Gojeh Island etc. 

Gojeh Island etc.

Two weekends ago I visited Gojeh Island with some friends. It took about two and a half hours to drive there. It was cloudy, rainy and cool. Perhaps not the best of days for this trip, but I was looking forward to it nevertheless.

Gojeh Island is rugged, and beautiful. Some parts of it remind me of Nova Scotia. As far as I know, Gojeh is famous for two things:

1) A POW Camp which housed Chinese and North Korean prisoners during the Korean War
2) Daewoo Shipbuilding yard which has the world's largest crane.

First we went to the POW Camp. There are buildings scattered on the property where the camp used to be, and you walk from building to building to see exhibits on various aspects of the War, and of camp life. I couldn't help thinking of my step-father who served in Korea for Canada. He didn't like to discuss his time here in Korea, so I have no idea where in the country he was stationed. I'm going to find out and when I do, I'm going there to raise a glass to him. Koreans are very, very grateful to people like him who came so far from their own homes and families to help.













There were some nice, very information filled exhibits, some nice vintage aircraft, and other vehicles. Many of the buildings themselves were interesting...one was shaped like a soldier's helmet, and another looked like a tank.

After touring the camp for a couple of hours we drove to the police station. One of my friend's is married to the deputy police chief of Gojeh Island. We had a brief tour of the police station and then he drove us all to the Daewoo shipyard. I was told that the tour of the shipyard is usually reserved only for visiting heads of state, but since our host held such an important position on the island, we got a private tour.

It is a pretty impressive facility! It's so big that it's really a city all to itself. Over twenty thousand people work there and many of them are foreigners from all over the world. They build all sorts of ships and submarines there. I was impressed!







Of course we saw the world's largest crane doing it's thing. I'm pretty sure I saw that crane on an episode of "Amazing Machines" or something like that, on TLC in Canada. The crane is huge and moves on rails from one place to another.

One more thing...while on Gojeh ... my host took me and my friend to a restaurant and ordered what is considered to be a delicacy here, Nakji. It's a real 'man's man' kind of thing. It's also expensive and a sign that he likes me, but I wish he had saved his money and given me a peanut butter sandwich instead.

We sit down and the waitress brings out a wok sort of thing and puts it on the burner in the middle of the table. It's filled with large shrimp and vegetables. Korean eat the most incredible assortment of plants and grasses. They eat things I never would have thought of eating before coming here. They also seem to know a great deal about what's good for you, what's good for different problems etc. Anyway, so far so good. The waitress then brings out the usual assortment of side dishes, i.e. kimchi, dried anchovies etc. It's all good.

But, then she brings out two large, live squid. She puts the poor things into the boiling wok in front of us. The squid take sincere offence to being scalded, and quite sensibly try to wriggle their way out of the boiling liquid. But, their tormentor, the waitress, is there with a wooden spoon to prevent their escape. After a minute or so, they stop wriggling. They're left to cook for 10-15 minutes. Then, the waitress comes around with a large pair of scissors and starts cutting the squid into pieces, some large, some smaller. The heads are left intact.

My host takes my bowl and starts filling it with stuff including a squid's head. I really wasn't thrilled about eating this at all, but I sure as hell wasn't going to eat the head! I put it back in the wok. My friend happily picked it out and ate it. Nakji is thought to give a person stamina, and by that I think they mean mostly sexual stamina. Not much good to me right now.

I told some of my Korean friends about this, and they didn't understand why I didn't like it. They just love it!! Good thing I brought Eno with me!!

I went to a fortune teller last weekend. I found out that my lunar birthday is December 14, 1959. That means my Korean age is 48. Oh, joy! I'll try to explain (feel free to nod off if you want)...

- I was born January 12, 1960 at 8:30pm
- That would have been 6:30am on January 12, 1960 in Korea
- My lunar sign should be the rat since 1960 was the year of the rat. But, the year of the rat didn't start till January 28, 1960. So, my birthday falls in the year of the Pig which was 1959.
- The lunar birthday is one month before the solar birthday. So, that brings us to December 1959. How they got from the 12th to the 14th I'm not sure.
- Finally, since Koreans start counting from 1, then being born in 1959 would make me 48.

