I have delayed in writing this post in order to properly look back at it in good humour, without breaking down in tears. Not really, but the following post details a long weekend with loads of friends, which went quite wrong and ended in horror for Nick and Nat. Financially speaking. But we had fun, honest. 
We spent the two weeks or so leading up to the long weekend in celebration of Buddha's birthday (he's about 2500 years old or something. That's older than Jesus! Wow.) trying to decide where we were going to go camping. This was complicated by the fact that practically everyone we know in Korea wanted to go, but to different places. Eventually we manaed to sort out our plan - we were going to camp on Gosapo beach (one of the sites we camped last year) with Nick, Nat, Nat's brother Daniel and their friends Steph, Danny and Dave from Dangjin on Thursday night, then meet a group of our Gwangju friends at Mokpo to catch a 3 hour ferry to Uido - a secluded island Lokhee had visited a few years ago - where we would camp for 2 nights, unless the forecasted rain came, in which case just for one night before heading back to Gwangju. I shall spare you the fine detail of the arguments and discussions, but suffice it to say we lost a few members of the group in this plan. Nevertheless, we ended up with a group of about 19 for the Uido part of the trip. That's lots!
By the time we got back to campsite it was getting a little dark and the campfire was going strong. We sat around drinking and chatting for a few hours (mostly listening to our friend Josh tell bizarre stories about being chased around by gangs, almost kidnapped by Mexican bandits and being attacked by a swarm of giant jellyfish), until it was suitably dark for us to get away with playing on the sand dune. A group of us (all male - the girls didn't seem that excited by our plans) climbed back up to the top and immediately dived down the other side, rolling all the way to the bottom. This was definitely way more fun that it really should be, considering our age range of between 22 and 30, so we did it 3 or 4 times, until the mouthfuls and eyes (and earfuls and pocketfuls etc etc) of sand were too much to take anymore. Good times. When we arrived back at the campsite again, 3 of the girls appeared from the sea carrying some huge fish that they claimed to have caught.
Some enterprising camper decided to clean and cook them. Most sensible people decided not to try it, but being brave and/or stupid, I thought I'd give it a go. It was pretty good and didn't make me sick, which was quite surprising considering we later found out they just found them dead in a net. Hm. The act of stealing these fish was surely the karmic basis for the rubbishness still to come. If you believe in that kind of thing. 
The following morning, said rubbishness started very early with strong winds and rain. Becky and I woke up around 6ish to discover our tent was less than waterproof. We tried to ride out the weather for a while, but it quickly became apparant that this was impossible. Puddles were forming. We decided the only option was to abandon tent and try to catch the 7am ferry off the island. I started running around frantically trying to bag up all our rubbish and wake everyone else up, while Becky started trying to get our sleeping bags and clothes etc into bags. The last person to wake up was Lokhee, who stuck her head out of her (completely waterproof) tent to say we couldn't get the 7am ferry as we had to buy tickets more than an hour in advance. Instead we'd have to wait until 4pm. We decided the next best option would be to sit in the minbaks, where we could get some food and stay out of the wind and rain, in hopes of the weather calming down and maing the rest of the day bearable. This was not to be. Instead the rain subsided occaisonally, just long enough to get our hopes up, before dashing them on the rocks with minbak-shaking winds and sideways rain. We remained in our little huts for the whole day, eating ramen noodles and attempting to entertain ourselves with silly games and jumping. The group had a temporary split, with half of us deciding to head back to Gwangju that afternoon, and the other half planning to stay on the island and hope for sunny weather the following day. This plan was abandoned when Lokhee discovered that the ferry company weren't planning on running any more ferrys, due to the horrendous weather. The 4pm was the last available, and the ferry company apparantly didn't really want to run that one either. This certainly didn't make the ferry ride any more appealing - I had visions of enormous waves and all of us being horribly seasick. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, despite having to sit next to the highly fragrant toilets and having to change boats after an hour. We got off the first ferry into hammering rain, only to discover that the boat we had to change to was going to leave from a different ferry port on the island. There were only 2 taxis, so most of us were left standing in the rain until we were able to squeeze on to a bus. At the second ferry port, we had to sit and wait for about an hour, during which Matt was acosted by a drunken Korean lady who seemed to be trying to sell him her children.
