4th of July weekend we are heading to Busan, because any Jersey-bred darling knows that "Down the shore everything's all right," and it's an absolute sin to not be down the shore on the 4th. Plus, we've got two birthdays to celebrate-- America's and our friend Brian's. We went to Busan which is alllll the wayyy down south something like the third weekend we were in Korea, so it will be nice to revisit it 9 months later and see if our perceptions have changed at all. After that Papa Colgan makes his way to Korea, so excited to see him and show him off at school, my kids are already salivating because they know "Teacher's Dad" means American candy. Next up is Mud Fest, which should be thoroughly unhygienic and lawless. Then, it's the grand daddy of them all... INDONESIA.
My friend Olivia has invited us along for her homecoming of sorts. She's half-Indonesian and her family still owns a lucrative Bird's nest soup farm near Jakarta which we might be lucky enough to visit. We'll be in Jakarta (for my birthday!!), travel south to Yogyakarta and unwind in Bali on the last leg of our trip. I'm thrilled to be able to explore another wonderful, exotic and culturally rich country in Asia.
But the fun doesn't stop there. A few of us are looking at one last hurrah in Laos and Vietnam before we fly back to America. I felt like I had cheated Vietnam by not visiting its northern half when I was there in February. I am speaking for the group, but we were all so entranced by what we had seen, eaten and experienced in Saigon and Phu Quoc that there was no question about going back if we were able to swing it. And voila!
Then it's back back back to America around September 10th. Woohoo, bout to tear up Raleigh-Durham! Just kidding. I should say, right after my family and Dunkin Donuts iced coffee the think I'm most excited about is cheese... and Netflix. I plan on eating wheels of cheese in my parents basement whilst streaming Netflix like a junkie until either my eyes fall out or my stomach explodes from the dairy overload. Whichever happens first. It's nice to have things to look forward too.
But, let's rewind for a minute. Instead of talking about the all the travelling I will be doing, let's talk about all the travelling I've done recently.
CHUNCHEON (May 28-29)
Let's start with Chuncheon, dak galbi capital of the WORLD, famed setting of Winter Sonata, host of Mime Fest 2011-- this place is rife with cultural importance. Since it also happened to be Memorial Day weekend and the weather was gorge (this was before rainy season kicked in) we did cute things like ride Surrey bikes around Jungdo island, some of us went water skiing others watched.
And we even made nice with the locals. Some government employees were having a nice family picnic with a round of Jokgu (like volleyball but played with your feet). Naturally, being gregarious and curious Koreans they invited us to join in. So, a few of us joined in. It was all very ceremonious lots of bowing and hand-shaking over the net. Meanwhile, Jo and I cozied up to some of their coworkers on the sidelines and partook in another Korean pastime: day drinking. These boys brought enough hooch to last through the summer. We chatted and after the game finished our group and their group celebrated with some makgeolli and soju and became fast friends. We even took a group picture together, you see it's official! We're besties!
So, that was cute and nice and so typical of Korea (actually probably the biggest reason why I love Korea-- nice people everywhere just trying to hang out and be your friend) and then they VERY generously left us with all of their alcohol because like I said they brought way more than they needed. We had no problem taking that off their hands.
So, we played around on the island, caught the last ferry out then headed into town to dak galbi. The stuff's OK, not my favorite Korean food. Next day we headed out to Nami Island. The more I read about Nami the more I just shake my head and say "Only, only in Korea does a place like this exist." Nami is named for General Nami who is buried on the island, but some tour company decided to turn it into a amusement park, fantasy land/country (you have to go through Nami "immigration") and some major kiss on Winter Sonata took place here so this place is overrun with people. But, I enjoyed myself, went for a paddle boat in a large Swan and called it a day.
MUUIDO (June 4-6)
Chuncheon pretty much took the steam out of me, but I'll give Muuido a brief stream-of-conscious overview. All you need to know about Muudio: mudflats, way too many white peeps, too much makgeolli too little to do, campfires, zombies, corn dogs, clamming, beach huts, wiffle ball and kung fu playing cards. Here are some pictures.
GWANGJU & BOSEONG (June 18-19)
And last weekend we head down south to check out the famed Green Tea fields. They were pretttty spectacular and so green. Then of course we proceeded to eat everything with green tea in it-- noodles, cow and pig that had been fed green tea, green tea ice cream, actual green tea and yeah maybe some raw green tea leaves. We shopped, walked and ate green tea. And played Ninja in the streets. Always fun.
And that leaves us at this weekend. Back to good old Seoul.
