts going down the path as it was as steep going up as it was going down, the latter being being the harder, more weary looking path that did punish you if not careful with footing and slowing down. I was around 500m from the base i could see some temple in the far distance, but still i had long way to go before any kinda civilian life i would come across. The path came to a point in which i had no option but to slide down on leaves which I could not see the ground below weighed through the leaves i almost slide out of control down the rocky Plataea managed to grapple a strong tree root avoided grazing myself in process, as they say what comes up must come down. It was the slowest part of the climb coming down, as the path become more traitorous and my trousers looked like they had been pulled through a hedge by a horse rampant with fear, like a jokey in the national who thinks hes done it, but then like hope turned to fear of guessing what could of happened. After the handicapping of the terrain the path appeared again, I was back in the fast lane still calumnious about the imminent dangers of the height i was at. To cut a long story short, I reached the lower shelf of the plain, and the path ended at the base of the Gumo trail, a huge billboard appeared in front of me showing where i was and where I had gone wrong. I reached flat ground, i.e concrete and the soles of my shoes had taken a beating and felt very strange to be walking on solid ground, made my way to the temple and was greeted by the monk not sure male or female. She or he, tried to give me direction back to my home, i was kinda confused, but managed to walk the short distance 3 km to Buksan Eup, which would eventually take me to civilization and back to my home. I returned home to rejuvenation and took my shoes off which felt like relishing a beer when you finish work, this was no ordinary hike this was the hike to end all hikes, Bear Grylls style-Born survivor DW.

The land of Kimchi- Otae dong so far....(Meeting with ice cream)

So I've moved into a new town to my delight it hold many fruits of food shops, maybe a bad thing for me, but all I know is it going to be really fun hanging out here and being treated like much of a celebrity along the way. It been a fairly transitional period from my humble beginnings back in some mountain village and no friends, and a load of american's whom seems that they all are gangster. My two months of being here now (almost) have been great and enjoyed the experience of buying cheap pizza from the bingo pizza shop. Well in dissemination about the school all I can is I dont feel there as bad as Bisan's hell for students school with a korean teacher, who I felt I had no choice but to to become a slave to korean public school system, and in some ways I've eaten more shit than others say. Otae students are very sweet and much to my life here they throw up all kinds of sweets at me. As a walk to the bank one evening turned into much of a surprise visit into one of the many corner shops that are in my urban sprawling jungle or abyssal labyrinth were every building seems the same as the other. Walked into the shop and saw a students I knew from the school, of course eating ice creme was the occasion I clearly could see that, not much resistance and I decided to get one myself, and hang out with the native korean people in attempt to intergrate myself into their life, despite everyone shouting "waygookin" around me and mother and parents wondering what this guy is doing with some elementary kids, watch out there's a waygook loose on the streets, as koreans would see me as a dirty, unclean and homogenization would be the answer to this.

Much of my impression about korean's is based on first looks that they seem slightly bourgeois and well looked after, more like going back to uk about 50 years ago when this system was in place, and there was a clear class system, enough to make the common person think he is less equal than the middle class korean, well attired and very pretty face, not much to say that is bad about them. I walked around the "hood" as one calls this place, around 3x the size of my last home, and comforting to have a fellow waygook living above me for the first time here and a electronic door , saying goodbye to the keys, for those drunken nights. It seems that much of many "hangout" places do attract the ice cream lovers as we can see ice creme brings us outside into the world, away from the dark dungeons of our pathetic holes we live in here, (tho my home is like a palace, compared to the other place). Currently my favourite place to visit is my gym as all men would be keen to go in there, as a place to let off steam and enjoy a good burn out and make new friends in there while trying to kill yourself. Upon walking into the gym I was greated by a huge korean, more to liking of Brok Lesner, or some wwe superstar who wants to destroy everything that he puts. Upon liking this area there is still some growing hostilities towards me with older korean's and a huge experience with sauna asking me to go in "korean" style would be a major factor in deciding upon to go in the 42c hot bath, one must clean thy body in order to feel comfortable.

The photograph was taken in morning around 8;24am as the winter here is coming to a close it is much to my desire to get to work early and I decided to snap the sun and its was a warm morning, as it has been warm this past couple of days, but rain always follows sunshine with friday due for a blast of Korean wet weather I am undecided as to what my plans would be for the weekend, an invite with mr beer or maybe a walk around this town, fridays is tomorrow and I shall retire my self to a beer i think.

First

Things seem a little Lonley here as I am the only foreigner who speaks English and have not seen any western people for days now, hopfully I am going to get a bus into Jeomchon and find people today get about and have fun. okay this is enough.