Hotel Gangneung

... of hot drinks and eating bread, cream and jam in the bookstore. HOWEVER this was no normal bookstore....oh nooo! Having had our goodies at the little chillout area of the bookstore, we then went over to the wooden area overlooking downtown streets and shops and put our feet into what was like a bath and had this teeny weeny little fish nibble all the dead skin of our feet...YES it was possibly the strangest feeling ever. Like pins and needles but ...

... went off in our own separate directions. It was a stroke of luck meeting up with them on the boat tour around Ulleungdo, as not only did I have some company for half of my journey home, but I would reach Suwon about five hours earlier than I planned.

The ride back to Suwon across the Korean peninsula was quite smooth, sticking to the freeway and passing through tunnels and beneath some huge mountains. I was ...

... die straat loop tussen die twee watermassas.Die een massa is enorm en die ander kan mens deur swem,maar n klein dam. Met ons fietse ry ons op die fietspaadjie met sy kunsmatige bruin oppervlak op die meeroewer strand se kan toe.Ons vleg tussen tientalle Koeane deur wat rustig stap,roomys eet,paartjie wat fotos van mekaar met seldone neem en famielies wat op helderkelurige gehuurde fietskarretjies ry. Aan die oorkant van die straat is 'n ry winkeltjies ...

... the kids stay in their normal classroom and I come to them for an hour at a time). My role there is mostly just for a fun factor and pronunciation guide. Today I even had scripted lines . . . we're learning the numbers 1-10 and I would point at the screen and say things like "How many cats?" and then "SEVEN cats." It gets pretty funny after you're in your third class teaching the exact same lesson - "SEVEN cats" etc . . .

Overall though, I absolutely ...

... a bed and some chairs would have been nice. The room was still very nice and had a balcony with an amazing view of the ocean and some mountains! We really splurged on this day because we ate lunch and supper on the cruise ship, which as you can imagine would be very expensive! I went all out at supper and had a five course meal but unfortunately I don't think it was really worth what I payed for it. It's ...

... spots. Dec. 5 - Going away Korean fish and Indian food dinner at a friend's local fish restaurant. The group (Nasra, Chris, Angela, Art) brought in Indian food and ??? cooked up some local fish specialty and we feasted, celebrating one of the groups last outing before people start heading their separate ways (Nasra back for another year, Angela home to Canada, Art back for a short 6 months, and me off to ...

... Korea. So our plan for the beach was DASHED. Well, we went over to have a gander anyway, and were pretty unimpressed to be honest. It was reaaaaaally crowded, the sand was actually grit / shingle, and you could only venture about 3m into the water where you hit the net that was keeping out all the jellyfish and other horrible sea-monsters. So we headed to a jimjilbang and got our sauna on. Oh, the joys of being naked and dipping in and out of ...

... two day increments). The first thing we did after registration was attend an orientation which was more of an information session about the cultural heritage program maintained by the Korean government. It was very interesting and beneifical to the preservation of particularly the intangible culture such as crafts, performances, rituals, music, etc. We then were wisked to the Gangneung cultural center ...

... all the excitement was about. After that we just drove up the coast, stopping at every beach, and just having a blast. Still freezing, but beautiful! The beaches here are all lined with barbed-wire because it is so close to North Korea. I've never seen anything like that before. Beautiful coastline wrapped with circles of barbed wire and every so often there are guard towers where you see the South Korean military standing with weapons ...

... surfboards. What kinda kook brings boards to Korea? 5 hours later, around midnight, I awoke as we pulled into the hotel. Here I was, just having flown across the Pacific Ocean to a place I might be able to find on a world map, then was driven for 5 hours through the country with my eyes closed, asleep! Talk about disorientation. So Mark, what are the surfboards for? "Well, I figured couldn't hurt. Better to be prepared, ya know? Wanna check ...