This past weekend Stu superbly planned a roadtrip around the province, so I jumped at the chance to travel around taking pictures. We all met in Gwang-ju where Stu had rented a mini-van, and set out from there on Saturday morning. Our first stop was some sort of train station/ traditional drama set/ theme park. 
After this we drove through the mountains to Jirisan, a very popular mountain in Korea, and where there are also some bears being raised to populate the mountain because most of them have been wiped out.
Then as we were driving around, what did we see? A big gang of hardcore Korean bikers!! I didn't think they existed in Korea!! Stereotypically Koreans are far too reserved to be into motorcycles and leather!! So Stu stopped the van and we all approached cautiously, wanting photos; in no time we were all arm in arm getting our pictures taken with these friendly bikers, and they were equally enthusiastic with their cameras! Sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am just as big of a novelty to others here as they are to me! At the same stop was an old ajumma that we bought icecream from. I was the first one to approach her, so she was very inquistive. She was stroking my arm, then my leg (I was wearing a skirt). Without words, she was able to say "Damn! You foreigners have hairy arms! And you shave your legs?? Weird!!!" As has become very evident from visiting saunas, Korean ladies don't shave their legs (or anything else... have I gone too far again?).
After this we drove through the mountains to Jirisan, a very popular mountain in Korea, and where there are also some bears being raised to populate the mountain because most of them have been wiped out.Then as we were driving around, what did we see? A big gang of hardcore Korean bikers!! I didn't think they existed in Korea!! Stereotypically Koreans are far too reserved to be into motorcycles and leather!! So Stu stopped the van and we all approached cautiously, wanting photos; in no time we were all arm in arm getting our pictures taken with these friendly bikers, and they were equally enthusiastic with their cameras! Sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am just as big of a novelty to others here as they are to me! At the same stop was an old ajumma that we bought icecream from. I was the first one to approach her, so she was very inquistive. She was stroking my arm, then my leg (I was wearing a skirt). Without words, she was able to say "Damn! You foreigners have hairy arms! And you shave your legs?? Weird!!!" As has become very evident from visiting saunas, Korean ladies don't shave their legs (or anything else... have I gone too far again?).I believe our next big stop was Suncheon to watch a Gumdo tournament. It's some sort of Taekwondo like sport, but with samurai-esque swords and lots of stomping around. Only the black belts get REAL swords, all of the other levels have wooden ones.
After dinner at The Outback in Suncheon we headed out to Boesong and checked into a love motel for some rest. The next day we were up bright and early to see the Boesong Tea Plantation, which was awesome! The green tea plants are in rows all the way up mountains.
From Boesong it was on to Wando via two ferry's. After a while on the beach we'd run out of time so Stu had to take us back to Gwang-ju so he could take back the car in time. It was nice to see more of Korea. The best part was driving along country roads seeing all the mountains, rice fields and old ajummas!!! The final picture: the group of us that went on the roadtrip.
1 comment:
Awesome pictures Cathy, especially liked the tough biker gang.
MOM
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