Back in Korea with mum and dad

We arrived back at Incheon about 5 minutes before mum and dad, and successfully met up at arrivals. After a bit of lunch, we got on the coach and headed to Gwangju. The usually pleasant bus trip was somewhat ruined by a man in front of us constantly snorting and hocking up phlegm. We arrived in Gwangju and sat outside eating ice cream while Alan picked up our good-as-new laptop and then went back to the apartment and out for the local Galbi. Not quite as fancy as the restaurants we had become accustomed to in Beijing but very delicious!

The next day was my birthday, so I did something really fun and went to work! Mum and dad entertained themselves and met us at 9 when we finished. We got into taxis and went to Sangmu for some Vietnamese food. I'm sorry dad but I have to tell this story...We were walking into the building and I may have distracted dad with something interesting when I suddenly heard a huge bang. I turned around to see that dad had walked straight into the glass wall. For a split second everything seemed OK and then we saw the blood! A bit of panic and a confusing phone call later, we were in an ambulance and hurtling around the corner to Sangmu hospital. Where slightly differently from England, dad was x-rayed, stitched up, bandaged, drugged and jabbed in about an hour. So quickly that we still had time to grab some take-away and have a bit of a birthday meal at home. Mum and I got through the whole ordeal without getting a spot of blood on our fancy clothes (dad thinks this shows how much we cared). Unfortunately dad couldn't wear his glasses over the big bandage which had us all a bit worried that he might walk into something else.

The next couple of days were spent with us at work while mum and dad explored. At the weekend we decided to hire a car which wasn't as scary as we thought it might be (and has now inspired another decision), despite anyone not driving doing a lot of backseat driving. We drove to Wando, an island off the South coast (where Alan and I went when we first arrived in Korea) and stayed again in the big, strange hotel on the hill. The pebble beach was still lovely and almost deserted apart from the park ranger who recognised us from last time and was so excited that we'd visited twice, that he had brought a cameraman along so that he could give us a painful interview in very broken English. Me and mum were desperate for a swim so we drove to the other side of the island to a huge sandy beach which had also been deserted on our previous trip. Unfortunately August is beach month in Korea and this time it was packed with Koreans covered from head to toe and sitting under parasols to protect themselves from the sun. The water was very nice though so we had a swim and made a quick escape. Downtown we managed to find a fish restaurant with outdoor seating and ate a very nice fish soup.

On Sunday we made our way slowly back to Gwangju, stopping at Wolchulsan for a Kimbap picnic and a walk around a lovely lake, and then at a beautiful Buddhist temple where we walked along a little nature trail and I bought some pottery for Katy.

On Monday I had a day off work and so me, mum and dad went to Damyang to see the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest was OK and we also somehow ended up on an old film set which was quite interesting. Next we drove to the nearby national park and stopped for an outdoor lunch of Bibimbap at a lovely little restaurant. Unfortunately we arrived at the national park to discover that it was closed due to a landslide, from what we could understand. However we drove around for a little while and found the entrance to another park and mountain. We walked along the river and saw some really impressive waterfalls. Me and mum also managed to swim in a lovely clear pool, so everything turned out well in the end.

We did a few other things, including a visit to the market where mum and dad got the ultimate Korean experience of seeing dog meat. We also managed to go back to the Vietnamese restaurant and actually have a meal (after studying the glass wall we decided that it really is difficult to see). We've just found out that mum and dad will be back in April to do it all again at a slightly more relaxed pace with hopefully a few less injuries.

Beijing

At the end of July we were given 4 days holiday which including the weekend gave us a total of 6 whole days of freedom… wow! The holiday began rather stressfully with a broken laptop and our flights seeming to have vanished from anywhere official (leading us to believe that we had perhaps bought fake tickets). However with phone calls all over the world, the problems were eventually sorted and we were up at 4am the next day to head to Incheon and board our flight to China.