Eventually we made it back to Mokpo and our cars. Becky, Josh, Melissa and I got in faithful Ralphy, Nick, Nat and Dan got into Dolores, and Steph, Dave and Danny piled into... the other towner. I don't think it has a name. Towner 2 had a little trouble starting, but we eventually got moving and headed off to Gwangju. The rain was still unbelievably heavy. This problem, combined with the top speed for towners being about 20mph, made for a very long trip. But finally we arrived and checked into a motel. A few hours of drunken foolishness followed - the usual soju cocktails and karaoke, with an added bonus of me giving totally useless directions to people and getting them horribly lost in downtown Gwangju. Oops. We were also witness to a truly shocking fight outside one of the bars we visited - one participant was thrown head first into a car! Nasty. This was swiftly followed by a Korean man, who appeared to be dressed in the grey Buddhist outfit, walking down the street urinating all over the place. Luckily not onto us. 
We spent the two weeks or so leading up to the long weekend in celebration of Buddha's birthday (he's about 2500 years old or something. That's older than Jesus! Wow.) trying to decide where we were going to go camping. This was complicated by the fact that practically everyone we know in Korea wanted to go, but to different places. Eventually we manaed to sort out our plan - we were going to camp on Gosapo beach (one of the sites we camped last year) with Nick, Nat, Nat's brother Daniel and their friends Steph, Danny and Dave from Dangjin on Thursday night, then meet a group of our Gwangju friends at Mokpo to catch a 3 hour ferry to Uido - a secluded island Lokhee had visited a few years ago - where we would camp for 2 nights, unless the forecasted rain came, in which case just for one night before heading back to Gwangju. I shall spare you the fine detail of the arguments and discussions, but suffice it to say we lost a few members of the group in this plan. Nevertheless, we ended up with a group of about 19 for the Uido part of the trip. That's lots!
So, straight after work on Thursday, Becky and I went straight down to Gosapo to set up camp. We arrived quite a bit earlier than anybody else, so spent a while scrounging for wood so we could make a fire. Hopefully no-one else in Korea wants to go and make a fire there now, because we used all the wood. Becky made the fire while I supervised. I don't like making fires. Too much pressure. About a million hours later, everyone else arrived and we set about firing fireworks and drinking and generally having good times. 
The next morning we got up bright and early to make sure we could get to the ferry in time. Our convoy set off perfectly on time, and despite getting seperated en route, then getting slightly lost in Mokpo, we made it in plenty of time. After gathering a suitable number of beers and snacks for the trip and upsetting Koreans by being a large group of foreigners, we set off on the boat. It was much busier than when we went to Bigeumdo, but we managed to find space for all our gear and a few seats. This proved fortunate as the ferry ride turned out to be a little over 4 hours instead of 3.
Anyway. Lokhee had spent ages calling around and had found a man on the island who confirmed we could camp there, and would charge us a small fee to have access to showers and toilets as he ran a small minbak. He also promised to come meet us off the boat with his truck to transport all our gear to the campsite. When we eventually arrived, he was standing on the small stretch of road that passed for a port, with no truck. He assured us it wasn't far (which it wasn't really) so we followed him along the road carrying all our belongings. The campsite was right on the beach at the bottom of an enormous sand dune, which is apparantly some kind of national treasure and therefore is not supposed to be rolled or jumped on. Walking is ok though. Being the respectable grown ups we are, we firmly stuck to this rule. Sort of. More of that later. We set up camp, and once again set about finding firewood to keep us going for the remainder of the weekend. 
Daniel and I nominated ourselves to track down the little shop which was located somewhere on the island, so headed up the sand dune in the aforementioned respectable manner. We also went down the other side carefully and slowly, despite the steepness and enormous temptation to slide, roll, jump or otherwise make it more fun. The other side gave us a view across the bay to one of 2 very small groups of buildings on the island. They were too small to really be called villages, settlements might be more accurate. Anyway, we wandered about the tiny alleyways between the rundown houses, growing ever more dubious about the chances of finding a shop. This was a concern as we hadn't brought any water with us. Also nothing to mix with the rum that I'd brought. Eventually I saw a small sign in Korean that suggested there might be a shop. It was pointing at a building which appeared to be no more than a small house, or possibly a minbak for very, very small people. We tentatively walked into the small courtyard and asked the startled looking old Korean lady if there was a shop there in our best Korean ("Annyeonghaseyo... Mart? Mart-uh? Mart-euh? Neh? Ah, ok!"). She led us to a small room, about 6ft square, lined with small metal shelves, a kitchen fridge and the kind of fridge you find in small shops, which wasn't plugged in. The shelves were almost empty, so we cleaned out all the beer, water and lemonade available. Once we'd emptied the shop, we headed back towards our campsite and decided to ignore the advice of a helpful Korean man who suggested we should walk around the dune. Instead, we (literally) dragged our shopping up the very, very steep slope and collapsed at the top for a while. Then did some jumping.
