Somaemuldo - Queen of the Yellow Sea

Visited Somaemuldo (a small island accessable by ferry from Tongyong. It has an unfortunate resemblance to the fortress of doom when approaching by sea.)

Turned out to be well worth the trip. Mostly a bunch of hiking and admiring views, but still good fun. And it reacquainted me with various Korean habits. Mostly that the average Korean becomes very friendly on these sorts of outings and those posessing some knowledge of the English enjoy a friendly conversation, usually followed up by a picture session, and a ritual sharing of food. Today's most popular item was ginseng jellies. After a few of these sessions we struck out on our own and found a mountainous column inhabited by a family of black goats. Unfortunately the goats seemed enormously disturbed by our presence and they ran off. Their loss, because we enjoyed their mountain redoubt. Later the seas parted (due to the tide, but the brochure describes it as a miracle similar to Moses parting the seas), and we were able to explore the adjacent island, very originally named "lighthouse island."

The return ferry ride was executed in military style. It was a small rust bucket that somehow screamed "Indiana Jones", to me at least. They must have been in a hurry though, because it unloaded and we were all loaded on in about two minutes, with much yelling and carrying on, as well as marine style pushes to help us all get the nerve to jump on to the bobbing boat. This as well as loading the cargo for the various islanders heading back to the mainland. (This consisted mostly of old soju bottles filled with live eels. On the way in it was beet roots and soju bottles filled with soju) They didn't worry about such niceties as tickets either. At our next stop, the captain flipped his lid because some poor tourist family wasn't on time, and could be seen running down the beach, suitcases in tow. He was nice enough to wait for them, but he spent a good period of time yelling them down via loudspeaker, with shouts of "bali, bali". (hurry....) Fortunately, some intrepid villager helped them out with an ATV... For the next village he was determined not to repeat the experience, so he blared Korean folk tunes out the speakers for several minutes before our arrival as a warning. It seemed to work.

Island Hopping

Currently staying at a motel in Tongyong, on the southern coast of Korea. It is surprisingly modern, considering its status as a major industrial port, and has a vast over-abundance of fancy coffee shops.

I'm currently enjoying Korea for a few minor quirks. For example, the generosity of the people. I'd completely forgotten what it was like for random strangers to offer me things completely for free. The other day at the museum, which was free incidentally, the girl manning the counter gave us a coin, completely unsolicited, to use in the baggage locker. And staying in the motel here, nothing is nailed down in the way that they are even in relatively fancy hotels in Canada. Are Koreans just more honest, or have people just not figured out how to take advantage of the system? I cannot imagine an employee of a museum freely offering a coin to patrons in the west. Its refreshing.

On the other hand, I'm reminded of what I don't like: old Korean men. They're mostly loud, obnoxious, and imbeciles. I'll be curious to see if the current generation is so rude and obtrusive in their old age. The current crowd can sort of be excused because of the crushing poverty and wars they've lived through.

Now we shall attempt to visit an isolated island ... Saemuldo Island.... Good night.

Onwards and Upwards

Somehow I'm moving again, and I can't quite decide how to feel about it. I have the usual mixture of excitement and anxiety about what awaits me in Brussels. I'm really not sure what to expect there. This will be the first time in my life that I will be living in a primarily "foreign" environment, that is to say without a lot of Canadians in my social circle. Unless I fall in with the embassy community I suppose. In Korea practically everyone was Canadian, and last time I had all the study tour people. But this time, its basically just me and N. We'll see how that goes. And Vancouver/BC continues to grow on me. I really like this area of the city... and I feel at home. It makes me wonder about what the point of traveling around constantly is. Its exciting, and interesting.... but at some point I will have to live somewhere. I guess I'm still young, and I don't have to worry about it too much, and I've always been pretty good at playing it by ear, and so far its treated me well, so I shouldn't stress about it.

TIme Lapse

Scramble from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.


Also Kind of Cool. Watch it in HD on the site.