Gakwonsa to Deokjeon, Snow Hiking

After far too many weekends of staying in bed watching episodes of House, we decided to brave the cold and go hiking in the snow. I've never been hiking in the snow before, but unfortunately I neglected to put a memory card in the camera, so I'm going to have to rely on the power of description for the majority of this post.

We went to Taejosan, because it's really close the centre of town and started our hike at Gakwonsa. Walking up the mountain in the snow was no easy feat. There was a fresh layer of snow that provided some grip, but still some parts of the trail were entirely covered in ice. The steam that runs parallel to the path was frozen and there were some really cool ice formations where waterfalls had turned to ice, the water was still running under the ice too.

We eventually got to the ridge at the top of the mountain and our sweat from the hike started to freeze in the icy gale, so we promptly decided to go down the opposite side of the mountain to check out a small farming village called Yuwanggol (유왕골). It was creepy; there were lots of dogs and a couple of cows, there were houses and cars parked up, but we didn't see a single other person there.

Then we decided to wall along the valley, following a river and a dirt track that eventually turned into a road. It was very beautiful; mountains on either side, everything covered in snow, the frozen river, and the only sound was the wind in the trees.

We walked forever, until the sun was going down behind the mountain and our whole bodies ached from the cold. We kept passing clusters of houses, really big, elaborate houses with patios leading on to the river, and yet we still didn't see another person. Perhaps they were all hiding from the cold, like sensible people.

We kept walking towards our unknown destination, wondering whether we'd eventually have to turn back and return the same way we came, or whether at any minute there'd be a path leading up over the mountain and we'd have to endure another steep ascent in the snow. Luckily we emerged from the valley and found a main[ish] looking road with a bus stop!

Our relief was short lived however, when we realised the bus was only three times a day, and that the next one wasn't due for another two and a half hours.

We continued along the main[ish] road, in the direction we considered to be home. Along the way we played in the snow, which was like crystals because the weather had gotten warmer and then very cold again, turning the snow flakes into ice flakes.

We came to Yongyeon Reservoir (횽연저수지) in a place called Mokcheon, it was totally frozen. There we also found a map, which we were very grateful for as we were able to turn off in the right direction.

With only about an hour left before the sun completely set we began the long climb uphill towards Cheonan. We'd been walking for about three hours and had done about 10km, our legs ached and we were very very cold. So, once again, we resorted to hitching our way home.

The first car we saw stopped for us and the elderly driver motioned for us to get in. I was very grateful for the Korean I have learnt as he didn't speak a word of English and I was able to address him using the most formal level of the language, which I think he appreciated, even if what I said was far from grammatically correct. I asked him where he was going and he asked us where we were going, and just as we arrived at his village he turned off the road onto the highway to Cheonan; going well out of his way to get us safely home.

As soon as we passed a bus stop that had more than three buses a day we got out of the car, thanking the old man profusely for his incredible kindness. It was very touching that he was willing to drive us all the way home, even though we could barely communicate and it was miles out of his way.

Finally we got home and defrosted. It was a great walk.

I was so disappointed about not being able to take any pictures that I went back to Gakwonsa the next day and took some photos of the snowy path, the frozen stream and the temple. Here they are:

Frozen pond at the bottom of the mountain.

The beginning of the path that leads up Taejosan.

Frozen stream.

Buddha at sunset.

Gakwonsa temple.

Gakwonsa temple.

Gakwonsa temple.

Winter sunset over Cheonan.

Gakwonsa temple.

5 Reasons Why Today Was Stressful

Most days I find being an EFL teacher is a fun, rewarding and enjoyable job. But some days it feels like banging my head against a wall....

- having to explain the word 'logical' to my class of 8 year old beginners.
- having to explain to my 8 year old beginners why 'read a book' is not a school subject, even though in the text book there was a picture of a child reading a book.
- teaching art to thirteen 6 year olds, with 10 of them simultaneously shouting "teacher help me" because they were unable to to stick a piece of string to a paper plate.
- knowing that tomorrow is 'open class'; an opportunity for all the parents to come in and observe my lessons, with carte blanche to criticise my every move.
- having my Korean co-teacher in a panicked frenzy because of said open class.

And if that wasn't bad enough... they served tuna for lunch!

