Hanagae Beach

Going to Hanagae Beach with Angela was quite the adventure but more than anything, the two day/one night venture took my comfort level and run with it. My point will be quite evident when you see the pictures.

This was our new friend trying to explain to Angela where we were...or where he was going...it was difficult communicating with others.

This was a man we met back at the Incheon Airport. He saw the two of us flustered and in need of our bus. He approached us and offered to help. At first, I was bit nervous talking with him...he asked about our ages and where we were going so Angela did most of the talking. Later I discovered from Angela that asking about age and things was just customary. He asked to establish rank or hierarchy so that he could show respect accordingly. Lesson learned!

When I learned that he was a nice man, I took a picture of him so I could remember his kindness. Here, he is carrying his fishing rods, cooler and pack for a four day/three night fishing trip. We learned this information about him when our bus broke down.

View from the ferry

Photo of the bus driver radioing for help from another bus.



While we were waiting for the another bus to pick us up, the man we met offered us his cooler drinks! He was so kind so I told him we would only share a coke (his water was frozen, Mom). We took one only so we wouldn't put a dent into his food supply for his trip...so kind and generous! Later, he helped Angela with her pack, too.

While we were waiting, he also tried to communicate with us by writing in the sand. He told us that the tide would lower more than usual at 23.25 on Saturday. We had to tell him we were leaving that Saturday and he look sad because we would miss it :(

Regardless, the tide was low the entire time we were there. You will see for yourself.

Here, we go again...on a better bus!




A rice field


A farm house: Can you believe somebody lives in that?! CRAZY!

Vacation apartments under construction.


This summer vacation house reminded me of Janine's cottage. It has a similar colour and size even though the deck is on the wrong side and it isn't on a lake...but on the side of a mountain...yeah...


Arriving at Hanagae Beach: you have to pay 1,000 won to enter the beach gates. We later had to pay 50,000 wons for our accommodations.


This was our accommodation.
It's called a hut.
I thought I stretched my comfort level by coming to Seoul...let's just say my comfort level went
KABLAMO!!!!!!!
at Hanage Beach.

Heidi in her hut.
I must add though, that Angela and I were lucky.
There were groups of 5 or more staying in these huts.
(And yes...people can see into your huts if you don't close the window. But if you do close them, you will suffocate and die. So we chose to change in the cover of darkness with the lights off haha)

Sunset at Hanagae Beach.
Family and friends come to the beach at dawn to set up their tents. At sunset, most people pack up and go home for the night.

On our way to see what everyone else is looking at...

Low tide at sunset

A view of the huts from the shoreline.

Heidi is waving to you.

Heidi looks for crabs.

I can see why people would think that I am Korean in THIS picture...but I also know why they would think I look weird hahaha

The sunset, the breeze and the company were amazing!

The thing about Hanagae Beach is that it's a tourist trap. Everything is expensive and none of the locals were stupid enough to be caught in these restaurants. We were not as clever and were forced to eat in one of them. The lady must have thought we left our brains in Canada because she pointed to one of the most expensive meals on the menu. We did not leave our brains in Canada and ordered the famous clam udon meal. When the woman told the chef our orders, she looked thoroughly disappointed. It's not our fault we don't have money. It's sad really, because you can tell that it's a family restaurant and they depend on tourist for income...

Heidi: in the hut.

After our venture out to Hanagae Beach, we picked up the guide book and decided to pamper ourselves at the sauna. We traveled back to Itaewon for three hours only to discover that the sauna place no longer exists...you can imagine the rage that ensued, but by then I was too tired to have a normal conversation. We went home and swore to never go back to Itaewon ever again. More on why in another entry...just thinking about it gives me the chills...


____________________________________________________________________

ON THE WEATHER: It's been raining consistently throughout the day. Considering how I've been out most of the week, I decided to stay in and catch up on my sleep. Work starts again this Monday and a good night sleep is unlikely to occur...

APARTMENT HEADACHE: My air-conditioning machine is dripping!!! It dripped so much that it soaked my covers, my sheets and the mattress! I opened the cover to find that the filters were clogged with dust and disgusting whatevers...I will have to look for new filters to line the machine. Maybe that will stop the dripping. For now, I've had to move my bed toward the centre of my room and use a plastic bowl to catch the drips...it's a very ghetto way to fix leaks...

My Apartment

A view of the side of the room. Those are guest chairs...but we usually sit on the floor around the round table now. It's more comfortable on the floor now.

My gas stove

The corner of my room with my huge wardrobe.
There's a drawer near the bottom for extra storage...

