Anyeong Haseo everybody!!!

So we left sunny warm Aus on the 29th of December to hang out in cold Korea with Philly and his little girly Jung In. Just barely made it to the airport leaving Aus due to some rather extreme drunkeness the night before in combination with getting ourselves dropped off at the wrong terminal in Brisbane at 0300, but that is another story.  We spent most of the first week hanging out in Yeosu (Phil's home town) and day tripping from there checking out some of the surrounding cities like Gwangju and Jinju and some of the fantastic temples and historical stuff like Bulguksa and Jinju Fortress. Had quite a few struggles with Korean language and korean writing (Koreans have their own written script called Hangeul) but the people were really friendly and helpful and we always made it or ate it in the end. Korean food is 50/50. 50% fantastic with the at your table barbeques and some of the traditional soups and stews. We ate Black Chicken soup in Cheongju. It's local whole chicken (whose flesh and bones are black) cooked in soup with ginseng and spices. Delicious!! There is however another 50% of stuff that just wasn't quite our thing with lots of fish stocks and tiny little dried fishes you ate bones and all as well as some stuff you had to see to believe. (see the pictures for evidence) Regardless if the main course was your deal or not you could always rely on the 10 or so banchan (side dishes) that would accompany every meal. Kim Chee is the local favorite and you'ld be in heaven if you liked Cabbage fermented in Red Beans and Chili. Local brew was good though and when you really wanted to write yourself off you could always turn to Soju, a kind of local rice moonshine-deadly!!

Starting week 2 Philly and Jung In were off work and we all headed out up the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. Note to self, travelling in Korea is much easier with someone who speaks Korean... Spent a day in Busan (pronounced Pusan-don't ask) and then went to the capital of the Silla Dynasty circa 57BC, Gyeongju. Tonnes of historical relics and buildings and museums. Quite an amazing place, the whole city is dotted with these 2000 year old burial mounds which are apparently unlootable!! While in Gyeonju we stayed in a 120 year old guest house called Sarangchae. Traditional heated floors, paper doors and an owner that spoke english!! It was surprisingly warm sleeping on the floor considering it was -10c outside!! When we got sick of museums we headed into the mountains and stayed a night in Cheongju where we ate the black chicken and Phil rode in the sex chair!! We went to this fairy tale castle looking hotel that had free porn, condoms, male desensitizing jelly and a dental apparatus looking sex chair that you had to feed money into!! Of course we had to try it and Phil took a bit of a ride that we have on video file for anyone who would like to see it. Well worth the price of the room I assure you.

After the sex chair there was really nothing left that could top it, so we all went back to Seoul and spent a couple of days shopping, drinking and poking around.

Korea was great, but we were bound for the Great White North and left for Vancouver on the 15th of January.

 

See you when we see you

 

Jay and Chery