Yuseong Hot Springs (Daejeon)

So, I broke Ric's brand new laptop that his parents so kindly bought him and my parents so kindly carried all the way to Korea for us. I was mortified. I knocked it ever so slightly and the screen shattered, but luckily we found a Toshiba repair centre... in Daejeon.

Daejeon is a major transport hub due to its central location. It is one hour south of Cheonan.

While we were there dropping off the laptop for repair we visited Yuseong Hot Springs. The natural springs are known for their healing properties, and we thought the 45°C water would be a lovely way to defrost from the -10° outside! We took a taxi, as we were lazy and couldn't be bothered to find out about the buses, and were driven by a really friendly man who spoke English and enthused about the "foot bath" that was in the area. He dropped us off, honking his horn and yelling at us to "ENJOY!!!"  We found the foot bath and it really was great; sitting knee-deep in scalding hot water with my coat and woolly hat on, with snow on the ground all around us!

Yuseong is an area with a lot of natural springs, and there are dozens of spas where you can go in and bathe (naked, of course!) There are a lot of spatels in the area, (hotels with spas, in case you didn't get that).

I'm now familiar with Korea's love of public bathing and with that comes a tolerance for Korean nakedness, but the spa we went to was far too crowded for my liking; when there's skin rubbing on skin as somebody squeezes past you it's a sign that there are too many naked people in the room. My experience was made even more uncomfortable by a lady who had apparently never seen a western person before, she followed me around the spa asking me questions in Korean, which I could neither understand nor answer.

My evaluation of the day was 'foot spa good, nakedness spa not so good'.

Fortunately, the intercity bus terminal is in Yuseong, so we were able to make a hasty dash home to Cheonan, away from the nudes.

Foot spas.

Swimming in Korea (again)

Six months on, now that we're savy to Korea's love of excessive pubic hair, we decided to give swimming in Korea another bash. After all, it's something we enjoyed doing every week back home in England, and we sure need the exercise.

The first time we went swimming in Korea was on a Saturday and it was heinously busy, so this time round we thought we'd try a Tuesday. We went to Cheonan Sports Complex straight after work. 

We bought swimming caps and goggles, all ready to assimilate, although I hadn't committed to buying a wet suit style bathing suit yet, they're so expensive (and not to mention ridiculous). First time round, I recall feeling disgustingly uncomfortable in my two piece bikini; Korea is still a very conservative country and they general public certainly weren't prepared see my white western skin flouncing around their pool. So today I wore one of Ric's football shirts. Loads of people were wearing t-shirts last time so I thought I was doing a good thing by covering my wobbly bits.

However... Unlike Saturdays, Tuesday nights are not family swimming nights. The damn pool was full of swimmers seemingly training for the next Olympics! I was immediately chastised for wearing my t-shirt and I think the life guard would have kicked me out of the pool had there not have been a substantial language barrier.

The huuuuge pool was once again over crowded beyond belief and I was subject to many stares and disapproving looks. 

I can swim fine, but I'm not very fast, I don't like getting my head under the water and I hate swallowing the water. Essentially, I swim like a granny. In our over crowded lane I made sure to set off swimming when there was no one behind me, but the Koreans are like torpedoes, they'd swim up to my ankles and passively aggressively bully me into stopping to let them over take. I felt like everyone was watching me, judging me.

It was intense. No leisurely after work swim for me. The pool is Olympic sized (50m), pools in England are not that long. It was hard for me to keep pace with the Koreans and I felt so uncomfortable. Everyone there was so serious; one girl even had a snorkel!! A snorkel in the swimming baths, I've never heard of anything so absurd in my life!

I lasted maybe half an hour before running back to the changing area for some comfort. Who'd have thought it, the room full of naked Korean women with ginormous bushes is now where I feel most comfortable. But even that was an ordeal.

The changing room was so crowded that every shower was occupied. People were queuing at each shower waiting for it to become available. When I finally found myself some space to shower in, a woman decided to stand behind me (naked, of course), put her things down in front of me, and stand an inch away from me whilst I showered. Silently bullying me with her nakedness to hurry up. PASSIVE AGGRESSIVENESS GONE MAD!!!! 

Once again, I'm traumatised by swimming in Korea. I'm glad I gave it a second chance, but NEVER, EVER AGAIN!!!!!!

