Goodbye to the Land of the Morning Calm and the Screaming Kids {Darrell}

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A year and a half ago Cathy and I both had the idea of backpacking around Asia. At the time, not only were we lacking the money to fund such a trip, but we even had student loans that needed to be deals with first. The solution came in the form of a contract to teach English to kids in Korea. It was a fascinating, frustrating and ultimately fantastic experience. But that too was just a stage. And on Sunday, having packed our apartment up and shipped what we want to hold onto back to South Africa, we finally hoisted our backpacks onto our shoulders to begin 4 months of wandering in the East.

As soon as we caught the evening bus to the airport we realised that in all the chaos of all the things that needed to be finished off, we had paid far too little attention to packing our backpacks. Consequently, we could hardly lift our bags. By the time we got to the airport we couldn't take it anymore. We sat down in the practically empty departure hall and unpacked everything. The essential stuff we put back into the bags, and evrything else went into a big pile. After an hour of harsh cutting back, I threw out an entire laundry bag of clothes, toiletries etc. and Cathy had a similar pile to ditch. It must have been close to 10kg each!

Normally I would be horrified at the though of ditching so much stuff in the bin, but it was actually a really well-needed lesson. I'm sure that we're going to learn a lot in the next 4 months of travelling, but the first and most obvious lesson for us is not to so get attached to material stuff. You don't need it all, and it literally weighs you down!
(fortunately in Korea all rubbish is well sorted & re-cycled, so I doubt our 2nd hand clothes will go to waste)

We walked out of the airport much lighter and although carrying far less stuff, feeling far more prepared to start our journey. A quick bus ride took us to a jjimjilbang to unwind in the warm baths and lie down for the night.

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Photos

The sun sets on our time in Korea
"OK, you can put a cheesy line in too"
D.K. Lizamore, 2008

Comments

[Landi]

so sad
It must have been sad leaving after living in Korea for so long. But what a greta adventure the two of you have had and will remeber forever and you can tell your kids and grandkids one day about it. Im to attached to my clothes to dump it all in a bin..sad I know but I cant help it..I love all my STUFF.

[Anne Mom]

Brave brave people
have an AWESOME time