We arrived in Kangneung a little later than expected because Readon woke up late, and we were behind schedule by about two hours. One we arrived on the East coast, we made Seorak-san our main excursion for the day. Our first stop was some temple on the way to Yangyang. As you can see, I’m not good with remembering things.

[Check out the entire Flickr album HERE.]

After a short stop there, we made it to a small lighthouse on the coast. Lo and behold, what did we see along the path?!

A few years ago, a photographer snapped this photo of us at the Yangyang Salmon Festival, and it has been used ever since for advertisement for the festival.

We then took the backroads to some “famous” restaurant for lunch. By the looks of it, I’m on a dongdongju binge. By binge, I mean 2-3 cups.

Unfortunately, Ras didn’t fully understand what we were having for lunch. Cold noodle soup is actually one of the few Korean foods he dislikes. It tasted good, but I personally prefer hot soups too.

Outside the restaurant were beautiful rice fields. It’s harvest time.

I had forgotten my lens cap in the restaurant and ran back inside to retrieve it. While I was gone, Ras snapped this photo.

“Oh no! Raswan, watch out! The creepy serial killer in the back seat is about to slit your throat!!!!”

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The road trip to the coast was busy, but fun.  I got some good pictures and ate a lot - definitely the signs of a good trip.  I’ve chosen 100+ pictures and am ready to upload them to Flickr tomorrow.  For now, here’s the first place we stopped on our touristy road trip.

Last Sunday was spent in Songtan, at the Korean/American Friendship Festival… or was it Cultural Festival? I can’t remember. We were supposed to meet Greg, his wife, and her sister around noon. We drove down a little earlier to visit a tailor shop and get some things made. Ras put in an order for two pairs of pants, three dress shirts, and a shirt alteration for around 200,000 won. I also got a pair of dress pants made for 50,000 won, paying an extra 10,000 for better fabric. The price is comparable to buying something off the rack, but it’s tailored to fit you. Our order should be ready by the end of next week.

[View the entire pictures from the day HERE.]

After finding Greg, we immediately went to look for something to eat. Our first meal of the day would be Thai food. There wasn’t a big selection at the food tent we went to, but it was pretty good. They didn’t Koreanize the taste at all.

Our day can be summed up by this: eat, drink, walk, eat, drink, walk, eat, drink, drink, drink.

There were food and merchandise tents as far as the eye could see.

We took a break here because if you ordered the 2000 won pajeon, the dongdongju was free. How could you pass that up?

We also ate spicy hot wings, covered with Texas Pete hot sauce (the best sauce, as proclaimed by Mat and Ras). While the lady was making the wings, she accidentally broke the bottle of hot sauce. We were devastated, since it was the only reason we stopped under her food tent. Luckily, she had her son run out and get a new bottle. While eating our wings, we used about 1/4 of her new bottle.

It would not be a proper Korean festival, without half a pig roasting.

This looks so good! Especially the crispy butt to the left. A typical serving for two of this roasted pork runs 20,000 to 30,000 won. It’s delicious, but not cheap.

This is where we spent most of our time. It involved draft beer and people watching.

Around 2:00 pm yesterday, it started raining at the flea market, so Ras, Reardon, Kevin, Kevin’s girl Min-hee, and I made plans to escape from the liquid sunshine.  We decided to go have mussels and wine at La Cigale Montmartre in Itaewon.  We had all been there several times and knew it was a nice place to hang out for a little while.

In addition to mussels and wine, I also had a chocolate souffle.

( A little love for Kevin, who thinks I give preferential blogging time to Barry Bonds over him.)

Ras and I had lunch at the Homever Food Court yesterday and then made our way to the World Cup Stadium Flea Market at exactly noon. When we arrived there, things were well under way, and there were a ton of people already browsing. It seemed fun at first, but I quickly realized there were too many people to properly browse. Plus, most of the items were just junk. Of course a flea market will have used items, but most of the the items were things you wouldn’t want even if it was free. If I were to properly describe what it was like to be there, I’d say this: Imagine you’re at a Costco on a Sunday afternoon, and they were giving free samples of steak all day long! That’s what it was like being there - pushing and shoving by ajummas who didn’t care that they elbowed you out of the way to reach a pair of ugly shoes (circa 1985) first.

(The security guard is looking at buying wire cutters!)

There were even “super models” selling things for charity. Ummm, I don’t know… looks like false advertising to me. Sure, they could be models, but SUPER models? You’re telling me they’re on the same plain as Gisele!?! You be the judge.

I’m not saying it was a terrible event, but there were too many people for my liking. The newspaper reported 200,000 people showing up that day! I had no fighting chance.

The market in Seoul next to the World Cup Stadium was packed with a crowd of more than 200,000 thanks to cool weather and dry skies that prevailed from its opening at noon to around 3 p.m. The market was closed at 3 p.m., one hour earlier than planned, as rain started falling.

In Busan, Daejeon and Jeonju, the markets were held indoors due to rain and strong winds, but each attracted 30,000 to 40,000 shoppers.
Among the items donated by celebrities for auction at the market, a bike helmet signed by bicycling legend Lance Armstrong was sold for the highest bid, 1 million won ($1,077).

This was the third annual charity bazaar jointly organized by the JoongAng Ilbo and the city governments of Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, and Jeonju. Proceeds are donated to We Start, a charity foundation to provide educational opportunities to children in need. JoongAng Ilbo and corporations donated their entire proceeds.

Me and Pucca!

I did buy a 10,000 bottle of wine from New Zealand and a crock pot for 5,000. Ras got a 1000 won t-shirt from the 2002 World Cup that said: Shooting Korea! Make of that what you will. After 30 minutes of browsing, we drank my wine with Reardon (who had joined us by then) on the steps of the World Cup Amphitheater. We ended up watching some belly dance performances and a Korean music group while we waited for Kevin to show up.