New Year's Day in Bangkok

We awoke early on New Year's Day to wish each other a happy new year GMT, which was 7am in Thailand and then made it down for breakfast an hour or so later. When we walked into the hotel restaurant all of Ric's dreams came true; it was an international all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast! He managed about four plates whilst I feebly sipped my coffee and nibbled a piece of pineapple.

Our game plan was to get up early and have a busy day sight seeing and shopping, then hopefully we would be so tired by 10 o'clock that we would be able to sleep on our night flight back to Korea.

We wandered through the streets in the vague direction of the river and stumbled upon Bangkok's famous flower market. It was amazing, the flower arrangements were so intricate and detailed, and they had every colour rose you could imagine, it was beautiful.

A temple we came across on our walk, just before the start of the flower market.

It wasn't on our map so I don't know the name of it!

The flower market

Beautiful roses

From there we went to a traditional farmer's market selling all sorts of strange looking fruits and veg, and in the centre of the market there were people chanting and banging drums. We'd managed to stumble upon a monk's tea party! Hundreds of Buddhist monks were sitting at tables having a rather elaborate meal, music was playing and there was a general party atmosphere. Somebody even gave us some ice cream.

We eventually found the river and Ric took some pictures of the ornate barges.

A Stopher family favourite

We then went on a rather frivolous shopping spree and made the most of the cheap prices, the hippy style clothing, the bartering and the real people-sized clothes on offer. At the first stall we visited we displayed our in-expertise in bartering with a funny exchange with the Indian stall owner:

me: how much?
owner: 500 Baht
me: discount?
owner: ok, for you, 490 Baht
me: too expensive. 100 Baht?
owner: no, no, ok, very special new year price, 480 Baht
me: no, too expensive, bye bye (walks away)
owner: wait wait, no! What are you doing? We do it high-low high-low!!

The guy was outraged that I'd refused to play the bartering game. I just don't have the patience for it.
In the end I paid 150 Baht.

Having spent up, eaten a kebab and drank a fruit shake we jumped into a tuk-tuk and went to the main palace. We had no intention of going inside, we weren't dressed appropriately and there were far too many people there, but it was nice to see it from outside the walls, be surrounded in the crowds and look at the other temples and parks that surround the palace.

Opposite the palace

A temple across from the palace

Finally it was time to go to the airport, where we boarded our plane an hour late, at 11pm. Luckily there was an empty row of seats across from me on the plane, so I managed to stretch out my humongous legs and get some sleep. Ric wasn't as fortunate. We landed in Korea at 6am, took a bus back to Cheonan which took an absurd amount of time because of the snow, the Seoul rush hour traffic and an elderly passenger who couldn't hold her bladder. We arrived back in Cheonan at 9.10, with only 10 minutes to spare before we were due to start teaching. Of course, every traffic light on the taxi ride to school was red, and we were eventually 10 minutes late, but all the same we arrived to a hero's welcome. With our backpacks still slung in the teacher's room, and with almost no sleep, we managed to teach a full 10-hour day, before collapsing into bed with a McDonalds at 8.30. It was a very long day.

Favourite People:
As I mentioned before, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the Thai people. I'm certain we did pay tourist rates for a lot of things, but we didn't care, it didn't feel like we were being ripped off.

One tuk-tuk driver, an old man with an ancient tuk-tuk falling to pieces, quotes us 50 Baht (£1) to take us back to our hotel (cheaper than any other tuk-tuk). When we got stuck in terrible traffic he explained to us the best way for us to walk home and said we didn't need to pay, even though he'd taken us half way. It was so sweet that he didn't want any money from us that we paid him anyway.

Another lady and her two children helped us order food in a local cafe where nobody spoke English. She was so kind and friendly and wore matching clothes with her children. Her name was Nok.

Nok and her delightfully coordinated children

We loved Bangkok so much that we're already planning our next trip.

New Year's Eve in Bangkok

For New Year's Eve we headed back to Bangkok. We took a boat from Vongduern beach to Ban Phe port  on the mainland. The boat looked like a 70 year old fishing trawler and was so slow that it was overtaken by pretty much every other boat on the ocean. Eventually, we got to the port only to find that Ric had left his flip flops on the island and we had to get him a new pair. Typical.

