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Published: November 1st 2007
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Hello everybody,
This our last day in Korea, time flies, we've been very busy somehow. The main reason we decided to go to Korea in the first place was because Tara's sister Mikhel (her picture is on the Hawaii blog) was adopted from Korea, and Tra wanted to retrace the footsteps of her sister. So we first headed to Daegu (South East of the country) where we knew she was left on the doorstep of an orphanage. We knew the the orginal building was gone but we had the location and headed there. It is now the location of a large appartement complex and we were quiet a curiosity with the locals when we were touring around the premises and taking pictures. People came to us and we were trying to explain what we were doing. Two fruit stand ladies were very helpful by asking everybody for some English speaker. A few minutes later, we had a translator and everybody knew what was going on. But somehow, we learned that the Lady running the orphanage (she was doing so with Sung wha won, her husband) still lived in the neighborhood so we headed there with our translator and one of
the fruit stand lady! So we met Sung wha Won's wife in her appartement. She looked up files and could not find anything but was very happy to hear about one of the baby that went through her orphanage. We later learned that Mikhel only stayed one day there...
We are in seoul now, we are staying in the orphange where Mikhel stayed after being transfered from Daegu. We got to tour the place, see Mikhel's file. And hey, we got to spent 2 nights in a Korean orphanage! Fun experience! As for Seoul, we did not have time to see much of it. We went to the center this morning, it looks pretty nice, tamer than Tokyo (what city isn't???), nice fun streets. We stay in the student neighborhood, packed with small restaurants serving beer and fried chicken! Yes, fried chicken! They love it out here!
We also had time to visit other places in Korea. We stayed 2 night in Kyang-ju, called "the museum without walls". It's a small city 1 hour away from Deagu where you see shrines, temples, tombs at every corner. The tombs are from the Silla dynasty, 600-700 AC. They are giagantic tumuli (with
a similar structure to the egyptian pyramids) and are all over the city. In our guesthouse. we met a French guy who lives and work in Seoul. He enlightened us on the great Korean working conditions: 10 to 12 hours days, 5 days of vacation a year. And if you are lucky enough to work for Hyundai, you'll even get to work every saturday. Tough! But he was French, so had 6 weeks of vacation and decent hours...
Then we headed for Sokcho, a harbor/beach town in the norht east of the country. We were so close to North Korea that the town had a fair military presence and except for beaches, the whole cost was lined by barb wires!!! Impresive stuff! The reason we went there was to go to Seorak-san national park, the best Korean park. The reputation was well deserved as it was amazing. It was like Yosemitie with an "east coast autumn" feel. We hiked 8 miles, all the way up to a crazy peak. The end of the trail was 800 stairs that scared the hell out of us! But we made and it ws worth the pain/fear. Along the hike, we kept on running
into people that always wanted to give us stuff, usually fruits, chocolate bars, chesnutts, etc... It is a korean tradition to give gifts to welcome people. But at the end of the hike, we were pretty bloaded!!!! All in all, the Koreans have been so friendly and helpful. If you stand in a street looking at a map, someone will automatically stop to offer some help. Something we can learn from!!! Also, since westerners touring Korea is very rare, we were also a great attraction! Lots of people were staring at us, sometimes giggling, wispering things... and still being nice and kind!!! Fun stuff! And even more than the Japanese, they were very curious about us, wanted to know more, etc...
On the bus ride back to Sokcho, after 8 miles of hiking, we met 4 girls that were all about our ages. we chatted in the bus (well, lots of sign language was involved) and they absolutely wanted to go out for some beer with us. So they took us to their local bar and we drank beer and ate fried chicken. Somehow, we ended up staying 3 hours, drank too many beers and we were all so loud
Ssambap dinner
28 different side dishes that the few other customers only stared at us in great incomprehension. It's funny that when you only have 30 words to communicate, you can still have a blast and laugh for hours! The fact the I was a nurse (something very bizard for a male in korea) was a great kick for them! Anyhow, it was an evening to remember!
We're now at the orphanage in Seoul, we are heading to Hanoi (Viet Nam) tomorrow, so the pace will slow down a lot. We have a whole month to go down the coast to Saigon, so there will be plenty of lazy days ahead, which we need after 2 weeks of craziness!
I hope everybody is well. More news later.
Christophe
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Greg
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Great Pictures and Blog
Glad to hear that you have become Korean celebrities and were able to learn so much about Mikhel's early history! Seorak-san does indeed remind me of Yosemite and the pictures are great. Bibimbop is one of my favorites and the picture makes me long for some soon. Have a great time in Vietnam! Love Dad