The next morning we got up bright and early to make sure we could get to the ferry in time. Our convoy set off perfectly on time, and despite getting seperated en route, then getting slightly lost in Mokpo, we made it in plenty of time. After gathering a suitable number of beers and snacks for the trip and upsetting Koreans by being a large group of foreigners, we set off on the boat. It was much busier than when we went to Bigeumdo, but we managed to find space for all our gear and a few seats. This proved fortunate as the ferry ride turned out to be a little over 4 hours instead of 3.
Anyway. Lokhee had spent ages calling around and had found a man on the island who confirmed we could camp there, and would charge us a small fee to have access to showers and toilets as he ran a small minbak. He also promised to come meet us off the boat with his truck to transport all our gear to the campsite. When we eventually arrived, he was standing on the small stretch of road that passed for a port, with no truck. He assured us it wasn't far (which it wasn't really) so we followed him along the road carrying all our belongings. The campsite was right on the beach at the bottom of an enormous sand dune, which is apparantly some kind of national treasure and therefore is not supposed to be rolled or jumped on. Walking is ok though. Being the respectable grown ups we are, we firmly stuck to this rule. Sort of. More of that later. We set up camp, and once again set about finding firewood to keep us going for the remainder of the weekend. Daniel and I nominated ourselves to track down the little shop which was located somewhere on the island, so headed up the sand dune in the aforementioned respectable manner. We also went down the other side carefully and slowly, despite the steepness and enormous temptation to slide, roll, jump or otherwise make it more fun. The other side gave us a view across the bay to one of 2 very small groups of buildings on the island. They were too small to really be called villages, settlements might be more accurate. Anyway, we wandered about the tiny alleyways between the rundown houses, growing ever more dubious about the chances of finding a shop. This was a concern as we hadn't brought any water with us. Also nothing to mix with the rum that I'd brought. Eventually I saw a small sign in Korean that suggested there might be a shop. It was pointing at a building which appeared to be no more than a small house, or possibly a minbak for very, very small people. We tentatively walked into the small courtyard and asked the startled looking old Korean lady if there was a shop there in our best Korean ("Annyeonghaseyo... Mart? Mart-uh? Mart-euh? Neh? Ah, ok!"). She led us to a small room, about 6ft square, lined with small metal shelves, a kitchen fridge and the kind of fridge you find in small shops, which wasn't plugged in. The shelves were almost empty, so we cleaned out all the beer, water and lemonade available. Once we'd emptied the shop, we headed back towards our campsite and decided to ignore the advice of a helpful Korean man who suggested we should walk around the dune. Instead, we (literally) dragged our shopping up the very, very steep slope and collapsed at the top for a while. Then did some jumping.
By the time we got back to campsite it was getting a little dark and the campfire was going strong. We sat around drinking and chatting for a few hours (mostly listening to our friend Josh tell bizarre stories about being chased around by gangs, almost kidnapped by Mexican bandits and being attacked by a swarm of giant jellyfish), until it was suitably dark for us to get away with playing on the sand dune. A group of us (all male - the girls didn't seem that excited by our plans) climbed back up to the top and immediately dived down the other side, rolling all the way to the bottom. This was definitely way more fun that it really should be, considering our age range of between 22 and 30, so we did it 3 or 4 times, until the mouthfuls and eyes (and earfuls and pocketfuls etc etc) of sand were too much to take anymore. Good times. When we arrived back at the campsite again, 3 of the girls appeared from the sea carrying some huge fish that they claimed to have caught.
Some enterprising camper decided to clean and cook them. Most sensible people decided not to try it, but being brave and/or stupid, I thought I'd give it a go. It was pretty good and didn't make me sick, which was quite surprising considering we later found out they just found them dead in a net. Hm. The act of stealing these fish was surely the karmic basis for the rubbishness still to come. If you believe in that kind of thing. The following morning, said rubbishness started very early with strong winds and rain. Becky and I woke up around 6ish to discover our tent was less than waterproof. We tried to ride out the weather for a while, but it quickly became apparant that this was impossible. Puddles were forming. We decided the only option was to abandon tent and try to catch the 7am ferry off the island. I started running around frantically trying to bag up all our rubbish and wake everyone else up, while Becky started trying to get our sleeping bags and clothes etc into bags. The last person to wake up was Lokhee, who stuck her head out of her (completely waterproof) tent to say we couldn't get the 7am ferry as we had to buy tickets more than an hour in advance. Instead we'd have to wait until 4pm. We decided the next best option would be to sit in the minbaks, where we could get some food and stay out of the wind and rain, in hopes of the weather calming down and maing the rest of the day bearable. This was not to be. Instead the rain subsided occaisonally, just long enough to get our hopes up, before dashing them on the rocks with minbak-shaking winds and sideways rain. We remained in our little huts for the whole day, eating ramen noodles and attempting to entertain ourselves with silly games and jumping. The group had a temporary split, with half of us deciding to head back to Gwangju that afternoon, and the other half planning to stay on the island and hope for sunny weather the following day. This plan was abandoned when Lokhee discovered that the ferry company weren't planning on running any more ferrys, due to the horrendous weather. The 4pm was the last available, and the ferry company apparantly didn't really want to run that one either. This certainly didn't make the ferry ride any more appealing - I had visions of enormous waves and all of us being horribly seasick. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, despite having to sit next to the highly fragrant toilets and having to change boats after an hour. We got off the first ferry into hammering rain, only to discover that the boat we had to change to was going to leave from a different ferry port on the island. There were only 2 taxis, so most of us were left standing in the rain until we were able to squeeze on to a bus. At the second ferry port, we had to sit and wait for about an hour, during which Matt was acosted by a drunken Korean lady who seemed to be trying to sell him her children.