In Bangkok we got a taxi and headed over to our hotel. The taxi pulled into the side of the road and slowed down, as I was wondering why, my door was opened and somebody grabbed by backpack. I panicked, tried to grab it back. I'd heard so many stories about bags being stolen like that. It took a few moments for me to realised that the taxi had slowed to a stop because we had arrived at our hotel, and that the guy "stealing" my backpack was in fact the concierge trying to carry it for me.

Grande Ville Hotel lobby

After offending the concierge we checked into the Grande Ville Hotel. This was extremely exciting for me as it was a) a real hotel, and b) a nice hotel. The only hotels in Korea are "love hotels"; no matter how up-market the hotel, there is always a pack of condoms and a bottle of lube on the dressing table, I guess that's what Korean hotel guests want, but for me it just takes away the niceness. Other than that the only other places Ric and I have stayed together have been a shoddy pink tent and in South American hostels in various states of decay, so for me, Grande Ville was a very special treat. It was LUSH. There was a huge Christmas tree in the marbled lobby, carpets in the room and A SWIMMING POOL ON THE ROOF!!!!

The view from our room.

The roof pool, on the 24th floor, had stunning views of Bangkok. When we got up there on New Year's Eve, a nearby building had caught on fire and was covering the city in a thick black smoke. We never found out anything about the fire as it wasn't reported in any English press, it's a tragic way to end the year for somebody though.

From the roof.

Nice pool, nice view. Shame about the burning building.

After a nap, shower and an array for energy drinks that are illegal in England, we set out to celebrate on Khao San Road. The road is known for its backpacker and professional hippy crowd as well as its many bars, restaurants and shops. On the one hand it is perhaps a tacky choice (I'm sure there are much more refined things to do in Bangkok), but on the other hand we only had one night there, and we wanted to party.

Khao San Rd.

Khao San Rd.

Khao San Road did not disappoint. The entire area was buzzing with excitement and energy, there were hundreds of people there and so much going on. There was a countdown stage with singers and dancers, elaborately dressed ladyboys prancing around, people selling everything under the sun. We were even offer a ping pong show. Every establishment on the road, whether it be a chemist or a bank by day, had been turned into a roadside bar. We sat and had cocktails outside a travel agency. We ordered a mojito and strawberry daiquiri that both tasted suspiciously like Smirnoff Ice.

Smirnoff Ice cocktails.

Bucket of vodka.

We bought beers from a shop and just walked around in awe of the place. Paradoxically, across the road from all the drinking and rowdiness, we found a temple with a ceremony going on. People were chanting and praying and lighting incense sticks. We went to get a closer look and it was so strange that such a peaceful and calm ceremony was taking place so close to the road were thousands of tourists were celebrating the New Year.

Buddhist ceremony taking place opposite the madness.

We saw in the New Year in a relatively quiet spot, away from the crowds, wrapped up in our own world as usual, and then sat down to smoke a shisha pipe in a bar where I had fun popping some balloons that some people were playing keepy uppy with. I'm a terrible person.

Finally we soaked up the booze with some street food and headed back to our hotel to admire the city by night, from our 18th floor hotel room.

The end of our night.

Phat Thai.

Koh Samet, Thailand

We chose Koh Samet purely for its proximity to Bangkok. With only one week off work for Christmas, we didn't want to spend too much time travelling around Thailand (much unlike us), rather, we just wanted to relax somewhere on a beautiful beach.

We stayed on Vongduern beach at the 'Seahorse Bungalow 2'. The beach was not as I expected but not in a bad way. First of all, the tide came in so far that in the morning there was only a very narrow strip of sand, it didn't go out until late in the afternoon. There was a full moon the week we were there, perhaps that's the reason for the high tide.

Along the beach were several restaurants, each one pertaining to a resort or bungalow complex. The restaurants had these large square sun beds covered in pillows with a small table in the middle (very comfortable) and you could sit at one all day long, having only ordered one bottle of water from the restaurant, costing you 50p. Due to the high tide, the beds were often laid out into the sea, so you could just jump off and swim whenever you got too warm. You could also leave your things there in the care of the restaurant, go swimming or walking along the beach and they would save your table for you all day.