This is my new bed for the year. Justin got me new pillows and sheets for the year. They look great...he kept the tags on to show that they were new haha

My computer desk is next to the bed.

The bathroom is probably the most different room in the apartment. The shower does not have its own section so the water goes everywhere when I shower. Practically, it can be inconvenient sometimes because you may have to pee after you just wet the whole room...but in terms of cleanliness, which I am a big fan of...this system works well because you can just through your shampoo everything and rinse it down.

One disgusting issue that has come up is flies. Apparently, they like to mate and spawn under neath the sink area. One time when I sprayed the bottom, entire family fall down and into the drain. I make sure the spray there with LOTS of bathroom product now haha

The apartment has been extremely kind to me...nothing breaking or falling apart...I definitely like being able to clean and sweep everything more efficiently due to the limited space. It works out well in the end.

PLANS: beach with Angela

NEWS: Hannah set to arrive for this Friday...FINALLY!!!

Good friends make a huge difference.

Before coming here, Angela met a girl in Ottawa named Ruby. She went to the University of Carleton as part of an overseas program to live in Canada and learn English. Well, Ruby is orginally from Seoul and she's been SOOOO great to take as in as her "children" haha.

For our first weekend in Seoul, Ruby and Mack, her husband with baby Becki in tow, took us out for bulgogi (Korean BBQ). Keep in mind that this restaurant was up in the mountains somewhere filled with trees and ONE HOUR AWAY. They drove to Anyang for one hour and then drove us an hour to the restaurant just to have us see the sites...SHE'S AWESOME!

Her hospitality was extended tonight as she had Angela and I over for dinner. She made pork with lots of side dishes for us. She had us watch "The Mist" and had some time to talk and get to know each other. She went as far as to walk us back down to the bus stop and had Angela call her as soon as we got in haha. She is so loving and kind...good friends make such a huge difference.

Below are some photos of us eating Korean BBQ. Becki is so cute and smiles at all the right times :)

Heidi gets cultural...

...with Angela's help!

This is a wedding hall.
Couple's can get married here...at least that's what I infer from the gigantic sized poster.

This is where we wanted to go, but the English tours stopped at 3:15pm....We left the apartment at 4pm...
All my fault: I wouldn't get up. Angela patiently waited for an hour...eeikes...

Intricate designs are used to decorate the bottom part of the roof tops.

First cultural spot: forgot the name of it...
A nice man greeted us and told us English-speaking tours had to be pre-arranged via the Internet. The best way to tour the sites is to sign up for day tours. We said thanks but no thanks to the tours. They are long and we never listen...

I'm looking at a pot filled with lily pads.
This was also the first time I've tried that aloe juice in the green bottle. To my surprise, I liked it! Good for you, Heidi for trying new things! (even though it's probably not good for me!)

Here I was thinking about lifting the lid. I wanted to see if they had kimchi inside.

This is where you can paint something. Something later turned out to be either a saucer, a fan, a poster, a Chinese character and something else...

...we chose to paint saucers a.k.a. cup holders.

One thing we have yet to get used to is the sitting on the floor.
My knees get sore and they fall asleep. When I'm eating, I have to be particularly careful not to spill on my lap. Otherwise, it's quite nice.

This bug came from out of nowhere!
It scared Angela hahaha
We still don't know what it was...before leaving, there was a girl that stopped and played with it. I think she said, "BOO!" to us and tried to scare us. As usual, we didn't get it.

This is what I painted. The final product has my "Yi" character painted in blue-green on the right-hand corner.

I really liked this house. I pretended to be the owner who is collecting her main.

Right next door to me, this guy chose to redecorate his house to look ultra modern.
I still don't know if I like him or not...but you have to agree that the modern/traditional contract makes for a cool urban geography discussion.

The alley or street in "my neighbourhood".

The view from nearly the top

Tree-lined streets are part of the tourism look. Most of the sites we've traveled to have this distinct welcoming feel to it...I wonder if the locals like this street. One thing is for sure, the prices were geared towards super rich people. The average cost of decent looking leather bags cost $300 to $400.

This distance sign made Angela and I miss home. Jason calculated that it would take approximately four and a half days at 120 km/hr to travel back to Toronto, Canada. No stops.

In my opinion, traffic in Seoul is made worse by the heat--just like any major city. I am empathetic to people who suffer from asthema...it's hard to do anything outside...but no worries, it's predicted to rain for the rest of the week--just when we got set to visit the beaches near the Incheon Airport. We will save that for another sunny day.

Eating: cherry tomatoes I bought at the local grocery store....more pictures of that excursion later this week.

News: Hannah has yet to arrive. We yelled for her outside her window...she did not answer :(