South Korea in Summary

Now that we are back stateside, I feel a need to chronicle our final adventurous days.  Beware: this is going to be a long one!  I have broken it into sections, so scroll down to the section that may interest you specifically.  There you have it: my caveat. 

Our Reflection in City Art Along Anneliese's Street

  

THE CHALLENGES OF EATING CONTINUED...
 

I am happy to report that our GI systems reached a symbiotic relationship with the local microbes.  The battle was won, but that being said, the war to find things to eat was an ongoing feud.  

Eating Mussels

Food in Korea is fascinating!  There is something to be assumed I am sure about a culture that has no distinction between what food is eaten at different meals - kimchi and noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Also something to be said about a culture where ovens do not exist.  Fry much?
 

Dumplings for Lunch!!!

I am happy to try just about anything, and throughout my world travels I have been hard pressed to find a culture where I don't like anything.  Korea has impressed me, I can passionately report that Korean food does not settle well.

Historically I have found that eating street food is the best bet when traveling - it's fun, entertaining and often the best and cheapest food to be found.  Korea is different.  The street food is all fried and generally unappealing.  I did try Hoddeuk, a fried dough filled with cinnamon sugar and rolled in nuts.  Its tasty - but a ticking gut bomb. Brandon neglected to partake - probably a wise decision on his part.

Frying Hoddeuk

Poor Brandon spent the trip even more weary of food since his near death experience.  He tends to eat the things he recognizes and that smell ok.  Korean food does not smell ok.  But we managed and subsisted on a balance between scouting out American food and timidly trying new things.   Gorilla Burger - a decent joint downtown fulfilled his needs and this meal was perhaps the happiest he was.  Its reasonable for American food - and the portions are HUGE!  2 burgers fed the 2 of us til we popped and was Anneliese 's dinner (we took the rest home).  We also discovered decent pizza at Mr. Pizza.  Interesting, Mr. Pizza's motto is "Made for Women" yet another idiosyncrasy that I don't entirely understand.

BBQ Burger at Gorilla Burger

But we also sought out the Korean and indulged in cultural experiences, for example Bondaegi.  For your entertainment....the tasting of Bondaegi - fried silk worm larvae.  They are crunchy and salty and have the unfortunate tendency to get stuck between your teeth.  yummy. 

NO PHOTOGRAPHS ALLOWED: The Trip to the Jimjilbong (Korean Bathhouse)

Anneliese and I spent a morning in the jimjilbong, or Korean bathhouse.  It was an incredible experience - one that I would recommend to anyone who visits Korea.  When you enter the bathhouse you are given a pair of big shorts and a big t-shirt.  You promptly remove your shoes - then all of your clothing.

There are 2 parts of the bathhouse - downstairs is a gender separated shower room.  Here women come to get as clean as humanly possible.   Well as clean as you can be without any sterilization processes (I chose not to think too much about it). There are tubs of water of varying temperatures (freezing to HOT), showers you stand under, showers you sit in front of, basins for splashing water, removable shower heads to get all those hard to get places.

The entire place is filled with naked women trying to get clean - scrubbing.  You can also pay to have a professional scrub down.  I neglected to do this, something about a middle-aged Korean woman in hot pink lacy panties scrubbing my skin from my body in the name of vain beauty wasn't too motivating - call me bashful.  Anneliese, and her co-workers swear by this treatment, stating that their skin was so smooth in the end.  Personally - not interested. 

It was very cool to see women of all ages together, scrubbing.  Little girls, teenage girls, middle aged women, elderly women.  Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, old friends, young friends, and then the two Americans.  The two Americans not scrubbing.

The upstairs is a series of saunas.  Varying again in temperature from cool (the 'ice' room) to HOT (68C or 154F).  There is a pine room, herb room, clay room, salt room, and in all of them you nap.  Its a culture of sleeping.  That being said, there are also separate male and female bedrooms (dark with padded floors) and the jimjilbong is open 24 hours a day.  If I was younger, singler, and traveling - this is where I would sleep at night.  There are several restaurants near the nap rooms and it is the safest place in the city (they strip you to your naked self and give you pj's for the night). 

GATBAWI 

We did do some "cultural" excursions while in Daegu, one of the highlights was a trek up to Gatbawi.  Gatbawi is a large Buddha carved from granite on top of a mountain.  Its a serious uphill walk to reach the thousand plus stairs to reach the summit.  The number of stairs is undetermined - local lore says there are 1700.  The number chalked onto some of the steps is roughly 1300.  We didn't bother counting.

The start of the steps

This temple has quite the draw as it is believed that this Buddha hears and answers at least one prayer a day.   We were the only foreign people on the hike, and were rewarded by wonderful prayer at the top.

Buddha peaking from behind the rocks

Getting to the temple is an easy bus ride from downtown area.  Its the best as it will pick you up at the subway station by a large bridge with an odd sculpture (hard to miss), and Gatbawi is the last stop on the route.  It's hard to mess this one up, even when you can't read or speak the language. 

That is our trip in highlighted summary.  We are now back in Broomfield, facing the realities that are this life.  I already want to get back on an airplane, I've heard Bangladesh is beautiful this time of year.  Brandon is happy to be ice climbing again.  We are both grateful for an oven.