At night the restaurants were lit by candles and torches and some local children would perform an incredible fire show that was impressive and at the same time deeply disturbing - some of the children couldn't have been more than 7 years old and were hula hooping a burning metal ring! That's dangerous kids!

I was so impressed with the hospitality of the Thai people, they were so friendly and to my surprise there was no aggressive competition to get you to go into a certain restaurant, nor were there pushy waiters trying to lure you in with drinks offers or discount. Everywhere was so laid back and relaxed, it was a refreshing change.

To my surprise the island wasn't swarmed with backpackers and professional hippies, in fact we were among the youngest people there. There were many older couples and families there, not many couples unaccompanied by children. Vongduern beach is not a lively beach, the bars and restaurants start closing up at 11pm,  but this didn't bother me and Ric, we were happy to go to bed early and get up early the following day for more sunshine. We did find some clubs and bars on other beaches but they didn't tempt us to stay out past bedtime (we must be getting old).

One night we decided it would be nice to wake up extra early and watch the sunrise. How romantic. We woke up to the alarm on my phone, dressed and snuggled on a sun bed on the beach together, happily anticipating the first rays of sunlight to break the horizon. It took approximately one hour for me to realise that my phone was set to Korean time and not Thai time, meaning we'd gotten up at 3am instead of 5am, and that we still had a fair few hours to wait before the sun made an appearance. Disheartened we went back to bed. While I lay in bed contemplating my mistake, my body started to itch all over. Within minutes my skin was on fire and I felt like a thousand red ants were crawling over me, biting me. I rushed to the bathroom to assess the situation and found I was covered in so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox. I woke Ric up and insisted that he search the bed for the culprit but we found nothing. Finally I went into an antihistamine induced sleep only to wake up in the morning with all the bites gone! I wondered if it was all a bad dream but the mysterious bites continued to appear throughout the week, only to disappear hours later. I still don't know where the bites came from, but at least they weren't mosquito bites, only Ric got them!!

From our beach we went walking to the beaches to the north and to the south, each time trekking along the shaded paths that lead over the rocky headlands. To the south we found this wonderful beach that was so quiet. All the "bunglows" were made of wood and looked really rustic, there was even a tree house! There was no one around and we had the beach to ourselves. To the north we visited about six different beaches, each one different, each one beautiful.

One thing we had to do whilst in Thailand was get Thai massages. After a day of swimming and sunning we went for a massage each. The beds were large and comfy and had a view of the sun was setting over the sea. The massage was amazing and only cost £6 for an hour! The girl who massaged me was really beautiful and very friendly, she didn't speak English but she bowed at me and smiled a lot. Ric's masseuse however, looked like she was chewing a wasp and whenever he opened his eye's she yelled at him to sleep!!

The food in all the restaurants was amazing, such a lovely change from Korean food. Ric was so excited about the abundance of fresh seafood, he had fish everyday (much to my distaste), he had barbecued white snapper and crab. I just loved having fresh fruit and vegetables, tasty curries and food that wasn't pickled and soaked in chilli.

The island was beautiful, white sand, clear turquoise sea - just like in the photos you see of Thailand, only I didn't believe it could be so perfect. There are no roads on the island, only dirt tracks, and the transportation is limited to motorbikes, quads, and these bright green pick-up trucks with good suspension that serve as shared taxis.

It was a wonderful carefree relaxing few days there and the time went by far to quickly. Even Ric loved it, and he previously claimed to have never been on a beach holiday before because they're "boring". We read books, played cards and scrabble, snoozed, drank and ate all day long. It was heaven. But if you don't believe me, check out the pictures:

Vongduern beach at night. Taken from a restaurant situated on the rocks at the headland.

Vongduern beach

Early morning as the restaurants set up for the day.

Cute rope swings and hammocks are common place all over the island.

The beach to the south of Vongduern. The beds to the rights are where we had our Thai massages.

The sunsets were stunning... same about the sunrise.

Ric floating in front of a cool tree house.

On the sun bed-come-table outside a restaurant.

Ao Cho beach (north from Vongduern)

I loved seeing the Christmas trees on the beach, such a contrast to how I imagine Christmas at home.

Buddhism and Christianity co-exiting on Koh Samet

Another feast of delicious Thai food. Oh how I didn't miss kim chi!

Outside a Reggae bar where the servers were all out of their minds drunk and incoherent. Great music though.