Oh joy!

A minor change of plan, well, maybe not so minor. A friend of mine knows of a place where I can get my horse fix and it's only about an hour away from here. Yeah! That was my main reason for wanting to go to Cheju-Do Island. So, instead of going to there I'm going to spend 4 or 5 days living like a monk in a buddhist temple and learning about
buddhism. I've been curious about that for a long time. I don't really have a religion, but if I did, it would probably be buddhism.

Then if I can earn my black belt in Taekwondo or Hapkido, and get to visit as many different places in Korea as possible, then this will have been a very, very full, and well rounded experience.

Last weekend I went to a natural doctor for this pinched nerve thing I have. She's a totally amazing 70 year old woman. She doesn't look to be more than 55 or 60 years old, and has the most incredible charisma. She did acupunture, cupping (where they put these cups on you, suck out all the air so it lifts the flesh. It leaves a nice welt and hurts a little. But, the purpose of it is to improve circulation. The traditional theory is that it brings the bad energy/blood to the surface. Then, for places in my shoulders where the welts were particularly dark, she picked me with a needle many times and then put the cup on and sucked out the air. Naturally the blood was sucked into the cup and it was very dark blood. Did it help? I'm not sure, but it didn't hurt, and I really think it does have long term benefits. Another thing I'm doing now is a 5 week process of intestinal cleaning. Two words...intestinal irrigation. Not pleasant, but also very healthy.

During the next 4 weeks I won't be eating at all on weekends. Plus I'm exercising regularly at the gym. I'm really trying to get in shape so that my body will be able to take the taekwondo or hapkido training.

When I'm done I'll be able to throw out most of the clothes I brought here (they won't fit anyway) and buy some nice new clothes here.

But, more importantly I'll be healthy in body, mind and spirit.

This has been and continues to be one of the very best things I've ever done in my life.

Last weekend I also went hiking with a friend in Changwon. My first real mountain hike! It was a beautiful day and we came across some rocks that I just had to photograph. I feel like there's something special about these rocks.




Changwon







Cultural Notes

I saw something I thought was pretty funny on tv yesterday morning. I was watching a kids show called 'ABC Bakery' (you know, for ideas) and they were doing short and long vowels. They did the long vowel sounds and then the short vowel sounds. Then, they combined the short vowel sounds with consonants, i.e. bab, beb, bib, bob, bub. No problem, right? Then, they did the same thing with 'm'...mam, mem, mim, mom, mum. Still okay, right? Finally, they used 't'...tat, tet, tit, tot, tut. Ahh, now you see it!

A children's show in Canada that put, 'tit' on the screen would very quickly be an off the air children's show.

One more thing along the same lines...while riding the bus or whatever I read Korean words here and there. The thing is though that they're not always Korean words. The words are written in Hangul (Korean characters) and I read the syllables one after another thinking I'm reading a Korean word when in fact it's English.

Here's an example. I was watching a movie on TV last week and the title was posted in the upper right hand of the screen. It was in Hangul and said, 'Poj ee tib ma i nduh'. I read it a few times before I realized that it said, 'Positive Mind'.

While waiting for a friend in Changwon I noticed an odd old woman walking with a basket full of whatever balanced on her head. She seemed to be walking comfortably, and didn't use her hands at all. That's a dying art I think. I've yet to see a young woman doing the same thing.

As I sat there waiting for my friend an old man walked by me. But, he was walking backwards. It looked strange. I suppose it was a form of exercise, but then again maybe he just wanted to see where he had been.

Young people don't balance things on their heads like their parents or grandparents, but just about everyone squats...kids, teens, adults, and the elderly. When waiting for a bus it's not uncommon to see someone squatting on the curb.

Just a couple more things...I bought a wood pillow from the traditional doctor. It's a traditional pillow here in Korea. It's about 2 inches off the ground and is a half circle that sits on the ground with a thin cushion over it (or not). The idea is that it supports the neck. When used used in combination with sleeping on the heated floor (ondol) is a great way to fix/maintain ones posture.

Finally, that bird I took pictures of at Changwon House and in other places is a 'magpie'.

Bye for now.
Take Care
Pierre