This past weekend Adam, Sam and I rented a car an took a bit of an excursion up the east coast of Korea. We were fortunate to have been able to see many of rural Korea's natural wonders and cultural peculiarities.

We left Busan around 11:00 pm on Friday after having gone through a great deal of confusion with the rental company. It seems that it is typical for an employee of rental company to be absent from his lot when customers are scheduled to pick up their vehicle. Well we got the car and had to grab some gas on the way out of town only to realize that the car did not run on gasoline but rather on something called "LPG". I am not sure what the acronym stands for exactly but I imagine it is something to the tune of Liquefied Petroleum Gas. From what I understand this type of fuel is common in appliances but I have never seen it used in a car before. Once we figured this out we were off to the highway. We drove for a few hours before landing in a town called Pohang. We pulled up to the first motel we could find and opted to get a room. For those of you not familiar with the Korean hotel system you have to understand that "Hotels" are for the extremely rich or vacationing Westerners, the rest of us get to stay in motels. Now these motels are very hit or miss, some can be classy with nice beds, flat screen TV's, computers, the works. Others can be dingy, disgusting and often double as mob hangouts. Anyways, we pulled up to the first one we could find and paid $60 between the three of us for a room with two beds. Not expecting much was a good sign because when we got up to our room we were surprised to see a well-kept, semi-luxurious room. To top it off, the next morning we were able to watch Hockey Night in Canada! This was a true perk since I have not been able to watch a live hockey game since being here. Glorious.

We hit the road early on Saturday (after watching the Pens v Caps game) and started driving north along scenic highway 7. Adam grew board of the highway after a short while so he opted to take some side roads. This practice continued throughout our trip and often lead to some pretty hilarious situations and miraculous finds. The first of which was a bombed out beach with a make-shift army base on it. Regardless, it was the ocean and it was time for a swim. Afterward we got back in the car and drove down yet another dirt road only to encounter an entire company of soldiers going for a hike through the mountains. Armed to the teeth and looking less than happy to see three white guys flying down back country roads and listening to Bedouin, we decided to turn around. Take a look at my video on Facebook. We got back on the highway and drove for a while before opting to check out some mountain called Beacon hill. This mountain has a giant flare on the top of it that has been preserved since the early Jeoson period (1304-1910 ish). It was to be lit if the keeper noticed Japanese invading the nearby village. This flare would then signal another beacon on another mountain which would then signal another and so on all the way to Seoul. If you have ever read/seen Lord of the Rings, it is the same sort of system they use to warn the riders of Rohan (I think). Once again, I have a video on Facebook. Afterward we decided to check out the nearby town (in the background of the previous photo) and ended up wandering through a construction site and an abandoned military watch post to a beautiful, secluded beach. It wasn't easy getting here since we had to climb up and over huge seaside bluffs, barbed wire and shards of glass cemented to the stones, but we made it and it was well worth it. The sea was angry and frigged that day but that didn't stop us from jumping off cliffs and diving into its salty embrace. Back in the car we drove for another little while before stopping for dinner at a crab restaurant and opting to eat on an unopened deck. Now this was an interesting experience. We ordered three crabs and the woman at the shop let us pick them out of the tank. She boiled them and brought them over to us and proceeded to tear them apart with her bare hands. She gave us the legs and all the joints to pick apart which was delicious. But when it came time for rice they were served to us in the shell of the crab, mixed in with all its innards, brains and all. While I did in fact eat it I do have soju to thank for the inspiration and courage haha. After we finished the shops owner sat down with us and we (Adam) had a simple yet quality conversation. He asked us where we were from, what we were doing here, how the crabs were and how we liked his new deck. Either way, it was a good chat and afterward we got back in the car and drove for a little while longer up to Uljin. Once in town we spotted some foreigners and stopped to ask them if they knew a good place to stay or a good pub to go too. Well they wouldn't have any of it. The group of them were bikers from America (with the exception of a Newfy who was fairly friendly) and despite inviting us to have a beer with them I thought they were quite arrogant and exceptionally ignorant. We got out of there pretty quickly, found ourselves a nearby motel and hit one of the three bars in town for some food and drinks.

The next morning we woke up fairly late and were a little reluctant to get back on the road and head home but Adam managed to motivate us just enough to get us into the car. We decided to take a different route home which took us to the interior of Korea through an absolutely gorgeous national park and through Andong, the closest thing you will find to a cottage town here in Korea. Within our first 3 hours of driving we managed to only travel a total of 90 kms. We were stopping all along the way to appreciate the sheer beauty of the park and of course, to swim. We ended up swimming in a mountain stream and were cliff diving into its crisp, clean water. Passing motorists were stopping and taking photos of the crazy foreigners jumping off cliffs into the water. To us it did not seem like that big of a deal but to most Koreans who can't swim and are terrified of being three feet off the ground it seemed as though we were about to plunge to our deaths! We were reluctant to leave but alas we had to get back on the road. We stopped at various parks and scenic look outs along the way to take in the majestic granite slabs that littered the hillsides and protruded from the peaks of mountains. It truly was breath taking. We also stopped at one of the few lakes in Korea. Its "boat launch" was in complete chaos with SUV's and Van's flying every which way trying to get their boats in and out of the water. Many of them became stuck in the soft sand surrounding the waters edge and were struggling to get out. It was painful to watch one after another get stuck. You think there would be a lesson learned here, but there wasn't. To make matters worse all the drivers were running their boats and trailers into one another which would arguably cause some disputes. Something worth knowing is that unlike most Canadians, Koreans will choose one sport (often before even trying it) and dedicate themselves to it completely. They will buy the nicest equipment, all the appropriate clothes and gear, and live and breath the sport. This is why you see so many great Asian golfers, they practice all day and do not deviate from their routine. So as with the boats at the lake, all the boats were literally brand new decked out fishing boats with 350 horse Mercs that probably cost the same as a house in Canada. As such, sport fishing is a real luxury sport so it is easy to understand why the lake was so crowded and why so many people were angry at one another. After this interesting and enlightening break we got back on the highway and headed home, stopping for dinner just outside of Andong. We got back to Busan just after 9:00 pm and bid farewell to the Sonata that served us so well during our journey and thus concluding our amazing adventure up the east coast of Korea. Check out the map below, click on the blue bubbles for location information. And as always, check out my photos of the trip on my Picasa.