We were both feeling a little bit snuffly but tried desperately to conceal this as we passed through the swine flu inspections and thankfully we must have kept cool enough not to alert the men at the body heat monitors, as they stamped our forms and waved us through. We waited to meet mum and dad and tried to convince ourselves that we could tell the difference between Korean and Chinese people. We met up with mum, dad and Craig in Craig’s car and were whisked away to Beijing. After a quick welcome drink at Craig and Julia’s Alan and I went to meet the wonderful driver Jacky who was to taxi us around for our entire visit. He took us to our hostel in the hutongs which was amazing. A traditional courtyard building with cats everywhere. We slept in the biggest bed I have ever seen and were even given muesli for breakfast, which after a year without was very exciting.

That night we met up with the others and went to an amazing Peking duck restaurant, again in a traditional courtyard building, though this one was somewhat grander than our hostel. I could quite easily spend this whole blog listing the spectacular food that we had in Beijing but that might be rather boring so I’ll just say that Craig and Julia made sure that we were constantly well-fed at the best of Beijing’s restaurant and it was very nice to have hosts who plan their days as much around food as we do.

The following morning Jacky picked us up and took us to meet the others at the silk market for a bit of shopping Chinese style. Initially we were a bit overwhelmed by all the sales pitches and the prospect of having to bargain. It was no problem though as we were lucky enough to have Julia doing the bargaining and therefore paid far less for everything. By the end of the trip we weren’t doing a bad job ourselves and came away with jewelery, carvings and paintings. After another delicious meal Craig took us on a boat trip along the river to the summer palace. All along the river there were people bravely fishing and swimming. The Beijing river couldn't even tempt mum in for a swim on a hot August day, which is really saying something. The summer palace was a beautiful sight. The lake was crammed full of lotuses and people were selling the seed pods as a refreshing snack. We walked around for a long time looking at all the extravagant buildings and then tried to find our way to the back gate. This was a little more complicated than expected and we got a bit lost, which wasn't altogether a bad thing as it led us to some really beautifully neglected areas of the palace that we would otherwise not have seen.

The following day was the great wall! Jacky picked us up and took us first to the ming tombs. We then made our way along the winding road to the Great Wall and almost immediately started catching little glimpses of it. I would probably have appreciated this more if I hadn't started feeling extremely sick, and by the time we arrived at the wall I had to run out of the car and throw up... not quite on the actual wall but still one of the more impressive places that I've been sick. We tried to explain to Jacky that we wanted some lunch and after a bit of confusion he disappeared for a while and returned with KFC. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind for our meal at The Great Wall of China, but we ate it politely and it gave us the needed fuel for our hike up the wall. When we got up on the wall we decided to go in the opposite direction from the crowd which proved to be a wise choice as after about half an hour of walking we had the wall almost completely to ourselves. Just us and an extremely posey couple (they must have been Korean).

The next morning we headed for Tianaman square and the Forbidden City. The crowds were out in force and as we queued to get in we wondered whether it would really be worth battling with the throng of umbrella wielding Chinese tourists, however once we pushed our way through the first gate and turned away from the main path we actually found some quite peaceful courtyards and some really beautiful buildings. That evening we went back to a hostel and had a nice beer in the courtyard, surrounded by the hostel cats and then went for a Chinese Shabu Shabu. A pot of boiling water to which we added lamb, beef and all kinds of vegetables. After dinner Alan and I went for a walk around the area with a vague and fruitless aim of finding H&M.

Our last day in Beijing was spent first at the temple of heaven and then in the Hutong district, eating more delicious food, looking at the lovely little shops and cycling around this lovely area on tandems. I am a huge fan of tandems now. Sitting on the back I was able to look around and take pictures without having to worry about steering and neither of us had to work as hard to keep the bike moving. We ended with a beer on the roof of a hutong before heading to an incredible old courtyard house which had been converted into a restaurant. The food was wonderful and we were also entertained by dancers and singers while we ate. A very very busy 5 days!