Eventually we made it back to Mokpo and our cars. Becky, Josh, Melissa and I got in faithful Ralphy, Nick, Nat and Dan got into Dolores, and Steph, Dave and Danny piled into... the other towner. I don't think it has a name. Towner 2 had a little trouble starting, but we eventually got moving and headed off to Gwangju. The rain was still unbelievably heavy. This problem, combined with the top speed for towners being about 20mph, made for a very long trip. But finally we arrived and checked into a motel. A few hours of drunken foolishness followed - the usual soju cocktails and karaoke, with an added bonus of me giving totally useless directions to people and getting them horribly lost in downtown Gwangju. Oops. We were also witness to a truly shocking fight outside one of the bars we visited - one participant was thrown head first into a car! Nasty. This was swiftly followed by a Korean man, who appeared to be dressed in the grey Buddhist outfit, walking down the street urinating all over the place. Luckily not onto us.
The following morning we did a little shopping and had some tasty food before we departed for our respective homes. Steph's towner once again struggled with starting and we had to call out a mechanic to come and fix things up. Luckily, that didn't take too long and we were soon under way. Not for long! Josh and Melissa had to get back to Wonju, which is just east of Seoul, but all the buses were sold out. After pointing the towners in the direction of the highway, Becky and I attempted to help Josh and Melissa figure out another way home. In the end, they decided to stay in Gwangju and go for an early morning bus back to Wonju - Josh had to do a presentation at his university at 3 o'clock Monday afternoon!
20 minutes later, Becky and I were getting onto the highway, joking about how likely it was that we would pass the slow moving towners enroute. This proved to be unfortunately prophetic. Less than 10 miles out of Gwangju we saw Dolores puttering along. I wound down my window to shout some friendly abuse and give them a wave, but could immeadietly hear their engine was stuggling somewhat. And if I can hear engine trouble, it must be bad. They pulled over not much further down the road, so we joined them and Nick told us they'd just lost all acceleration. We decided the best plan would be to come off at the next exit and find a mechanic. This plan was thwarted when they couldn't get it to start again. Luckily Nick and Nat have very friendly Korean colleagues who called a tow truck which arrived very speedily. After a brief moment of terror when the tow truck driver appeared to be attempting to reverse his truck down the extremely fast moving dual carriageway, we followed the truck to the nearest town. 10 minutes later, one of the mechanics walked into the waiting room, said "Engine..." and held up his arms in an X. Not a good sign. After a few calls back and forth between Nick, their co-teacher and the mechanic, it became clear that the engine was totally dead and would cost around 2million won to replace. More than the value of the car. The only realistic option was to sell it for scrap. With heavy hearts we emptied the towner and somehow managed to fit everything into our car, along with Nick, Nat and Dan. While we were loading the car up, I heard a horrible screech of tires and spun around just in time to see a small truck crash into a little Kia. Nick and I sprinted over to check the passengers were ok, which luckily they were, especially considering the whole wing of the Kia seemed to have disappeared. Fortunately there were lots of Koreans about to deal with things, as our communication skills are somewhat limited! We had a very odd drive home, with all of us dangerously close to becoming hysterical. This is entirely the fault of the car toad. We finally arrived at our apartment 6 hours after leaving Gwangju. The wonderful co-teacher had figured out a way for our refugees to get back to Dangjin in time for work in the morning, so we collapsed and ate pizza. If only our schools were as helpful (but that is a matter for another post).
I've attempted to keep this as brief as possible, as if I were to put in all the detail it would have to be a stand alone novel. Hopefully I've managed to convey the amount of stress we were subjected to though! We did manage to have quite a lot of fun in there too. All part of the excitement of being in Korea I suppose. At least no-one ended up in hospital! That won't happen for at least another two blog posts...
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