Daejeon, Korea

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After a late night flight and some worries about SK customs (the nice man at customs didn't charge me for bringing too much duty-free alcohol), I arrived in South Korea.

Incheon airport is on the very northwest corner of South Korea, and Daejeon is smack-dab in the middle, so it was a 3-hour express bus ride to get to my uncle's place. Daejeon is a medium sized city (1.5 mm pop out of 48mm total, compared to 10.5 mm for Seoul), and it's mostly a residential area. There is a "Techno-valley" that is Korea's equivalent of Silicon Valley, as well as a shopping district that evokes images of Tokyo's Shibuya. Daejeon, and Korea in general, has many low-lying mountains, and often has beautiful fog rising off of it's many rivers and hugging its uneven terrain.

Korea so far has been a smorgasbord of food and drink; my relatives have been really nice about helping me seek out the local delicacies. I've tried the best sausages and pork feet that I've ever had, and I even had the chance to sample insects for the first time: silkworm larvae. They are bearable as long as you don't think of them as insects. The moment I took some closeup shots, I couldn't stomach anymore (look at the eyes!). I've also had some good old-fashioned home cooking which was great, and ordered some cheap noodles (they pick up your non-disposable bowl from your apartment after you eat!). I've also been plied with endless amounts of Korean beer, which is surprisingly nice and refreshing.

Aside from all the shopping, I went on a visit to one of the old presidential vacation houses in Korea. Prior to 2003, the Korean president had numerous vacation houses scattered all over Korea, which were ridiculously ornate. They had golf courses, clay tennis courts, swimming pools, soccer fields, long walking trails, elevators, 250-man armed garrisons, etc etc. This particular one hugged a beautiful view of the river. The 2003 president (Roh Mu Hyun, who recently committed suicide) thought it a waste of taxpayer money and gave up many of these mansions so that local governments could use them to draw in tourists. It was a really nice place!

The best thing about Korea is that I have a full ten days to spend here, which means that I can take it easy. In fact, I'm taking today off and spending the entire day inside! My uncle's family has been extraordinarily nice to me as well.

This will be my last post from Daejeon. Next time I post will be from Daegu, which is 2 hours southeast from here.

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Photos

Daejeon Dam
Korea is really pretty, with lots of low-lying mountains and fog

Underground Mall pt 2
Daejeon has a lot of shopping stores built into underground walkways.

Shopping District
The shops here are organized into guild-like streets; all the sausage vendors are in one block, and the traditional garment-makers also congregate on one street

Presidential Podium
Giving South Korea my inauguration speech (note my fobby shirt)

Seaweed
So much asian food! (well duh)

Korean Blood Sausages
These were made with real intestines, and were the best I've ever had. So good! Made with intestine, blood, and vermicelli noodles

Roadside Snack
Guess what they are ($1.55)

Silkworm Larvae
You boil the silkworm cocoon to extract the most silk, and you eat the worm inside! It looks really creepy up close

Silkworm Larvae pt 2
This was number 20 or so, and after taking this picture I couldn't eat anymore. My aunt would later finish the entire cup herself (and drank the juice!)

Pig Feet
I eat this a lot in the US actually (as with the blood sausages) but they are much better here.

Roadside food stand
We stopped by for some food. Our plate of spicy rice cake was $1.55, and appropriately mediocre.

Turtles at the market
There were tons of turtles at the market.

Rice Cookers
Sometimes I forget I'm in Korea, and then I see things like this

After the rain
After a torrential downpour, the river was spilling over onto the lower embankment and forcing stand-owners to close shop