Yangyang

May 4/09...

Well, this morning was a bit slow, a lot of us aren't feeling too well, I think mostly a lack of sleep and strange food is catching up to us. Leaving the temple at 11am, we bussed to Yangyang, the last city on the Korean leg of our tour.

Due to a series of miscommunications and language problems, we ended up in Yangyang earlier than anticipated... our hosts had planned a very full day for us which we begged off of due to the group being so tired, but they neglected to arrange for our hotel to check us in earlier, so we were dropped off at a restaurant for lunch, which we didn't really want or enjoy sorry to say.

My digestive system was in minor revolt, nothing major just over-tired and getting sick of kimchi... so I had to use the facilities at this restaurant in a fair hurry. To my disappointment, the toilet was one of those Asian squat style jobbies, and to make matters worse (or more comical I suppose depending on who's reading and who's writing) the cubicle was barely larger than the squatter itself, the floor was wet and there was nowhere to hang my pants, so the entire process was awkward, messy & smelly... no pictures to upload here folks, you'll have to use your imagination and thank heaven for wet wipes!!

I usually have to pay more attention than the average bear to my digestive eliminatory needs, but with heads like this, I'll have to ensure my "shituational awareness" stays kicked into overdrive!

So... an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon in our hotels (which thankfully had very spacious rooms with modern Western-style toilets)... lots of laughs and although still tired, we were ready for the evening concert.

The bus picked us up and to my great delight our hosted supper was my very favourite Korean dish, bulgogi (Korean bbq beef), which I had not yet managed to eat! My guts were still not at 100% so I had to eat lightly, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

The concert hall was just around the corner from the restaurant and the show went well... the audience was somewhat reserved to start but by the end they had called us back to the stage for three encores.

Back to the hotel, feeling much better and ready to reconnect with my other Korean love Makoli, also known as Dongdongju, a Korean rice beverage, sort of beer, sort of wine, milky white, doesn't smell too good, but very enjoyable and smooth taste... sort of like starchy white wine. At around 10% alcohol, a couple litre bottles was enough for me to be feeling no pain that evening.

We hosted a party in our room, but then when folks started dispersing and Rick & Alex were ready for sleep, Greg and I wandered around to continue the party in anothe hotel room... charades were played, much laughter ensued. Bedtime for me was around 2:30am, not much sleep for a 7am breakfast and 8am departure for Incheon airport and Cambodia.